The Brattish rider

OK, this time I wanted to do something a little different so after quite a dose of fantasy, I thought I could go back to the familiar shores of 40k and confrontation.

Since I had been challenged on the Scale Creep to do a dragon, I thought this would be the time to do something refreshing. I've been meaning to use this dinosaur for 40k for a while now and until recently, I didn't really know what to use him as.

My previous idea was to use it as a baggage mule fr some ash waste nomads or something in that spirit but it would have involved working on my nomads which despite being a very motivating idea, meant too much time involved. I needed a stand alone figure. While talking to my good friends about this, I just tried to stick a spare Bratt on the dino...

The idea of having a dino on the dinosaur seemed stupid to me, it just didn't make any sense... at some point, I realised (helped by the others) that "makes no sense" was probably what I was looking for actually.

See, I'm slowly trying to build a little piece of the Rogue Trader world (the way I see it at least) and the idea to have a fringe world with red deserts populated with strange creatures and inhabitants is very appealing to me...

Here's a little drawing I did with my daughter, I was just trying to find the colours and tone, nothing more :

The idea I have in mind is post-apocalyptic and science-fiction in equal parts with loads of colonisation idea too. Having a traveller fit for this world seemed cool so I tried to make a knight of the future which had to make riding a dinosaur something casual and normal.

Here's a little picture of how I had to break parts (finally broke the left arm as well as you can guess), just cut every joint of the legs to pin and reposition as well as I could.

The rider used to stand a bit better on the mount but the pin going through his crotch broke and I never could fix that, now he has to sit a bit more on the back which doesn't look as good although the difference is minimal.

You can note on the picture above how damaged the dino is and I don't know if it's leardot or anything but the metal has surely suffered from heavy oxydation that has left scars all over the model. I've tried to remove as much where needed but the painting was exactly enjoyable on the dino for this reason.

As far as inspiration goes, you might prefer solid pieces like John Blanche's, thos ereally say it all for me. Not only are these my favourite kind of his varied style but they are so full of elements to pick and get inspired by...

Of course, my palette is slightly different to JB's and my painting style is not exactly Blanchitsu either but as always I'd rather take the spirit than the form :

With this model, I hope to have started my fringe world setting well. I have a gaming mat to be delivered now and I really hope the new scenery I'm preparing will help make something more evocative than the usual blue gradient backdrop I'm using for now. Need to push things a bit further really.

In the meantime, here's a couple of friends I could see my brattish rider hang around with. I have some proper bratts for confrontation planned (partly thanks to Evo) and I'm going to make them something else. This one is just a loner, outcast or adventuring sort.