The Rogue Trader Lizard is an obscure collector’s piece.  Designed to take the plastic RTB01 Space Marines, this miniature was only available through Mail Order for a brief time in 1988.  I nabbed one for a bargain years ago, but never had the willpower or funds to collect enough to make a full squad (as, enviably, Ed Gladdis has managed).  Then axiom had a game planned and an opportunity arose.  Presenting Mungo Beefhead and his trusty steed Drayne.

Yes, he’s called Drayne.  Drayne the Lizard.

axiom’s game was grox-herding.  Grox are the Warhammer 40,000 equivalent of cattle, and as a participant I’d have to bring a figure to round up herds of this dino-livestock.  Lacking any sort of subtlety I deployed every cowboy cliché I could.  But in space.  Space Cowboy.  Like that Jamiroquai song.

The rider was originally Johnny Cuba from the Citadel Miniatures Judge Dredd range.  I’ve had the figure knocking around for years in my bitz box as I’ve been buying up power boards.  But with his cowboy hat and his lunging skysurfer legs, he needed only minimal further conversion.

Johnny Cuba as he appeared in 1985’s 2000AD Prog 427.

Citadel’s JD13 Skysurfer range.  Image thanks to Source of Legends

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I swapped his bare feet for boots from an Imperial Army jetbike rider, and then after some experimenting I added a lasso made from brass rod (for the top section where robustness is important) and lead solder (where the ability to bend it made modelling easy).

An early experiment with an entirely solder lasso.

Painting-wise I went for garish primary colours because the concept and source miniatures were inherently goofy.  I intended to paint Mungo in a palette evocative of Bravestar (who is cool) but ended up channelling Sheriff Woody from Toy Story (who is not cool).

On the day of gaming itself Mungo Beefhead rounded up his herd and led them to the pen at the speed of cheeba, but was pipped to the post by sho3box thanks to a series of poor tactical decisions (read: me nobbing over the wrong people with special play cards) and being nobbed over by people’s special play cards.  Great fun.  Thanks to axiom for putting together a very fun gaming experience.

Photo courtesy of Jean-Baptiste of Lead Plague.

I have absolutely no future plans for this figure.  I will not make a squad of them.  He will not build into an army.  Though, very generously, axiom did give out grox hatchling miniatures to all participants, so I can revisit the theme at a future date.

Check out axiom’s post about how he made the herds themselves and modelled the grox pen.