Master Tracto squeezed through the massive Deathwing Terminators guarding the ruined bridge of the Vespillo. His heavy armor boots crunched the broken and burned chiten of the tyranid bodies the Deathwing had tracked down and destroyed. "What have you found, Brother Paganus?" he demanded of his Techmarine. "I want off this hulk now."Free minis are good. Free minis that are painted, well, even better. But how often do you get free minis, that are painted...to a high standard? Not often indeed. Thanks to Tristan's excellent contest a while back at GWP, that's exactly what I got.
I've been a Dark Angels player forever, but for some reason I never picked up this old school fig, which is a crying shame. The sculpt is absolutely wonderful and holds its own against any modern sculpts today, and I would even put it above the likes of Azrael and the rest of the mid-90's special characters.
Needless to say, a good sculpt is nothing it you gunk it up with a bad paint job. I've seen Tristan's Blood Bowl teams and the like before, so I knew I'd be getting something I wouldn't have to smile, politely thank for the prize...then soak it in Simple Green.
Being a captain model, Tristan went with the more distinguishing bone-white of the Deathwing. Being an ancient, venerable hero, Tristan opted for a 'dirtied' up version to boot. Coupled with the brighter white 4th company knee badge, and the Dark Angels green cape, he strikes a very distinctive pose (and looks great).
Tracto's been already in my mythos for a while. The text I opened the post with is from a very old, now defunct attempt we did at a points based 40k campaign called Trucidos. If you're a newcomer to Mik's Minis, you may not know about it, we left the site up for posterity, but it's pretty much a ghost town now. Hetero-lifemate Andy whipped up that opening text on the fly as fluff to launch the whole campaign, and the name "Tracto" has stuck ever since.
He's recently duked it out in his first big battle too, and I should mention his power armor never even suffered a dent! Here's Tracto's mission briefing for that battle. Originally I had a different model for Tracto, but obviously that one's going to shelved...or perhaps in gamer karmic fashion, I'll give away the old to make room for the new?
I'm glad you like him so much! I still feel I ended up a little heavy on the final stain, but thankfully I think your basing scheme actually helps it to suit better.
ReplyDeleteWent looking through your DA army post again and after having a closer look at your master-interrogator I wish I had done something cool with a giant decal on the back of his cloak.
Hindsight is 20/20 - I am very happy that you are using him (more than I could say) and I really had fun painting him as well.
Congrats on that nice looking fig. He's a beauty. Hmm...perhaps "beauty" might be a term offensive to a Dark Angel. He looks great on anyway!
ReplyDelete@Tristan: Yeah, I do like him, a lot thanks again. I wanted to get him in the action as soon as possible, so hit hit dirtside on Arlos Mechanica, and it won't be the last time either!
ReplyDelete@Christian: I'd go with 'beauty', I'm confident in my Space Marine sexuality. Err, that didn't come out right.
That Dark Angel is soooooo damn sexy. Not quite Sanguinius sexy, but definitely Leman Russ sexy.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit I didn't like the WIP picturs Tristan posted - but on second look, I really like the worn/aged bone look of the armour.
ReplyDeleteKudos!
@T-Bone: Err, yeah...
ReplyDelete@Donogh: I'll be totally honest, I did raise an eyebrow when Tristan sent me an email saying he was staining the whole fig, but when I opened him up I was blown away.
oh oh - head inflating! ;)
ReplyDeleteHa! Seriously though, it's a sweet fig with a good paintjob.
ReplyDeleteBut just like my 2002 car with the broken tail light and cracked windshield, it has a feature most other cars on the road don't have...no payments.
So even if this figure *didn't* look that great, which it does for the record, I didn't have to paint it. This makes it that much better in the end!