‘No problem, here’s how you make one…’

Greetings my most excellent friends!

I’m currently two units and two characters into my Pirates force, it’s a start but not a lot. Now, under a GM or store staff on a weekend in the late 80’s it would be balanced by a number of other players, but a 1v1 game, it’s a bit puny.

I would say I need another unit at least, but at this point of collecting, these 12 minis were all that existed, so units are going to look… samey. I want something that stands out in the table, that other players will look at and go ‘wow!’. Looking through the rule book shows me what I want, I want these;

Eldar Pirates with Flight Packs! Hell yes! (Not a jump pack, that is a different bit of equipment in the listings not available to Eldar).

The downside, these were never made, this means we have to go through the art of CONVERSION!

WARNING: ⚠️ 

If you decide to do anything similar to models of this period, use a mask, and put down an easily disposable surface cover. Most of these minis are lead based, and you don’t want to breathe that in.

With that out of the way, let’s start on the unit leader. There’s a mini that comes with a melta gun and a power glove, he’s a good option, but I already have that weapon combo in the other batch.

I also have this one with a sword and hand flamer. So let’s go for a weapon swap.

This is called a Fret Saw. It has a small, thin blade, and it’s made for very small, very precise cuts. The hobby saws you see for sale now are made to go through thick, heavy chunks of plastic that a hobby knife can’t deal with. That’s fine for modern kits, but I’d lose far too much off this arm with one of those. Same with any hobby clippers, as the v-shaped ‘snip’ would need to be flattened.

This is a case of right tool for the job.

Both of these minis are based on the same basic initial sculpt, this helps, you can see the chainmail ‘sleeve’ on both, and the fuel line for the weapons. Two quick saw cuts, and we look at reattaching the new gun.

And that grey powder? Lead shavings. Wear A Mask.

One pin drill, the smallest bit I have, and a slow, steady effort to keep everything straight, then another hole in the arm, test fit with a paper clip, and we are getting there!

Oh look. MORE lead shavings.

I did wonder about the wings. How do I make them? I could do the shapes in plasticard, the image I’m going from has very little detail so it would look picture right, but feels too basic. I could try sculpting them? I’m not that good at sculpting though, and now isn’t the time to practice.

While looking online for a different mini for another game, I found my answer. Heresy Miniatures, a small mini company, makes insect wings, and they seem to fit the bill. So I ordered, and compared the size… absolutely spot on!

But how to attach them?

The old Eldar have two small ‘vent’ type bumps on the back, about the same size as the wing nubs. So what if I snipped those off, used the smallest bit drill bit to make a guide hole, then a large bit to create an indent for the nub?

Back in the older times, if at first you didn’t succeed, you could go get another mini and try again. I don’t have that luxury, as these guys are getting harder to get a hold of.

Let’s make this count.

The arm fits, the nubs seem to fit the holes, let’s glue it all in and hope for the best.

And there we are! A completely unique mini for my force, ready to deliver fire and punching to the enemy.

Now to give him some friends. I have three complete Pirates, along with an Eldar with no arm, and an arm with no Eldar… let’s fix that.

Bit of bending to give the wings a few different looks, and we go for the same painting method of base colours…

Washes to shade…

Clean up the base colours…

Highlights…

And bases!

These came out so much better than I thought, especially the weapon swaps. That 17 models to play with. It’s a shame there were no vehicles released for the Eldar at this time. (Insert foreshadowing music here).

Thanks again to Heresy Miniatures, I’m not sponsored, I’m just happy they had the bits I needed, along with a really nice range of minis, sci fi and fantasy based. Check them out, it’s a one man operation so be patient. 

https://www.heresyminiatures.com/shop/

See you next time.

Where do we fight?

You buy and paint your minis, what then? You want to play a game with them, obviously, but a blank, featureless table isn’t really an inviting game for anyone is it. The folks who put Rogue Trader together knew this, and actually mention it in the book!

Well, it just so happens that the recycling bin at home had these in;

These look close enough to what was used in the book almost … 40… years… oh boy! Ah well, let’s get some thick card (you’ll have a box from something that’s been delivered) and the glue gun (mine was very cheap from a craft shop for hobby things, if you get me).

Inner circle is traced around the pot top, the outer ring is just guessing how far out I want the base to be to give stability.

I used a Stanley knife, you can use scissors, be careful with either.

Hot glue and press down. You can use PVA, but it will take longer to dry. Superglue can work, but you MUST apply the glue to the plastic first, THEN press it to the card, if you glue the cardboard it will soak in and not stick.

More hot glue.

Then it’s just gluing the pots together until you have as many levels as you like! This used two large pots and one smaller one.

One important tool for crafting, gaffa tape! I cut several sections done the above size, and one long bit for the whole top. The reason will become clear.

Some old broken headphone wire to the outside, bit more visual interest.

