Welcome everyone! Today’s post is by my good buddy Matt Crump. Matt has become somewhat of my ‘Oldhammer’ go-to guy as he loves to delve into his archives and unearth something from the vaults. Those of you who got into Games Workshop around the time of Rogue Trader will be well familiar with Matt’s offering today, and even if you’re relatively new, sit back and enjoy a look at times past…
“So, today’s trip down memory lane focuses on my favorite abhuman race – the Squat. This time, though, we’re looking at his evil brother the Chaos Squat (sounds like some sort of painful exercise workout – Ed). Now on my last few articles I’ve name checked the epic scale game system (I promise I will do some models for this in a future article). I was a huge fan of the standalone GW games and I created huge armies for Imperial, Squat, and Chaos factions. One of the must-have units I liked to take along in my chaos horde were the chaos squats.
Their canon was rich in detail in that they were the creators/maintainers of daemon engines before we had warp smiths and were also tough cookies to boot, especially when equipped with a heavy weapon. My epic Chaos Squats reaped a huge toll on their loyalist brothers and imperials alike literally squatting down on an objective and holding it!
What was a triumph for epic frankly was downright disaster for Rogue Trader/Warhammer 40k, and it was perhaps a foreshadowing of the loyalist Squats eventual fate.
It must be said that never has a faction looked more wretched. Firstly, you had the power armored Chaos Squat with what looks like an old flintlock pistol, looking about as scary as a pet hamster but twice as adorable… Then we had their exo-armored brothers who (like all exo-armored squats) looked like the offspring of Tik-Tok from the film Return to Oz… (anyone actually remember that film? – Ed). Then the final insult; the “mutated” Chaos Squat who was basically a standard Squat model with a beast man hoof or a claw for an arm. The chaos gods had a real laugh at the expense of our stunted brethren (isn’t that what they’re referring to when they say the ‘laughter of thirsting gods’? – Ed).
Of all the gifts they could have bestowed on them was it too much to ask for some extra height???? In short, the chaos squats were the classic bad guy version of an existing faction, just very poorly executed or thought out which sadly, for the race as a whole, became their death knell.
So that positive note brings us to this post’s miniature: the Chaos Squat in exo-armor! I’ve had this guy for an eternity and really hadn’t known what to do with him. Like all modelers I have a horde. A huge, huge horde. (These days we call it a pile of shame, Matt. Just sayin’… – Ed). Some years ago, I painted an old chaos marine as an Iron Warrior, and he was part of a narrative campaign where he had to help steal a Baneblade. After completing this chap, I painted an old chaos terminator, and then another ancient chaos marine. This got me thinking: maybe I should pull together a small iron warrior war band of around ten ‘oldhammer’ metal figures? The prospect seemed like a fun one.
The rest of the warband could then be comprised of plastic beast men that I have a box of kicking around, but ultimately it afforded me the opportunity for adding in minis that have now sadly been nerfed in the 40K universe, in this case, the much-maligned chaos squat. He can finally fulfill the role his epic brothers undertook so well – the daemonic mechanic. I envisage he is on board to keep his fellow warband members’ armour in good fettle and help keep their daemon engines active…This a small but potent band slightly down on their luck. This will be a great chance to build a narrative on their back story and develop each of the characters.
I can say their war smith might be a treat… when I eventually get round to painting him.
Paint wise the Squat was a straight forward palette:
- Armour – gun metal shaded Nuln Oil then dry brushed silver and glazed with blue ink.
- Gold was Revell gold washed with Devlan Mud highlighted with a gold and Mithril Silver mix. (Mithril Silver???? Wow! – Ed).
- Hoses – Revell Anthracite highlighted up with Skull White.
- Yellow hazard stripes – Iyanden Yellow mixed with Golden Yellow.
He has one red eye lens and one blues eye lens.
You will see that though he carries the hazard stripes of the iron warriors he doesn’t carry the iron skull motif. His skull is more a variation of the squat ancestor badge. My plan is to add my other chaos squats to this warband eventually…
This model was brought to you via the grinding slow heavy bass sounds of:
Yob
Sleep
Electric wizard
Dead witches
So until next time… ta-ra a bit”
Well, thanks Matty, another tasty dish of Rogue Trader era goodness. It makes me want to dig out my old Leman Russ miniature and get some paint on him.
That brings us to the end of today’s post, thanks for swinging by, and keep an eye out for some new posts that will be coming down the wire shortly
Cheers!
>end transmission<
When Cannons Fade... 