Friday 30 October 2015

The Galactic Bastard, rogue trader extraordinaire


Today's entry is one that has had to wait for a long time to get completed. This model has been made for a facebook Hobby group called the Emporium of Rogue Dreams, focusing on wargaming in retro sci-fi universes like Rogue Trader, 2000AD publications, Starwars and others of the kind.
The Emporium keeper Mark has kindly had this model sculpted by the excellent Shane Hoyle as a group special miniature.
Now I've had the chance to get my hands on an early cast but the model came with 4 different heads :


All of them being excellent, there was no way I'd leave any aside so I decided to magnetise both heads and body in order to be able to change heads as I saw fit. 
My history with magnets is an old one as you can see with my Chaos army or my Kaleb Daark.
Problem was I was short on magnets so I ordered some and painted the body meanwhile... that was back in August !
Long story short : I finally got my magnets the other day and could finally complete the model !

The first head is one of those which inspired me the most to paint the rest of the body. Why is that ? Easy, him :

Guardians of the Galaxy's Starlord
While the model is clearly not a replica of the character, it has just what was needed to remind me of him and to use a colourscheme that plays on that theme. Let's call our first incarnation Star Rogue.


Thing is, having a quite neutral base body enables me to make any other head fit as well so I tried to explore another way for the next head :

 
Since the model is a galactic bastard and since it's able to change head at will, I thought it had exactly what it took to be :

Yeah that's right,  John Hannibal "master of disguise" Smith from the A-team :


For the last head I went with something more neutral with a 2days beard and neutral hair (though that head could have been better to make Hannibal, I didn't want it to be an exact replica like for Starlord so I preferred to use the other and leave that one as the generic head he uses to hide in crowds.


This way the model represents the perfect Rogue Trader to me, with skills going beyond mere combat. He's the sort of guy who can handle a fight but who will always avoid it thanks to his charisma and intelligence whenever he can.

But where's the fourth head... who knows...

Since I've received a good load of magnets, there are plenty of projects I want to work on which are very promising, you'll soon see what I'm talking about ;).
For now, if you like a bit of old sci-fi in your wargaming and fill you can behave with excellence on a FB page, have a look at the emporium, some great talent there and as much inspiration as you can expect.

26 comments:

  1. Love the lenses, JB. Tutorial please?

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    1. It's really simple and I have planned to do a tutorial including this part too, it's basically the same technique I'm using with the champions of Law. Next post about them will include the recipe from start to end. It'll be easier for me to show that with pics. ;)

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    2. Lovely. Wondered if there was to be a forthcoming tutorial seeing as it is a technique very much en vogue at present. ;)

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    3. cough cough, eeerrrm yes indeed !
      I actually have 6 models on the table awaiting to get it too, don't know why I've been using this as much lately, it's just my way to represent psychic eyes and powered items !

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  2. I love them all JB. It just goes to show how important the head is to a character, and what a difference it can make to the overall look.

    I particularly like the white piping on the outfit - it lifts what could have been a fairly sombre colour scheme. But the eye sockets on head #1 are the best bit about the whole thing. I'm looking forward to seeing more on that technique :)

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    1. The white lining was a late idea when I realised I needed something to emphasise the classy look of him with his hand on the cane.
      I had more fun on the first head but I painted all of these quite late in the evening, I should have painted one of the bare head with outrageous colours for hair and make-up just for fun !

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  3. The googles and jewel on the back are sublime!

    Can't wait for the tutorial.

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    1. Cheers mate ! I'll see how to make this as clear as I can ;)

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  4. Love it. Seems like a figure that could fit in with a lot of different games too, which is of course helped by all those heads!

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    1. Exactly, that's what I love with this one, it's full of character and yet could fit in many places, a real swiss army knife !

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  5. Very cool JB - head number one is my fave, but great idea to magnatise so you can change his character ��

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    1. In all honesty I had more fun with the first mainly because I painted all 3 heads late in the evening last night so the bare heads received a rather quick job. My favourite from the start was the first because of Guardians of the Galaxy ^^'

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  6. The head with the lenses looks really awesome and the model is veeeeery nice :)

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    1. The model is nice indeed, full of charm and simplicity which is all I'm looking for really. I have to say the lenses do not look as good in real life it's more a fluke here than anything else. ^^'
      Thanks a lot though ;)

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  7. Looks like a High quality sculpt, it's rare to see multiple heads of all decent applicability.
    Your painting is ace as always

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    1. Very high quality indeed, very fine details and just the quantity I like without non sense all around, some other painters have taken it in different directions and it's good all the time.

      Cheers buddy !

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  8. Great job! Echoing all the rest, I think the eyes have it!

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  9. Wooow, this is so cool! You took this to another level!!

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    1. Cheers buddy ! It felt good to finally finish this one !

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  10. Super work especially on the first mini conversion. Even before I had read your blog I thought it looked a LOT like StarLord. Fantastic work on the paint job too ... seriously!!! That gem-like reflection on his back is something I have been struggling with and you nailed it. NICE!

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    1. Thanks ! To be honest I've struggled with gems for a long time until I finally found the right tutorial which explained the important points (don't remember where that one was though). Now they look OK enough (like gems at least).

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  11. Loving the models hoping they can be got off FB

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    1. I have absolutely no idea but I think I recall reading about a second batch so you're just a question to Mark away from knowing I suppose. ^^
      Thanks Matthew.

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  12. Everyone is impressed by those glowing eyes (and rightly so) but are we all going to ignore the fact that those gloves look SO comfortable. I mean my fingers are getting hot and bothered just looking at them. With their finger eyes.

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    1. I'm quite surprised by all that jazz on the eyes yes, the gloves definitely are the main focus here. It took me dozens of hours to paint the interior glowing. I know it doesn't show since he's wearing them but they're totally glowing inside !

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