Thunder Chiefs Rough Riders Number 9: Spinne Sluitdiep

The newest Hungry Ghost to be finished is the 9th of 10 Rough Riders from the Thunder Chiefs gang, Otzo "Spinne" Spuitdiep. Spinne is the first in what will be a growing series of "Squats That Are Not". Yes, Chaos Dwarfs have been converted into 40K Hungry Ghosts, and Storm Tpr. Spyham is the Ork Tinboy Squat. But Spinne is a bunch of bits, none of which are of Squats origin.

As the picture shows, Spinne's Cycle is speeding across the battlefield, crushing all those who get in his way. In this case, it is Necromunda Pit Slave 1 smashed against the front shield. The Pit Slaves in general make for fine victims in their posing, and we recently saw Slave 3 beneath the wheel of Thunder Chief Ken, and Slave 2 will appear with Thunder Chief Trollo soon.

Pit Slave 3, Unterm Rad, for you Hermann Hesse fans

Back to Spinne. Spinne was painted to emphasize the many rivets, gears, divots, and other round bits found on the pieces of his bike and body. The riveted shield PS1 is splattered on is from the Ork Hop Splatt Field Gun, with the Front Wheel and Handlebars it covers coming from the standard Rogue Trader Ork Bike. The Shield was embellished with a WFB Dwarf Warrior Head Symbol, a large spike, and a Chain Sword Blade.

The Chain Sword blade is the one that was removed from Blood Eagles Trooper Brew Ithica. As said in the days of the Deodorant-Hover Tank long ago, never throw anything away. That Chain Sword Blade is the only piece of Spinne & Bike that are actually from the Squats miniatures; the Dwarf Warrior Head is the only bit from the Dwarfs.

The Chain Sword and Spike also provide support to keep the Pit Slave attached more effectively. And because I can't leave anything alone, you Necromunda Obsessives out there may have noticed that Pit Slave 1 did not come with a metal mouth-guard originally. It is from a from a WFB Empire Knight, and though it does match well with the tire strapped to the Pit Slave's shoulder, I literally found it on the floor while walking from the Shelf of Many Catalogs to the Mighty Place of Painting Miniatures.

From the other side, the skull face on the Hop-Splatt Shield can be glimpsed. To complement the many rivets and such, I used a lot of bits with eyes or faces for the cycle, including the small lion head from a WFB Empire Cannon and two Space Marines Gun Scopes in the center of the shield. They line-up with Spinne's eyes to give him a double-dose of cybernetic vision enhancements. They also work to create a nice black/grey ribbed pattern extending from the Pit Slaves shoulder to the Scopes and then to Spinne's Horns, as can be seen below as well (the Horns came from a plastic Beastman Gor Warrior Head).
Now Spinne. Most noticeable is that having extra limbs lets Spinne steer his motorcycle and wield two weapons at the same time - Spinne has a Chaos Warrior Spiked Mace taking the role of the Rough Rider Explosive-Tipped Lance (yes, the use of an exploding mace is meant to turn the Ridiculous Meter to 11). The rest of the arm is made from part of the Gorkamorka Big Grabba Blowtorch and green stuff, with the armor plating from some High Elves or Dark Elves sprue that is newer than the 2006-07 Catalog, so I am not sure where exactly. Spinne's other upper arm wields his Lasgun, which is a Death Korps of Krieg version from Forge World.

From the right side again, Spinne's upper right arm is visible, from the Necron Destroyer Lord set with another bit of armor. Spinne's right leg and left middle arms are both visible as well. These bits, as well as the obscured left leg and right middle arm are taken from the Chaos Dreadnought Power Scourge. The clawed ends are used for the limbs, but the upper segment has not gone to waste - it is the piece that attaches the back end of the cycle to the front section, with Spinne positioned above it.

The complicated conversion makes it tough to get a good look at Spinne all at once, but this angle combined with the other pictures lets us see Spinne's head and upper body well. The bulk of Spinne, his head and torso, are an Epic-scale 40K Imperial Knight Titan Paladin, the metal version. Like the bike bits, it is nicely detailed with rivets and straps and circular protrusions of unknown purpose. But they provide an excellent way to break up Spinne's overall shape, along with the limbs, giving him a futuristic Cities of Death camouflage scheme should his bike be destroyed.

