Trading Rogues

Recently I got the urge to dig out my stash of Rogue Trader miniatures again.
I only started 40K in second edition (the month the original Tyranid Codex was released to be precise), but Rogue Trader has always held a fascination for me. Something about its narrative, almost RPG approach and the way the setting was still only loosely defined, wild and still fresh, with a simultaneously bleak, anarchic and tongue-in-cheek tone to it, appealed to me. So over the years I've been snagging up the occasional bargain off ebay and fora.

Initially I just planned to do my usual bout of "Gollum"-ing and catalogueing what I had collected, but this time something more happened:

I actually went and prepped some figures for primer.

Now, my collection is far from the biggest, but I should have enough orks and marines to do (once all are painted) a reasonable series of skirmishes in the style of the Rynn's World incidents... I have about enough plastic and metal beakies to do a squad or two, a specialist (half-squad) kill-team and a small command group. I would like to have a few more specialists and support weapons, maybe a vehicle beyond the old Rhino I have.
For Orks I have the complete metal Space Ork Raiders box plus extras, and a few power armoured Orks for higher command. At some point I'm hoping to add a dreadnaught and battlewagon to them. I'm in no hurry, and content to snap up the occasional overlooked bargain.
I won't be painting my marines as Crimson Fists, though. But what they will be, I've still no defined idea. So I've been doing some testers. As I don't have a surplus of beakies to paint and strip over and over, I have to resort to paper planning:

These are just bare colours, naturally I'll want to retro them up with "Kil Kil Kil" markings, checkers and chevrons and old style rank markings. :) 
Now just to figure out what colour scheme I will use. Maybe spend a few more days with the colouring book and see if I hit on a scheme that I really like.
And then to paint it all and find someone crazy enough to delve into Rogue Trader with me...

See you next time!

A shortfall of Mojo, and a sidestep

Well, after finishing the landmate from my previous post, I continued on with the opposing force landmates, but during painting it sort of...petered out.
I couldn't really find the drive to finish them. Which sort of extended to painting something else, building minis or terrain as well.
I've had a few stressful weeks and somewhere along the line, my hobby mojo seems to have gone on a little holiday. I could think about doing stuff, and plan for it, but the spark to actually do it just wasn't there
So I decided to leave things rest for the time being and do other stuff (mainly faffing about on the 'net/'puter games, watch a few movies, the more passive downtime things. The things I usually don't have enough patience for to do for extended periods).

Not content to sit around waiting for my enthusiasm for wargame hobby stuff to return, this week I decided to take up another project and do a book. A coptic stitch this time. I like the look of it, and it can be done fairly quickly as it doesn't need as much glueing and other labour intensive steps as the few codex style bindings I've done so far.
I made it a bit hard for myself by using thread that was a bit to thick for the holes I had punched (I didn't have anything on hand to make bigger holes). This meant I had to use a bit more force, causing the parts to shift and end up a bit sloppy. Let's just say it adds to the "rustic" quality of the book. :)
It was also the first time doing Coptic stitch and I hadn't completely wrapped my head around the techniques yet, causing some mistakes and sloppiness. Oh, well, live and learn. All in all, it is actually quite a fun binding to do, and I can see myself doing a few more as quick one-day projects.
Here's the result:

I had originally planned to weave along the entire centre section of the spine, but had misjudged how taut the threads were (see above about using too much force...) and halfway I ran out of play to continue weaving. Nevertheless I like the look of it, and it's still a very nice notebook for personal use, even if not of "gift" quallity.  Maybe after a few more practices with this style of book, I'll make another like this in the quality it deserves. The covers are corduroy over furniture board by the way, and feel rather nice in the hand. Despite its flaws it's definitely a book that invites to touch and use.

 See you next time! (Whenever that is...)