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Lots of great stuff since I looked in last - and that is some great sculpting. I don't see any imperfections. Love the spring legs and the basilisk particularly.

 kestral wrote:
Lots of great stuff since I looked in last - and that is some great sculpting. I don't see any imperfections. Love the spring legs and the basilisk particularly.

Thanks very much, kestral! If you like spring legs you might be a fan of the next update

Up today is the FINAL MEMBER of the Samara crew (who will appear in campaigns, at least) - Ronan Decker. He's an old soldier, and acts as expedition security for the crew.


He's another scratch sculpt, with only a GW cadian helmet and a head from Victoria Minis (with sculpted hair and goggles). The bionics are wire and plasticard. I wanted to do some slightly different bionics to the usual terminator-style stuff you see, so these are more of an exoskeleton affair. I was inspired by stuff like recent advances in treatment of folks with paraplegia and running stilts


As you may remember, he's a big fella with the prosthetics in place, around a head taller that other folks in his group. I tried to keep his proportions in check for a reasonably sized human with the exception of the bionic additions. I was going for something a bit 'other', and I'm hoping I haven't overdone it.


As always, here's some backstory:
Ronan Decker has survived a lifetime of conflict. Drafted into the PDF on Osciae II as a child, he has served over 15 standard years in the armed forces, and a further 15 as a mercenary. He has fought for governmental forces maintaining order against radical rebel elements in distant colonies. He has fought alongside freedom fighters oppressed by distant and tyrannical regimes in the central planets. Ronan has assisted in the purge of alien threats as well as the protection of persecuted alien refugees, and been on both sides of an orbital bombardment. For what felt like longer than any other task, he has stood endless nights of guard duty for self-important arseholes who never bothered to learn his name.
As all his years in hellish warzones have blended into one, Ronan realised that he had learned only two things -

- Fate is a bastard.
- Few of the folks on the ground deserve what's coming to them

Decker learned early that the most well prepared soldier in the world can still be the poor bastard to step on a landmine, and that stray shots don't care about rank or training. He has no grand notions regarding the reason for his survival above that of endless colleagues, but he is grateful for every day that he sees ceiling when he opens his eyes.
Ronan has fought alongside a great many different people, and seen a lot of the things folks will fight for. He has seen people driven by love and loyalty, by the need to protect their homes or the people they care about. He has seen many more of these men through the sights of his rifle. He has seen men driven by hatred and revenge (also having once fallen into that camp himself), has seen thousands of those who would give their lives for an idea fed to them by someone with no care for their well-being. Decker has seen many things, and they have made him - tired. When he was young, he was sure of himself, and of the decisions he had to make. Some people lived, some people died, and that was how it had to be to keep order. Lately though, whatever side of a conflict he finds himself on, Decker sees the men and women from his past, both friends and foes. Taking a life seems – bigger, and no longer a choice that is his to make.
In the last few years, the cocktail contained in the darts loaded into Decker's rifle has changed. There was no specific turning point, but the toxins that Ronan mixes have been less and less potent, more sedative than poison. Ronan is no doctor, mind, and some of his targets will still experience the long sleep. Despite his new leaning towards pacifism, Decker is not naïve to the dangers of life in the outer reaches, or the fact that some people will only respond to violence. He values his own life and the lives of his friends, and his sidearm remains as deadly as the day it was issued.

Decker was hired with a large contingent to fight alongside Inquisitor Finner on Amarok, and is one of the few mercs who returned to the ship. Stranded with the crew of the Samara in foreign space, he initially took on Bracken's contract with a view to making enough credits to buy passage elsewhere. It did not take long, however, for Ronan to feel at home among the civilian crew of the Samara, and his credits have now found more short-term use. Decker is quiet, but friendly, and has developed a reputation as an understanding ear amongst the crew.
His cybernetics are attached via ports in his spine, a process both painful and draining - At any opportunity Decker disables the artificial gravity in his quarters, preferring the freedom of flight unrestrained by his exoskeleton. Though he talks little of his injuries and his past, Decker cannot stand crowds, and becomes sullen and unpleasant in such situations.

And the character cards I'll be playing with:

Non-lethal rounds and the combat helmet are homebrew, but I feel fit with his character.

I really hope you like him, as he was the model I was most unsure of when sculpting. I'd love to know what you think, so please let me know, good or bad. Thanks for looking!

I like it. His non lethal weapon is a nice change of scale from the norm and his fluff is cool too.

Nice background really unique for the setting.

Good job. He looks the part.

Thanks again for the kind words, folks! Another wee hiatus - I'm DMing my first game of Dungeons and Dragons for my wife and a few friends, and worldbuilding sucks up a LOT of time!

Here's something a little different - I've been playing with the Frostgrave Gnoll kit to make an alien species to expand my galaxy of Comora.