Though very difficult to see, Spinne proves his Dwarf-origins by having a long braided beard flowing from his cyber-chin. It is the flame-colored pointed bit visible below the haft of the mace. Like the horns, the beard is from a plastic Beastman Gor head. Legends whispered in the dark intimate that, unlike the Imperial lies about the entirety of the Squats race, Spinne was devoured by Tyranids. Or almost devoured- leaving only his beard, horns, and hatred available to rebuild him.

The rear section of Spinne's bike provides the propulsive force. Skulls with trailing spines provide air-intake while expelling noxious exhaust, on both sides of the engine. They are made from the Vampire Counts Mounted Wight Horn Blower Arms, with the arm removed. Next to the Skeletal-pipes are halves of the Smoke Launcher from the Chaos Vehicle Accessory Sprue 2. Maybe they launch smoke, maybe they are sensors, maybe they're the "check engine" lights. It's a future space-engine, so they're mostly there to look cool.
Another view of the Skeletal engine system, showing how the curves of the Wight Horn Spines flow into the curve of Spinne's legs which point toward the front wheel, providing a wave-form visually integrating Spinne with his cycle. The Smoke-Launcher halves have been painted to match the Gun Scopes attached to the gap in the front shield, providing a trio of steel and red pairs of machinery. Similarly, the red-on-brass round protrusions forming Spinne's mouth and on his shoulders are re-emphasized by using the gears of the tracks and the forks of the front wheel assembly.

Aside from my most obvious preference for complicated designs, I feel that many painters, including the Games Workshop staff, tend to ignore the possibilities presented by the details of the sculpture of the models, both artistically and (admittedly imaginarily) functionally. So Hungry Ghosts will also point out at this time that even the details of the tracks and tires can be used to increase the effectiveness of the overall appearance of a model.

Similarly, as best shown from this angle, the use of red for the tips of many of the triangular areas - the claw tips, mace-spikes, end of the beard, gun tip, chain sword, and the ridge of spikes on the Wight horns - focus attention toward the outer edges of the model, enhancing its apparent size. Visual effects that enhance apparent size are a common evolutionary strategy. As is the use of patterns that have the appearance of eyes, used to either create the illusion that an organism can see in a direction it cannot, or to distract from the actual eyes, to make it less likely that a predator can bite a head off a smaller critter. But in the Hungry Ghosts army, as in all the Warhammer Universe, heads also make fine decorations and gifts, and should be used as much as possible to please Khorne.
Now for a direct look at the back of the bike. As we can see, more skulls, more bright red circles surrounded by metal. This section also uses ridged patterns extensively. Along with the spines of the Wight-horns, a crown of spikes has been placed over the middle skull (Ork Boyz armor bit), and a feathered-winged skeletal angel is used as Spinne's seat-back (mid-90s Space Marine Chaplain 4's Power Maul). The large spiked pole in the center of the cycle, indelibly stained red with the blood of Elves, is a Chaos Dreadnought Trophy Rack.

The main bits forming the rear end of the cycle are a Space Marines Vindicator Tank Hydraulics bit that the tracks are attached to, and the grabby-end of the Big Grabba from the Gorkamorka Big Grabba truck. The large engine piece sporting the large center pipe and the tubing bending down into the nether regions are most likely from an Ork vehicle or very big gun, but I gave up searching the catalogs before I could find it. Only so many sanity points left... Anyway, a couple more plastic bits were added for fun, the big red bulb is part of a plastic IG Flamer Backpack, and the thin upwardly pointing pipe is from one of the Dark Eldar guns (I think).

In the end, Spinne was a complicated and fun romp through the bits box. Hopefully I will not drop him.

And there is always more crazy heading down the highway.

Squats in Epic 40K Part 2: Riding the Imperium's Coattails

After the Squats Army boxed set was released along with the publication of the Squats Army List in White Dwarf 127 (July 1990), the Epic Squats line of miniatures was mostly ignored in White Dwarf for a couple of years. At this time, the Squats had access to all of the Imperial weapons and vehicles, so there was no urgent need to make some. The army list also allowed IG or SM allies, and could even ally with the Eldar, but only against Chaos. They could also have Chaos allies if they were Chaos Squats.

It took until WD 151 (July 1992) before the Epic Squats were relaunched with their own line of vehicles, along with the Epic Warlords box of rules and counters. Some joker at GW thought it would be funny to put the Squat material in the same set as the Ork material. He has never been seen again. Both sides claim credit for the "disappearance".

Today we will take a look at some of the Epic Space Marine miniatures from the fallow time of the 6mm Squats, the wacky Imperial Knight Titans.

