Over at the Emporium of Rogue Dreams, Mark Elster organised a summer competition to model and paint a Rogue Trader mutant, judged by Warhammer 40,000 supremo Andy Chambers himself.  Seeing other people get their entries together (like axiom’s and asslessman’s) inspired me to make my own mutant. Presenting Steppenwolf, Mutant Outlander.

“I am a man wolf.  I am a wolf man.”

In my trades and trawls I’d picked up a duplicate Inquisitor from the Adventurers range.  One had his right arm with its chainsword/shotgun/railgun badly chopped away by the previous owner.  I couldn’t save the arm at all, so removed it up to the shoulder.

The notorious Inquisitor Sixty Pence.  He’s gonna party like it’s your birthday.

Then I went chop-happy and removed the head, saving the stetson for a future project.  Wanting to keep the conversion components Rogue Trader 1980s I found a spare wolf from the original Leman Russ.  At least, I think it was spare, I definitely have three and I hope it’s the duplicate I decapitated.  I then added the tail peeping out the back of the trenchcoat.  A wolf in a trenchcoat has a pleasing Shadowrun vibe.

“I have half a canine mind.  I have half the mind of man.”

Mutation-wise, Steppenwolf has a “bestial face”, which the Rogue Trader rulebook describes as:

“The mutation changes the facial structure so that it resembles that of a beast.  It is extremely common amongst mutated humans and has spawned the sub-race of Beastmen.  Apart from leaving its victim in a state of sickening ugliness this mutation is neither harmful nor beneficial.”

Rogue Trader describes space pirates as particularly prone to mutation, so Steppenwolf will slot right into my Claw Nebula force.  He will be a member of an Outlander squad, so I gave him a new arm with a bolt pistol to keep him compliant with the Book of the Astronomican army list.

Nebula Claw Pirates with the remnants of Squad Hawkwind.

Since I was listening to Hawkwind’s Steppenwolf while converting this figure, it seems only right to photograph him alongside the Imperial Army figures named after Hawkwind members in White Dwarf advertisements.  Above you can see troopers Powell, Turner, Langton and Bainbridge.  I hope to track down the other Hawkwind members to go full-on 1980s space rock.

Thanks to Steve at Eldritch Epistles for hooking me up with some more signature orange lichen recently.

Episode 9 will be brought to you you by sho3box.  Here’s links to the previous episodes:

CYAO Episode 7 – Cinereal Jeannie, Inquisitional Psyker (axiom)

CYAO Episode 6 – Joan Grace, Null Maiden (sho3box)

CYOA Episode 5 – Nebuli Tsar, Ventolin Pirate (Curis)

CYAO Episode 4 – Short Jern Silvo, Ratling Cook (axiom)

CYAO Episode 3 – Garnier Wangst, Eldar Trader (sho3box)

CYOA Episode 2 – Paradox Zeeman, Pirate Captain (Curis)

CYOA Episode 1 – Obi-Wan Sherlock Clousseau, Inquisitor (axiom)

I’ve got a soft spot for Peter Davison’s Fifth Doctor. Probably because his run on Doctor Who started with a couple of very strong science fiction stories – Logopolis and Castrovalva. And I think Earthshock is the definitive Cyberman story. So I started my new collection of 28mm Doctor Who miniatures with him.  It’s the first time I’ve painted a representation of celery in at that scale.

“Books! The best weapons in the world!”

The miniature was originally produced in or after 1996 by Harlequin Miniatures, and that company regenerated into Icon Miniatures and then regenerated again into Black Tree Design.  I remember buying some in the mid-1990s when the Invasion Earth game was being haphazardly stocked by the geek shop in the centre of Manchester – the Coliseum.  I’d like to collect the 1980s Games Workshop range of Doctor Who figures too, but the Harlequin ones are much more readily available and have a much bigger range of monsters and aliens to pit the Doctor against.

I really enjoyed painting his stripey trousers and cricket whites.  There’s another version of the figure actually holding the bat which I’ll treat myself to at a future point when (if) I’ve found some other cricketeer figures.  It would be the first time since being eleven-year-old nerd I would feel comfortable playing wargames on my Subbuteo Cricket pitch.

Doctor Who through Time and Space

The wonderful thing about Doctor Who is that this one figure can be used alongside most of my other wargames figures.  He marries historical and science fiction, and even at a pinch fantasy.  I can stick him with my ex-Citadel Normans to recreate scenes like The Time Meddler or The Real Herewad – though neither involved the Fifth Doctor.  (Perfect excuse to buy the First and Sixth Doctors as miniatures though.)

“Careful now, you’ll have someone’s eye out with that.”
The Doctor supervising some peasant archers in 1066.

Games Workshop’s early Imperial Army figures are suitably generic to stand in for future soldiers.  I can use these Warhammer 40K figures as the Guild of Adjudicators from the 28th century as seen in Cold Fusion.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Warhammers.
The Doctor supervising the peacekeeping force in 2766.

So, what next?  The Doctor Who universe has all sorts of weird and exotic aliens.  I’m going to focus on the Fifth Doctor’s adversaries and companions next so I can play out my favourite episodes in the medium of wargames.