The Eldar Sketchbook - A Review

I received this wonderful book in the post today:

But just what is it, and where did it come from?

Make my day, punk!

Hobby time has been at a premium so far this week, so I've limited myself to a quick and simple paint job for another Logan's World mercenary. I selected the Mad Punk from the Rogue Trader Adventurers range as my newest addition to the mercenaries. With her utilitarian outfit and Mohican, she seemed a good fit.

 

Mad Punk, second row from bottom, second model from left (image from Stuff of Legends)



Preparing for Logan's World - Confrontation Maniac Gangers

Following the recent conclusion of the Inquisimunda campaign I was playing in with my Eldar Void Pirates, one of the other guys posted this:

"I quite fancy doing a 40k/post-apocalyptic, rolling road vehicle combat campaign. You'd need around a dozen gangers and several trucks/cars with bespoke terrain. Anyone interested?"

Hell yes! And this isn't going to be just any old 40k/post-apocalyptic setting...its going to be Helsreach on Logan's World. If you're not familiar with the setting, then check out pages 224-228 of the Rogue Trader rulebook, and the fabulous Carl Critchlow illustrations:

 

Space Lizard Mercenaries from the Outer Rim

One thing that Citadel has never really done very well in 40k is to create alien modelss. Forget about the extensive list of aliens described in Rogue Trader. When you actually get down to looking at the models produced, up until around 1990, 40k aliens comprised of space elves (Eldar), space dwarfs (squats), space ogres (ogryns), space halflings (ratlings), space zoats (um, space zoats), space slann (er, space slann) and space orcs (orks). With very little imagination, GW had simply ported all of its fantasy races into the new setting; perhaps leading to references to 40k as a science fantasy rather than a science fiction game.

Look - Elf,Dwarf, Goblin, Orc...er, giant alien fishman...

Genestealer cults provided the first inkling that there might be actual aliens inhabiting the 40k universe, and the Tyranids are as alien a race as you can think of. We went back to fantasy archetypes however, with the space undead (Necrons), and it’s only latterly that the blue-skinned, Manga inspired Tau have provided anything much different.

The Blind Leading the Blind

Did I mention before that I'm quite fond of Astropaths? I think I may have! It's been some months since I made Mother Cantor Mechthild, and I facing adding to my choir. Fully enthused, I painted up a pair of new Astropaths - Precentor Peyter and Astropath Fraites.

Precentor Peytor accompanied by Astropath Fraites.

 

"Engineering team to level 17 - we have a problem with waste disposal"



The Ogryns Security detachment had broken the latrine system yet again! What in the name of the Emperor did they try to flush away?! Sub-Engineer Grungi, Menial Holst and mobile diagnostic unit BM-B02 were despatched to investigate...

 



 

I put together this small engineering team after a mate recently gave me the cute little robot. He's made half a dozen or so of these robots to represent bombots for use in his Rogue Trader squat force. If you're not familiar with bombots, then head off to p121 of the Rogue Trader rulebook:

 

Bombots, p121 Rogue Trader

Pint-sized Citi-Def

After an amazing (but tiring) weekend at Knavecon the other week, I had a mini-break from hobbying to catch up with real life and the family. I'll get round to some Knavecon coverage in due course, but for now you can check out the coverage of our RT game, the Dorty Double Dozen, and the Frostgrave fun elsewhere.

 

For my most recent painting session, I wasn't feeling the love for any of the figures sat ready. So I rummaged around in my boxes of random figures, and pulled out an old Citi-Def figure from Citadel's Judge Dredd range. Something about the figure appealed, and I knew the paint job would be quick and easy.

 

Two hours later, this was the result: