The Rogue Trader Bestiary: Crawler (Part 1 in an occasional series)

So, as if I didn't have enough projects on the go, now I've decided on a whim to create models to represent of all the non-humanoid fauna listed in the Rogue Trader Bestiary. It allows me to do an occasional figure as a bit of a 'palate cleanser' between painting units for my ongoing Jamakeer Guard project. I may well go on to do all of the Flora in the book as well, but that'll be a separate project.

More details after the cut...



The list I'm going for is as follows:

• Astral Hound
• Astral Spectre
• Enslaver
• Psychneuein
• Vampires
• Warp Entity
• Zombie
• Ambull
• Bouncers
• Carnivorous Sand Clam
• Catachan Devil
• Catachan Face Eater
• Crawlers
• Crotalid
• Cthellean Cudbear
• Dinosaur
• Ferro-Beast
• Genestealer
• Giant Insectoid
• Giant Spider
• Grox
• Gyrinx
• Horse
• Lashworm
• Mimic
• Ptera-Squirrel
• Razorwing
• Rippy-Fish
• Swarm
• Sunworm

Obviously some already exist in the Citadel RT catalogue so will just be a painting job, (Genestealer, Ambull, Gyrinx), and some are a bit pointless (a horse is a horse, whatever planet you're on, and Rippy-Fish are aquatic!), but the majority will represent an interesting converting/sculpting and painting challenge. 

As well as that challenge, I decided to knock up a RT version of the 'terrified villager' that comes with the Giant model, as it's a great tool for showing scale. So here he is, in all his glory!

Obviously he's been terrified out of his bunk and forgotten his trousers and boots in the panic. His helmet is also bouncing along behind him, having fallen off his head in his desperate attempt to escape whatever terror I'm inflicting on him today...

With that in mind, here's the first terror for him to run away from, The Crawler.

To start with, here's what the RT rulebook has to say about them:

and also what they're illustrated as: 

I've gone for a slightly variant model, (more teeth, less tentacles!) mainly as I had this beastie turn up in the post recently and it gave me the idea in the first place!

Aaaargh!

It's a pretty straightforward model with no conversion (and a very quick paint job!). It's actually part of the Reaper Bones range, and it came with the Graveyard Expansion set. All I've done is based it to match the rest of my Port Imperiale models. 

I've a bit of a love/hate relationship with the Bones range. I love that it makes larger models available for pennies, but the material itself is a right pain in the arse to work with and paint up. I've found that paint just doesn't like to stick to it, even after cleaning. The flex in the model means that the paint has a tendency to peel away. It's not a huge issue with large, bulky models, but the teeth caused some trouble. 

Anyway, that's it for now, I'm on to the next model already!