Back to the obscure: Rogue Trader 40k Minotaurs!

If you've followed my blog for any length of time, you'll know I'm probably one of the most pointlessly contrary gamers out there. I'm drawn to unloved armies, obscure models, ranges that never got filled out, pointless rarities and even the downright odd when it comes to Warhammer and Citadel Miniatures. 

Pointless rarities and downright odd are definitely two phrases that come to mind with today's post, the two Rogue Trader Minotaurs:

More photos after the cut...

So, these are a minor historical footnote as far as 40k goes. Never properly released, they made it onto a Mail Order flyer in Easter 1989, and that was it: 

Their only public appearance!

After that, nothing. No rules, no further miniatures, no catalogue appearances, they just vanished. To be honest, having seen them in the flesh, and painted them, I'm not overly surprised. As much as I'm a rabid cheerleader for this era of figures, they're not the best sculpted models I've ever seen. For some reason one of the models has human-style feet, whilst the other has more traditional hooves! 

Anyway, on to the photos. I'm using these as part of the Abhuman contingent (More *here*) of my Imperial Guard Planetary Defence force (See *here*, *here* *here* and *here*) 

They're basically a heavy support section, armed with heavy bolters (and several horn-mounted autoguns!) for the primarily close combat oriented Beastmen and penal troopers, being led by a marginally more intelligent Beastman Sergeant. 

So, there you go. I can only assume these came out of the Design Studio push for sculptors to knock out anything sci-fi that they fancied as part of the run up to 40k being released. The universe was still very fluid at that point, some things took off (Tyranids), others, like these, the Dominators and various others, just didn't...

Anyway, enjoy, I'll try to keep up the momentum on posting!