Blue Star Company

Hello there, Welcome Back.

The Blue Star company is a Dvarg mining and engineering company from the Super Earth sized world of Azure, which orbits around a blue dwarf star deep in Dvarg Space. 

In addition to the traditional Davrg industries, Blue Sun runs salvage and repair operations in many sectors along Dvarg and Frontier space.

The figures are mainly old school 2nd ed 40K Squats that I have picked up over the years. There are also two resin Chob Minis Space Dwarves carried by Ramshackle Games, which scale up nicely with the old 40k figures. 

The wounded squat figure had a missing arm. Thankfully the arms from the Wargames Atlantic Einhenjar fit nicely. I gave him an axe arm.

I need to get all my space dwarves out as one large muster at some point in the future. 

Thanks for looking, take care out there. 

Starport Scum #12

Hello and Welcome back, 

Time for Starport Scum, episode 12. 

The Kooman brothers are deserters for hire. On the run from the Alliance forces they deserted, they hang around spaceports on frontier space looking for work. 

This pair were part of a figure deal I got off evilbay. The paint is thick. After shaving off the 40k imperal eagles, I touched the figures up. I treated them some washes and based them. Not great work but they are good enough for henchmen, goons or Xenomorph fodder. 

Time to introduce a new bunch of GELFs into the Wlid Galaxy - the Klangers.

Originally characters from a children's holovid, these GELFs were engineered to look like these characters to entertain children. Although they had few issues with humanity the Klangers fled with the other GELFs fearing the backlash. Klangers can breed and have settled a handful of worlds in GELF space. Although they live peacefully the warlike ORCS and GROTS GELFs that are neighbours (galactically speaking) have forced the Klangers to protect themselves. Klanger technology is crude and basic equating to early to mid 20th Century Earth, and they are hungry for more advanced weapons and equipment.

Like the Halfers some Klangers have migrated and built colonies on Dvarg worlds for protection. With the encroachment of Human frontier space on GELF space, Klangers can sometimes be found in spaceports trading or looking for work. 

These figures are Quar Trenchers. I think the light armament and improvised hand weapons gives them the right feel for Starport scum, crew or even pirates. It occurred to me that the Quar figures resembled the characters in one of my favourite childhood shows, the Clangers (yes I am that old!).

Gun drones are commonly used by various groups across human space. They allow some extra close range fire power when you short on bodies. 

Care has to be taken wandering through hostile territory as these bots are often left dormant as a extra security measure. These figures are 15mm GZG figures and were painted and dontated by my friend Xander. I just touched them up and finished them off. 

I found these old metal Necrons on Evilbay. Two of them were painted and one unpainted. So the two painted Necons got touched up, washed and a rebase. 

The other one got painted in a similar fashion. Each Necron had some colour added to the shoulder pads. 

As they look different to the later plastic Necron offerings and these are painted shiney, I have decided that this three will be operating as robotic crew or security in various settings. 

Thanks for looking,

Take care out there.

Star Port Scum 9.

Hello and welcome back, 

It's Starport Scum time. Hanging about the Space port bars there are many colourful, often dodgy (and usually not very sober) characters. 

Captain Kruces Magnusson

This armoured guy covered in animal furs toting a Shurkien Catapult (a weapon manufactured by the Fey GELFs), will happily tell many exciting tales of his exploits (for a drink) in the bars around the space ports. In addition to scrounging free drinks he uses these tales to encourage young and impressionable people to sign up for his crew. None of them think to ask why Magnusson needs new crew members regularly until it is too late. It is also a disappointment for them when they find out that they don't get fancy armour or weapons when they sign on with Magnusson.

There are many rumours about Magnusson circulating around the spaceports. One sayes that he is a pirate, while another claims that he takes his new crew members and sells them as slaves to the Fey GELFs. A rumour which is reinforced by the GELF weapon he sports.

