Rogue Trader : The last stand.

Good morning! Today we talking about the RT cover art, as I writen in my last post this illustration marked my youth. Yep, After painted less then 20 marines in the first step of the BatF project, the idea of a scenic base for them slowly make is way in my mind.
This is a great challenge to realize these scene and I was very enthusistic during every steps of the creation process... I hope you enjoy the result as much as me :)

Cover art autopsy
Before starting, I had to understand the scene! I worked every day with the illustration (WD93 in fact!) on my work space to get all the subtleties of the scene. The last stand illustration is a mix between differents feeling like : Despair, suffering, self sacrifice and bravery. Of course, I don't pretend managed to retranscribe all these feelings in my work but I had them in mind during the cretion process.
The other important point is to capt all the characters of the scene, I describe them bellow. To finish, the last element who give all the depth of the illustration is the back scene : The dark sky, explosions and the shadows of huges incoming monstruosities.
A kind of futuristic WorldWar1? The Crimson Fist Marines interpreting the French soldiers in blue clothes and the Ork of Kev Adams as German soldiers. Interresting dont you think ?

By John Sibbick 1987

The scenic base 
The first step was to find a clear box to contain the scene and define the dimensions of the base. To creat the mound, I piled 25mm mdf round bases to creat different levels. Then, I filled the gaps with milliput and shape the mound. The highest point of the scene is in the central place of the base. I hidden the back border bases of the Marines in sort of small craters to accentuate the WW1 battefield spirit.
My own interpretation of the last stand scene take place in the ruined farm ... So, I used some Fugou KS sceneries to define the corners of the base.

The charaters
Ok to make a good scene you need to capt the principal characters of the illustration and try to arrange them in the same situation. Here I created 6 characters with similarites from the original illustration.
Like the playable Marines, I added lot of bags around the belt of the wounded Soldiers to increase the "poilu" soldier spirit. Bandages and blood add some humanity and fragility to these soldiers, very representative of the first Space Marines (Only T3!)


Brother Bryan :

The central character of the scene is the Sergent, I volontary changed the side of these character to avoid the sculpt a Ork head in his fist. And because the Eagle on his shoulder pad is too crappy :) So, I keeped the original Marine Body, I slightly modified his posture. I added some greenstuf around his skinny thighs. And swap his face with a RTB01 Marine helmet.


Brother Rick :

I love this model, his posture is perfect to represent the bavery. He standing front of the maelstrom. The scar on his face suppose he's a veteran, enough to hold the banner of the unit. I scratched the original shoulder pads and I sculpted news closer to the illustration. I swapped the sword by a Bolter.


Brother Aly :

The original model is a Rhino Marine, I simply changed the posture of the arm with the Bolter, I added a helmet on his head and sculpted a bandage around his arm. The posture is inverted compared to the illustration but I think it nicely representative.


Brother Jess :

The original model of this dead Marine  is very closer from the illustration, I simply added a bandage around his wounded arm. Some bags around him. Maybe they contain amo or personal effects...


Brother John :

This Plastic Marine need some work to have a nice posture. I described it in my last post, I'm pretty proud of them because they have a very agressive posture.


Brother Nico :

Yep it's me :) I'm in a bad situation,I'm wounded, I'm coiled betweens two craters and I understand that I'm living my last battle. I throw my helmet on the ground and I smoke a cigarette before the Reaper take me ... but I will selling my skin dearly!

This character is almost completly hidden on the illustration. I'm relatively free to use any models in the Citadel range. I decided to use a Christmas Marine, I simply added a bandage around his head and swapped his sword with a Bolter.


The Unknow Brother :

This Marines is a classic dead soldier no add on. OK the back pack and the helmet around him :)


The Back scene :

I photoshoped the back scene of the illustration. I'm not a great numerical artist so Mr Sibbick please excuse me for the graphic slaughter. You can download it and use it for you own picture (approx. 40x17cm).

Rogue Trader : Battle at the Farm - Marines troops

Crimson Fist Marines are in my mind since the the first time I flipped through the RT rulebook. The cover art is splendid and marked my mind for a long time. I really enjoy this project.

I need a pretty small force for the original scenario, I added some characters like the Flag army bearer and the body guard for Pedro Cantor. So, I completed my small force of plastic models with metal Marines : Sergents, Heavy weapon Marines and Characters.

First Squad : 

Second Squad :

Third Squad :

Assembling RTB01 Marines:

I discovered how much it's difficult to give a nice posture to the RTB01 Marines. I adjusted the torso and the top of the legs to avoid the Gorillaz syndrome. I reduce the size of the foot of all the Marines to avoid the Tahiti Bob foot syndrome. I sculpted new hands to hold their Bolter. I sculpted new nails on the shoulder pads. I renforced the energetic armor with square plates. And to finish I created a greenstuff stamp for the fist icon on the second shoulder pad.

RT Marines are charectized by their Toughness 3, they're closer to the basic human soldiers than the following versions. Human soldier! Yes but they're particulary well equiped. So, that's why I added lot of bags around their belt. This is typilly the kind of detail easy to make witj small balls of green stuff.

