This model is one I’ve had for a very long time, and is one of the remaining vestiges of the Squat detatchment that was part of my first Imperial Army/Guard force, that I sold as a teen to get the cash to buy my first Amiga Computer. It’s not something I regret as such, as I got a lot of use and enjoyment out of that computer, as well as it having probably been an important part of what has gotten me to my current professional position, but you fucking bet I wish I could get hold of those models again today.

The paint here is actually a re-touch of my 2nd-edition-era re-tough of my original 1989-1990-ish Roghue Trader paintjob. I went over pretty much everything this time, making the tyres a dussty grey rather than the black shaded to blue that they originally were, redoing the padded flak armour from green and brown to the current brown, changing the boots, gloves and jacket to black leather, highlighting the helmet and bike parts a little more from the 2nd-edition Red I gave them, and then glazing with red to enrich the colour which had gotten a bit desaturated from the highlights. His lasgun got repainted from having bright red furniture to copper, still giving it a touch of colour but removing the gaudiness and the distraction that the red caused. Similarly, the shoulder studs went from bright yellow to silver.

There is a little bit of very old freehand on the model that I left untouched. A rune of sorts on his helmet, shoulder and headlamp. It might be similar ot Khorne if you look at it a certain way, but it ain’t Khorne! I’d like to get more of these, but they’re like gold-played hen’s teeth, sadly. I do at least have a tiny stash of original Squats on foot that I kept from that sale – which clearly I need to get off my arse and paint!

…and yeah, I only spotted that touch of paint on the bottom of his nose from repainting his beard after taking these photos – it’s been fixed now!