Thunder Chiefs Rough Riders Number 10: Trollo Foutengeur

The Hungry Ghosts Thunder Chiefs Rough Riders squad is finally complete with the addition of Trogoth "Trollo" Foutengeur, a shameful 19 months after his primordial gestation in the bits box. Trollo here raises the question, though he is clearly 1 miniature for gaming purposes, what does he score as for miniature painting progress? 1 base = 1 mini? Trollo's bike's wheels are sliding over the edges, and our Pit Slave is barely hanging on. Vehicle + Driver = 2, Pit Slave is large angry base-flocking? Vehicle + Driver + Victim = 3, and we have a mini-diorama on the cavalry base? Is this best left as an argument for Legolas & Gimli?

Anyway, we've gone completely Road Warrior with this Biker. Like a spiky bat out of hell, Trollo is waving his shotgun in the air in a mad attempt to plow down his foe from the Cursed Earth using his bike's engine pipes before getting his head blown off by what even our Chaos Squats must recognize as a freakishly large pistol.

Trollo's Land Rocket starts with the very-pointy Spiked Skull Battering Ram from the Warhammer Siege series. To maintain the round shape, the rear section of the Ram is surrounded by 2 curved toothy jaw-plates from the Ogre Hand with Bear Trap, by getting rid of the hand part. To maintain proper skull levels, the gap in the top was filled with the Skull with Spike bit from the GorkaMorka Wrekka Trukk.

The front part of the engine was made to spread out to the sides, similar to the handlebars, Trollo's arms, and his seat back, with a tilt upward for a triangular shape. The central dome is the rear cover of the plastic Dwarf Cannon with a nice curved spike from the decades-old Skeletons sprue. Once again, smoke launchers are called to duty as exhaust pipes, this time a double-stack of the Space Marines Dreadnought launchers.

The bulk of the front engine section, wheel, and axle is made from most of the Seat from the 2nd version of the Blood Bowl Dwarf Death Roller (minus the long pipe). As we can see, the Seat provides a nice set of pistons and pressure chambers, while the front wheel fits into the bottom gap between the Ogre-trap-jaws. On the other hand, substantial regions of the Seat have a wood grain pattern which needed to be hidden with a nice Shovel (metal from the old Dwarf Miners Equipment sprue) and some greenstuff to strap down the shovel and attach the front an rear halves of the motor-trike.

Trollo from the right, with Dwarf Beer Stein close at hand. The curved studded engine pipes about to pummel our Pit Slave are from a 1990s Chaos Warriors Musician Horn bit. Both hide the wood grain pattern on this side. The rear wheels and chassis under Trollo are from the Ork Hop-Splat Gun. The handle bars are the top half of the Ork Bike Front Wheel part, with the front wheel and spokes used for fellow Thunder Chief Ken. With a similar rivet pattern, a conveniently sized curve, and a reasonable amount of skulls, Chaos Terminator Trophy Racks have been placed behind the rear wheels.

The Trophy Racks also fit right in between the wheels and the rear section of the engine, which is a Space Marine Servitor Heavy Bolter Backpack with some plastic bits to make it more interesting - ribbed thin tube from the Rogue Trader Eldar Arms, thick tube from RT Ork Power Axe, curved canister from IG Flame Thrower Backpack; Explosive Tipped Axe from the usual source, the Empire White Wolves sprue.

Trollo's fearsome-but-luxurious winged skull seat is from 1990s Vampire Counts Lord Melkhior, bent to Squat-height with the bottom nicely sliding under Trollo.

Trollo himself is one of the Squat Pirates with no official name. His cyber-arm and shotgun are from the Necromunda Pit Slaves Chief. His wooden peg-leg was replaced with a metal peg of long-forgotten origin. Aside from his fat belly, we gave Trollo some more 3-dimensionality with another Eldar Guardian Arm tube added to the Pit Slave Arm, some little belt pouches, and a Khorne Berserker grenade conveniently placed right below the lit cigar.

Armless Trollo was supplied with a right arm from the Confrontation Human Bare Arms sprue (hurray for GW proportionality!). It has been made less bare with the addition of an armored shoulder plate from a WFB Empire something-or-other, supplemented with a small backpack bit from the Mordheim Accessories sprue and some cloth-streamers waving in the wind, chopped off of an Empire Knight Head.

Trollo also violates the all-Citadel regulation with an Antenna attached behind his ear, from a very old Dark Horse Miniatures Robotech Veritech mecha. His foot pedal is just a lump of greenstuff.

A closer look at Trollo's prey - this one is Necromunda Pit Slave 2. That pistol is bigger than his head (huzzah for GW proportionality!).





Oh, I also added a
big-ass Horn in the
center of Trollo's forehead -
Look Mommy, Unicorns do exist!
















Trollo versus the Eldar. The inclusion of an action-posed enemy on the base makes things a little weirder on the table-top, compared to the usual use of corpse-position additions. This Eldar War Walker appeared in White Dwarf 323, as part of the new round of Eldar made for 40K 4th Edition (eBay, not painted by me, color-scheme is not nearly complex enough).