Hellbrooke's 'Last Gasp' Platoon
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| Some of the desperadoes of Captain Hellbrooke's Last Gasp Platoon |
Morning all! Hope everyone's okay - time for a quick post on a surprise project that'll blindside you all, as me and Headologist have been secretly working on. I recently bought a load of bitz from Victoria Lamb for building Mordian7th's veterans, part of a recent collaboration project.
But while I was shopping, I had a self-control failure and splurged on some of the lovely Penal Guard miniatures, along with a few more shotguns. Looking at the prison jumpsuits, the neck-irons, those shotguns - I just couldn't help myself. So, I put together a small squad of them, and me and H have been working on a setting for them.
Building them was really fun, so much so that I forgot to do any WiP shots. As for painting, they had very simple off-white jumpsuits, black armour and ordinary flesh. I used lots of inks and powders to get the grubby look, rather than lots of layers of flat colour that I usually use on the Palladians. I thought the rust and weathering on the shotguns came out quite well too.
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| The whole squad |
A special mention goes to the GW grass tufts - I love this 'tufty' effect and had tried it many times with traditional toothbrush bristles, but they never lasted. For £8, you get a sheet of grass tufts of various sizes, impregnated into a flat sticky pad to make attaching them the easiest thing in the world. A definite win!
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A lot of the fluff is in the air at the moment so I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say these will be the Penal contingent from the PDF of a gas mining world. Inspired by the 'Canaries' from Red Dwarf VIII, these guys get sent into the deepest, darkest, dangerous-est situations to 'test the water' (and the air) for the proper troops.
On a mining world like this, oftentimes its dangerous mining gases they come up against but sometimes they might come across some unspeakable horror down there, or on one of the planet's mysterious research stations in the windswept peaks of the rocky polar regions. They're officially known as the HARP - Hazardous Area Reconnaissance Platoons, but this gives rise to the inevitable nickname 'The Harpies'. This particular mob, 99 Platoon, is led by the grim-faced Captain Hellbrooke - and he's led so many men to their deaths exploring dangerous mines that his are known as 'Hellbrooke's Last Gasp Platoon'. Only the few who survive a dangerous mission are granted their last-minute reprieve.
Anyway, thanks for reading - my main focus is still on Mordian7th's vets and they should be painted by next week, but this is probably coming up as a new project in the new year, so looking good!
Until next time,
The Colonel!
Love the slightly maniacal grins and the Hannibal Lecter mask... clearly Omega-class prisoners are pretty doo-lally
ReplyDeleteI'll have to put together some of the "Cheyne Stokers" :P These can double up nicely for other stuff too
Those look smashing! Really like how gritty they come across.
ReplyDeleteOne question though, why is the Captain in the same prisonor's jumpsuit? Does he have some sort of shame yet to be disclosed that would cause him to actually be a member of the team as opposed to being it's commmander?
I thought that was a Sergeant rather than Captain Helbrooke himself, an NCO taken from the prison population - perhaps more sane and a less serious criminal (shoplifting stationery perhaps)
ReplyDelete@Headologist - yep the Hannibal Lector mask made me go 'ooooooh, lovely' out loud when I saw it...
Delete@Dai: Thanks! H beat me to it but yes, I didn't really say, the Captain hasn't been done yet and that's just a 'shepherd' sergeant but still a prisoner. In these penal legions 'officers' are non-convict commanders, and NCOs are like trustee prisoners. In the Last Gasp Platoon, you can tell the officers because they have gas masks!
Is that a barcode on the back of the chaps head, on the right in the lowest picture? Impressive free hand if so (if it's a smudge on my monitor, that doesn't count :P)
ReplyDeleteBrilliant models, great fluff and lovely paint job. I'd also spotted the barcode and think its an awesome touch! Look forward to seeing more about these guys.
ReplyDeleteCheers Buffer! Ah yes, a little Hitman inspiration there, thanks for the comment. I'm enjoying these little distractions, after two years working on an army solidly, just painting the same thing.
DeleteThese guys are looking really good, great paint scheme and the fluff is great too.
ReplyDeleteI'll look into the grass tufts, have been thinking about them for a while, have you used the army painter ones by chance?
Thanks a lot, glad you like them. I haven't seen the Army Painter ones, but I have a lot of other AP stuff which is good so I may give it a try. A lot of the time I see GW stuff advertised (like weathering powders, for example), try it, love it, then find the AP version which is cheaper and start using that. It'll probably be the same with these guys. Anyway thanks for stopping by!
DeleteWe've definitely got more to come on the fluff side of things too
ReplyDeleteThese guys are really stunning, also they would be perfect for deployment planetside on Fulgur. Though with their light fatigues they might freeze before the poisonous atmosphere got them. Can't wait to hear more about their setting.
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool side project. That little paragraph of fluff is really cool. It adds so much to the men.
ReplyDeleteIts stuff like 'these little distractions' that keep the modelling passion burning so that hobby doesn't become stale. Brilliant work and well done.
@Chris: The thing about these guys is that although they have a home planet they are part of the Guard so they can be deployed to any setting, I do love the Fulgar stuff. Light fatigues are perfect for convicts - let their fiery penitence for their past misdeeds keep them warm!
Delete@Col Ackland: Thanks my good colonel, good of you to say so. You've summed it up perfectly - although I do want to finish all these side projects into armies at some point!
Amazing models! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteCheers Drax, glad you like 'em!
DeleteI'm liking what you and H are doing, my dear Colonel. Very creative. , it's the simple details, like the weathered and batted shotguns, that are the visual stand ins for the story you are both telling. Nice work. So what sort of opponents are these convicts going to encounter? Something dark and nameless? Eager to see.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Mike
Thanks very much Mike! I always try to do that - make ties between the models and the fluff. In fact I may do a post about that soon. As for opponents, in the short term it will probably be other Guard (representing uprisings etc) but later on, some Chaotic entities or even a Genestealer cult or two...
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