Elfman and the Fishdog

I've painted two pretty much unrelated figures over the past week. The only thing they really have in common is that they're needed for future games: a new Eldar figure for my Inquisimunda campaign, and a companion model for my 'Space Riders' RPG character.

Fishdog
'What on earth is Space Riders?', I hear you ask. It's a Rogue Trader themed RPG I'm currently involved playing online with a group of gaming buddies. My character is Fim, a rather moribund Piscean Warrior. We'll be playing a physical game of RT in a few months time, and need to represent each character, plus a companion, on the table. Happily, I painted up one of Obscure Creator's fishmen about 18 months ago, so I just needed to source and paint a suitable companion.
  

I've had a swamp hound model from Four A Miniatures sitting in a box for ages, for just this very purpose. I gave him a very quick paint job using a neutral skin colour to contrast with the more brightly coloured Fim.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice - Theleb K'aarna of Pan Tang

Next off the painting table are two new additions to the Pan Tang warband I'm putting together for Frostgrave. The background to the warband is that they are set some decades prior to Elric meeting Theleb K'aarna. Theleb is apprenticed to his uncle, a powerful Sorcerer called Soorkan ul-K'aarna.

 

Having already painted up Soorkan, plus a selection of henchmen, I decided it was time to paint the apprentice - Theleb K'aarna himself. I simultaneously painted up another of the warband in the form of a Pan Tang warrior:

 

Theleb K'aarna with hired thug, Tarkesh.

 

Retro-styled Eldar Scout - Merne Darkbrow



With the ongoing development of my Eldar Void Pirates warband in my current Inquisimunda campaign, I needed a new recruit. I fancied making a character which had a bit of a Eldar Scout / Ranger vibe, but wanted the figure to tie in with some of the styling of the Rogue Trader Space Elves.

 

I delved around in my bits box and sourced a spare Space Elf and a gun-less Eldar scout from a previous conversion. I quickly mocked up the below concept:

 

Satisfied that the conversion would do the job, I set about the two figures with my saw, making sure to avoid damage to the slung helmet and laspistol hanging from the left shoulder. I replaced the shuriken weapon with a plastic Eldar lasgun, and added the scope from a modern plastic Dire Avenger. Then it was a case of covering the joins and repairing any damage with greenstuff.

 

Tygers of Pan Tang - The Beast and His Handler

The tigers of Pan Tang are so iconic, that they even named a New Wave of British Heavy Metal band after them. The Stormbringer RPG by Chaosium Inc. states that:

"The tiger is a rare animal in the Young Kingdoms. Tigers roam freely only on the Isle of Pan Tang where it is the sacred totem animal of Chardhros the Reaper, Lord of Chaos...In rare cases they act as a Pan Tang warrior's combat companion."

It would therefore seem pre-destined that my Pan Tang Frostgrave warband would include a tiger (either as a Hunting Dog or Snow Leopard animal companion). Happily, Citadel anticipated my need, and produced a pair of tigers and their handlers as part of their Pan Tang range.

Image taken from Stuff of Legends.

Leading the Choir - Astropath Mother Cantor Mechthild

Over at the Ammobunker Inq28 forums, Commissar Molotov is running a monthly competition with the aim of getting folks motivated to make and paint something new. January is the first round, with a theme of Primus inter Pares - First Among Equals:

With it being the first month, it makes sense for the theme to be about being 'the first.' This might be an Inquisitor, on the brink of embarking upon his career - or a hoary old veteran hardened by a lifetime of horror. A Priest leading hordes of zealots, or an experience veteran leading a stormtrooper kill team. It could be an Imperial Guard veteran, the leader of a hab-stack kill-gang. Perhaps is might be wise to consider who the 'equals' are: perhaps your character might simply be one who takes a lead role in certain aspects - a wizened scribe who serves as one of his master's most favoured servants.

After some consideration, I realised that the obvious gap in my collection is a senior astropath. In the novel Blind by Matthew Farrer, there are several hierarchical ranks of astropaths mentioned - the one that seemed obvious to represent a senior astropath is that of the Cantor (or choirmaster). Very definitely a first among equals.

I turned to my box of unused figures and turned up this Bride of Frankenstein I picked up at Wargames Foundry from their £1 cabinet of miscellaneous figures. You can see I had already made a start in adding the archetypal Astropath's cane:

The Rise of Pan Tang

Back in early 2014, I spent a lot of time and energy tracking down the delightful licensed Eternal Champion range produced by Citadel between 1986-1987. After successfully accumulating the entire range, I duly packaged them in a figure case and did nothing with them. Two years on, and their time has come.

In April I will be travelling to Ireland to meet up with some good friends and gaming buddies for a weekend. Among other things, we will be playing a series of games of Frostgrave - you may have already seen cheetor's fledging Oriental warband, The Shonen Knives. Bar the odd figure here and there, I've not painted a fantasy force for anything since about 1991 or 1992. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to put some life into some of my Eternal Champion figures.

After some consideration, I decided to use Pan Tangians for my Frostgrave warband, for no other reason than they are much less common than the Melniboneans which were later rolled into Citadel's High Elf range, while painted Pan Tangians are rare as hens teeth!

A Sorcerer of Pan Tang blasts his Melnibonean foes (artwork from the Stormbringer RPG by Chaosium).

Eldar D-Cannon Anti-Grav Platform

Ahead of the start of tonight's first game of our new Inquisimunda campaign, I needed to put the finishing touches to the Eldar Vod Pirates I'll be using. The big omission was a some decent ranged firepower. I decided to pull out an old Rogue Trader D-Cannon anti-grav platform which I'll be using to represent a multi-laser in the campaign. I am using the anti-grav platform as it allows me to move and fire with the heavy weapon - a very useful trait in the Necromunda ruleset!