Gaslands! Tamiya Half-track (1:35)

I've added another vehicle to my 40k motorcade (for Rogue Trader or from Gaslands!), this time an historical model pimped up with some sci-fi, kit-bashed additions.
The main model (1:35) is an excellent Tamiya, German half-track - a vehicle that has a whole host of detail and tiny bits of plastic on it's sprue to keep you challenged when constructing. The wheels and tracks are all moveable, but I decided to glue them in place to make painting a bit easier. I think the larger scale just about works. The additions to the build include an Ork gun (rear) and skull, a metal lasergun (?), bits from a computer motherboard, pieces of lego, rolled greenstuff, plasticard plating and other futuristic bits that I found that I believe are from Ramshackle Games.

Here you can see it with a Bob Olley Rogue Trader miniature that I had forgot to paint for a recent painting challenge:

I've put the half-track alongside my other 1:43 scale vehicles here, which looks like the start of a larger scale Gaslands! crew:

And here you can see the kitbashing in progress:

The painting itself was incredibly straightforward. Primed grey, pin wash with brown/black oil paints, quick highlight one with a light grey and then highlight two with the light grey and some white. Some rust and oil stains were added with appropriate colours diluted down and applied in vertical streaks for the rust and splattered on for the oil.

A mix of dry pigment and matt medium was then slathered on to the lower parts of the vehicle, starting with the tracks to show the terrain it has been driving through.

Next up, I'll go back to my Hotwheels scale cars!

Sci-Fi trash bashing scenery 2

Here's my second trashbash build, a slightly more complicated build than my last effort, but also a generator of some sort. This one is made from a Gillette shaving pack that I was (fortunate enough) to get at Christmas and when I took the different parts of the gift out of the packaging I was confident that I could create something Rogue Trader / Post-Apocalyptic with the variety of shapes. Here's the completed piece of scenery with a MadBoy for scale:

Here's the original packaging from the inside, you can see a nice array of shapes and textures on the plastic:

And here's the completed build with bits of sprue, lego, textured plasticard, bottle lids etc for added detail:

And that magical moment when all the different components come together, united under the grey primer:

The painting was pretty quick and nasty on this; after the grey priming everything was given multiple washes of a variety of reddy/brown/orange washes for the rust colours. The colours of paintwork were then added with the usual dark to light technique and then further rusty colours were stippled and diluted on to create either thick rust with the former technique or washed out rust with the latter. A few green washes were added for further weathering and then it was all based with some desert dry pigment which was also added around the base of the structure to make it look as if the sand was embedded in the build; residues of a previous sandstorm maybe.

A new twist on my hobby time looms next......

Sci-Fi trashbash scenery 1

I enjoy scratchbuilding fantasy scenery, as I have done with my recent Wizards Tower, as well as making them from the Modelling Workshop articles in the old White Dwarfs. However, fantasy builds are fairly regular in terms of their shapes and details and over the years I've collected lots of trash that has I retesting shapes, partly for junk modelling with my kids and partly with the idea of making some Sci-Fi scenery. The kids are bit too old for junk modelling, so this weekend I've rummaged through my collection, gathered the most interesting shapes and started to build some Sci-Fi scenery from scratch. 

It's much more of an imaginative journey than fantasy as the shapes of modern day packaging lend themselves much easier to the forms you find on science fiction scenery, of course the most famous being the original model makers from Star Wars, which I grew up with, and how their model making prowess inspired so many, including me.

So my first proper Sci-Fi trash bash experiment is completed, some sort of generator, that again is loosely base on the one on Star Wars Hoth:

The painting was very quick and messy. Primed grey. Reddy/brown spray. A range of oranges dabbed on for rust. White painted into the "glowing" gaps and then several quick washes of blue over that. Not my best light sourcing but it will do for a 15 minute paint job!

And here is the build with the trash components visible. A selection of different bottle lids, a bit of old dishwasher tubing, plasticard and of course the chewing gum packaging for the iconic shapes!

I'm now adding the finishing touches to a more complicated design, based on some more Gilette packaging (I only ever get these at Christmas, so there's a hint of how long I hoard interesting shaped packaging!)

Fusion Taxi Services

Gillette's packaging for it's Fusion razor blades is completely over the top. Each razor blade given it's own little plastic compartment trying to tell the consumer that THIS IS A LUXURY ITEM. Well, Gillette, I've trash-bashed your packaging into something a damn site better than for what you intended, a Rogue Trader hover taxi!