Then a full covering on Concrete paste to get that authentic ‘80’s prefab’ look. Rougher than sandpaper, but looks good.

And this idea why we used the tape, peel off, we have some smooth areas, why? Because we don’t want windows that look like concrete! Keep the paste on hand to touch up any bits that flake off.

Outside for an undercoat

Now, here I apologise, I got into a flow and stopped taking pictures, but yes, I also did a second one. They were both given washes of different shades, the windows and doors were painted with greens and browns, with a thick black marker to line them. After this, the cables were painted and the basing to match my force, and we got…

Boom! Two scale buildings to fight between, done as period as possible, might as well keep on theme!

I did these with a few hours after work over a couple of weeks, drying times made the longest parts, and even with the flaws I can see, once you start playing, you really don’t notice.

Even now, you don’t have to buy terrain, a bit of time and looking at shapes of boxes or packing, you can do some cool things. Plus, we will need more terrain for the game.

Be magical folks.

Stage one… Complete!

Welcome back my apprentices of old lore. When last we met, these fantastic miniatures were fully base coated.

Base colours, bare metals, one tone skin and hair. With a black rim to the bases, back in the day these would have been fine to use in a store. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, but they are ‘fully painted’.

It can get disheartening when painting minis, however you view them they don’t look ‘done’, the colour scheme you have chosen doesn’t seem to be coming together, or your figures don’t look like anything that you would see in certain magazines. I’m here to tell you that all of this is fine.

Focus on getting to this stage - fully painted, no undercoat showing, basic bases. Look at them in daylight, look at them on a gaming table, let other people see them, and be proud you got them this far. I have so many miniatures that are still bare metal, you’re ahead of many gamers of old.

Once the worry and anxiety have gone, and you’ve told yourself ‘I’m going to make these better!’ We do to the next stage… washes!

Or perhaps not quite yet. If you look closely, you will see the black armour is highlighted, but not blue or grey, no, that would clash against the other colours. I wanted the effect that the armour is a very deep red, so used a dark red/brown to highlight first, then dark red to do some final highlights, before then washing with a red ink to tie it all together. Sometimes you will find inverting steps like this helps get a certain look.

Metals and helms washed with black, yellows, skin and hair washed with browns. Don’t over complicate your washes. In the above picture, you see the difference, how muted it all became? Not a problem.

Group shot! How much better? Touched up the main colours, staying away from the recesses, a shade up for the highlights on raised bumps and edges (spirit stones didn’t really exist yet). The Shuriken catapults had me concerned, as I wanted them to stand out, not be black weapons against black armour, so decided to follow the catapult line- wooden stocks! Dark brown, wash the recessed parts, highlight a mid brown.

Skin was again, a lighter shade, avoiding the recess, then another lighter shade to the most prominent. The hair was brushed with a lighter shade again!

Then it was picking out very small details and things that I didn’t like the look of. Grenades and eye lenses became green, then I looked at Belgae Strongwill and his missile launcher. It was needing something, but it was close to both a yellow shoulder pad and the red helmet, which one would make it stand out?

Red. A same as before, dark red, wash, edge highlights with a lighter tone, quick and simple. With the bases then washed liberally with a dark blue ink, we ended up with;

12 finished minis! Going by the entry in the main book, that’s 2 squads of 5 and two leaders. A start, but still a long way off the points I’m going to need to play.

Going by the 6 foot rule, they look good (the rule is, if you are using a mini for gaming, can you see any issues with it from across the table/6 feet away? No! Then it’s fine). How do I know that’s working? Well, I’m betting that even with this close up you didn’t notice I haven’t painted the eyes of the bare headed ones.

Now, what are the points for these I hear you cry! Well, next time, we will look at the very sensible and well documented rules for Rogue Trader. No sarcasm here.

Ohh! We’re halfway there…

Well, this has taken a bit longer than expected. My effort had to be directed to fend off the forces of Nurgle for a while.

Onto the painting then! This is not a ‘how to’ guide, I paint far too randomly for that, but more an insight into how I was taught to paint minis back in the 90’s, but with the benefit of better covering paint now (I can get a smooth yellow with less than 10 layers? Luxury!)

We have already undercoated the minis when we finished the basing going for a white. I’m not a paint purist, choose the company you prefer.

The areas to be metal get filled out with a pure black, then painted or dry brushed gun metal (there is a lot of chainmail style ‘mesh armour’ on older Eldar models). 

After that, we go over all of the main armour with the same pure black, this gives you your main colour and cleans up the metal overbrush.

‘But Rufus, you magnificent moustachioed master of the mystic, why not just do a spray undercoat of black if that’s the main colour?’

Well young apprentice, the reason is twofold. First, after doing the metal, you need to repaint the black, but a black undercoat spray and black acrylic paint never look the same when dry, so starting from white, you know when you have a proper coverage of your painted black.

