Freebooter Roborg

As regular readers may be aware, some months back I relocated. Long and complicated story, that, but the upside is improved gaming and modeling digs . . . in theory. You see, I've done none of one and little of the other since moving. But hey, I finally got off my bum and carried a brand new post-move project to completion.

Long long ago, when I first started collecting GW's spacerly orkoids, I stumbled across a suplement called "Freebooterz." I was particularly taken with a unit built around a disgruntled orc mechanic (or mek) and medic (or painboy . . . don't ask). The shiny marines were, at the time, relatively free in what they could field. Big Green was considerably less so, unless you hired the services of piratical green mercenaries; the titular "Freebooterz.". Colorful fellows all. And they came in all sorts to fill whatever "defishuncy" might trouble your warboss's own merry band.

Typically, a warband was limited to a dreadnought or two. (Maybe a few, if it was fairly large.) But if you hired a "Dreadmob" . . . Sky's the limit. (At 40 points a "kustomer." Dreadlies require some "teef" for their not inconsiderable services.) The idea was that these two rogues did nothing but build oddball robots, constantly tinkering with them. I always wanted a Dreadmob. Had the doc and the mek pretty early. Took a while to acquire enough creations. (I wanted them to be . . . different. Not your usual orky examples.) Their first pair were "kustomized" from some strangely light and piratical Imperial machines providently found on the field of job lot commerce. (In the bottom of a box of orcs, appropriately enough.) Later I added one of Ramshackle's "Gorillagons." But I always have my eyes open for more. Below you will find more:

 

What you see here is the body of an Ironclaw "Roborg." Think of it as a sort of post apocalyptic pre-dreadnought. The pieces even bear a striking resemblance to other contemporary GW connected models: one of the hull options is a very close match to the squat hovercar, and the arms and legs are basically identical to those of the Megabot. I was able to obtain this one for about twenty bucks U.S., thanks to the fact he was missing some parts. To wit: he was short his left arm and his gun. But being fond of a good deal I figured I could manufacture appropriate green prosthetics . . .

While I've a long way to go to true mastery, I'll take that as a successful experiment. (Bonus: it will not match future Megabots or Roborgs, should I ever acquire a complete specimen.) Heck, I think he even painted up all right.

And here he is with the rest of the "krew." (And a couple of friends.)

Hope you enjoyed this small diversion. Thanks for following along. Hopefully the next installment will come a little quicker.

Sincerely,

The Composer

Abhumans to the Fore! (Leading the Charge to New Wilmington.)

You might think the year end review is already past, but this is a sort of final post as well. You see, I find that this has occurred . . .

What is this fuzzy awfullness, you might ask. It's an increasingly large proportion of our possessions in boxes, down to and including my miniatures . . .

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't look so well boxed yet. Certainly not well enough for my wife. (You might note there is a small scene composed in the center of the boxes. A scene which will be revealed later in this post.) But it's a far sight from where it was even a few days ago. You see, we are moving from the nearer side of this . . .

(Which isn't usually buried under nearly that much snow. I shot that in the wake of a small blizzard a few years back. But somehow I don't seem to have a better photograph to hand, and it's the middle of the night, so, well, you take what you've got.)

To this . . . 

It will, of course, have furniture by the time we get there. And certain things will change. Colors, details . . . It will be considerably more space, rather less expense (oddly), and generally a much better gig. Also a larger and more vibrant city. Some folks in BoCoMO will be missed, but we won't be so far that we or they can't visit with a modest bit of travel. And there will be MUCH more gaming space. Hee haa!

But in the meantime, let some abhumans lead the way from the old NIFTI capitol to New Wilmington.

What does that say? . . . "Ech u ledhthar"? What the heck? That's not a dwarven tongue. Why is a short bearded dude riding around with something written in . . . Elvish?

Still, none shall pass the fearsome dwarven retinue! The fellow on the bike and the lead gent in the golden armor with the horns are the new additions. The other two fellows are there to make the unit look marginally more complete. (There will be more joining them.) 

And if by chance you get past the dwarves, the satyrs are waiting close at hand. PFC Fernsy, on the right with the brown coat, is joined here by a new levy from the wastes. The new fellow's marksmanship isn't too great yet, but he's eager, so he ought to do well with that saw he's swinging. The new miniature is a Demonblade Goathead from the late eighties. They size up quite nicely with the Citadel beastmen that likely inspired them to some appreciable extent. (And seeing as Citadel never provided terribly much support to the space beastmen it's a nice thing that other companies gave some variety.)  All in all it's a good month so far. And my new painting digs might even have windows . . . daylight . . . things I've not seen in a long time. With luck there will be more from the other side very soon.

Sincerely,

The Composer

2015 Year in Review

Time for the second annual installment of the miniature year in review over on the Tartarus Rim. It's been a middling year. Neither the best, nor the worst. Had some good months, but hit a couple of snags as life got in the way. Didn't accomplish as much of what I set out to do on the last review as I'd like, but more than none.

To wit, last year I put forward a series of goals:

A. Paint my backlog of 1/2400 ships. This is unlikely, but I have only HAD a backlog for about a year and a half now. I don't like having broken my new rule (don't buy new ships until the old ones are painted) but a fire sale with unbeatable prices weakened me. I want very much to fix that.

Well, I painted some of them. Didn't get through the whole backlog, but didn't expect that, really. And I didn't buy any new ships to make it larger. So progress.

B. I'd like a few new buildings for Logansport. A bar would be good. Maybe also a temple. Quite possibly a brothel.

No brothel, no temple, but progress. New buildings, however small, did in fact appear.

C. The Lace Rock Gang needs a spaceship. A small one, to be sure, but a useful one.

Yeah, nope. No spaceship yet. Still need to do that.

D. The Lace Rock Gang needs a rock. Which is to say they need a home operating base.

Also no rock.

E. A little further progress on the genestealer and elf armies would be nice.

But a solid win here. I did, in fact, make progress on both armies. Not done, but progress generally made. Just means I need to keep plugging at it, I suppose. So here's what I did accomplish . . . 

28 mm Terrain . . .

Characters and critters . . . 

1, 2, 3

4, 5

6, 7

A rather large 8

9-12

13, 14, 15

16

An iconic 17

18 atop her steed

19, 20

21-25 (25 is the obscured "Colorado" Rex-Avis)

26, 27, 28

29, 30

31, 32, 33

34, 35, 36

37, 38, 39

40

41

42

43, 44

45

46

47, 48

49

50, 51

52 takes flight . . .

53

54 and 55

56

57

58, 59 (a pair of commissions)

60, and 61 (two more commissions)

Vehicles . . .

1

2

3

4

1/2400

1

2

3, 4 (the merchies fore and aft)

5 (the oiler)

6, 7 (also the merchies)

8

9, 10

11

a VERY small 12

13 not much bigger . . .

14, 15, and 16

So that's the year, it would seem. 

In sum we have:

A shedload of small trees and a two small terrain pieces

61 28 mm miniatures

5 28 mm vehicles

16 1/2400 ships.

Not record breaking, but tolerable enough, given that it's been a busy year in other ways. Not as many ships nor as much terrain as last year, but more sci-fi kids. Actually, almost the same number of miniatures all told, just arranged differently. And . . . what with the large number of small terrain pieces this year it's really hard to compare. So for next year (carrying some forward from last year)

A. Work on assorted miniatures backlogs before you buy new stuff . . . 

B. A 1/2400 city would be pretty sweet.

C. Still want that temple and that brothel and maybe a bar. You need more buildings.

D. Still need a ship for the gang.

E. And a rock.

Thanks for joining me. See you in 2016.

Sincerely,

The Compser