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Hello all, you may remember me from my Thousand Sons and Mechanicus blogs that I have been working on for the last 7 years or so. One can only paint the colour red for so long however so I have decided to branch out and tackle another faction that has always interested me, the Rogue Traders.

As with all of my armies however I will be adding my own flair to them so as to incorporate them into my own alternate 40K universe where the Imperium of Man is not the galaxy spanning power that it is in the current timeline. Instead the galaxy is shared by a myriad of different factions all with their own goals and strained alliances. In the case of the Rogue Traders, they have made their home in the western fringe of the known reaches of space and travel in a massive fleet of stolen ships raiding nearby planets for their resources and technology. Currently they are fighting a loosing battle with a small Mechanicus forge world as they are in dire need of new weaponry and armour...



This will be a relatively small army by my standards as I will be leaving my home soon to join the RCMP (Canadian police force) so as the title suggests, I have given myself the month of September to start and finish this project. I am looking at about 5 units of standard infantry, 1 scout unit, 1 command, some artillery platforms, 1 tank, and if time permits, some mutants that have been hiding in the bottom of the Rogue Traders vessels!

I just finished a test paintjob for the standard infantry which I am pretty happy with, it is quite basic but I want to keep the scheme nice and simple so I don't get dragged down and miss my deadline. Any changes you think I should make are of course, very welcome. I also need to get a better spot for photos so the colours don't look quite so bland but it will do for now!



Keep an eye out for regular updates, hopefully I will be making daily progress if I can keep myself motivated.

Thanks for dropping by,

Cain

Today is a building day so I am working on assembling some character models for the army. First up is Quartermaster Vitruvius, the man in charge of salvaging any materials worth taking from a raid and putting it to use for the ever growing Rogue Trader forces. He is helped in this task by multiple auto-sleds, drones that can carry a huge amount of weight across all terrains.



Just putting some finishing touched to my artillery so that should be up soon!

Here is all the artillery as promised. I decided to put them all on one large base as I'm going for a more cinematic army rather than anything that I would actually use to play a game with. Plus this way it makes the painting go by a little faster!

Unfortunately I have run out of Skitarii heads so I had to use the standard ones that come with the Dreamforge trooper sets, they still look awesome though so I am sure a matching paintjob will help them blend right in.

First up, some anti armour cannons:





Then some mortars:





And finally some automated sentry guns:







I am also putting the finishing touches on my first full infantry squad so I should get that posted later today. Progress is good!

This is looking awesome so far, and will be quite the fast paced blog. I like the background too. Good luck!

I like the theme thus far. Especially like the auto-sleds and quartermaster. Good luck with the deadline!

Syro_ wrote:This is looking awesome so far, and will be quite the fast paced blog. I like the background too. Good luck!

Thanks! The background is always quite fun to develop, it also lets me run a little wild with some ideas that can be a bit odd at times

karimabuseer wrote:I like the theme thus far. Especially like the auto-sleds and quartermaster. Good luck with the deadline!

Thanks, I might actually work on the quartermaster next actually, those little drones are begging to be covered in a nice layer of rust and hazard stripes!


As promised I have managed to finish the first squad already and even based them which is a first for me. The only thing I am not happy with are the little bits of skin that I painted but that is due to all my paints having dried up.. Besides that I am pretty happy with em, the white helmets really help to make them stand out. The pictures seems to be working a little better on a black background, unfortunately having cats constantly helping me means all that fur tends to stick to the fabric








All that is left for them I thing is a bit of dirt on those nice shiny boots of theirs, I'm sure I have a good weathering powder lurking around somewhere that should do nicely!

The army looks great so far. I know I couldn't pull off painting an army in a month. I can't wait to see the rest of the force. Good luck in your training.

Pointer5 wrote:
The army looks great so far. I know I couldn't pull off painting an army in a month. I can't wait to see the rest of the force. Good luck in your training.

Nor me, good luck.

Thanks guys! It's going to be quite a task to get everything done in such a short amount of time but I find I work so much better under pressure.

For starters today I built some Rangefinders. These guys are the unsung heroes of the Rogue Traders, due to their small numbers and lack of tanks, orbital bombardment became a staple battle tactic for larger confrontations. Rangefinders have a direct link to the gun crews on the Rogue Traders vessels and can personally direct the massive guns on these ships with pinpoint accuracy.





I am just putting the finishing touches to a stolen Chimera so I shall get that posted later today

All looking good Cain

Good call on the ad-mech heads, they work really well with the eisenkern bodies, may have to try that myself.