These guys are Maroques - indigenous sentients on Amarok, a jungle planet in orbit of the Comoran sun. Though making contact with non-space faring sentients is banned under several universal laws, Amarok has many rich mineral deposits, and a number of corporations have set up base planetside to begin extraction. Maroques are smart, curious, and natural scavengers, though their own tech level was little beyond smelting iron at the point of contact. As such, it did not take long for off-world arms and armaments to fall into the hands of some of the more enterprising Maroque settlements, drastically altering the balance of power on the planet.
Maroques are mainly confined to the planet of Amarok itself, having no real understanding of the science behind space travel, or the weaponry they steal or buy. Some groups have been armed and trained by local interests to attack their rivals or defend their installations, while other groups may attack or harass colonists to steal what they can use. Rare groups of Maroques have stowed away on some of the larger cargo freighters, and can occasionally be found wandering the deeper reaches of space stations or hives. The equipment they use is a mix of scavenged modern weaponry and iron age tech, with different groups' equipment largely reflecting whom they have been able to raid most recently. Laser armaments and other self-charging weapons are highly prized, as Maroques lack the knowledge or equipment to produce kinetic ammunition once what they have is spent.

Modelling-wise, they are a fun mix of medieval parts and sci-fi tech. I wanted to integrate the parts a little to stop them looking too much like medieval figs with guns glued on, so a fair bit of green stuff work, and some mixed added equipment too. I'm looking forward to painting them - going to do a little experimenting, but I'm picturing earth tones for the robes and gear with maybe a green spot colour, plus an incongruent camo scheme (maybe urban?) on their scavenged equipment. Should be fun!



This gent is the pack leader - a little older and more confident than the others. The smooth top he has on is a scavenged stab vest.



One of the younger pups - less gear, more enthusiasm!



Close quarters enthusiast. The axe in his left hand is a modern trench weapon and a recent acquisition, the one in his right hand is still his favourite - a well worn crude iron piece.



A maroque with a prized laser rifle - leave it in the sun and it gets all its charges back!



And my favourite for last - an intimidating gent with a scavenged flamethrower. Works almost as well filled with pitch and tar.

I hope you like them, and please let me know what you think. A little different to some of my other models in this thread, so very open to C&C.

Really cool minis you've created. The lore you have going sounds really interesting. Best of luck DMing! I just DMed my very first game earlier today, but I'm not nearly as ambitious as you, I'm using the starter set campaign.

Gnolls in space!! These are turning out great.

 goblinpaladin wrote:
Gnolls in space!! These are turning out great.

Seconded. I love gnolls. Great to see you use them.

Nice work. Looking legit'.

Those Maroques are looking rather nice

Thanks a lot for the kind words, everyone! Gnolls are one of my favourite D&D races, so it's a lot of fun to try and translate them to something that fits a sci-fi vibe.

@Syro - how's the DMing going? It's been a lot of fun on this end, but my players certainly have a tendency to do stuff I haven't planned for. Accidentally killing one of my NPCs who was supposed to give a ton of exposition, for example. Lots of thinking on your feet! How far have you got with the starting campaign?

Painted up the first gent over the last few days. I'm new to painting fur which was a bit of a learning curve, but I'm still fairly happy with the results. The drab cloth for his clothes blends a little with the tone I've used for the fur, but I'm trying to go for some variation in their colouring so hopefully it'll balance out once the others are done.



I'd really love any C&C on this bloke, as I'm working through the others as well. Always looking to improve, so please fire away

That finished knoll is looking good. I'm impressed with how much has been added to the base. Was this particular knoll all from the original knoll mini except the gun? I think the gun looks very smooth and natural, like it was always part of it after the work you have put in.

Thanks for asking about the DMing. We were planning on playing once a week, but everyone's schedules got so crazy, that we haven't played since that first session. We finally managed to get all the schedules lines up for next Thursday, so hopefully I'll have more of an update. I'm glad you're having fun DMing too, and it's funny the monkey wrench your players have been throwing into your campaign. Luckily my players haven't derailed anything yet, but I guess I jsut have to give it time

Looking good Scarp!

I'd say the khaki cloth needs a touch more work, looks just a little flat to me - but as I've been away from brushes for a few years it's hard to be critical

Nice work. Does the job.

Looks really good - I have some similar heads knocking around so maybe I should try the same?

Thanks for sharing

 monkeytroll wrote:
I'd say the khaki cloth needs a touch more work, looks just a little flat to me - but as I've been away from brushes for a few years it's hard to be critical

Everything he said, including the gone for a few years.

I'm only 5 pages in so far of the old stuff (I want to go back and look at all of it), and I'm trying to pace myself with the size of this blog. But I'm really enjoying the old stuff too. I think you did nicely with the paint jobs even way back in 2010, and was surprised that you considered them abysmal. I love your 500+ point imperial guard force. It has so much character, and I'm really amazed that each is unique and customized. Such and great undertaking.