Second, there’s going to be yellow on here. And yellow paint can be… difficult to paint over black, so to keep the layers down, we base white. Make sense? No? Well, it was the 90’s, we had very little choice. Ask any older painter about trying to use ‘bad moon yellow’ over anything.

It gets a bit disheartening at this point, looking like a lump of black, white and silver, and you will wonder if it’s worth it, but trust the process.

See how good that yellow looks? Not even used any washes yet. All shoulder and knees yellow, all helmets red, and just to add a pop, any chunky weapon areas given the secondary colours too, this is where you see it come together.

Last stage here, helmet eye lenses, bare skin, grenades, belts, ammo canisters and hair. All done in basic colours, just blocked in for the moment. You could paint the base rims black here and play these on the table and make any tin-boy weep with jealousy.

But we aren’t stopping here, oh no, next, we go for shading and highlighting, and I have a plan for that black armour.

No School like…

When collecting and painting an oldhammer army, there is a lot to be said for how you paint and base your force, especially as late 80’s GW was a wild, ever changing place. Every new publication brings about a new way to paint a certain type of mini. 

Talking with my opponent he asked how old school I would be going, with this era of Eldar being iconic for striped helmet decoration. Well, while there is a helmet design, I told him I would be showing how things used to be done in a very different way;

Hexbases!

I don’t know why, but these bases please me, they were the shape used in all of the Rogue Trader rule book example images, they let you ‘rank up’ your units without looking like a fantasy regiment, and I feel they are a woefully forgotten part of gaming. I went along, made a small bend in all the tabs, so they pressure fit into the slots, and got to work texturing the bases;

Starting with a texture paste (usually a pot of AK, but it’s gone missing somewhere in the tower, perils of many projects, so a pot of Astrogranite will do), and mixing with two different types of larger pieces to give a nice ‘rocky’ feel. Yes, the mixing pot is a ketchup pot from a well know food place, and the tools are coffee stirrers, useful materials are everywhere.

With a spray undercoat, we are ready to bring this force into reality! And I’m sure you’re wondering what scheme these pointy eared miscreants will take on, well, looking at the Eldar section of the main rulebook, you get a few suggestions;

The bright red of the Sunblitz Brotherhood, with the sun design looking so much cooler than the pale yellow and blues or the random wavy stripes, but there was nothing showing the rest of the scheme until the Epic 40000 Eldar Legions box set;

There’s a little mistake here, can you spot it boys and girls?

Yes, the images for the Eldar warrior in the Black Sun and Sunblitz entries gave been swapped in printing somehow, and searching for the relevant schemes has had issues because of this, but the infantry description is clear.

Red Helmet (with Sunblitz design). Black Bodysuit. Yellow Accents. This is how my Space Elves shall be adorned, and I also now want to find that style of grav tank in the correct scale. No I am not buying a 3D printer.

No.

I Cantrip into a challenge…

This year saw a trip to Wargames Foundry for Bring Out Your Lead with my regular opponent. Now he has a very nicely painted Rogue Trader Marine Army he decided to show off, and did so to great effect.

This led to the suggestion that we reserve a table for next year and actually play a game of 1st Edition 40k with appropriate army, because of course I had some very old minis in my store of components, but what to actually play, and how to go about it…

Well, my actual start in this life we call gaming actually started during the time of 2nd edition 40K, I have my Eldar army, and to be fair, they are mainly RT era minis anyway, but that wasn’t good enough.

This needs to be very old school. So, Introducing;

RT04 ‘Space Elves’

Not RTB4, that was the original Rhino box (the one that had 3 Rhino’s in for £9.99, yes, you read that correctly). The ‘Space Elves’ line of models didn’t get any box releases, RTB06 was for the Harlequins and RTB17 contained the ‘Eldar Guardians’ when the idea of the Craftworld armies was introduced, but our fun pointy eared space Pirates? Nope. The only Main Book faction to not get a box set, or even any plastic models for them (RTB01 – Plastic Marines, RTB07 for Guard, RTB10 for Squats and RTB13 for Orks!)

So these are the Miniatures I have available to start my journey to a full game with, and while you will see a variety of weapons, and we will go more into that when it comes to pointing up a force, there is one major point of confusion.

If you look at the Citadel Compendiums, those wonderful books full of pictures of old Mini’s of yesteryear, all of these models are liisted as having ‘Shuriken Pistols’. 

Except Shuriken Pistols did not exist in the game at release, all of those weapons that look like a sci-fi crossbow? Those are Shuriken Catapults! What we would now point to and call a shuriken weapon didn’t get its now iconic look until later in the games life, so being the pedant I am, these will be referred to as Catapults.

Now, let’s try to collect a Space Elf force like its 1987, lets see how we are going to paint them… Next time…