Showing posts with label Adventurers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventurers. Show all posts

Wednesday 19 October 2022

Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 4

Hello and welcome to another Oldhammer project that is at an end, the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates, my previous blog posts on this odd range can be read here:

Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 1
Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 2 
Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 3

This post features the last four miniatures of the original range I had to paint.

Last four advert Pirates complete

I have included the original advert again for reference with my own numbering system.

RT601 Pirates - White Dwarf 103 - July 1988

First up we have Pirate 11, he is sculpted in one of those horrible lurching forward poses which is quite common for the Rogue trader era miniatures, he has a top knot and googles and has an autogun, curved sword and rum flask all very piratelike so I just had to give him a skull and crossbones badge. As always, I take photos of the backs of these miniatures for completeness, but they are pretty dull and awkward.

Pirate 11 - front
Pirate 11 - back


Next, we have Pirate 16 like most the miniatures of this range he shares the body of another, in this instance Pirate 11 above, this time he has been sculpted with a hood and wearing goggles, a cutdown bolter/autogun mash up, he still has the curved sword and rum flask, I painted a pentagram on his badge as I thought he might make a good cultist.

Pirate 16 - front
Pirate 16 - back

Pirate 16 and 11 - comparison 

Following on we have the original advert Pirate 20, simple miniature so got a simple paint job.

Pirate 20 - front
Pirate 20 - back

I've talked before about this guy in the previous Part 2 post where I unveiled Pirate 20v and linked in Pirate 6, my theory was that Pirate 20 face deteriorated with continuous casting, so the cyclops visor was added, I stick with this as Pirate 20 disappeared from the catalogues and Pirate 20v appeared.
Pirate 6, 20 and 20v - comparison

However just the other day a valued member of the Oldhammer community Kev Squebb made a new discovery (I shall call him 'Pirate 20 v2'), this Pirate 20 v2 has goggles, no idea when or why he came along and how many are out there, but it does raise a question in my mind, was he part of the transition to Pirate 2v (cyclops visor).  The completionist in me will be on the lookout for this one.

Pirate 20 v2 (courtesy of Kev)

And finally, Pirate 2, now I didn't originally own this one and it was a real pain to track down, but I got him in the end, he shares the body of Pirate 8 and is quite an awkward sculpt where some of Pirate 8 previous equipment is still visible, checkout the boot knife.  What is cool about this miniature is that I think it is the only Rogue Trader era miniature with his weapon slung over his shoulder which I found surprising as it was a staple pose of the plastic soldier era.  I had a go trying to paint him in tactical black, it helped his big menacing knife stand out.

Pirate 2 - front
Pirate 2 - back
Pirate 2 - side
Pirate 2 and 8 - comparison

thanks for taking a look
J

Saturday 18 September 2021

Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 3

Hello, coming to the end of another Oldhammer project, the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates, my previous blog posts on this odd range can be read here Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 1 and Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 2. This post features some of the gems of this range, still odd miniatures but certainly some of the more desirable miniatures of the range like the beloved 'Sensei'.
Rogue Trader Pirates part 3

I have included advert again for reference


 
First up we have we have Pirate 4 aka the famous Sensei and although the miniatures in the advert are unnamed he is the only one who isn't named Pirate on his tag, it clearly states 'sensei'. The Sensei concept first appears in the 1988 Realm of Chaos Slaves to the Darkness book on page 217 and there are some lovely illustrations that show various Sensei's which I included below, now you can see from the advert above the Pirate 4 paint job is something special compared to his counterparts adorned in gold armour and white robe, it makes me think was this odd bod pirate range which was released a month before the Realm of Chaos book hit the shelves was going to be originally part of something that was going to be a Sensei Warband range maybe before all the miniatures got their variants made up to bulk out the pirate range, at the time I believe Citadel were churning out miniatures for Warhammer 40,000 and needed to keep the momentum up but the Realm of Chaos books still needed work so maybe this Pirate range was down to that. The Sensei warband list appeared in Realm of Chaos Lost and the Damned on page 186 and if you look at the equipment for the followers I think this Pirate range could be an easy fit as a Sensei Warband range.

Now I always try and point out variants, well it could be Pirate 19, I tried really hard to pair him up with Pirate 19 because if you follow the pattern they come in two's (and one 3) and you can usually work out the original miniature and then the variant with all his donors, Pirate 19 below has very similar lower leg plates and leg spacing so the only candidate I am putting forward for now.

Paintjob I went for neutral tones pretty much how I like my home interiors done, he's not interested in looking flash like your archetypal pirate as he has a higher purpose so buff, medium grey, stone grey, khaki was the colours of choice.

Pirate 4 Sensei - front 

Pirate 4 Sensei - back
Sensei as illustrated in RoC SoD page 217

I have painted and modified this miniature before the second I got it back in 1988 and here a shot of him with my 2021 version.

