Something good from Sweden

I don't usually endorse (or participate) in crowdfunding projects, but I felt this one deserved mentioning:
Last year I happened across a Swedish RPG by a company named Järnringen. It's called Symbaroum and grabbed my attention; the art was beautiful and evocative, and what I could gather of the setting (My Swedish is way on the far side of nonexistent...) it seemed very interesting.
The art had a mood that I tend to think of as "Scandinavian"; the nature looks harsh and overwhelming but at the same time with a certain otherworldy, dreamlike quality. The culture, people and even monsters shown have a sense of depth, of history. And the setting, while clearly fantasy, is not standard fare, the conflicts aren't simply "good vs evil" or standard monsters. The factions seem to all contain gradients of both aspects. I like that the main source of conflict is the area of an ancient taboo or interdiction and the attitudes of the various peoples towards that forbidden area and its mysteries and dangers. No faction seems to be arbitrarily or universally a good guy or bad guy, but all are driven by a desire to survive and thrive in this harsh, contested land. Add to that a pervasive sense of mystery and I was sold.
If only it were available in English!

Well, it seems that may be about to happen as they have started an Indiegogo campaign to get an English translation released, check it out here.
No deep discounts, no outrageous stretch goals, just a good product seeking a wider audience.
Have a look if it has peaked your interest.
I wish them luck and hope they reach their goals.

Foam Party!

Sealant Foam that is, the sort you use to close off hull breaches...
I just finished a quick conversion for a Sealant Foam Gun, aka Webber or Web Gun for one of my Salvage crew members with a slab-shield and wanted to share it with you. (I've yet to decide what the slab-shield will look like though...)

Here she is:

Just a quick conversion using the Cadian flamer, a Space Marine flamer canister and the (inverted) nozzle from a Chaos Space Marine vehicle accesory combi-flamer. I think it looks unique and identifiable to read as a Web Gun instead of a flamer.

Scenario Complications: Religious festivals

I've just finished re-reading the first Shira Calpurnia novel and the way the large religious festival featured in the book played merry hell with her Arbites investigation had me thinking. Wouldn't it be a great theme for a game of Inquisitor (and all it's variant flavours...), Necromunda or any other skirmish set in the 40K Universe to have the edicts of a local religious festival interfere with the actions of your warbands?

So I thought up some possible (Imperium) religious observances and the effect they could have on a game:

Deep space missionary

Some more assembly on the travelling preacher today.

So here he is, part man, part void suit, part jumble of religious paraphernalia and (dodgy) relics. Travelling the universe to teach imperial citizens the proper worship of the God-Emperor.
But the universe is a dangerous place, even for a man of faith. So his hotshot laspistol and pump action shotgun are a standard part of his travelling kit.
Judging by his stern look (and drawn sidearm) someone is getting schooled on the finer points of Imperial dogma....

He's only tacked together temporarily, as he obviously still needs some work:
-The rods on his pack will get wicks and molten runny wax sculpted on, to be candles.
-The book on his staff still needs to get properly attached to his staff with some metal bands.
-The foil strips on his shoulders will be purity seals, they just need the greenstuff wax seals added.
-I'm thinking of adding a brass etch aquila to his gorget.
Then there's the matter of his stomach plate and the upper part of his pack. I'm not sure if I should keep them empty to maintain the void suit look, or put a purity seal on those as well?
Maybe dump a spare book or ecclesiastical icon on him somewhere while I'm at it...

Salvage Crew, progress

The voidsuits have progressed a little further. On the lady, the priest and the crowbar guy I've filled the gaps in the collars. Also the priest and lady got their boots. The priest and crowbar guy have their stomach armour added as well. Plus, the scavenger girl finally has a hairdo! (After several attempts and a minor blue streak...). Oh, and kneepads.
Not much progress on the crew boss, I've filed his gorget into a slightly more graceful curve, in preparation to refine it a bit more with greenstuff. I'm still undecided how to do his stomach armour, so he has been set aside until I figure this out.

The three "greenstuffees":

 At this point, all I need to do on the female Void Crow is add a base and some gear like pouches, etc.  But somehow without obscuring her female shapes... After all, I didn't put so much effort in giving her those curves only to cover them back up later!

Here is a better look at the hair that gave me such trouble:

The first try ended up too flat and a little too far backward. Attempt two was perfect, exactly in the right place, precisely the right shape and definition...And then it detached and fell to the floor. :(
Attempt three I was startled by the telephone and stabbed her hair in half.
At attempt four, I was reaching the  "good enough" stage (Which is only one or two steps removed from the "Eh, she'll also look good bald"-point).
Luckily, all went well on this attempt. Her ponytail and the hairband in it could have been a bit neater, but at that point I didn't dare fiddle with it any more... What if I sneezed?

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