Showing posts with label 2nd Flyer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2nd Flyer. Show all posts

Tuesday, 26 May 2020

Rogue Trader - Wolfen

Hello, special post today featuring an unknown miniature to many and a highly sought after Oldhammer miniature to the few, the miniature might as well be made out of unobtainium it's so rare. This miniature has fascinated me for many years, what miniature I hear you cry? The miniature in question is the mysterious 'Wolfen' or my take on the Wolfen, please join me on this journey and you decide.

Rogue Heresy Wolfen
Wolfen or Faux Wolfen?

Rogue Heresy Wolfen
Wolfen

Rgoue Heresy Wolfen
Wolfen - front



Little information is known about this mysterious miniature and for the most part all is internet speculation, I have read that it was made as a prototype alien race for Laserburn or Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader.  The miniature appeared on the 2nd Rogue Trader flyer March 1988 that you received for free when buying miniatures from Games Workshop via mail order.

Rogue Heresy 2nd RT Flyer



These are the only reference pictures I have of this miniature.

Rogue Heresy Wolfen

Rogue Herest RT 2nd Flyer Trio
Wolfen joins his solid-based alien brothers


Well where do I start... I badly wanted this miniature and have never seen one for sale or painted and many serious citadel miniature collectors were on the hunt for this miniature, when Wargames Foundry discovered the moulds for the Sci-Fi Fishmen from the 2nd RT flyer and cast them up I had to have them but alas no Wolfen.

Once I had the Fishmen in my possession it got me thinking did the Wolfen come from the same Citadel Fiend Factory range like the Fishmen did and guess what it did, the FF19 Werewolf so it was a no brainer to me to acquire the werewolf and one of the Judge Dredd sculptors aid JD3 Rifle 1 and voila I would have myself a Wolfen.

The JD3 Rifle 1 proved too difficult to source, the project stalled and ended up in the loft until recently when I was having a chat to Curis on twitter about said gun and was inspired to pick this top secret project back up, I channelled the powers of the great miniature convertors out there like Curis, Axiom and other great modellers, I committed a personal act of sacrilege chopping up a perfectly good miniature. Spitgun Suzi was clearly the best candidate for the chop to relieve her of her 'JD3 Rifle 1', I went for it with the snippers and it felt good I may have to do it again sometime.

What you need to build a Wolfen

Now armed with the gun and the werewolf I was in prime position to create the wolfen, I used snippers and bottle nosed pliers to carefully cut and bent the werewolf arms into what I think is the proper position, the werewolf was so old the one arm cracked and white powder spilt out, oxidation? possibly

Build stage 1

Poor Spitgun Suzi, painted up Suzi will be appearing on next blog post

Then I used superglue to tack the rifle in again what I thought is the correct position.  While working on this project the nozzle of the gun broke off, a common problem for the Judge Dredd minatures, some went in the blisters and some disappear altogether on later versions so I had the fiddly task of reattaching it.  I used green stuff to fill the cracked arm, cover up the hacked chest with fur and nozzle join.

Rifle and Nozzle tacked on




A bit of Das Promo to blend in the preslotta base and I had myself a Wolfen, or as close as I could get to one.

Green stuffed and Das Promo based


Paint job was simple, it pretty flat and early sculpt so I had to paint in most detail.



I was that desperate to start I undercoated by hand!!!



Base coat

Nuln Oil wash

A bit more painting and we are done

The Wolfen Complete

Rogue Trader Stats? well you could go for a Abhuman  Beastmen - Homo Sapiens Variatus (page174 RT Rulebook) that might work.
In true Rogue Heresy fashion I will be working on the copy of the original flyer very soon.
Well I hope you enjoyed this post.
Come back more Judge Dredd perps soon.
J

Tuesday, 16 January 2018

Rogue Trader - Robo-Dog / Judge Dredd - Mega Hound

Welcome back, today I have something really special for you a miniature that has long been a holy grail to me for a long time.


Robo-Dog / Mega Hound - side


Robo-Dog / Mega Hound - side


Robo-Dog / Mega Hound - front



The Robo-Dog is a Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader 2nd Flyer miniature, I have only ever seen it in two places, the original flyer and the Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin offer sheet.  You got 5 Mega Hound miniatures with the offer I really wish I purchased these.

It has the appearance that it was sculpted by Bob Naismith but if you know better let me know and due to lack of info on it's tab it must have been 1986 or before.  I really love the dynamic pose of this miniature, charging forward like a trained attack dog, I would not be surprised if comic art was copied as 2000ad stories often featured robot dogs.


I pondered for a long time on what colours I was going to paint this miniature, would I go blue like my Adeptus Arbites dog, codex grey of the Imperial Army eventually I drew inspiration from the silver spikey armoured ‘Shrike’ character in my favourite sci-fi novel series Hyperion Cantos, read them if you can, I recommend the Audible audiobook while painting you will not regret it.

Last thing about this miniature is that it does have a variant, I positive this miniature is a resculpt of the Slann Warhound from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle 2 Edition scenario 'The Magnificent Sven', examing the two it appears the the Slann Warhound's fur was filed off and rigid angles filed in, the mounth was plugged leaving the teeth largely intact and a some plates sculpted on here and there.




Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin Offer Sheet
Slaughter Margin - Paper Character Tokens


What stats could you use for Rogue Trader and Judge Dredd I here you ask, I would go with a small Walker robot from the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue trader rulebook page 119, not too tough and only one wound so a little scary in close combat but killable. (see below)


Walker Robots Page 119

The Mega Hound Stats from the Judge Dredd Slaughter Margin book. (see below)

Mega Hound Stats


It's much better miniature than the accompanying Imperial Assault Trooper / Slaughter Margin 'Mek'.




I have loads of the Mek miniature as it eventually made it's way into the Imperial Army blister packs, here is my current one painted for Judge Dredd, I am hoping to paint one or two more to a better standard for the Imperial Army.


Imperial Assault Trooper / Slaughter Margin 'Mek


thanks for dropping in,
J