Blackstone Fortress - The Explorers

Hello, today we have some modern Warhammer 40,000 miniatures from the Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress game, I really want to play this game so much that completing the explorers is a massive milestone to me on the road to getting a game on with painted miniatures.

For the paint job I wanted to go as close to the examples on the Games Workshop website as possible to make them easily recognisable to my little boy, some of the ridiculously professional detailing was ignored for obvious reasons, here they are my efforts.

Janus Draik, Rogue Trader, like all Rogue Traders Janus is a pioneer tasked with exploration and expansion beyond Imperial space boarders, they are granted permission to trade and interact with aliens out in the fringes of space. Janus Draik is looking to bring archeotech and artefacts back to the Imperium.

Janus Draik - side

Janus Draik - front

Janus Draik - back

Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator, sanctioned mutant, he seeks to search the Blackstone Fortress for lost archeotech, hoping to discover cargos that will unlock the arcane secrets of warp travel. 

Espern Locarno - front

Espern Locarno - back

Thaddeus the Purifier, Ministorum Priest, Taddeus has come to the Blackstone Fortress to bring the Imperial Cult to Precipice. He wants to purge the Fortress of any taint he finds.

Thaddeus the Purifier - front

Thaddeus the Purifier - back

Pious Vorne, Missionary Zealot, she used to be a hive ganger and after imperial conversion she now fights along side Taddeus the Purifier.

Pious Vorne - front

Pious Vorne - back

Amallyn Shadowguide, originally from the now shattered Craftworld Biel-Tan, she now searches the Blackstone Fortress for ways to save her dying home. The lost secrets and archeotech may have some clues on how to restore her craftworld. 

Amallyn Shadowguide - front

Amallyn Shadowguide - back

Dahyak Grekh, Kroot Tracker, is a Kroot mercenary and heading into the Blackstone Fortress in search of more genetic material to consume which could unlock the secrets held within.

Dahyak Grekh - side

Dahyak Grekh - back

Dahyak Grekh - front

UR-025 is an Imperial Robot in the service of a Magos. Is this Robot sentient and possibly one of the legendary "Men of Iron" sentient robots who threatened the earlier human civilisation of the Dark Age of Technology?

UR-025 - front

UR-025 - back

UR-025 - side

Rien & Raus, Ratling Twins, they come as a package, have Astra Militarum training and gear but are now hired guns. 

Rien & Raus - front

Rien & Raus - back

Now to paint the core box 35 hostiles, come back in 2 years for an update :D

cheers

J

New-Oldhammer - First Encounters of a 40K kind

Hello, something a bit different from me today as you are well aware Games Workshop products are going through a bit of a renaissance that harks back to the golden Oldhammer age of gaming, big box games, familiar titles, etc, well I thought I would give some of this NewOldhammer, Newhammer, Nu-hammer, Neohammer or whatever you want to call it a go.

Now I considered the last 20 years of Games Workshop products as unworthy of my attention and was a bit snobbish about it all and very blinkered but the last two years or so of released products have excited me very much I had to have a word with myself 😆, the new products scream to me of days of old so what did I do only went and purchased each new game release when it came out, Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, Necromunda, Kill team: Rogue Trader, etc while yearning for the day my 5 year old and I can play together. These boxed games are mostly still sitting on top of a wardrobe in their shrink wrap except Gorechosen and Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress which I have been doing some work on in my spare time.

Here are some of my efforts on miniatures from this new exciting era.

My fruits of a new age

UR-025 from Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, a robot (Men of Iron) who secretly possesses AI and is on a secret mission of his own.  It's been a bit of a struggle to get used to snap fix plastic miniatures but I got there in the end with this one, when painting this one I tried to get as close to the box art as possible as not to confuse my boy when we get around to playing the game, the green white effect was achieved with a 50/50 mix of Lahmian Medium and Nihilakh Oxide using modern Citadel Colour paints is totally new to me being a Vallejo paints fan but I liked the results so will be adding others when I need to. I did my usual basing style also adding a skull from the Citadel skulls set as I want to use this miniature more than just in Blackstone Fortress.


I have to apologise for the number of photos of UR-025 but I felt that there are so many little neat details I wanted to show from higher and lower angles plus if you know me my photography stinks, I am really impressed with the design.

UR-025 - front

UR-025 - side

UR-025 - side

UR-025 - back

UR-025 - gun side

UR-025 - front

UR-025 - front

UR-025 - Flamer side

UR-025 - back

Next up is 'Fexgor the Flayer' a Khornate Slaughterpriest with Hackblade and Wrath-hammer (what a mouthful), he came free with White Dwarf and the brilliant price of Gorechosen lead to my purchase for the game.  I went for typical Khorne colours and jazzed the base up a bit.

Fexgor the Flayer - front

Fexgor the Flayer - side

Fexgor the Flayer - back

Fexgor the Flayer - side

Fexgor the Flayer

The final miniature of today post is ForgeWorld's Necromunda 'Belladonna' the Noble Bounty Huntress, when I saw this I just had to have it as I have great love for John Blanche's work. This miniature is a homage to the Amazon Gothique painting and Chaos Amazon (LE15), I did a blog post discussing this miniature and it's influences here.  My paint job is my attempt to copy the image on the blister and that was a mistake as this miniature is bloody difficult to paint, the level of details is immense I don't think I touched a brush bigger than 5/0, my head hurts when thinking about how the Forgeworld painters achieved their final painted version.

Belladonna - front

Belladonna - side

Belladonna - side

Belladonna - back

Belladonna - side

Well I hope you have enjoy the start of my journey into the modern age, I am currently working on Thaddeus the Purifier for Blackstone Fortress so you will be seeing him soon along with many posts of the usual stuff.

thanks
J