While we all have entire armies to work on, it is always nice, from time to time, to do a project that is a bit different – a left turn at the traffic lights, as it were.
I hadn’t realised that White Dwarf had started publishing a new (or variant) Combat Patrol every month but the one in the latest issue caught my eye – a Rogue Trader’s force. You need to pick up four unit box sets to get all the models (two Starstrider and two Navy Breaching Party sets, all for Kill Team), which makes it a bit more expensive than the others… but that is the price for exclusivity, eh?
Anyway, knowing the long Easter weekend was coming, I grabbed the boxes, built everything on the Thursday evening and, by Sunday lunchtime, I had a whole new force that is just a bit different on the tabletop!
Way, way back in first edition 40k, Rogue Traders were actually a thing, with forces comprising Space Marine and Imperial Guard units, all with their Rogue Trader’s sigil on tabards. You also had the expectation that the Rogue Trader would acquire all sorts of weird and wonderful units and equipment. Now, I am not sure the forthcoming Codex: Agents of the Imperium will allow for entire Rogue Trader armies… but if they do, this Combat Patrol will give me a good head start!
There are basically four units in this Combat Patrol, with the first being the Rogue Trader herself and her entourage – a Death Cult Executioner, Rejuvent Adept (doctor), and Lectro-Maester. And I think they nicely look the part – just recognisable enough to fit identifiable roles in the Imperium (respectively assassin, medicae and tech-priest), but weird enough to be in a Rogue Trader’s force.
Everything in this entire force was Slapchopped, so these four were done in very short order, perhaps a little over an hour when you take into account the more traditional painting method of the metallics.
The first full unit comprises ten (well, nine and a dog) Voidsmen-at-Arms. I figured these were the Rogue Trader’s personal bodyguard and so kept with the ‘bright’ gold scheme on their armour (unlike the duller Navy Breachers, who actually have to work for a living). These models are blindingly fast to put together as, like the Rogue Trader and her entourage, they are just 2 or 3 part models. The only downside is that there is no variation between models and so there is obvious duplication of poses within the unit.
The two units of Navy Breachers are possibly my favourites of the Combat Patrol and it was these models that attracted me to the force as a whole. They seem like very ‘bitty’ models with lots of detail but looking at White Dwarf I figured that their uniforms looked awfully like they could be duplicated with two coats of Space Wolves Grey contrast (I had done that scheme before on my Death Corps squads), and everything else followed on from that.
The metal armour is Runelord Brass (which I seem to be using more and more after trying it for the first time with Ionus Cryptborn), shaded with Agrax and highlighted with Canoptek Alloy. The big shield is simply Seraphim Sepia shade on top of the Slapchop prep, a little trick I am starting to use more often.
Using them for the Combat Patrol means you get a little less variation than is possible with the kit, and both squads are the same (though you can muck around with the different parts of the unit leader) with Chainfist, Demo Charge (actually a grenadier), Endurant Shield and Navis Las-Volley.
With this little Combat Patrol done, I am going to be keeping an eye out for any other Agents of the Imperium that I can reasonably add to a Rogue Trader’s force, and I think I might also watch for what other interesting Combat Patrols pop up in White Dwarf (got a feeling Necrons will feature in the next issue, which will probably be a nope for me… but you never know).
While waiting for that, it is back to Age of Sigmar with some Underworlds warbands I thought might be fun to add to some existing armies, along with two rather larger models that I figure might be able to ‘finish’ another army that I have been working on and off with for a couple of years now.
Given that the warbands are all being Slapchopped (and thus representing maybe an hour’s work each) I am hoping to polish them off before the weekend!