Blood money

I had an afternoon of daylight left once the necromancer was finished. Not wanting to start on an entire new miniature, my eye fell on a mini that had lingered semi-painted for, oh, I believe a few years now. On a whim, I decided to finish him.
I present to you, the Alien Bountyhunter:

I started this conversion when I was heavily playing Mass Effect 2, hence the colourscheme and grouping of collapsible weapons on his back. As I originally never intended him for 40k, he isn't very "grimdark", which will hopefully make him seem all the more alien...
Like the preacher, he isn't an integral part of any warband, and more of a one-off NPC/excuse for an idea or conversion that I can't/won't build a full crew around.

Conjurer of dead things

 I had this song running through my head the entire time I was painting my latest miniature:

It's not often a miniature has such a clear theme song...
Can you guess what he is yet? ;-P

Faith and leadership among the stars

Another wee bit of converting for the salvage team tonight. The first item isn't exactly a member of the team itself, but more someone they may meet along the way.

Alexander over on the Ammobunker forum suggested my salvage crew should visit a certain accursed place, the Yggddrasill Arkke. While I like the idea of my crew of scum on that awesome set of terrain, and am quietly flattered someone would think they'd fit in such an excellent setting and showcase of modelling excellence, background-wise I wouldn't let them near that place without a priest!
And so the seed was sown... Could it be possible to combine the imagery of a Void Suit with that of an Imperial preacher?
Both have a rather dominant visual style to define them. The Imperial preacher, as a miniature, relies heavily on his priestly robes for visual identification. Which could potentially clash heavily with the void suit as an all encompassing, heavy, enviroment-sealed suit. As I thought about it a bit, it was a challenge I just couldn't let go. Would it be possible to make a visually and thematically strong miniature, that simultaneously read clearly as both an Imperial Priest and a Void suit?
It was immediately clear I could go two ways about this: Realistically, by making a standard Void suit, and hanging it full with the priests religious accoutrements, treating the suit as a sealed, contained unit. Or the dramatic way, by allowing (part of) the Preachers monastic robes to be worn outside the void suit. Naturally, I applied the maxim "Story before rules" here as well, and chose the dramatic option.
So I present to you,the first steps in the creation of an Itinerant Preacher:

As you can see, he's far from finished, but this shows the basic direction I want to take with him. His feet will be sculpted into Void Suit feet, and he will naturally need to be slathered in religious bling. Currently I'm thinking of giving him a religious icon on a staff in his right hand, and have him pointing a pistol of some make in his left.
I'm seeing this character as a wandering priest, bringing religiosity to the backwoods of the Imperium. As he usually travels mostly from between space stations and deep space mining facilities he has accustomed himself to permanently wearing his Void suit. The familiar gear also aids in getting accepted, and heard, by the locals. He's no big-wig, just a man of faith (potentially a semi-ascetic with a vow of poverty) with the will to preach and a need to wander.

As I was looking for parts, and waiting for glue to dry, I also did a test-fit for the salvage crews Crewboss:

As you can see, being the boss gets you the fancy gear. The gorget-style collar is just a mock-up to see if I like the idea. If I do go ahead with it, the lower edges will get a bit of an arch to them, and I'll try and sculpt a bit of a central crease to the collar itself, giving it all a bit more of a gothic flair.
For the abdomen armour, I'm thinking of either a more fancy version of the articulated belly plates from the light Void suit, or either a peascod or gothic shape plackart. (Disregard the small Bretonnian shield, it's a discarded idea...) His kneepads and toecaps will also get a central crease, to give it that more of an armoured, noble look to them.


As the Preacher is a representative of the Ecclesiarchy and the Crewboss is, well, a greedy showoff, they will both get a more high end powerpack than the rank and file spacers:

 Not nearly finished, but you can see the inspiration/reference in the top of the picture... These two will however be a more workaday edition of the SoB powerpack.
Although, I'm thinking of giving the Preacher a regular, bulky, powerpack after all. Background-wise it would be easier for him to have it serviced at all the backwaters he visits. And it would give me more surface area to model stuff onto him, like a back-up longarm on the side of his pack, and random gear, to tie him in a bit more with the classic metal GW Imperial Preachers.

Salvage crew

I had the time tonight to do a little bit more on the female salvage crew member. I greenstuffed the armour of her voidsuit over her stomach, finished the collar of her suit and reinforced her toecaps:

  I also managed to sculpt her ears... Gods, what an ordeal to sculpt such a tiny thing, of such a particular shape!
But I think I managed quite reasonably:

 Now all that's left to do on her is, greenstuff wise: her hair, the Arbites-style kneepads, with straps and some minor gap-filling. Then it's only a matter of accessorizing and making her a base before I can paint her.
I'm not decided yet what extra gear she is getting, or where it will hang. I don't want to put stuff on her waist, after the time I spent giving her a feminine bodyshape/waistline, I'd hate to go and cover it all up again!
Maybe a coil of rope, a pouch or two or a set of suspensors (a suspensor-dispenser) for moving heavy stuff?

I also did some work on the next member of the crew:

A big brute of a man with his "universal unlocking tool"... I couldn't have a unit of Void Crows and not model at least one crowbar, now could I?
 

