Monday 24 July 2017

Grox Herding - Animal Husbandry in the 41st Millennium


The humble grox is a staple touchstone of 'normal' life in the 41st millennium. You'll often see references in background text and novels (Dan Abnett regularly refers to juicy grox steaks). First referenced in the Rogue Trader rulebook, groxen are an excellent inclusion to any farm-based 40k game!



The annual Bring Out Your Lead event takes place this forthcoming weekend. A celebration of old-school Games Workshop games in suitably fitting surroundings at Wargames Foundry. I decided I would run just such a farm-based game - a (hopefully) chaotic insight into the world of grox herding.

Of course, a game based around herding needs some animals to be herded. I started off with suitably grox-shaped beasties - predominantly old plastic cold one steeds from Warhammer. I sourced some large oval MDF movement trays to keep the herds in manageable chunks.

Note the Frills and Fauna groks here. I ended up keeping these aside for a separate future project.

The next step was to increase the visual interest of the beasties with the addition of some tick birds (actually dirt cheap pigeons from China for use in railway modelling).


After some boring batch painting sessions (lots of washes and drybrushes), I ended up with 6 bases of groxen to use in the game:



The next step was to develop a plan for the game's objective - a grox-proof corral.

I sourced a lasercut MDF old west corral from Sarissa (it doesn't appear to be available currently). This fit the bill fairly well, but after getting some feedback, I was in agreement that it lacked the necessary sci-fi look.

 
 
I rectified this by sourcing some plyons (I think they're from the Mongoose Starship Troopers range) and some generators (from the old 40k Battle for Maggrage box). I then decided to mount them on a base - this time an old cake board I found at the back of the kitchen cupboard (let's hope my wife doesn't need it again!).
 
I blended the MDF fence bases into the board using milliput and a little bit of greenstuff.

A layer of sand covered all the mess.
 
Next stage was to paint it up. I confess, it was a bit of a rush job, but it works as a scenic piece I think.
 



 
 
I'm looking forward to getting some use out of both the grox herd and the corral at the weekend. Watch out for a full review of the weekend!
 

30 comments:

  1. That is super cool - Very well done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your a mad man! But that's my kinda man. ;) Awesome work Jon!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes these ideas just have to be made a reality :D

      Delete
  3. Really looking forward to seeing these at the weekend! Putting the little ones beside the big ones give them a real sense of mass and threat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hopefully they'll live up to expectations! There'll certainly be lots of them.

      Delete
  4. Excellent stuff. Time to watch Jurassic World again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I need to watch it. I've not got past Jurassic Park :)

      Delete
  5. Boring the washes and dry-brushing may be but the results look great. And the terrain piece (the pen) raises the whole piece up a notch. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Hopefully the overall impression hides the rough edges.

      Delete
  6. Very imaginative Jon! I like your choice of mini's to use as Groxen, they fit the bill nicely. I see that there's only room for one base in the corral.....that means mayhem on the outside for the rest :D

    See ya soon :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There's room for two bases! Mayhem from the others still though :D

      Delete
  7. Clap clap clap clap!!! Absolutely terrific! Man, the mere idea of a grox stampede in a scenario made me squeak :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Suber! I might need even more for a stampede!

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. Full report to come in this very blog.

      Delete
  9. Your imagination knows no bounds! Such a fun project idea, (Even if the actual painting side was dull) I'm rather eager to see how your herding game will play out. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Dai. I'm eager to see how the game comes together too!

      Delete
  10. Excellent! I look forward to hearing about how someone used a heavy stubber to "motivate" the herd into moving into an apposing gang...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The heavy stubber technique was popularised after the publication of '101 Grox Herding Techniques' :)

      Delete
  11. These are great, I would love to be able to find an excuse to model some grim dark farm animals. Hope everyone enjoys the game!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I suspect there's lots of potential for it. Cyber-skulled pigs perhaps?

      Delete
  12. Great idea - this has worked so well!! Are the wee Grox the small pack from FourA? I've got a pack of those on the go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, the small grox are indeed from FourA - lovely little critters aren't they?!

      Delete
  13. Damn!!! that is awesome...I wanna PLAY!!! Have a great weekend.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Will do!! Hopefully you'll see plenty of coverage.

      Delete