Thursday 21 September 2017

Rogue Trader - Mercenaries


Hello, with the good wife still away in NYC I am making the most of the painting and blogging time, you will not see this much activity a week from now so lap it up my friends.

As you know I completed my first major project sometime ago, I have still got finish it off some proper photography on this project but it is done, it's sister project was the RT502 - Mercenaries and although I cherry picked and painted 'Old World Jack' and 'Inquisitor Augustus' some time ago, this small code has been nagging me for some paint for a long time, so I am currently 10 miniatures in to a 16 miniature code, easy eh? funnily enough I do have most of these painted already as Catachan jungle fighters for Warhammer 40K 2nd Edition but I couldn't bothered to strip them as they are half decent may need just a spruce up.

All the RT502 Mercenaries were sculpted by Bob Naismith except 'Shorty' and 'Iron Bonce the squat' (not sure when?) and released in White dwarf 95 in 1987 thanks to Axiom's blog post which confirms these are Bob's sculpts, I have used plenty of greys on these guy's to make them look like Imperial Army deserters and added some variations like Desert uniforms. 

Many of these characters appeared in illustrations in the Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 rulebook so where possible I have took a snippet shot of them.

The characters like 'Sarge' Rockhard remind me of the cool characters from films like The Dirty Dozen and Cross of Iron, along with the comics the designers would may have grown up with like Warlord, Battle with their Rat Pack story drawn by Carlos Ezquerra of 2000Ad Judge Dredd fame who appears to often base his main character on James Coburn. I think Colonel Schaeffer's last Chancers are direct descendants of these influences.  

Anyway onto the miniatures, enjoy!


First up we have a much loved miniature 'WorldBurner' illustrated in the Rogue Trader Warhammer 40,000 rulebook (and somewhere else I think), appears to have some sort of assault uniform and weapon.


Worldburner - front

Worldburner - back


Worldburner - RT Rulebook page 172

Worldburner - RT Rulebook page 126

Next up we have 'Plundering Pete', same uniform as Worldburner, maybe some sort of ranking on the shoulder of his bandolier, I painted him up as a renegade Tallarn guardsman.
Plundering Pete - front

Plundering Pete - back

Is this Pete - RT Rulebook page 109
More Pete from the RT Rulebook


'Abbadon' is a repurposed miniature and first appeared on 1st Flyer March 1987 as a 'Ground Combat Trooper' but it as this miniature is tagged IPC and dated 1985 so it fairly obvious from appearance that this miniature is a Rogue trooper Souther that never made into the '8' miniature JD10 & 11 code. It's not the best sculpt so I don't know if that was the problem or that the code could not be an odd number for packing purposes, JD10 & 11 are both 4 distinct characters.


Abbadon/Souther - front

Abbadon/Souther - back

Next we have 'Mad Morris' storming ahead with his Lasgun, I had to do this one in Imperial Army colours, dynamic pose, his outfit quite typical of the Imperial Army so definitely a deserter.

Mad Morris - front

Mad Morris - back

'Hacker Harris' really reminds me of Philthy Animal from the heavy metal band Motorhead, with his wild hair and cut off jacket, he appears to have the same head as the Space Marine Captain Huron Grimm the face of this miniature was tough to paint you really need a bendy brush and a dentist mirror to get into the eyes due to the positioning of the head.


Hacker Harris - front

Mad Morris - back

'Space-dout Sam' is a 1st Flyer March 1987 miniature 'Imperial Heavy Infantry' that like the others didn't fit with the direction the Imperial Army was going in so found it's way into the Mercenary code, he has heavy battle armour with side deflector shields and a really great sculpted on flight pack which was a joy to paint.

Space-Dout Sam/Imperial Heavy Infantry - front

Space-Dout Sam/Imperial Heavy Infantry - back


'Sarge Rockhard', who appears to have the same head as 'Plundering Pete', uniform reminds me of the Chainsaw Warrior so I went for a similar colour scheme, I really had to fight the temptation to paint him with a cheesey 'The Sweeney' Robbers mask.


