Friday 13 March 2015

Complete Marauder Venators Set


You don't get that many pictures of painted venators around (for now...)

1996 I'd say, yes, I think that's the year.

What am I talking about ? Well 1996 is the year I went into my local independant hobby shop in Nantes to get my fix of old lead (even at the time in the middle of the red era I was looking for older stuff...). And what did I find ? White Dwarves, old ones, a whole lot of them and amongst them these particular issues :



These contained what left a solid and resilient emotion in my teenage heart : the rules for confrontation and amongst them, this picture :

Yeah alright Jervis, we know you're here...

But I've told you that before, remember ?

  • HERE where I told you how I tried to squeeze every bit of intel about venators from the rules and their inspiration
  • HERE, HERE and HERE where I told you how I was going to build my own venators from plastic and putty.
  • Until I came across my first venator model and realised I had wrongly thought the models to be poor sculpts when the pictures were to blame and not the models.
I'm actually pretty sure pics of painted venators from the rear are even rarer

Well today is the end of this journey, or at least the end of the first long haul...
Thanks to the dedication of some fellow hobbyists/bloggers, I finally managed to get all the models of the range. I really want to emphasise that many people tried to help me the best they could and that in the end I owe it all to the generosity of some whose humility won't let me name. You know who you are people so let me express my most sincere and warm thanks to you.

Camilla Weis knows hiring reliable bounty hunters is the way to go when she goes hunting mutants and deviant psykers...


Now if you take a close look at the picture you will have realised all models don't sport the same kind of mask. Is it due to some afterthoughts or because of a memory loss ? Not quite.

Pedes (raw recruit venator) equiped with laspistol and axe plus a couple of grenades

The first venator I painted was painted with a leather mask to fit the concept sketches by John Blanche in which the extensive use of leathers is mentionned :


Now as explained before, I've always wanted to integrate a roman/latin/italian visual vibe to the venators. But the other important part of the way I see them is that they are highly trained professionnals which means they must be very well organised (See background HERE). 
This lead me to choose a very strict colour scheme to enhance the mlitary look they have and to avoid confusing them with more rag-tag freelance bounty hunters.

Connoisseurs amongst you may remember that characters in confrontation come in 4 flavours...

Where you realise leaders are inhuman gods and raw recruits utter dogshit

...corresponding to the different ranks and profiles of gangers.

Now since venators wear masks to hide their identity, I thought it could also be a mean to display their rank without making it too obvious for underhivers who would tend to shoot at the ones with the most badges on the chest.
That's how I came up with this little system :



As you can see I gave the highest rank to the one in the John Blanche drawing with a white mask. In time I'll make a model based on that illustration to lead my hunters (because you need a leader in a good confrontation game). For now I'll have the basic troopers covered and will only have to add what I fancy from now on. The names of the Venator ranks are roman ranks that had a nice feeling.

Primus (hardened venator) equiped with boltgun, boltpistol, axe and a targetter
Primus (hardened venator) equiped with boltgun, axe and a targetter
Primus (hardened venator) equiped with shotgun and axe

The best point about this all is that for once I was completely free to go the way I wanted because there is simply no picture of "officially" painted venators (not that I know of at least) and that even non-official photos are rare as hen's teeth. Amongst a load of purple genestealer cults, red admech and all , this was most refreshing hobby wise and I enjoyed it a lot.

What's next ? Well probably some friends who've waited more than their share to get some paint and as usual the unexpected guests that somehow make it to the top of the paintqueue.

Amongst the latters lies this rogue traderish Bloodthirster (WIP which may see its axe reduced) :




That's all for now folks, I hope to be able to get back to a better output than lately (that's very few models painted for 2015 so far...).

42 comments:

  1. At last, the sinister Venators are finished and ready to hunt down mutants wherever they hide... excellent work! :D I'd love them but they probably aren't down with that so I'll just respect them... carefully...

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    1. What a relief to get them finished. It took me far more time than I would have wanted but life is what it is. The best part of it is that the 3 I had to add were clearly the best sculpts of the lot with mr bolter and boltpistol being my favourite.
      Now these are done, I'm fully motivated to extend the gang with conversions and kitbashes because I know where I want to go now.
      Amongst all of this, you are greatly part of why I managed to get them painted in the end and the utter pleasure I had with them ;)

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  2. Great stuff, it's brilliant to see a set of these painted up. I'm so jealous. I've got two of the tech gang and two of the Psykers. If I get either of them completed the we have to pitch them against your Venators. That would be awesome!

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    1. I only have 2 of the techs too (marauder ones) myself but yes indeed, a confrontation (see what I did here) would be grand. In the meantim I'll probably have a leader and Henchman painted !

      Many thanks.

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  3. It's nice to see such elusive models given the care and attention they deserve. Great colour scheme, they look tremendous.

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    1. Many thanks, coming from you , that means a lot. I agree the elusive models do need some care and attention, a bit like those Stradivarius violins yearning to be played instead of lying in safes...

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    2. Oh indeed. Nothing beats seeing these models up and painted.

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  4. Well done Sir. It's been a long road. I hope you are very proud of your achievement.

