28mm Rogue Trader "Navigator"

While I've previously mentioned that my buying habits have more or less moved whole-scale over to 15mm, I still have a mountain of 28mm figures to paint. I've been working through my little lead Everest to find suitable 28mm mini's for conversion to the 40K Universe. Mostly for games of W40K Rogue Trader and In the Emperor's Name.

In this case, I was able to find a Reaper Mini's Faerie Princess to butcher a bit. After removing the wings (which I'd pinned about three years ago) I added a little bit of green-stuff to give her a third eye: the way she was brushing her hair away from her forehead was just too good an opportunity to pass up. Hence Konstanza, a Navigator Noblis and first member of my Inquisition Kill Team was born. Because I plan on using the Kill Team in 28mm and 15mm scale games I painted her to match the Ambassador miniature from the GZG free traders set I posted a while back.

If only I'd thought of it sooner, I'd have sculpted a  corset onto the 15mm figure. Maybe when I get round to buying that set again I'll do a little conversion work.

Unfortunately, my bitz-box is completely bare of Rogue Trader and 2nd ed 40K era weapons and kit (having foolishly given all my spare parts from these era's away years ago) so the plasma pistol is a little *ahem* large for her delicate little wrists. It's only glued on, not pinned, as I hope to come across an older era plasma pistol eventually.

Anyway, here are her randomly generated 40K stats and equipment followed by her stats for In the Emperor's Name. Not because I think you're interested in the slightest, but basically because if I don't post em online I'll just lose the bits of paper. And we can't have that.

Konstanza. W40K Rogue Trader:
M WS BS S T W  I   A  LD   INT   CL WP
4   3     5   3  3  3  4  2   9    8      8     9

Equipment: Plasma Pistol, Las Pistol, Jokaero Digital Flamer, Conversion Field (4+ save), Bio Scanner, Gills, Communicator, Contacts, 3 Doses of Immune, Infravision (surgical), Rad Counter, Rad Suit, 3 Doses of Web Solvent.

Konstanza, In the Emperor's Name:

Grit 3+, FV +2, SV +3, Spd +0  (14 points)
Skills: Terrifying (5 points)
Psyker Powers: Warpfire (10 points), Warpsight (10 points)
Armour: Refractor Shield  (Armour 7) (7 points)
Gear: Plasma Pistol (5 points), Laspistol (2 points)

Total: 53 points.

15mm 40K Tau Conversions

Here are those converted Tau I promised a few days ago. Bodies from GZG's New Israeli troops. Heads from Critical Mass 15mm Ygg Mercenaries. The paint job isn't great as I'm still getting the hang of painting in 15mm. For one thing, I really need to dim down those eye's a bit.

Tau Conversions by Me. Photo by Amber Renarde

Terminus Omega 15mm 40K Manifesto

Inspired by a post over on Homebrew Gamer, I thought I'd set down some of my thoughts on creating 15mm WH40K armies. My sculpting skills have nothing on his, mind you, so I'll be creating my 40K armies by converting other miniature lines rather than simply making my own.

Orks:
GZG's "Alien Mercenaries" Line already forms the core of my (currently small) 40K Ork force. I'm hoping to expand this with some suitably "looted" human vehicles from various lines that produce trucks and post-apocalyptic vehicles. I'll also be converting some 15mm goblins to act as Grots, but mostly as banner bearers and non-combatants rather than fighting Grots.

Tau:
I'm also creating a reasonable approximation of Tau by using GZG New Israeli bodies with Critical Mass Games' Ygs Merc heads. Just by sprinkling a couple of these converted mini's amongst unconverted New Israeli's I'm hoping to give them a much more Tau feel. I'm also looking into various 15mm grav vehicle lines that I can use to represent Tau vehicles as well as certain power-suit lines for Tau Battlesuits.

I've got my first batch of Tau-headed infantry on the painting desk as we speak. Should have pictures up by tomorrow at the latest.

Imperial Guard:

For Imperial Guard Rebel Mini's Earth Force troopers make damn good Cadians, but they suffer from a distinct lack of officer figures.