Old vs New paint jobs

Following on we have Pirate 24, he is quite a portly fellow in a boiler/space suit unfortunately accentuating his obesity but hopefully he thinks his flash equipment will draw the beholders eye from his poor space diet, the helmet is an amazing sculpt with an eye augmentation, nice blaster and my favourite bit the power glove which is like an industrial machine, I think he is a later modification of Pirate 1 as some of the lovely detail on from Pirate 1 is obscured but still visible if you take a close look.
Pirate 24 - front
Pirate 24 - side
Pirate 24 - back

Next up is Pirate 1, his bloated appearance with roll of fat around his neck, this miniature always made me think of Baron Harkonnen and I'll always wanted to chop up another copy to get my very own 'floating fat man' as he was called in the Dune movie by the original Emperor, this pirate is totally Rogue trader era it's a totally bonkers sculpt, like Pirate 24 he is in his boiler suit and he is has some pretty expensive equipment, consisting of a Chainsword and arm replacement multi missile launcher.  His head also ended up on Pirate 21 but I painted the fatty neck as a scarf on that one.

Pirate 1 - front

Pirate 1 - side

Pirate 1 - back

Following on we have Pirate 8, this is a cool miniature definitely a Pirate leader with his cigar hanging out of his mouth, two guns an Autogun and some sort of taser looking pistol and kitted out with a visor and body armour, I am still looking in the loft for his variant Pirate 2 I may have to trade him in to complete this project.


Pirate 8 - front
Pirate 8 - back

Lastly we have Pirate 19, now this is my long shot for a Sensei variant, it's all about the legs :D I went scruffy biker style with this one with his head scarf, rosy drinkers nose and black leather waist coat, I painted angel wings on the back as a nod to Daryl in The Walking Dead.
Pirate 19 - front

Pirate 19 - back

Only 3 more to do, 2 in the stripping jar and one of them I can't find at the moment but on a plus note I found the original Pirate 20 without the visor the variant was shown in my last post and painted him, he'll be featured in my last post of this range soon Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 4.

I have a ridiculous amount of drafts on the go so stay tuned, they will trickle out.
 
thanks for dropping in, 

Sunday 30 May 2021

Rogue Trader RT601 Adventurers Space Amazon - Take 2

Hello, for years now I have been mostly painting individual Oldhammer era Citadel miniatures and when I finish a miniature I rarely revisit it let alone paint another copy unless its stripping down one of my awful teenage jobs from the 1980's but today's miniature is one of my all time favourites so I had another go and decided to take my time and put a bit more love into it.

You may of seen my previous attempt back in February 2013 on the Space Amazon - RT601 - Adventurers blog post, I was never happy with this paint job, I had envisioned her as a sci-fi version of Amazon Gothique in an eternal champion type multiverse and not a character in her own right.  Many of you will own the book Ratspike by John Blanche and Ian Miller which was published by Games Workshop in 1989 and will be familiar with John Blanche's painting 'Amazon' that features in the book along with lots other amazing pieces, I have included a picture of the Amazon painting below.  The Amazon in the painting has a real likeness to Siouxsie Sioux of 'Siouxsie and the Banshees' that great British post punk alternative group, I really wanted to try and capture this feel in my latest attempt and pay homage to the painting.  The Space Amazon of the RT601 Adventurers range like Kinky Chaosette/LE15 Chaos Amazon and Lune are other wonderful examples of John Blanche's art in miniature form.

When it came to painting I started by blocking all the colours in very neatly before moving on to multiple washes, some blending then I did some nice highlights and the miniature could passed off as finished but to me it wasn't Blanche's Amazon.  I opened up the Ratspike page and studying it I wondered if I could achieve all that outrageous detail on a miniature, it was time to drop my own painting style and go a bit crazy which I found very technically demanding the characters clothing is so chaotic, embroidered basque, multiple different animal fur types, Zebra, Leopard, Dalmatian, brown/white and black furs, other quirky details like in the painting where she has a stocking on one leg, tights the other, both with different patterns,  it's details like these that really mess my brain up but I got there in the end. 

I hear you say stop waffling and show us the miniature so here go enjoy.


Space Amazon - front

John Blanche's Amazon

Space Amazon - back

Space Amazon - side

New vs old - front

New vs old - back

Thanks for dropping in, I hope you enjoyed this revisit as there are a couple more in the works

J





Saturday 6 August 2016

RT601 Adventurers Complete - Space Pirate, Imperial Scout, Ships Officer, Old Pirate, Official


Hello Friends and Followers, today is a great day as I pleased to announce that my Rogue Trader Adventurers project is complete, all 32 miniatures in the range are now painted to a decent standard and displayed on this blog for collector reference. I originally painted most of these back in the late 1980's and after stripping all that dreadful enamel paint off them I started again, I managed to track down the missing miniatures and that was really good fun, I mean everyone loves an Eldar Trader for a dollar right?  The project took 3 years to complete but having a baby and getting distracted by other Oldhammer miniatures really does throw your painting schedule out.  I will be adding them to my Rogue Trader Gallery asap.