Space Marines are weak without their armor, I never understand why some of them cross the battlefield without helmet... I want to keep safe my brand new soldier of the far futur. That the reason of all my Marines have a helmet : On head or at the belt.

 

Characters convertions :

I planned to creat a scenic base for all my Marines, inspired by the RT cover art. The main characters of the scene are never been produced by Citadel and some conversions are necessary.

Rogue Trader : Battle at the farm

Like some of you, I succumbed to t"The battle at the farm, fever". This New project in the far futur of Warhammer will occupy me during all the summer season. 

All begin at the Oldhammer Day 2018 when a nice guy named Gil Richez gave me a fist full of RTB01 Marines. At the same moment, JB Garidel told me that Fogou Miniatures will lauch a KS for resin cast ruined farm for the RT scenario The battle at the farm... So, this is how the project is born.

Since some weeks, pictures of the Fogou sceneries started to appear on the web and you probably discovered like me the fantastic work of Curis on his blog. I think that ours works on the same scenario will produce a good synergy and give us all the mojo we need.

To finish 2 links with the realm of Zhu blog. First is the Zhu top 10 battle reports for this scenario (here) and the second concerning some propositions to balance the game (here). For my own game, I also planned to add some nice stuff to give a chance to the Ork patrol.

Marines troops :

Ork patrol : 

Terrain :  

Landsknecht Half Giant

Hi !! New mercenary creature for my growing Landsknecht Dwarves army. Here is an Half Giant, this nice chap is the result of an uncommun union of a female Giant and a "brave" Ogre... So, this guy is a big Ogre or a small Giant it depend, it's a matter of perspective :) David Stafford the owner Mr Saturday Mumbling Blog wrote another excelent background of Randolf, check the Wolfbane art Facebook group.

This model was sculpted by Alessio Cisbani from Wolfbane-art studio. This project is born on the Oldhammer facebook group and after 4 weeks of work, 50 pieces was cast in resin, multi-parts kit. 26€ shipping cost included, it's a pretty fair price!

I added some lndsknecht stuff to integrat this model in my Dwarves army, this is the last unit and I planned to take some army pictures next week.

 

Oldhammer day France 2018!!

Hello every one !! Last weekend I organized and participated to the annual meeting of French Old School miniatures lovers. Lot of great moments and good gaming.

In fact, I haven't take pictures during the event ... So, thank goodness JB do the job and he just finish to write a first part of week end report, check here.

But I want to share a last thing with you. During the Oldhammer day 2017, a man named Gof came to us and gave us a small box of miniatures. Approximatively 30 Chaos models : Slaanesh Champions, Bestmen, Greater demon, etc.. For FREE!! He gave without expecting anything in return. An exemple to be followed by many Evilbayers !!

JB, Gof and me

To honored his gift, JB give a new life to these old Chaos miniatures. They are now in his collection of Rogue Trader models.  From my side, I decided to thank Gof with a painted Olivia, the last commemorative BOYL model.

Oldhammer Day 2018 - Best donation award - Gof

Nippon army project (Last part) : Army pictures

Here we are, the last part of the project! After 9 months of painting and historical searching to understand the feodal japan culture... I enjoy the moment of the army pictures :) to increase the army effect, I added some miniatures to the originals regiments, particulary for arquebusiers and spearmen.

Warhammer Nippon tactics
Leading a Nippon army, you have at your fingertips a unusual blend of devastating close combat troops, lethal missiles men and terrifying artillery. Despite this, it's a very difficult army to command properly. Because of the hight cost of all the differents troop types. They will probably be outnumbered , and so the troops must be used to their full petential to win.

The artillery should be used to support the close combat troops, rather than merely trying to wear down an approaching enemy. If they are carefully placed , artillery seriously hamper the movement of enemy regiments. Arquebusiers, if positionned behind cover, will be costly to overcome, but cannot be counted on to withstand a sustained attack from any number of enemy shock troops. The samurai are excelent archers, as well as good close combat fighters. It's worth trying to weaken the best enemy troops with bowfire before finishing them off with a charge. However, it would be absolutely disastrous to let them get bogged down and whittled away in an archery duel with large numbers of enemy bowmen.

The number of options available with Nippon army is almost limitless. Try to use a combination of protected arquebusiers and artillery to set up cross fires, and use threatened charges from the samurai to herd enemy units into these killing zones. The Kamikaze troops and ninja are probably best stationed in the weaker regiments, the enemy will then get a very nasty surprise when attacked!

So, what next? For the moment, I prepare the French Oldhammer Day. The event take place in my home town of Metz in the east side of France and it will be a part of a large event organized by my club Blitz57 (May, 12th and 13th 2018). Many oldschool games are planned during the weekend : WH40.000 2nd, Rogue Trader, Necromunda, Mordheim and of course WHFB!! Other good thing of the week end, it's the anual meeting moment of famous Oldschool French gamers... pictures soon :)