This was inspired by the current competition on The Emporium of Rogue Dreams: Old School Gaming Facebook page, where a skiff-bash challenge is underway. I had the competition in mind as I was about to throw away the aforementioned packaging and it struck me just how interesting the shapes actually were; the curved front, the hollowed out areas with slanting backs... what else could come into my mind except a hover car with lots of seats. And what vehicle needs lots of seats? Well a automated taxi service of course!

So from here I scrounged together a few other pieces, the family craft cardboard is a place I rarely venture in (it's a mess of felt, string, glitter glue and felt tips) but I vaguely recalled the interesting shapes of felt tip pen lids in that they may correspond to a kind of propeller shape. In the big box of shit that holds felt tip pens (many dried up without their lids), I scrambled to the bottom of the box to find those missing lids. I found a perfect one (with a kind of interior compartment shape that looked sexy and propeller like) but of course not a second one. So I just pilfered one from a perfectly healthy felt tip pen which is now dried up and useless. I should have used this as an opportunity to clear out the box, but did not want to disrupt my creative energy and stall my momentum. One of the kids can do it and anyway the referee in our house, doesn't know. The felt tip lids were filed flat on one side (deliberately roughly) and then superglued to the side rear of the hover craft.

I then dug out a few miscast sci-fi bits I was gifted at an event, dual exhausts, double lights and single lights and glued these in the appropriate places (after a bit of playing with their positions) on to the front and rear and was then ready to go and paint. Well not quite, to capture the hover aspect of the vehicle I built a hidden stand out of the end of a pen, inserted a rare earth magnet into the top of it and then drilled a corresponding hole to the underside of the hovercraft to accommodate the other magnet. The craft could now be removed from it's base (which helped for painting and can be removed and replaced by another vehicle if I ever get around to making another). Oh and it makes it look like it hovers too.

The painting stage was relatively straightforward. Black primer for the inside, masked this off and white primer on the outside. I added a few blended, vertical dark grey stripes to the seats to give them a textured fabric feel and then dabbed on a variety of rust colours onto the outside. Around these I added a range of silvers to show scratch marks and the revealed metal of the vehicle where the yellow paint and rust had de-laminated. The yellow layers were then blended in, black taxi details applied and finally I went back to the rust areas and textured them with some weathering pigments and then weathered the entire vehicle with some thinned washes.

Mutant Ork Scavenger

The Empirium of Rogue Dreams Facebook group are having a "Beware Mutants" conversion competition and I felt it was high time that I had a go at making a sci-fi / 40k conversion, having never done so before. My BitzBox is heaving with fantasy stuff, but very little in the way of futuristic, although this Ork head has been in there for years and has been looked over for years too. So with the head and torso identified I then scavenged around for some legs. I looked  at the Rogue Trader mutation chart on p.53 and liked the idea of a long limbed scavenger and found some (either bloodletter or kroot) legs that worked well with the torso in a mock up. The kroot rifle worked well to help add to the idea of a feral scavenger and then to add to this theme I added an ogre's bag to his back. I had to sculpt one arm and around all the the joins to make it work. Finally I thought that if this ork was a successful scavenger then maybe he'd have a bit of low quality tech with him, hence the bot accompanying on his forays (just a bit from a tau sprue).

Here are the Wips:

It's quite satisfying that my scavenging around a BitzBox is akin to what my conversion does as a living in the underhive. I'be become quite good at spotting an appropriate bit for my conversions. He's learnt from me.

A shit load of projects

I've been blogging now for two years (it's the anniversary today) and the more I blog, the more ideas I seem to get. The quantity and scope of these ideas quickly snowball and I soon find myself trawling through google images for further inspiration and hobby websites to purchase the bits neeeded, all of which completelty overwhelms my actual blog entries and the actual time I can realistically allocate to making them happen. It's very quick and easy to make a few purchases when at the embryonic stage of these ideas (and they pile up quickly) and the arrival of them in the post leads initially to elation and a re-kindling of the excitement of that idea before it recedes into a slightly hazy memory as I have to stash the bits into the depths of a muddled to-do box that itself is hidden away in a hard-to-reach cupboard in the kitchen. There's always another project that I've made a start on and that needs to be finished first. To help keep these burgeoning ideas alive I have a huge "Ideas" folder on my laptop and on my phone (I must merge these one day) which includes research, images, annotations, sketches etc. I occasionally remember to re-visit this folder and when I do I am instantly again overwhelmed with the shit load of projects that I have to get around to doing.