'Sarge' Rockhard - front

'Sarge' Rockhard - back

'Sarge' Rockhard - RT Rulebook page 221


'Iron Bonce' the squat, another 1st Flyer March 1987 miniature first labelled as 'Space Dwarf' encased in a full battle armour together with flight or power pack (whichever you prefer), what's not to love about this miniature, although the first wave of squats are cute, I wish more of these were made, maybe it is proto exo-armour he is wearing?, it's much nicer than the horrid fantasy squat exo-armour of later years. Note he has the 'M' insignia that appears on several Rogue Trader miniatures and may have it roots in 2000AD's Rogue Trooper.

Iron Bonce the Squat - front

Iron Bonce the Squat - back
Iron Bonce - RT Rulebook page 59


Pirate is another 1st Flyer March 1987 miniature but this time the sculptor has removed the sword and scabbard of the C Series Fighter 'Cedric' and replaced it with one of the weapons used on the citadel Judge Dredd ranges, this miniature never got reproduced anywhere else. I went for the glam look of the 1980 Flash Gordon movie, reds and golds complement his camp outfit.

1st Flyer Pirate - side

1st Flyer Pirate - other side

1st Flyer Pirate - front




Thanks for looking I hope you enjoyed, all comments mean a lot to me
J

21 comments:

  1. That's a great collection, I do love all of them. Well done!

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  2. Fantastic post Jason, great work.

    I didn't know that the "M" is Rogue Trooper thing. What's the connection?

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    1. Hi Paul, ahhh! on the spot now, I probably should have put the caveat on the this was a theory I floated on a forum/FB (can't remember which) that got a lot of agreement/positive feedback. I did a lot of research at the time trawling through miniatures but I can't remember all of it but there was a Rogue trooper story about a band of mercs/deserters lead by the traitor general called the Marauders who if I remember right had 'M' sysmbol on their clothes and vehicles and I punted the theory that this had an influence on the RT miniature sculpts, assuming it was the same sculptor.

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  3. I love those models and I live your paint jobs! Excellent work!

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  4. This is a brilliant project and one I hope to complete myself one day. I really like all the personal icons and kill markings you've added to the armour. I think Space-dout Sam is my favourite - it helps that I like the sculpt, but the no-nonsense black and grey works really nicely.

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    1. thanks mate, yes we are kings of the unfinished projects, I used about 5 greys but on closer inspection of the original army picts I think they only used one!! Icons are a must in true RT style
      cheers
      J

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  5. All such great figures!! and now with the quality paint jobs they deserve! Well done.

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  6. Another brilliant post! Despite my being involved with this game for almost 30 years now, and having most of those models, it never occurred to me to attempt to match any of them up with any of the RT illustrations. Thanks for doing that!

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    1. thanks, there are a couple more illustrations I omitted as they were split across two pages, I am glad you enjoyed.
      J

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  7. These were great! I hadn't seen most of them. Big thanks!

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  8. wonderful old minis and awesome painting! Nice work!

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  9. This is another cracking blog! I didn't know that a couple of these figs popped up in Rogue Trader illustrations. And I suspected that Pirate was a resculpt of another figure but I never knew which one!

    It's a theme of Rogue Trader models that they're bent over staring at the ground, one of the few things I'm glad has been stamped out of modern minis. Reckon that with Mad Morris it was so he could ride on jetbikes and sidecars?

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    1. thanks Curis, Mad Morris might fit I have a spare I might dig out a jetbike or space marine riding lizard and have a go.
      J

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  10. Excellant stuff Jason. You have been very productive. I love the Judge Dredd stuff by the way. Must resist collecting Judge Dredd minis. Must resist...........

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    1. Hey Jeg, thanks, your blog has some great stuff on lately keep up the good work :)

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  11. Fantastic work, Jason, on these classics. I hope your wife goes away to NYC more often.
    World Burner is my favourite. When I was a lad, he always seemed like the most badass of all the miniatures... the 40K equivalent of Boba Fett. I'm not sure why I had that impression... he does appear to be carrying just a stub pistol.

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