Khurasan's Neo-Soviet line make for pretty damn good Old School Rogue-Trader style Imperial Guard. The Infantry squad's come with a pistol armed leader who can easily be armed with a chainsword. The RPG-esque guys work as Grenade Launcher troops and three packs of infantry squads will also net you a heavy weapons squad of three missile launchers.

Then there's the heavy weapon pack that will provide snipers, mortar teams and lascannon/autocannon teams and a High Command pack that will give you an officer, a commissar, a medic and a guy standing at attention who is just begging to be converted into a platoon standard bearer.

For rogue Trader games, I'll be ditching the weapons teams, using one of the RPG guys as the squad grenade launcher and treating the missile tube firer as a lascannon armed guardsman.


As for Imperial Guard vehicles? There are dozens of very nice wheeled APC's out there in 15mm scale that look very similar to the Chimaera. I might not even bother doing any conversion work on these models at all. Various drop-ships and gun-ships out there can stand in easily enough for Valkyries and the like. Moreover, 15mm WWII lines produce plenty of vehicle mounted artillery and anti-aircraft guns that make fine proxies for other Imperial Guard vehicles.

15mm Space Orks

Mini's by GZG. Painting by me.  Photo by Amber Renarde.

My first batch of 15mm "Space Orks" are ready for games of 40K and Rogue Trader. I'm really happy with how they turned out. Only another 26 to go. The mini's are "Alien Mercenaries" from Ground Zero Games. Strictly speaking they're not designed to be 40K Orks as such, just generic "Thug" aliens. But they do the job pretty damn well.

In an early post I suggested I might pick up another 36 of da ladz for gaming, but really 36 Orks are enough for a game of 1st ed WH40K Rogue Trader. I'll hold off on buying in any more in favour of picking up an Imperial Guard Platoon's worth of Rebel Miniature's Neo-Sovs.

Bad Landing Update:

I've also been busily working away on expanding Bad Landing. I have a couple of infra-structure type buildings nearing the final stages of painting. I've also finished some 25mm Sand-bag emplacements designed for gun-teams lying down which don't look too bad for 15mm. Finally, I've made a batch of three "corrugated iron" barracks-style buildings to house poorer workers from sheet syrene. The buildings are just a shell at the moment, awaiting windows, vents, fuse boxes and the likes which I'll be ordering from GZG as soon as Jon clears his back-log.

Oh, and I have a chem-pit that'll be finished just as soon as I can find a pair of wire cutters that will actually cut car door wire mesh without going blunt on me. Expect some Work In Progress shots soon.

Hmm. Speaking of buildings. I might just hold off on buying those Neo-Sovs for a little bit longer and order Jon's Colony Shack set instead. No point buying too many toy soldiers 'til I have something for them to fight over.

15mm Warhammer 40K and the Bad Landing Campaign.

Cyborg by "Christianson". Used without permission

Over the next few months, I plan on having a good few games of WH40K using 15mm armies. The plan is to set all my house games played on my terrain on the (sometimes) Imperial World of Bad Landing.

The idea is to play out various battles in the World's History ranging from the Age of Conquest, right through the Horus Heresy and on up into the 41st Millennium. Earlier period games will be played out using the 1st edition WH40K Rogue Trader rules - reflecting the presence of Robots, power-field protected vehicles and similar Tech- up to and just after the Horus Heresy (when so much technical lore was destroyed. Again). Later period games will be played out using 5th edition 40K for larger battles, but I'll be using "In The Emperor's Name," Necromunda and perhaps even Inquisitor for some of the smaller skirmishes.

The hard part of the project will be the business of building and modelling 40K armies and settlements in 15mm. Fortunately, I'll be able to use some of the available GW 28mm buildings during some periods of the colony's history. Those GW buildings look pretty decent next to 28mm miniatures, but used in a 15mm game they really take on some of the grandeur we would expect from public buildings in the Imperium. Hell, if I'm really lucky I might be able to work in some games of Epic/Space Marine.

I look forward to recording the growth of my various 15mm Armies and (possibly) some 28mm skirmish forces on this blog. I'll also be charting the "historical development" of Bad Landing through battle reports and, hopefully, a mini campaign or two. Hopefully, the world will change hands several times through play, with the human Colony being destroyed and rebuilt, reconquered or resettled several times during the course of our games. Should be great