Confrontation 40K Diorama & Scavvies - Fan Sculpt

Hello, in today's Oldhammer post I show you my completed diorama based on the 'Confrontation 40K' painting by Les Edwards. You may remember I completed the Necromunda Blood Drinker Space Marine back in March 2021 and since then the accompanying Scavvy gangers have been sitting around my workbench getting the odd flick of paint here and there.

The Scavvy gang miniatures were again sculpted by Drew Day Williams of Satyr Art Studio, please visit the website for some great limited edition Oldhammer inspired miniatures. 

As you might remember from my previous post on this subject, I planned to build a diorama of the painting and faithfully recreate the paint schemes of the characters involved on the miniatures, well today the gangers are finished and I knocked up a quick diorama based out of plumbing supplies, I feel the base is a little small but that was the only piece of mdf I could find lying around the house, my original plan was to integrate the bases in drilled recesses but I ended up just placing the miniatures on it, time is always my enemy.

Anyway here's the photos, they quite didn't come out as I wished but hey ho, enjoy.

My take on Confrontation 40K

From above

"kill him you scavvies!"

Scavvy Gang line up

Scavvy Gang line other angles

Enemies of the Imperium receive swift justice

Here's a couple of shots of the original painting for reference.

Confrontation 40K - Les Edwards

Confrontation 40K image from the 1989 Blood and Iron book

Thanks for visiting, I will be back soon with something cool

J

Rogue Trader - Bombots - Fan Sculpt

Hello, quick Oldhammer post today, a few months ago I was pleased to be offered a trio of fan sculpted Rogue Trader homage Bombots by their creator Curis over on Ninjabread and quickly assembled these five piece models and slapped on some paint. (I love saying creator when referring to robots :D)

Imperial Army pioneers - Bombots and Operator

He's done a really fine job from concept to final piece, working with very little source material, a quick description and rules on page 121 of the Warhammer Rogue Trader rulebook and a small snippet of what looks like was once a larger illustration.

Bombot illo from Rogue Trader rulebook p.121

Bombot rules

I went for a simple codex grey colour scheme for these miniatures with the dangerous bits in red, a bit of weathering and shinny 'ardcoated green lense, they were a fun paint job although I am a bit out of touch now when it comes to batch painting.  

Once I had finished the robots I felt they needed an operator, I'd recently seen what Curis had done with his over on his blog with a Space Marine operator and how the colours married them up perfectly, I loved the effect.  I wanted a someone who would compliment the low tech Bombots and fit in with the unit codex grey colour scheme then I thought who better than a candidate from the Imperial Army.  Initially I was going to go with the Rapier spotter holding the binoculars but then opted for the Tarantula operator as I think he is a perfect fit with his smaller gun slung over his shoulder and operating a remote control, I guess that was for the Tarantula, it was a simple tie in which works for me.

Now for some more photos.

Imperial Army Bombot Unit out in the field

Bombot 1 - side

Bombot 2 - side

Bombot 3 - side

Bombot 1 - front

Bombot 2 - front

Bombots on the move

Imperial Army Operator - front

Imperial Army Operator - side

Imperial Army Operator - back

Imperial Army Operator - side

Imperial Army Operator - higher angle

The Bombots remind me of the WWII German pioneers Goliath remote mine and I would hope they were in the mind of the author at the time of writing, here's a Goliath model kit below, stick a R2D2 on top and you have a Rogue Trader Bombot.

German Goliath Team

Here's a link to 'the Creator's Blog post here and another super job on these miniatures here.

thanks for dropping in

J

Rogue Trader - Mark VI Techmarine - Fan Sculpt

Welcome back! In this post I bring you my fifth blog post featuring fan sculpts that are either a direct tribute to classic Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader artwork or a have an unmistakable Oldhammer style, this one is an Adeptus Astartes Techmarine in Mark VI Corvus armour, sculpted by the very talented James Sherriff in 2017, it's  a beautifully crisp metal cast and if I get the terminology correct it's either true scale or heroic scale which is more akin with the modern Space Marines some of you paint today, the sculptor has added lots of beautiful little details, the wrist scanner, fuel tank and lump hammer, I was instantly sold when I came across it.

Assembly is simple as it's a single cast, I mounted it on a modern round 40mm base there was no other way really due to the stance, the Techmarine comes without a powerpack and an Oldhammer community member gifted me an resin Mark IV powerpack sculpted by fan sculpt master Drew Williams (who has featured on this blog previously) that sizes up nicely with this miniature.