Thanks monkeytroll! Nice to see you still poking around Dakka after all these years! The minute GW released the Skitarii kit I knew exactly where those heads would be ending up haha, you also get an accidental Admech army if you buy a couple of kits as well


I got distracted from the Chimera and ended up painting up the Quartermaster instead. He turned out really nicely in the end and I am happy with my rush job on the drones, a bit of silver, a lot of rust, and then some blue speckled on top works wonders!





Time permitting I would like to load up one of the drones with lots of bundled up equipment, I'm sure I have a bunch of spare guns and bits lying around somewhere...
so the colours don't look quite so bland but it will do

I managed to get the finishing touches painted on my stolen Chimera, as you can see it has a different paint scheme to the rest of the army (based on an ancient IG army I used to have actually) but it still blends in with them nicely.

As the Rogue Traders vessels need every inch of space for accommodation and loot, there is never room to maintain a fleet of tanks so in the case of a large invasion they usually make their first point of attack an armoury to both weaken the enemy and bolster their own forces.






I am desperately trying to keep myself on target as this morning I was already planning out my next project, a much scaled down replica of the Thousand Sons capital city of Tizca. Maybe next month!

Yeah, I dropped off for a few years, but back now

Nicely done weathering on the mules

Nice tank, love the weathering. A thought, you could give it some army logos crossed out and the rouge traders mark placed over the top. To prevent friendly fire and to go better with the stolen theme.

monkeytroll wrote:Yeah, I dropped off for a few years, but back now

Nicely done weathering on the mules

Thanks! Might go for the same style on the big guns as well seeing as it worked so well..

stonned_astartes wrote:Nice tank, love the weathering. A thought, you could give it some army logos crossed out and the rouge traders mark placed over the top. To prevent friendly fire and to go better with the stolen theme.

Ooh now that's a good idea, I am definitely going to do that!


Well I got a little distracted yesterday and started planning my build of Tizca city (see my Thousand Sons blog for pics). However I am back on track now and got half a squad painted up. I decided to work on 5 at a time rather than 10 as painting the armour on these guys is incredibly tedious and I don't want to get burnt out already!



I also did a bit of building and came up with the denizens of the deepest bowels of the Rogue Traders ships, the Bilge Rats. These creatures were once slaves to the Rogue Traders and were kept as maintenance workers and cooks. After being neglected for many years and being exposed to all kinds of toxic chemicals leaking from the engines however, they successfully seized a couple of vessels and now operate as a separate entity in the fleet, being called upon when masses of unskilled infantry are needed rather than elite troopers.



That's all for now anyway, I am rough;y 1/4 of the way through the army so progress is good

Decided to work on a bit of artillery today, took me longer than expected but I am happy with the results! I enjoyed doing the blue rust style on the quartermaster so much that I decided to repeat it on the cannons. It gives the impression that they were all looted from the same campaign many years ago.





At the rate I'm going paintwise, I should be done of the army and still have half a month to spare!


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I also realized I never posted a picture of the army as a whole, here is how it stands atm

Yep, those cannons fit in nicely looking like that.

Yeah it's a fun little paint style. I may make it the paint scheme for the bilge rats as well, nothing but the rustiest armour for those little guys!

I took a break from painting yesterday to enjoy the outdoors while it is still nice and sunny but I am back at it today with another squad all painted up. They are pretty much the same as the last one I got done albeit with longer guns but progress is progress!

You're making very impressive progress on this huge undertaking. Keep up the good work! Also good to hear you took yesterday off, you don't want to burn yourself out.

Thanks Syro! I like to usually split up my time between painting and managing my ever growing coin collection, keeps me motivated to work on both

I got my mortar team painted up last night, I really like the design of the barrels with three spots for shells that is simply taken off and replaced with another cartridge once it is empty.

Just noticed I forgot to redo the edge on the base and tidy up a few bits around the eyes, oops!






Automatically Appended Next Post:
On a bit of a roll today, I managed to get one of the character models painted up today and think he turned out really well.

Astropath Julius has been in the service of the Rogue Traders since he was captured in a raid at the age of 12 and has slowly managed to work his way through the ranks with the aid of his psychic powers. He now serves the vital role of ensuring that journeys through the warp are uneventful and can often be seen at the rear of the battlefield directing troops due to his many years of experience.





That cat fur always likes to make an appearance in my photos

Might try and work on my unit of scouts next I think, they have lots of variety to them so should be fun to paint!