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    1. Thanks a lot. It's been a long haul indeed.
      I don't know if I'm actually "proud" so to speak since I wouldn't have made it alone but I'm undoubtedly very happy to have finally managed to make this happen. Now I can look into the eyes of the 15 years old me and see a true genuine smile.
      I do not mean to get sentimental but it does feel a bit like meeting your favourite rock band in person or finally speaking to THAT girl.

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  5. Fantastic man, they look bloody excellent.
    Great to see you got there in the end!

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    1. Glad yo like them Bruno !
      Once again, getting them was all due to the tremendous help of the community (you know what I mean).

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  6. My venator hardened when I saw this post.

    A brilliant project JB. Its great to see one a bucket list project like this make genuine progress. Although part of me would like to have those miniatures - they are nice for many reasons - I am fairly certain that despite how lovely they are, I would never paint them when I have so many other projects. Seeing you go from start to finish with these is the next best thing.

    I hope that I get a game in alongside them later in the year.

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    1. Thanks a lot,
      You ses, I believe other hobbyists exist precisely to collect, paint those models, projects we'll Never have the time,money,skill,energy to do ourselves. The minute You see things in a complementary way instead of an exclusive one, they reach a higher value. I like That You ses things this way ;)

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  7. Replies
    1. Cheers man, Just need something to Hunt now ;)

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  8. Excellent work. I think they are some of your best!

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    1. Thanks ! Photos still aren't the best so glad You like them !

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  9. It's funny how the White Dwarfs which shaped your love of the hobby are almost the same as mine (131 is the first WD I bought, just a few years before you ;-) ). You did a great job on those, I especially like your white.

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    1. Yes it's true, between those and the sorcery books we do come from the sale place even with an an ocean between us ;)

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  10. Many congratulations on hitting so many goals: a beautifully painted quartet of figures; a cracking development of background; a completed 'set'; the combined envy and admiration of your peers... ;)

    You've also done the very important thing of making these models visible and tangible. From only seeing poorly painted versions or dodgy photos of the bare figures, you've shown them to be wonderful and characterful sculpts.

    Great job!

    (Oh...can't wait to see your higher ranking Venators in due course!).

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    1. Indeed many goals achieved here !
      It's Just a beginning though.
      many thanks !

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  11. Great work, and lovely to see them painted at last. Will the gang be growing soon?

    I like the axe on the bloodthirster, but if you want to reduce it slightly in mass, you might remove that section at the bottom of the blade.

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    1. New additions for sure yes , many ideas in mind.
      for the axe, I'm probably going to reduce the width but not the chain length. I'll ses if it's enough bu want to keep some bulk.
      many thanks !

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  12. Brilliant Execution! Lovem'!

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    1. Many thanks ! I guess it's another step in the long journey through confrontation ;)

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  13. Hadn't got a chance to comment on these until now, JB due to internet problems. What can I say that hasn't already been said? Been a long time coming but glad you've got there. Not an easy group to amass and of course, always nice to see figs of such rareity painted up. Well done! Like the mask colour idea too.

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    1. Thanks a lot Ed.
      They really got me back into the swing of things and brushes are itching once again ;)

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  14. I second Andrew's comment above, Assless- these are definitely some of your finest work. I have never seen these models before, and you have brought them to light in a spectacular way. The colors you have chosen and the execution of your scheme are both spot-on. Fantastic work.

    I look forward to reading a battle report soon!

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    1. Well what a perfect taste You have !
      I really hope to see some new examples now That they've been brought to light.
      glad the colour schème seems to please :D

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  15. Excellent work on some nice old models!

    Warburton

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    1. Nice and Old they are, I hope they get more popular as well !
      Thanks a lot

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  16. The Venators are quite excellent looking.

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  17. Well thanks, I suppose the lack of painted examples out there must have helped in making my version convincing ;)

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  18. I'm gone for just a couple of days & I missed you posting up about your Venators!! Damn weekend interlude!!!!

    They look great JB! I especially like how you paint white & personalising their masks was a brilliant touch.

    You can easily see where the Orlock got their influence from in later years can't you?

    So, what's next? :p

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    1. Well thanks for the kind words!
      Orlocks do seem to ne the direct heirs but the zealot side that was added to them is not something I really fancy, they l'ost in the process imho.

      Next ? Some more venators for sure and some more confrontation but the fantasy itch needs a scratch... And there's always chaos to paint ;)

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    2. You guys mean Cawdor, right? Orlocks were the Springsteen cult. I think Cawdor models would be a great base for conversions...

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    3. Yeah Cawdor and redemptionists of course ! I worte in the first article on top of that ^^'

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  19. These turned out great. I have five of the tech gang, including the leader model... I might have to dig these out and figure out what else I need for a gang...

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    1. Thanks a lot, Techs are a very interesting gang as well, I have enough already to make a gang but must figure out what way to go modelling and painting wise to make them look cool and unique.

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  20. Great models, and the colour scheme is really suitable - very thoughtful. I've never even seen those before (they came out at a time when I wasn't paying attention).

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    1. Thanks a lot, I believe you're in the same case as most people ! I gotto know the models far after I lnew I wanted to have some (the trigger was the rules and JB picture) and when I realised they existed, I found out that they wer enot easy to get and that there were not many painted examples.
      I'm glad people like the colour scheme since otherwise I wouldn't have been able to put the blame on inspiration ;)

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