This blogging space is great for trying to stay on top of it all, for setting realistic timeframes, for organising my thoughts for future projects and probably even more so for keeping tabs on the gamut of ongoing projects. Who else has a load of draft posts stashed on their blog, hinting and reminding of some of those embryonic, to-do ideas?





Right now I decided it's a good time to take stock with where I am with all of these hobby projects. So in an unusual step amongst a lot of the blogs I follow and certainly this one, I'll show a load of wip photos and reduce the effect of dropping "finished model bombs" which I have tended to do in my posts.
Let's start with my two, early days wip boxes, spot anything cool or interesting..? Can you see where I'm going with any of these?

Next up are some wip projects that are a bit further down the line, starting with some primed dungeon furniture for my Heroquest/Frostgrave family games. A combination of Grendel Scotia scenery and some original Heroquest parts which have been added too with some insulation foam to create a stone base and bits from my bitzbox to decorate the tables and stalls:

And here's the last batch of dungeon tiles, with some pretty patterns engraved onto the floor:

Next up; the models for a small Rogue Trader, Bob Olley warband, Squat, Ogryn, Ork, female cyborg? and a dinosaur. The dinosaur, nicked from my son's stash, adds to the wrinkle factor. He'll be given some guns and armour and perhaps even a bionic leg (I've a picture in my inspiration folder of course).

Sticking with 40k, I've got some more Heresy Gangers to add to my Freeway Fighter posse:

Here's another big project which I'm chomping on the bit (s) to get into, Nurgle Blightkings, 40k'd up with some steampunk additions. Yep, Blightkings, mashed with the drones, the Skiitari, some small clock cogs and a tank. Plus a load of other bits I couldn't be bothered to get out and photograph. I have a load of ideas and inspiration for this, but the gist of it is that these will be loosely based upon the original, classic and iconic Nurgle Champions from the Realms of Chaos, which I recently completed the collection and painting of:

Next up is a project I've wanted to do for ages, a trash-bash spaceship. It will be for my Logan's World Mercenary Warband and will be comprised largely from stuff I've saved from the recycling, as well as some old broken toys, some old computer parts and a few other bits I've picked up. This stuff is all hidden away in the depths of my garage. I've ordered a few additional bits from Zinge Industries so that I have hatches and doors to add a level of realistic detail. Can you see where this might be going?..

Ps. the decorated yoghurt bottles were a skittles game that my 4year old made for me on Father's day. We've had fun with it, but the wife will just chuck them if I don't rescue them... The sparkly decorations that he lovingly put on will be recycled as gems on some Frostgrave bases. See nothing goes to waste, everything can be added to my to-do list.

I've recently realised that my love of modelling, making, being creative and imaginative in three dimensions stems from my childhood love of Lego. Which of course has also been rekindled (much like my love of toy soldiers) by my children. They love Lego, we love making it together, so I was lucky enough to receive this from my kids (read wife) for Father's day:

It's possibly the first time that my wife has acknowledged my geekyness and love of toys/models, but I'm very happy doing this with my kids. As this is MY lego, they've been relegated to the role of parts finders, much to their disgust.

And finally something that I'm actually painting, although progress is slow as I'm distracted by my Lego Millenium Falcon and the European Championships (as well as all the usual life stuff getting in the way); a dragon ogre shaggoth conversion:

So, to conclude this lengthy post, here are the shitload of projects that I have, at one time or another, flying around in my imagination, in need of tying down:

Realm of Chaos Retinue Table challenge

Bitzbox warband challenge

Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge

Fighting fantasy Warband

Rogue Trader Post-Apocolyptic mercenary project

Dungeon Tiles



And projects I'll be starting:



Steampunk Nurgle warband, based upon the original Classic nurgle champions

Bob Olley warband with dinosaur

Trash bash space ship

Finishing a full 3rd edition Nurgle army

Orc and Gonlin mercenary contingent

Chaos Ally Mercenary contingent


Fuck me that's a lot of work. When will I be too old for all of this?

Helsreach mercenaries - Adelei Niska

"Good work, you brought her back without a scratch and sorted my little headache out proper for me; here's your pay.... but we ain't done yet. This is a big one. I reckon y'all up for this one, but to be sure I'm coming wit ya. We're gettin' ourselves a ship, a proper ship. We're gonna be all sneaky like and I've got the plans down, meticulous like, but there's gonna be some shootin' and I want to make sure we're shootin' straight, so I'm leading this one. Gather ya stuff up, load up on what ya need  - this could be our last mission on this shithole cos if we get this ship we're outta here and you're my crew. In?