I gave him shims of plasticard at his waist, under his feet and at his shoulders, hoping to make him a suitably big brute of a man. But the effect is less pronounced than I had hoped. Hopefully it will be more noticeable once painted and sat next to his buddies. If I also make sure to cover his base in plasticard, I can gain another mm of visual height.
The crowbar is simply heated and formed plastic rod. The most hassle in this conversion is finding the right arms and hands, and then fiddling to get everything to line up...

He will get the same style of void suit that the little lady is wearing, so hopefully the arms will come back off without too much hassle.

A mind without purpose will wander in dark places

Oh hey, I suddenly saw that I have twenty followers these days. A warm (if belated) welcome everyone!
I've grown so accustomed to seeing the same familiar 3 or 4 followers there for the longest time, I've neglected looking at that widget at all the last couple of months. I just accidentally happened to glance at it before I started on this post, so for me it feels like you snuck up on me. Glad to know there's some interest in my wafflings... ;-) 

In my previous post, I was telling you about my recent wavering focus and doubts how to deal with this. Well, it seems I've decided. It looks like I've gotten of the Dungeoneering/Fantasy/Questing (D/F/Q) monorail and am now running on two tracks: The original plan of making 2015 the Year of the Dungeon will continue, plus I'll be exploring the backwaters of the Dark Millennium.
Wether the latter will find it's home rulewise in Necromunda, Inq28 or at their crossroads; Inquisimunda, is currently of lesser importance to me. Like with the D/F/Q project, I'll be embracing the maxim "Setting and models first, rules last."

So, what does this mean, right now?
Since I have a reasonable stockpile of D/F/Q minis that are ready for primer, at this moment I can happily keep painting the fantasy minis while I build some 40K setting stuff. Hopefully, I can set up a rythm where I can keep alternating in this rythm, building for one, painting the other, and vice versa. It would also mean I can make the most of the daylight hours in the weekends.

Disruptions and distractions

I've been ill the past week.* Which limited my hobby options to idly leafing through my note- and sketchbooks in those moments I wasn't either asleep or actively engaged with being ill.
Not very nice at all. :(

*: Nothing serious, just one of the fun seasonal bugs doing the rounds here...

And while it was fun, and a much needed distraction, to see my other ideas and plans outside of dungeoneering/fantasy again, it has been a bit too distracting, as I seem to have lost my focus on the Dungeoneering/fantasy/Quest project...
I'm not yet fit enough to do hobby stuff, so hopefully the distraction will pass, and I can resume work on my Dungeoneering/fantasy (let's just say D/F/Q from now on, shall we?) project as planned when I've recovered. But I'm not too confident.
You see, I've been able to focus on the D/F/Q project far longer than I'm used to sticking to a hobby project. It's a bit of a surprise to me, really. So I'm not sure how to deal with this. Usually distraction struck much sooner, and it meant the previous project would be relegated to (one of the many) back burner(s) for a few months at least.
Which I don't want to happen with the D/F/Q project (Gods, this project needs a catchier name!).
So, how do I deal with this?
Do I ignore the ideas that are floating around in my head and knuckle down the fantasy project, with the risk that the itch won't go and I make D/F/Q a chore for myself?
Do I allow myself the sidestep with a little "refresher" project, so I could return to D/F/Q with new energy, but risk that the sidestep leads me deeper into the other project(s), causing me to neglect the D/F/Q project?
Or do I try and do both, and see what wins out, survival of the fittest style? It would mean dividing my already limited hobby time even more, further reducing any progress I make.
At this point, I really don't know what the best option is.
Do any of you have some good advice or own experiences to share?

Barking up trees

This weekend I had originally planned to make some more progress on the Warhammer Quest display unit for the glass cabinet. However, I had neglected to calculate for the various celebrations (an anniversary and two milestone birthdays) within our family... Which my loving wife dutifully reminded me of, as I was pulling out all the hobby gear.

So the progress hasn't proceeded as progressively as planned. :-(

I did get the trees for the display covered in bark-like texture. (Hence the title of this post.) I painted the wire skeleton with several layers of wall-filler made slightly thinner and goopier with the aid of PVA glue. I brushed on an initial layer of watered down filler, to act as a "primer coat" for the following layers to grab on to. Then I added several layers of a thicker mix until the wire frame wasn't protruding from the surface anymore. For the final layer I threw a handful of sand into the mixture, to give it some more texture. I put this on roughly and with visible brushstrokes to emulate the texture of bark. Once dried it is a bit more subtle than I'd hoped, but when painted it should suffice:

As I had several tree wireframes still lying around, I've textured them at the same time, as you can see above.
Here is a close up of the two trees (and separate branches) for the display, so you can see a bit of the texture I achieved:

As a bonus, while these were drying between layers, I managed to clip and clean 18 GW the Hobbit Goblins. I'll be using these as some sort of underground degenerates, and they can double as mutants for games of 40K or =I=Munda, so they'll be based somewhat generically. I also managed to greenstuff the torsos of 11 second-hand Battle for Skull Pass spiders, so they are ready for primer. Additionally (filler is applied quickly, but dries slowly) I filled the gaps in the Heresy Miniatures Lurkers I showed a while ago and attached them to their bases.

All in all, looking back, while I didn't do what I planned to, I've been quite productive. And all that in a weekend I, beforehand, considered lost to sitting up and playing nice with relatives...