Your blitzing through it mate, love the weathering.

I missed this last update because of the automatic append. The astropath looks sweet, and like stonned_astartes said you are really moving through this. Very impressive progress

Thanks fellas! I took a little break over the last few days for life stuff and to start building my diorama of the city of Tizca (because one ambitious project wasn't enough I guess!) but I shall probably get another squad done tomorrow

Sounds awesome, I'm a big fan of pre-heresy Thousand Sons, so make sure you post stuff about your diorama

I decided to keep working on my command unit rather than more infantry so I am happy to introduce Rogue Trader Octavian!

Raised in the heart of the cathedral city of the Rogue Trader's largest ship, the Invnictus, Octavian was destined to take command of the fleet due to his noble bloodline and strong family connections. He has proved however that despite his wealthy upbringing he can be a ruthless commander and a violent individual. Despite his outward appearance, cares very little for the political aspect of running the nomadic nation of the Rogue Traders, preferring to leave that area to the senators, opting instead to spend most of his time in the command centre, planning his next conquest...

I had originally planned to use this model for my Prospero Spireguard army but as there are no good IG kits that fit perfectly with my idea of how that army should look, he has been repurposed for this army to add a little nobility to the otherwise grubby army and better highlight the large class differences that are included in the Rogue Trader fleet. Hope you like him!








As an aside, if you're ever looking for some good cheap character models from GW, the Regimental Advisors set is only $20ish for three really nice looking models!

You really nailed it, picking out a really imperious looking model for the leader

Thanks Syro! That is probably one of my all time favourite GW models. It is very clearly hand sculpted with a so much attention to detail, while the newer CAD are awesome, they definitely lack something I can't put my finger on compared to older metal stuff.


In big news, today is my last day to get this army finished!

I have been without internet for a few days (the joys of living in the countryside) but it helped as I had little else to do other than paint!

I managed to get my scouts all painted up and was surprised by how long they took me. They are based mostly off the genestealer cult models and have a lot more details to pick out compared to the dreamforge stuff but they were still great fun to paint and made a nice change from all armour panels. I went for an even more grubby and faded look than the rest of the army as the scouts will often spend days holed up on the outskirts of a city, mapping out patrol routes and identifying prime targets with little help from the rest of the Rogue Trader fleet.







I am also almost finished with the last weapons platform and after that just have a couple more individual models to paint up before this army can be considered all wrapped up for the time being. I still have to get some better pictures taken of them but as the sun is setting I will probably save that for another day. Now I just have to get the remaining bits painted in the next 5 hours to hit my deadline!


Thanks everyone for keeping me motivated thus far, without all this feedback I would most certainly just have gone back to the spiral of unproductivity that is Netflix

Congrats on getting through it.

Scouts look good, although I think the bare heads work better than the helmets.

Wow, it's amazing how close you are to being done. It's been quite a push. Especially with that beautiful model of Tzica being built at the same time.

monkeytroll wrote:Congrats on getting through it.

Scouts look good, although I think the bare heads work better than the helmets.

Thanks! Yeah not a fan of the stormtrooper helmets either but the bodies are really slouched over on a few models and the bare heads looked really out of place on them. Maybe one day I will pick up another box of skitarii and switch em over for some better ones!

Syro_ wrote:Wow, it's amazing how close you are to being done. It's been quite a push. Especially with that beautiful model of Tzica being built at the same time.

Yeah I may have given myself a few too many projects to work on at once, pretty impressed with myself for not giving up halfway though!


Now that the army is all complete (minus a few extra bits I plan on adding at some point), I figured now would be a god time for a full shot of everything all painted up. It feels really good to have moved such a big chunk of my long-neglected models into the display cabinet. I think I must have had these things in the box of shame for about four years now...

While some of the paintjobs are not my best I am happy with the tabletop standard I got them to and the colour scheme works really well on them. It should be very easy to replicate the colours in the future should I wish to add some more squads or tanks but I think it is best left at its current size so I don't end up with the same situation as I am in with my Thousand Sons (300 plus marines at the last count..)

Depending on where my life takes me this year I may try and do another fast army painting session with my Mechanicus that are also in dire need of some love. The army is roughly double in size however so will definitely be a bigger challenge!

Thanks again everyone for keeping me motivated during this project, feel free to hop over to my Thousand Sons blog to kick me along in building my Tizca diorama.

I leave you with a couple of nice army shots. For the Rogue Traders!!