Land Sharks of the Tartarus Rim

The resort planet of Thalia, one of a trinity of idyllic worlds orbiting modest young suns collectively called the Kaeritas, boasts among its entertainments a big game preserve made to resemble a Medieval estate, complete with a turreted castle immediately adjacent to the shuttleport. It is at this manor that would be hunters and animal lovers alike generally begin their journeys. One of the more popular rentals is a converted Imperial IUC-4 utility skimmer, or "Yuk-4," most often called the "Land Shark" because of the teeth waggishly painted on the bow.

The shark boasts an added windscreen, improved passenger accommodations, an enhanced communications and entertainment system, and high-performance Belden F-type thrusters.

Of course, no craft can make up for luck if you want to spot some of the more popular attractions, like the wild grox mare pictured below.

Meanwhile beyond the fourth wall . . .

The skimmer was a fun little project made from bits mostly acquired at a convention two years ago. The new-model GW land speeder is probably self-evident. The F connectors off the coax jumper that gave it's life for the fuel truck are probably also fairly obvious. Perhaps less conspicuous are the bench seat out of a model pickup truck, the windscreen off a toy jeep, and the random . . . Tau? . . . plastic bit. (Same convention as the land speeder.)

The Grox is, of course, a grok from Krakon Games. While those are out of stock, the quite similar bullocks seem to be available. (And I approve of making two similar, but slightly different animals.) The castle glimpsed int he background is an Exin Castillos Gran Alcazar XII set I begged of my parents when I was young. The originals are out of production, but a new company, Exin Castillos New Generation, has picked up the name and appears to make most of the old bricks and a host of useful new ones. These have got to be about the most scenically satisfying building toys I've ever encountered. With just a bit of tweaking they're basically diorama quality. Fantastic stuff!

As always, thank you for joining me on this journey of the imagination.

Sincerely,
The Composer

A Face Only a Patriarch Can Love

A year ago I hinted at a pair of crocs who had wandered onto the Moab Wastes. They came from Krakon Games' Scum and Smugglers Kickstarter, where the first of the two centauroids was known as "Tank." They were cast in a light and rather flexible resin which you can see below.

Fitting something like this together is always a bit of a challenge. Green stuff was required, but nothing out of the ordinary. If you're familiar with large multi-part spincast models you'll do well with this one. The plastic isn't brittle, which is a nice change. It cleans and pins easily and takes paint well. And it's light. Hard to argue with that.

Below you can see him next to some classic RT era miniatures for scale.

And here's a few different views to give you all angles. This really is a lovely miniature, quite worthy of a looksie from all sides.

Below you can see how he scales with a classic GW zoat and another hexapodal demi-lizzard in current production.

Truly a lovely model. I'm glad to have found him. My deepest gratitude to Ross over at Whitehorn Games for his fine work and his top-shelf sci-fi dreamstuff.

Sincerely,

The Composer