Rogue Trader Campaign Prep 1

I am pleased to say that I am planning to run a Rogue Trader/Second Edition/Necromunda campaign for my partner and I in the near future! She loves Genestealers so inevitably they will be involved somewhere in the narrative (and my growing cult will be expanded further to facilitate this)...along with some other special models I have acquired!!

However every campaign needs it's protagonists and in this case it will be my girlfriend's alter-ego, the powerful Inquisitor Athena of the Emperor's Holy Ordos. Despite her potency an inquisitor alone would not stand much of a chance against the enemies of the Imperium, and so she will need a force of warriors to command in order to thwart the machinations of evil.

Normally Athena uses her Inquisitorial Authority to commandeer a selection of Space Marines to aid her in her purges but in this case I want the campaign to escalate progressively. After all the Astartes are the Emperor's elite force, designed and equipped to face the greatest foes of humanity...in fact there is less than one space marine for every world in the Imperium. Despite their elite and rare status they seem to be a common force that crop with amazing regularity, from suppressing mild incursions of rebels to saving Mrs Miggins kitty-cat from up a tree. With this in mind I decided that for this campaign the inquisitor should (initially) have a selection of slightly more standard troops to support her endeavours... So instead of starting a new force from scratch I dug out a squad of Imperial storm troopers that I painted over a decade ago... I then adapted their colour scheme (after all...in the intervening period Citadel have completely changed their paint range) in order to further expand the force with five unpainted storm troopers from my Bitz box:

A new squad of Inquisitorial Storm Troopers painted up for my impending campaign

I think they came out pretty well, ready to smite the foes of the Inquisition with powerful volleys of laser fire. I love these old metal Kasrkin/Storm Trooper models, they are such great sculpts and with their menacing visors they really fit the image of faceless Inquisitorial heavies. 

Additionally their armour, weapons and fatigues are militarily accurate, they fit the part of futuristic soldiers perfectly ...almost identical to the Colonial Marines from Aliens. This is where the new GW plastic Storm Troopers have gone so horribly wrong, I have come to terms with the fact that Space Marines have become high fantasy knights with guns, their armour literally jammed with skulls, scrolls and other shite...and to be fair I can live with it. However the storm troopers were last bastion of models that looked like modern soldiers ... So as per usual GW have trashed this, I literally felt a little bit of sick in my mouth when I saw the new models.... They're in fucking baroque plate armour! Genuinely...what on earth were the sculptors thinking?

Squad rear view

Oh well ... enough ranting about the new stuff, these old models were great fun to paint and I already have some more of them sitting on the paint station waiting to see some paint.

Converted Sergeant..with sculpted rank chevrons on the leg armour

The only drama with these old Kasrkin models is that there was only one sergeant model released (equipped with a power sword and hell-pistol) and I already have one painted up for my original squad. In order the mitigate the risk of repetition I upgraded one of the standard troops to sergeant status by sculpting a set of chevrons onto his leg (identical to those that feature on the actual sergeant model) and then painting a  second set on his helmet.

Burn baby burn...note the 'Aliens' style motion tracker on the weapon

My girlfriend loves flamer weapons, the joy of incinerating foes with those classic old card templates providing hours of amusement! Therefore the choice of special weapon was easy, and so this flame trooper was painted to provide his squad-mates some fiery support!

Well five troopers is hardly enough to make a battle winning force so I better get back to the paint station and start churning out some more warriors for my beloved Inquisitor to command... I'll let you know how it goes! Legio!