It has been a delightful project to work on the miniatures are so characterful and hark back to a bygone age when the world was a lot simpler and designers still had an imagination, the miniatures were sculpted by Bob Naismith, Trish & Aly Morrison and Mark Copplestone. I was a child of the 2000 AD comic and I bet the sculptors were too as they scream 2000 AD at me and you can see the comics influence in the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook and miniature ranges. 

I can now move onto to completed my Rogue Trader Mercenary project which you may have already noticed that I have completed Old World Jack and Inquisitor Augustus for.

Anyway enough waffling on lets move onto the miniatures.

Space Pirate, this one should have been called Space Trapper in my opinion, the character is covered in fur pelts and tails, maybe Jokaero or Gyrinx who knows, although a meltagun may be a bit overkill for a Space fur trapping but then again good for dealing with hostile indigenies, watch The Revenant an you will see what I mean. You can see that he was either the base miniature or influence for the Talisman Timescape Space Pirate miniature, I am not sure which you decide.


Space Pirate - front

Space Pirate - back

Imperial Scout, now I like to imagine him a pseudo muslim Freman from Dune (the film being another major influence on the Warhammer 40,000 universe, you know God Emperor and all thator from The Chronicles Of Riddick, he may even be from the planet Tallarn, he wears an arab type scarf which JB over on Leadplague has talked about and he is armed a Hand Flamer and Shuriken Pistol. I have to mention Axiom's version is really nice too.

Imperial Scout - front


Imperial Scout - back


Ships Officer, I love this miniature and for a universe set in the 41st Millennium since it’s conception has largely lacked Sci-Fi minatures for space ship crew, space battles, space/void suits for Imperial Guard, this guy could even pass as a Star Wars rebel ships security from the opening scenes of Star Wars IV - A New Hope.  I can't find any other painted example of this miniature so unfortunately I can't share anyone elses goodness.


Ships Officer - front

Ships Officer - back


When I was cleaning up this miniature I noticed some lead oxidation or dodgy moulding/sculpting and one of the eyes had a box type structure, there were no examples available to get a closer look so i carved the eye out and painted it as a bionic eye, it works for me and reminds me of Commander Makara from the superb 1980's TV show Star Fleet.

Ships Officer - dodgy eye?

Old Pirate, Punk Bondage trousers, this miniature must have shared the same sculpting dolly as the Ships officer, the pose is the same so is his weapon, armed with an early hand flamer (I read in a citadel catalogue somewhere).  Again I can't find any other painted example of this miniature out on the web so I can't point you to the any of the other superb Oldhammer blogs out there.

Old Pirate - side

Old Pirate - front (I really like this profile)

Old Pirate - back

Next up is the Official, some sort of Imperial civil servant maybe? I originally paint this one back in 1987 in military green humbrol enamels and stuck a RTB01 Space Marine back pack on him, it looked pretty good but I stripped it for this project.

Official - front

Official - back





Hope you enjoyed this post, now get following if your not, lots of good stuff to come
thanks
J

Thursday 23 June 2016

RT601 Rogue Trader Adventurers and more

Hi Folks,
Today's post has my latest work four Rogue Trader Adventurers, Tech-Priest Zon, Hive Worlder, Astropath Korm, Pilot Rav, a Space Slann 'Llamas' and a dog!!.

The end is in sight for my Rogue Trader Adventurers project I have last four miniatures prepped and ready for painting, these are Imperial Scout, Old Bandit, Ships Officer and Space Pirate.

First we have 'Pilot Rav', this guy sports biggles attire,  flying jacket and white scarf.

Pilot Rav - front
Pilot Rav - back

Next up we have 'Hive Worlder', this guy's chainsword reminds me of the crude and brutal weapons of the Dark Heresy art work, I wish the weapons were still like this and not the standard designs of today.
Hive Worlder - front

Hive Worlder - back

Here we have 'Astropath Korm', a nice sculpt, if you look carefully you can see he no longer has the use of his eyes they appear scared and fused shut, he must use his psionic powers to see.

Astropath Korm - front

Astropath Korm - back

And the last adventurer today  'Tech-Priest Zon', the bald head and technology mounted on his head are reminiscent of Lobot from Star Wars The Empire Strikes back.

Tech-Priest Zon - front

Tech-Priest Zon - back


Finally I painted an Rogue Trader Space Slann 'Llamas', I really need to get more of these guys and their larger cousins the Space Zoats out of storage and painted. What ever happened to Slann in the Warhammer 40,000 universe? I have read a few articles on this but it's mostly speculation.

Space Slann 'Llamas' - side

Space Slann 'Llamas' - back

Space Slann 'Llamas' - front

An extra treat for all you Oldhammerer's, I have painted the dog the came in the Warrior Maiden's pack from the Citadel Collector Series, it's been on my workbench for about two years, Also found listed as the 'Toy Dog' in the Judge Dredd 'Slaughter Margin' scenario set and 'Barney' in the 'Blood on the Streets' scenario set
Judge Dredd Toy Dog - side

Judge Dredd Toy Dog - side

I hope you enjoyed this post.
thanks
J