Wednesday 20 April 2016

Navigator Ryaph of House Saq D'os

Back in 1973 a certain Richard O'Brien wrote a musical called the Rocky Horror Show. In 1975, the stage show was re-worked into a film called the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Reviewed as "tasteless, plotless and pointless" in 1978, the film (and musical) have since gone on to be considered cult classics.
 
Why am I writing about the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Because Richard O'Brien played the part of Riff Raff, manservant to the alien transvestite Frank N. Furter. And Riff Raff looks like this:
 
Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
 
Fast forward a handful of years, and in 1987, Citadel release a licensed range of figures based on Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion novels. Jes Goodwin sculpts many of the range, including Tanglebones, manservant of Elric, the Melnibonean Emperor. And Tanglebones looks like this:
 
Image from Collecting Citadel Miniatures Wiki.
 
Notice the resemblance?

 
What has this all got to do with 40k and Navigators? I'm glad you asked, as I procured a copy of Tanglebones with the express intention of turning him into a Navigator.
 
Aside from the singular feature of a large black warp eye in their foreheads, Navigators are characterised by a range of unusual body distortions - they are regularly described as being twisted or crippled, with atrophied limbs, webbed hands, absent noses or gills. In short, they are somewhat bizarre and odd-looking.
 
Tanglebones seemed an excellent basis to convert into a new Navigator. My conversion was relatively simple - I removed the dagger in his right hand and replaced it with a snazzy looking pistol (Navigator houses are wealthy of course). The pistol was from the Mordheim Amazons weapons sprue, now sadly rather difficult to get hold of. I added the warp eye to the centre of his forehead with a little ball of greenstuff, then added a lid over the top and blended it in. The final addition was the cane which the left hand was crying out for. I originally used a pin, but it looked rather underwhelming, so I replaced it with a length of paperclip topped and tailed by a couple pieces cut from the aerial from a Skitarii backpack.
 
 
House Saq D'os has been bound to the Urchax Rogue Trader Dynasty longer than memory can recall. No doubt contracts and treaties exist gathering dust in the vast libraries of Saq D'os mansions, but none now would know where to seek them. The Urchax Dynasty has been granted a Charter of Exploration, charged with travelling beyond the boundaries of the Imperium, seeking lost human colonies, STC technology and more. The Navigators of Saq D'os have benefitted greatly from such high risk but high reward expeditions. Navigator Ryaph has travelled farther than most men can imagine - he has personally guided Rogue Trader Kaliman Urchax through the astral infernos of the Firestorm Cluster. He has  personally gathered delicate shatter opals on Crymelian, and placed them in beds of black velvet to sell for a planetary income. He has navigated the warp to the edges of the star charts, and looked into the voids beyond.
 


Black seems to be a colour regularly associated with Navigators - their warp eyes are black, they have been described as being clad in rich black silks. With this in mind I decided to give Ryaph a dark outfit to contrast with very pale skin. This had the added bonus of echoing Riff Raff's outfit from the Rocky Horror Picture Show!


To add an element of flamboyance, I added some contrasting colour to the slashed shoulders on his jacket, and some gloss varnish to the black of his cane and pistol.

Ryaph is frustrated to learn that the local arms trader doesn't stock suitable ammunition for his superbly crafted pistol.

Now, go and watch the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Why not dress up?!


27 comments:

  1. Great job Jon!

    I converted one up a few weeks ago for use in The Wolf Time scenario, but I haven't painted him yet.

    I think your choice of black for his clothes was very clever, helps to emphasise his pals skin more.

    A cool conversion man :)

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    1. A quick question, where did they introduce the third eye concept? In RT they only talk about their weird physical appearance...less the third eye.

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    2. Thanks for all the feedback. I suppose the colour palette is traditionally vampiric - pale skin, black clothes, red accents ;)

      As for the third eye, I'm not sure when it was introduced. I know the Navigators in the Jaq Draco books definitely have a warp eye (originally published in 1990), so I suspect they were introduced fairly early.

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  2. Lovely job! I've been planning to do a similar 40k conversion for a long time, but never got round to it. Maybe I will now!

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    1. Thanks Evo. I look forward to seeing what your plans are :)

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  3. Lovely work Sir. I think the 3rd eye thing is a later addition from one of the Inquisitor novels. I've always had a thing for Navigators though.

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    1. I agree - 1990 was the publication date of the Ian Watson 'Inquisitor' novel, so somewhere in between RT and 2nd edition. I don't know the first reference though.

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  4. I've mentioned to you before that I've got a Tanglebones minus his arm so if one turns up looking similar to yours take it as flattery rather than lack of imagination. Cracking Job.

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    1. Go ahead WP. I'd love to see what you end up doing :)

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  5. You combine 2 passions of mine here, namely 40k and the RHPS, wonderful job!

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    1. The RHPS connection is of JG's making, not mine, but I'll happily embrace it :)

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  6. Brilliant - great choice of base model mate, and spot on with the paint scheme. I do love a good Navigator :-)

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    1. You don't see enough Navigators around, do you? I'd like to do the RT one as a companion figure at some point too.

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  7. Brilliant: so much character! Sometimes I think the virtues of old school figures are exaggerated, but not here. That is one miniature I'd love to have on my table!

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    1. Thanks very much! I think 'character' is the key virtue of old school figures. Some of the anatomy might be weird, some of the gear might not make sense, some of the sculpting might be crude, but they definitely have character ;)

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  8. Nice work again, and reminds me how lucky I was to have bought the Amazon weapons sprues without even a plan to use them.

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    1. I had a single sprue. I wish I'd bought more!

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  9. You really see far when we the rest only see a mini :D
    Seriously, I love the way you reinterpret totally unrelated minis into a common theme. Great work!!

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    1. Thanks Suber - that process of identifying potential figures is the part I enjoy most :D

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  10. I love the Riff Raff inspired navigator. They're a thing which pops up a fair bit in the fiction but the nature of the wargame has usually precluded them having very interesting figures.

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    1. Massed battle doesn't really lend itself to interesting characters I think. I'd love to see GW revisit skirmish games to see what they could create. Thanks George :)

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  11. Great conversion axiom ... perfectly done! Good job on the facial skin tone and the blacks too. :)

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    1. Thanks very much :) I like painting different skin tones - I think it really enhances the overall character of a figure.

      Black is a colour I still struggle with, but Ryaph seems to have turned out OK!

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  12. That's inspired and brilliantly executed.

    Well done!

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  13. That's inspired and brilliantly executed.

    Well done!

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