To explore strange new worlds... Or: Expanding my Rogue Trader's warband

[Kaled]

Afternoon all,

I haven't done this for a while, but figured I'd start a modelling blog for my current project - which is to add a couple of new members to my Rogue Trader's team.  Currently the warband has the following members;
- Rogue Trader Entym Hydronus
- Captain Olver Dominey IX - Commander of the Hydronus Household Guard
- Sergei Mentat - Servitor Savant
- Isobel Johanna - Astropath
- Unnamed Navigator
The two new additions are going to be Captain Jessamyn Rae*, Mistress of the 'Pride of Hydronus', and Explorator Zyl Vuric of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

The idea for Vuric came about when I was working on the Navigator - I dropped the furry part of the Crime Lord's cloak into my box of heads and when I pulled it out I accidentally picked up Gruss's head as well.  I was then struck with the idea that an Explorator wearing a big furry cloak could look very cool.  I've been through my bits box and gathered together these bits;

As most of you will no doubt have noticed, there's a definite lack of body parts there so I guess I'm going to have to sculpt that.  At the moment I'm not sure what he's going to be wearing - so any suggestions on that front would be appreciated.  He may just end up wearing robes, but I'm not yet decided.

As for weapons, he'll probably have either an Omnisian Axe, or I might give him an alien pistol instead.  For his left arm I'm considering an idea someone mentioned on the 'Clave a while ago - five slender mechadendrites that lock together to form an arm and hand, or which can disentangle themselves to access machinery or be used in combat as an electro-flail.  If I do decide to go down this route it'll mean making an arm out of guitar wire, probably with BFG antenna as the fingers.

For Captain Jessamyn Rae, I've bought Pegaso's Nokjagerin.  The plan is to sculpt on a few more clothes and give her a hellpistol, sheathed sword, and a coiled neural whip hanging from her belt.  I really love her hat - it was one of the things I liked best about the original model, however I've decided it has to go (though expect me to build a model around it in future!).  Instead she'll be wearing a bicorne.  For that I bought a pack of heads from Historex, however I'm not sure if I'll use one of those or sculpt my own.

Again, I raided my bits box and found out the following parts;

Now I'm not sure where to start.  I guess I'll start cleaning up some of the mould lines and building a framework for the Explorator's body.  Expect an update in the next few days...

- Dave


* Some of you may recognise the name as being one I already used on this model, well just after Christmas I reworked that model - I'd never been happy with her head and sword, so I replaced them with parts from Sevorina and she has joined my Ordo Sicarius warband as another of Red Queen's operatives.  I still really liked the name however and decided to re-use it for the Captain of Hydronus's ship.

[kierkegaard]

I can't wait to see what you come up with out of those bits.

[Alyster Wick]

Excited to see how this plog comes out as you actually have some follow-through 

[Kaled]

So far there isn't much progress to report - I've made bases for the two of them to match the bases for the rest of the warband and have cleaned up a load of mould lines.

I'm stillhaving difficulty figuring out what the Explorator's body should look like. I'm kinda tempted to build him a bionic leg, but if he's wearing robes then most of it would be hidden.

[gwrulz]

My girlfriend says to watch "space truckers" and make your new bionic guy like the bad guy (played by Charles Dance) 

[Kaled]

Don't think I've seen Space Truckers - and if I have I don't remember Charles Dance in it.  Do you have a picture?  I couldn't find a good one.  I did find a few pictures of these guys - no idea who they are, but they look pretty cool.

Not much progress to report so far.  So far I've just pinned her to her base and pinned her torso to her legs.  Now that's done she'll be easier to handle, so I'll start sculpting her top.  I think my plan is try and sculpt something with detail down the front a bit like this, and it'll probably have a keyhole cut-out like this to show off some cleavage.

I've also cut down Gruss's head and started fixing it in position on the Crime Lord's furry collar - it still needs a fair bit of work to re-sculpt his hood - that's about it for the Explorator.

[Necris]

I think they mean this guy Dave not the super killer robots


http://www.flickr.com/photos/theskyeisfalling/5019857636/in/photostream/

[Kaled]

Yeah, that's better than the pics I found - I couldn't find a decent one showing his torso & legs though.

[Myriad]

Looking promising so far Kaled.  The torso seems a bit small in proportion to the legs at the moment, but with clothing added it'll probably look better (normally does by the time you're finished). 

Gruss in a fur coat seems like it'll be very creepy.  Which, of course, is good.

[Adlan]

Looking good. I look forward to seeing more on them, the legs look very dynamic.

[Kaled]

I think the reason the torso looks small is partly her lack of clothing, but also because her shoulders and collar bones are covered by her cloak, which is a separate part.

[axiom]

Looking forward to seeing how these turn out. I like the slightly archaic militaristic feel this warband has, and the new girl fits right in.

The new mechanicus character looks interesting - I'm intrigued to see how he develops as I don't have a feel for how he'll turn out yet.

[Necris]

This is prob the best torso shot I can find

http://www.flickr.com/photos/theskyeisfalling/5019254205/

[Kaled]

The new mechanicus character looks interesting - I'm intrigued to see how he develops as I don't have a feel for how he'll turn out yet.

I am too, I don't yet have a feel for him either - I've been looking around for inspiration, but so far nothing has 'clicked' as being just right.  I have had an idea for a bionic leg, but as for his torso & clothing I don't really know...

[precinctomega]

I've long loved that mini, but the way you're taking it looks fantastic, Dave.  Can't wait to see how she turns out.

R.