These single-person Titans were actually released a month before the Squats list, and I'm not sure if the Squats were ever allowed direct access to the Knights. But the 3 Knights in the bottom row are clearly from the servo-arms of the Squat Adeptus Mechanicii.

Here is Knight Lancer 3. Someone has been listening to the whispers of Tzeentch. The Eldar Harlequins Army List from Citadel Journal 17 included a converted version of this Knight as a Familiar for the Shadow Seer. It is basically the bird head on Epic War Walker Legs, which is unnecessary in my opinion. The Ordos Xenos needs to inspect this Knight for unholy contamination.

Lancer 1. Same legs, different head/body. More of a robo-reptile than a robo-bird, though both have those tiny Tyranosaur arms.

The slotta tag says Sentinel, another example of the flippity-floppity naming patterns GW has for its minis. Maybe they changed it because the Sentinels were a big part of the storyline of the X-Men comic book around the same time. Or maybe it was because they already used the Sentinel name. But that hasn't really stopped them before. Executioner. Firestorm.

Finally a design an Inquisitor can love, Lancer 3. I don't know why but this one took a long time to find. Rounding up a few of these and doing some weapons swaps and you can probably brew up an interesting IG infantry squad.

Down to the next row, we have "Knight Warden We'll-Call-Him-3-Because-There-Are-2-Warden-1s-in-the-Blue-1991-Catalog". I don't know where this design came from, it is rather different than most Warhammer minis, not just the Knights. He has the aggressive off-balanced dakka-dakka position only an Ork or a Khorne Berzerker could really appreciate. He also kind of looks like one of the old crappier Go-Bots, the ones where you just push the head and gun down and your transformation is complete. Warden 3 looks like he would transform into an APC.

Knight Paladin 1, known to his friends as "Jazz Hands". Finally something a Commissar can love. Or at least not despise as a weak and cowardly elfy-man. But then Mr Commissar looks closer and sees that Jes Goodwin has transplanted an Eldar Dreadnought Hand on Pal 1, and given him the same loincloth as his Eldar Dark Reapers released at the same time. Looks like were gonna hafta keep that Xenos watch on Jazz Hands, boys.

Paladin 2, showing us just how big the daemon that got away was. Same legs as Pal 1 and and the loincloth of a Dark Reaper Exarch.

For giant robo-suits, Paladin 1 and 2 look a bit strange. Paladin 1 looks like he's been surprised while doing something he shouldn't. Paladin 2 is looking confused as to whether he wants to use his chainsword or battlecannon. Use both. Always use both.

Maybe Paladin 2 is looking confused because in the Blue Catalog he is right next to a freaky robot cave spider that somehow shares his name. And that is because the Paladin 3 STC was uploaded to the Imperial databases by Chaos Squat saboteurs*. Silly Imperials, everyone knows spiders are Chaos creatures. The Warp is full of them. Below is a picture of Pal 3 from behind, because this arachnoid weirdo should be admired by all in his fullness.

Next Warden 2.

Another unique freak. If you want to find interesting conversion bits and minis, the specialist games are the place to go. I think the designers for these were given more creative control than the 2 main games. Which resulted in a decade of chaotic cacophony with sparks of genius (Escher Gang) and some awful failures (Eldar Phantom Titan v2).
Here is our bombardier beetle from the side. That's a body made for underground missions.

This is Warden 1, the last of the Imperial Knights. This one has me dumbfounded. In what possible environment could this be a preferred design? When does a Titan need to look up close at tiny things and then blast them, and his own head, to bits with the giant missile launcher on his back? What was Jes Goodwin thinking when he gave all these Titans tiny arms?

Warden 1 from the back, and he is strangely thin. Will he be sneaking into a tight space? And those ribbed overlapping scalloped and bolted plates of armor just about scream "Blood for the Blood God!"

I've been very snarky about these minis tonight, but they really are some of my favorites. But they are some of my favorites because of their strange designs, which made them a mess in gaming terms. Such a mess that when Andy Chambers wrote the rules for Epic Knight Titans in WD 126, even he was unable to deal with the variety-pack Knights.

"There are many different designs of Knight but the differences between some of them are mainly cosmetic. Therefore both Human and Eldar Knights can be categorized into three classes." (p.44)

White Dwarf 126 is one of the best- Horus Heresy Space Marines for Epic, Human & Eldar Knights, and Ork Madboyz. So is 127- just two long Army Lists and some nice Golden Daemon winners in between. Good work, humans.

*This is also why the Dark Eldar only have open topped vehicles.