The figure is a old metal 40K Space marine found on ebay. It was painted with Deep Coat Studio speed painter marker pens over grey primer. As you can see the colours are somewhat duller than over a white primer (see my last blog post). An army painter quick shade mid brown wash was added, while the metal and darker parts were treated to an Army Painter quick shade Dark Tone wash. Some details were then picked out with Coat d Arms and Nostaliga paints.

Oin Brassneck of the Big Red Mining Corporation 

Oin Brassneck is a Dvarg of the Big Red Mining Corporation. He hangs around spaceports listening for opportunities for the Corporation to exploit. The Dvarg have a practical approach to humanites pending encroachment of GELF space (good luck getting past all those war hungry ORCS). They are happy to trade and exploit business opportunities with the frontier worlds and colonies. Another reason is that Dvarg space lies beyond GELF space, so humanity isn't considered a threat.  

Brassneck is the first figure of my Big Red Mining Corporation squad for the Skirm game. There will be more figures for this crew in future. I am planning more than the 6 required figures for a Skirm squad, possibly 10 or 12 so I can use these guys for other games such as Stargrave. 

The figure is a old metal 40K Squat/space dwarf, I found on ebay. The figure is missing the combat accessory. That seems to be a regular issue with old figures. It was painted with Deep Coat Studio speed painter marker pens over grey primer. As you can see the colours are somewhat duller than over a white primer (see my last blog post). An Army Painter quick shade mid brown wash was added, while the metal and darker parts were treated to an Army Painter quick shade Dark Tone wash. Some details were picked out with Coat d Arms and Nostaliga paints.

Note: The Wild Galaxy tweaked Big Red Mining Corporation fluff to follow as soon as I have finished the rest of the squad.

Maurice Ncnann

Maurice Ncnann is a Mercenary who hangs about Spaceports looking for work. He will happily join crews that need some extra muscle and he is not beyond joining pirate crews if the pay is right.

The figure is a old metal 40K Space marine scout found on ebay. The combat accessory was missing so another was fashioned from a plastic Void Junkers machete. The figure was painted with Deep Coat Studio speed painter marker pens over white primer. An Army Painter quick shade mid brown wash was added, while the metal and darker parts were treated to an Army Painter quick shade Dark Tone wash. Some details were picked out with Coat d Arms and Nostaliga paints.

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

Fay GELF raiding party.

 Hello and Welcome back, 

Human frontier worlds along the edge of GELF space run the risk of GELF raids in addition to the usual risks of Frontier life. 

This Fay GELF raiding party arrives on world looking for usable loot and humans to kill and torture. The Fay are long lived and long memories of human cruelty. Many Fay are looking for vengance on their old oppressors. 

These figures are old metal 40k Eldar. The blue skinned figure is Sprangdryll the space elf pirate by Skull and Crown. 

Thanks for looking, stay safe out there.

Old 40K building rework.

Welcome back,

Back in the mists of time, fresh with enthusiasm and inspiration from the newly released 40K Rouge Trader book, I knocked together this bit of terrain for my Orks and Marines to fight over. Digging through some old boxes I stumbled upon it and thought it would be a good candidate for a rework.

It was made from a plastic tub (possible margarine) and had a sweet tub on top. The door was painted on. In the illustration I have cut part of the original door way out using a soldering iron. In my enthusiasm I forgot to take pictures of it unmolested.

Reviewing the model I decided to keep the lip at the bottom as a kind of step and to give it more of a hatch look. Keeping the rim and lip would also help keep the strength of the tub that forms the base of the model. But the doorway would need some height adding.

Carefully the door way was cut out using a soldering iron (ALWAYS melt plastics in a well ventilated area). The door is peice of cerial packet card cut with pinking shear scissors. I was glued to a larger peice of card which locates the door in place and adds bracing to the model. The doorway is made from xps foam and the data panel is also a scrap of xps foam with card to make the screen.

The rest of the model had all manner of bits added to spruce it up. There are stick on pearls, wires, scratch built steps, medical tubing gubbins and other assorted scrap added. 

I think I may have to rework more models in my collection.

Thanks for looking

Take care out there.