Wednesday 7 October 2015

Genetically engineered super trooper - the Afriel strain

Over the last 4 months or so I've been involved in a very entertaining Inquisimunda campaign (28mm scale Inquisitorial warbands played with the Necromunda rules). My warband, led by radical Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Dirske, is comprised of bizarre mutants and daemonic entities.

Dirske has proven himself to be a) cowardly and b) a pretty poor fighter. He now tends to take a strategic view of most engagements (i.e. hanging at the back and watching the others do the fighting!). One minor fly in the ointment, is that members of the warband keep on getting themselves killed. And I don't mean through bad rolls on the serious injury table either; I mean being eaten or obliterated in-game. Thoroughly, irreversibly, dead.

This didn't end well for Scrat!

Scrat, my first ratling assassin, was eaten by a draconid Hex Wyrm in dense jungles (whilst trying to steal one of its eggs) - see above. His replacement, Sneek, was eaten by an unknown monster which snatched him from the shadows. HIS replacement (Sculk), was killed by a haywire robot on a space station. Thankfully, ratling assassin #4 - Snak (note the name) is still fighting fit. Unfortunately, my poor, stupid, two-headed mutie Gron-Slom died in my most recent game. He was eaten by the same (or possibly related) monster that snacked on Sneek.


'What's this all got to do with genetically engineered super troopers?' I hear you ask. Well, it just so happens that with the demise of Gron-Slom, I had the opportunity to replace him with a more effective inclusion to Dirske's warband. As I had plenty of Throne Geld in my kitty, and the need for some more high-powered weaponry, I decided to invest in something with a bit more punch. A heavy plasma gun ought to do it!

After rattling around in my boxes for a suitable figure to use, I decided on a model of Rogue Trooper from Citadel's old 2000AD line. Rogue is toting a lazooka, which I figured could pass muster as a heavy plasma gun ('plaszooka'?).


Whilst the pose was great, I didn't really want my figure to have the same characteristic skin-tight leggings as sported by Rogue, so I got out my greenstuff and bulked them out into a pair of baggy trousers. I also teched up the figure a little, by adding a small aerial to the backpack, and a little sighting doo-dad to the side of his helmet.




The colour scheme follows the now standard palette for Dirke's retinue - grey with a rusty brown and flashes of a jade green. I wanted to make a nod towards Rogue's genetically engineered origins - happily in Warhammer 40k canon, there's a very similar concept with the Afriel strain Imperial Guard regiments.



The Afriel strain are, like Rogue, genetically engineered super troopers, characterised by albinism. They also are supposedly plagued by bad luck and misfortune...this seemed perfect for the kind of soldier who might end up joining Dirske. A simple pale skin colour, and Afriel Trooper Alpha-6 is ready for his first game (during which he will certainly fail to do anything of note)!

Members of Dirske's retinue make a hasty barricade.

16 comments:

  1. He's as classy as a guy bare chested and with a baggy and huge gun can be. Great.

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    1. I think I rushed him a bit, but he's perfectly good for his planned use. I'm looking forward to using him (albeit with very low expectations!).

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  2. That's a pretty cool mini, made even better with your conversion work.

    Cool Axiom :)

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    1. I always liked the base sculpt myself, but I figured the skinny legs were just too distinctive.

      Glad you like him :)

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  3. Very cool - nice work on the mini, he's really nice! Fingers crossed he survives more than one game :-/

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    1. Phew, he survived! He didn't manage to fire a shot though!

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  4. I think you're right about the recognisability of the tight trousers.

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    1. I think you don't want to be recognised due to your tight trousers really, unless you're Tom Jones.

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    2. Ha! Words to live by.

      A well chosen and cleverly converted character model. Lovely.

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  5. Nice work! I have the same figure sitting around, although I always put him aside because of the pose. The work to the pants really helps to "modernize" the figure by making it a bit more sensible.

    Afriel, and other clone soldiers are great for Inquisitorial recruitment... Inquisitors do not always take the best troops, sometimes they are the most disposable/desperate ones instead.

    As an aside, I never noticed how much his lazooka looks like a hightech PIAT until seeing your painted version.

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    1. Thanks! I think the trouser issue is the one reason why I'd not used him previously. I think you could probably add some fatigue-type trousers and give him another slightly different look than the more baggy trousers I've sculpted. Armour plates on his groin and shins might also work. Why not add a shirt too ;)

      I wholly agree about Inquisitor lackey selection - the premise seems to be to rope in the disaffected, then cast them adrift once they've outlived their use!

      I suppose technically I should have represented the lazooka as a RPG launcher in Inquisimunda. But I wanted plasma ;)

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  6. He looks great, clean conversion work and paint, I'm sure he will make an excellent addition to the retinue.
    Your assassin story reminded me very much of my own imperial assassin who has had very little luck in life starting as Snake, then liquid snake, then solid snake, now known as snake-eater. An ode to metal gear!

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    1. Maybe the career choices of an assassin make them inherently unlucky? Sadly, I know I'm prone to getting over-excited about infiltrating, and leaving my guy exposed (and therefore easy meat!).

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  7. Hey, I like how you approached to this one! Mini choice and colour palette look gorgeous :) Wanna see more!

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    1. More Afriel strain troopers? Now there's an idea ;)

      Glad you like him!

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  8. when you have a character eaten, do you retire the mini to a Valhalla shelf and build a new one, or do you just rename it?

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