@Syro - Wow, thank you! That is some serious dedication to trawl through this thread - thanks for the kind words on my early attempts. My first models were probably around 2008 or so, so there are a few abominations that never made it onto the internet. I think most folks have a fairly critical view of their own modelling - it's hard sometime to not want to go back and touch things up as your skills improve, but that way lies madness. I saw some of the info on your thread about how the D&D campaign is going - your crew certainly utilise some out of the box thinking! Love the terrain you've built for it - really adds another level to the game.

@monkeytroll - A fair criticism, thanks! I've tried adding a few more highlights on leather and fabric on this gent, so hopefully it shows.

@Dr. H - Thank you!

@IGtR - Would love to see some results if you did. Thanks for the kind words!

@Skalk - No shame in that - I must have been averaging a model every few months in the last few years, so I'm not doing much better. Good to see you back!

Today's update is Pascha the Runt, leader of this pack. I hope you like her!


I'm still trying to get a decent tonal separation between the gear that the Maroques have produced themselves and the gear they've 'acquired' - greys, whites and blacks for stolen equipment to match some troopers I've already made, with greens, browns and drabs for their own equipment.

Here's a quick shot of the two of them together.


As always, C&C much appreciated. Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

Thanks Scarper, I'm glad you like my terrain. I figure, being for a starter set, it may be more re-usable than some other stuff I may make for D&D. It also might just be that I got my start as a war gamer so it's hard not to make terrain for the location the gaming is happening

I agree about trying to avoid going back to touch up old models, though I constantly feel the temptation too. Pascha the Runt looks good, especially when you zoom in on the picture to see the face details better. The way the image is compressed for the thumbnail, it looks a little like she has googly eyes at first glance, but not when you view the real image. These space knolls have been a lot of fun to see you creating them, how many do you plan to make? And as usual for you, i like how each is unique and full of character.

Nice job on the gnolls. Great to see these painted.

I actually like the first guy's low contrast clothing. It's not something you want on every model, but it certainly looks the part in a group. Especially a ragtag one where you would expect good variety between individuals. Really works well with the darker face mask, too,

Nice work

Definitely see more depth in the cloth.

Think you've caught what you were after with the weapons, easy to see with your description, and would stand out more in group shots, and when seen in conjunction with opposing troops.

@Syro - Thanks a lot for the kind words, much appreciated. I totally hadn't noticed the googly eyes, but now I can't unsee them At the moment I have five Maroques sculpted - I bought a single sprue of the gnolls off eBay as a test of concept more than anything else. They've been a lot of fun to play with and paint, but I think after these are done I'll move on to something different. I've got some ideas for an AI-sympathiser faction and a few more aliens to flesh out my setting.

@Geifer - Thank you! I'm really glad to hear you say that, as I quite liked how he turned out, but my colour scheme senses were telling me it was wrong. I hope you're right - it'll be interesting to see how they all look as a group a little further down the line.

@Monkeytroll - Cheers! Genuine thanks for the constructive criticism before - just what you need to put a little bit more effort into something.

They've been a lot of fun to watch you make as well. I'm looking forward to seeing these next additions to your setting

That's a really interesting idea. Now I wish I hadn't painted all my gnolls for fantasy settings.

Just spent a few hours wiling away through this thread. So many great concepts executed brilliantly.

Also, SF gnoll is awesome. I think the myriad of species that must exist in these settings (40k or otherwise) is often the least explored. .

Love the gnolls! Going to have to take a look at the rest of your blog in my spare time. Do you mind if I copy the gnoll idea at some point in the future?

 Scarper wrote:
@Geifer - Thank you! I'm really glad to hear you say that, as I quite liked how he turned out, but my colour scheme senses were telling me it was wrong. I hope you're right - it'll be interesting to see how they all look as a group a little further down the line.

I'm confident. The group shot of the two looks promising. If you strike a similarly good balance between individual and shared looks among the rest of the gnolls, I don't see what could go wrong.

This is probably not the best time to mention I have been frequently accused of having particularly bad taste, though, is it? Just as an aside.

That's excellent. Really see the contrast without it being detracting. Nicely done.

Thanks for all the comments, folks!

@Syro_ - Thanks again.

@JoshInJapan - I'm actually really glad you did, because your blog is one of the first places that I actually saw the gnolls painted up! You could always buy some more...?

@Rinkydink - Thanks a lot for the kind words! I work at a pretty slow pace, but it does mean I can put a little bit more thought into things. If you like seeing alien subraces, I'd suggest having a good look at Ynneadwraith's blog here - there's some amazing inspiring work in there, especially on the 'crow' race he's done most recently.

@Chaoticmind - Many thanks! Not at all, please go ahead. I'm certainly not the first person to have done them.

@Geifer - Cheers for the vote of confidence! I hope the model below first the bill.

@Skalk - Many thanks, man. That's much appreciated.

One more for the pile today -


Found this gent a bit of a pain to paint for some reason, but I'm pretty happy with how he came out. I've been trying to push my highlighting a little bit, as that's an area I feel I've been lacking in the past. As always, I'd love to hear any C&C, good or bad. Thanks for looking.