So this little post-apocalyptic mercenary gang is done for now, finishing with another great model from Hasslefree. I've converted him slightly, removing his original weapon, which was some sort of power axe and gone for an understated bolter type of weapon. I've obviously added a pet lizard on chained leash, which is very much inspired from an illustration in the Rogue Trader rulebook and Asslessman's great version. I decided to add some additional colour to his face, some faded/washed away eye shadow and slightly red lips. I think I should have added a tattoo which matched the logo on the car from my last post, I'll come back to that.

And here's the crew in their entireity. For my first bash at Rogue Trader/ Post-Apocalyptic I'm really happy with how they've turned out. Next time I'll be including more conversions as I enjoyed the car building the most and have always preferred that aspect of the hobby more than the painting, but heavy conversions do slow me down somewhat. Also the models I chose here are all new to me and I was quite happy with how they looked out of the box. I'd like to futurise some fantasy models next, I've an idea for some Nurgle/Steampunk based on the original classic champions and I've also got a little collection of Bob Olley space adventurers (plus Dinosaur) that I'd like to paint up... More to come..

Helsreach Mercenaries - Abdul Goldberg

"I was just minding my own shit, taking my sweet time over my warm milkshake, just feeling the vibe of the tunes playing from the kitchen of Greasy Kim's Bar and Diner. I'd been on the drugs for a while so I was feelin' pretty spaced out and fluffy, not really sure how long I'd been there, or even why I was there. And then "boom!", I nearly shit meself. Not expecting that. Out of the smoke arrives this crew of tough guys, guns out, shouting all loud like. They rough me up asking where some guy called Abdul Goldberg's at. It's a name I'm only just familiar with, maybe a few weeks ago, he's been winning gambles with the best of 'em here and fleecing some of the town's tough guys. They've been looking for him. It's a name you can't forget once you've heard it. He's got a rep now. Anyway I tell these guys that I've never met the fella, no idea what he looks like; not sure why they're bugging me about it, all I'm doing is just tryin' to chill. Apparently he was here earlier, relaxing with his crew. I tell 'em that I kinda remember a group relaxin' and chattin' in the corner,, looking all smug like, but I don't know when they left or where they went. I get a smack in the face for that honest information. Fuckers. I'm pleading with this big thug, sayin I know nuthin and then out of knowhere this crew comes in and shoots the place up, all these thugs around me now slumped over, blood everywhere. No idea how I got missed by all that shootin. And then through the carnage steps this fella, he was the fella I saw earlier in the Diner. I'm focused now. He's all calm and serene like in his movements, real elegant with his long coat swishing behind him. I look into his eyes as he approaches me and somehow his eyes flicker between  hard arse, piercing like and then like the whole things a joke, I didn't know how to read him. Shit meself properly this time. Anyway he comes up to me, pats me on the back, slurps my milkshake and yells out to the kitchen that I need a new, cold one. One of the thugs groans and he sticks him in his gut with his sword, not even looking at the guy, but looking at me. I swear he made it look like the whole thing was one big joke. He clicks his fingers and he and his crew walk out all silent like. I promise this is the truth, exactly what happened, no bullshit. This happened. Who is he then, this Goldburg, really, I wanna know?"

My version of Abdul Goldberg, using a very cool Hasslefree miniature. I'm not sure that he entirely fits my imagination of what Goldberg looks like (based upon the cant information in the Rogue Trader rulebook), I imagined a slightly portly, fun loving gangster with a hard edge. I've caught the hard edge with this mini, but didn't have time to sculpt a belly onto him that would have made him perhaps slightly more jovial.. I was tempted to add some blood and gore onto the sword, but decided he was already tough enough looking and was worried it might go over the top.


The backstory is based on the information given in on pages 243-244 of the Rogue Trader rulebook, where the sub-plot generator is located. This is the excerpt I used to give me some context:


"Abdul Goldberg has crossed you for the last time - it was pure luck that your paths should cross on this isolated planet outside of imperial control. He and his crew are relaxing down at Greasy Kim's Bar and Diner, unaware that you and your crew are ready to pounce. The diner is mostly deserted, with only a few lonely vac-heads and spacers to witness the fight."


Obviously I chose one of the vac-heads/spacers to give his account and changed the outcome slightly, imagining Goldburg to be way too savvy to be caught in a diner by a group of thugs..

Here you can see Goldburg with his crew, post diner chillax, a proper bunch of rogues.