Wednesday, 24 March 2021

Space Marine Mk.14 Bullock Jet-Cycle - Fan Sculpt

Hello! it's my wife's late night yoga session here so you know what means I get a nights blogging in after painting my session, today's post features an Oldhammer fan sculpt of the quirky Space Marine Mk.14 Bullock Jet-cycle, the original miniature first appeared in White Dwarf 96 (December 1987) in the Chapter Approved article on page 51 and it was sculpted by Bob Naismith, this one was sculpted by the wonderfully talented Drew of Satyr Studio who didn't have the miniature for reference when sculpting and had to follow the art, how hard must that have been. I think these miniatures might be appearing on TrollSoup soon so give them a follow.

The original Jet-cycle was designed for plastic RTB01 Imperial Space Marine to ride and there was also a mail order release (2nd Flyer 1988) of a single cast Imperial Army rider which if you turn to page 189 in the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rule book you will see him flying in the 'a column of penal warriors led by an astropath' diorama, I have included my Imperial Army rider 1988 paint job in some comparison photos below as all my past Space Marine biker have been stripped long ago.

The fan sculpt Jet-cycle is a 3 part kit unlike the original which was 2 part, cast in resin and has that true scale feel, the rider is a metal cast, the Jet-cycle build was simple enough with a tiny bit of filling here and there, it comes without bolters so I fitted two modified RTB01 bolters. The rider is beautiful he has all those cool features of the classic Rogue trader era Space Marines, vents, studs, etc, the miniature has 4 parts and I had to paint all these first then fit the body to the bike followed by arms and back pack, I had a few disasters during this stage which I put down to poor planning and method, I think I should of maybe added the bolters to the Jet-cycle as the last step, I have have another 2 of these and next time I will try a very different approach.  I went for the colour scheme of my Flesh Tearer's slow burner project and give the Jet-cycle and rider lots of weathering as I imagine he would both get dinked a lot by debris while whizzing about blasting stuff. 

Space Marine Mk.14 Bullock Jet-Cycle - left side

Space Marine Mk.14 Bullock Jet-Cycle - right side

Space Marine Mk.14 Bullock Jet-Cycle - front


The original TSF16 Jet-cycle.

Imperial Army rider

Jet-cycle with RTB01 Space Marine riders

Rogue Trader rule book - page 189


Below are some comparison photos and you can really see how crude the original Jet-cycle was, I don't think it reflects the superb illustration in White Dwarf 96, the later 1989 versions are just odd, I have absolutely loads of both versions in the loft but I am not sure I'll ever visit them again while I have another 2 of these superb fan sculpts still to paint. 

Took this comparison photo 2 years ago so glad to be shot of that blue carpet in the old house :D



Old vs new Jet-cycle comparison - left sides



Old vs new Jet-cycle comparison - right sides


Old vs new Jet-cycle comparison - fronts



Thanks for flying by see you soon
J

11 comments:

  1. Ohhh, beautiful! I love it!! :O

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  2. Great stuff - the sculpt is a massive improvement over the original, whilst also being similar enough that you could actually mistake for the original if you didn't look closely; a great achievement.

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    1. thank you, I reckon you might get away with porting the rider over to the old one :)

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  3. Very cool and very Interesting. I had a friend that was working on his own resculpt of this bike but ai think he abandoned the project about 15 years ago. It was close to the size of this one. I never understood why the Imperials lost their bikes...

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  4. Oh, and I still think it's amusing that he has to park the jetbike to reload the bolters...

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    1. thanks, that reminds me of the old Jamaican bobsleigh joke :D

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  5. Awesome sculpt and I may have to pick up one when it becomes available and a retro landspeeder fan sculpt would be cool as well.

    The paintjob is fantastic too!

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    1. thank you very much, retro land speeder, forgeworld had a go

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  6. This model is awesome! I'm jealous. Paint jot is great as well.
    Well done sir :)

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    1. Thanks, I bet you have something brilliant planned as usual :)

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