Now usually I get a lot of messages on FB and Twitter questioning where one get hold of the fan sculpt featured in a post and in this case this miniature is available from Ye Alchemist at a very affordable price, go get one, half the pubs are still closed and it's cheaper than a couple of pints of craft beer :D

Painting I went for the Flesh Tearers scheme that I seem to be painting all my Space Marines in lately, I have tried free hand painting the chapter icon several times and have never been happy with the result so I went eBaying and purchased some Flesh Tearer vinyl sticker decals and some 3D printed curved shoulder icons for my Rogue Trader era Space Marines, in this case I used the vinyl sticker which was very malleable when warm and only required a bit of tidying up with black paint.

Now to the miniature.

Techmarine - front

Techmarine - back

Techmarine with vinyl Flesh Tearer icon

Techmarine - side

Techmarine - side

Techmarine - side

Techmarine comparion to Rogue Trader era Techmarine

Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed this miniature

J

Rogue Trader - Ymgarl Genestealer - Fan Sculpt

Hello and welcome back, this my fourth post in a row featuring Oldhammer fan sculpts, I just love fan sculpts and fancied getting some of these beautiful miniatures finished and put down the Rogue Trader pirates for a couple of weeks. Today's post features the Ymgarl Genestealer, based on the original illustration featured on page 211 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook and sculpted by in 2020 by Drew Day Williams of Satyr Art Studio.

If you don't know the original Genestealer, here's the lore,

"This enigmatic monster originates from one of the moons of Ymgarl, but has spread throughout space and is threatening to become a real menace. In its native state it is blue, has two pairs of clawed arms, a long muscular tail and a tough leech-like body. Its head is a simple tube full of slobbering tendrils and sharp inward-pointing teeth. What makes the Genestealer truly unique is its deadly and extremely rapid reproductive cycle. Genestealer are of a single gender, and are incapable of reproducing amongst themselves. To reproduce they require another creature, any creature will suffice, of any gender. For all the Genestealer requires is the basic genetic material which is contained in every living cell of the mate. A Genestealer implants its own genetic material in the form of an egg capsule, which is forced into the body of the host by an extendible ovipositor normally secreted inside the head. The implantation does not kill the mate immediately, but the implanted egg quickly grows until ready to burst out as an immature Genestealer. Needless to say, this kills the parent/host. Interestingly enough, newly born creatures, although fundamentally Genestealers, will have characteristics inherited from the host parent. Thus a Genestealer/human may have a vaguely humanoid head, or only two arms instead of the usual four, and perhaps its tail will be shortened or missing. A Genestealer of four or more generations consistent of human parentage would pass for a human on cursory inspection, although a closer look would reveal a bluish skin, sharp pointed teeth and rather disturbing stare. On their home world, Genestealers exploit a large leech-like creature called a Csith which is the usual mate. Matings with a Csith always produce natural Genestealers, no matter what its parentage otherwise." 

The build was easy enough the miniature came in 3 parts so I had to glue two of the arms on, there's some room there for pose variations, when it came to painting this miniature I wanted to go for blue as described in the Genestealer lore above but couldn't decide on which one, I felt Ultramarine would just look silly and other pastel shades of blue I had would make it look like a 1980's follower of Slaanesh, I wanted the tone of the sinister Alien in the movies, in the end I decided to go with Vallejo Model Color 'Dark Sea Blue' as a base which I washed with Citadel Contrast Black, drybrushed the base colour again and highlighted a couple times with the base colour with increasing amount white mixed in.  I did the mouth in a light violet washed purple and black claws highlighted with greys/white. The miniature is quite busy, I found there's a lot going on and picking out a detail or two might spoil the feel I was going for so to finish it off I added some white spots as I had seen a image of a leech with them and then gave it a brush coat of Citadel 'ard coat varnish for a slimy effect et voila I had a Csith Genestealer.

I thought I was done but lo and behold there was a problem, this miniature has a lot of deep detail and where the 'ard coat had pooled it had turned cloudy. It seemed no one knew how to rectify this problem when the varnish was brushed on, sprayed on yes, there was a couple of suggestions on FB but I tried develop my own fix.  My final fix involved a tiny 0/5 brush and 100% acetone, I carefully attacked each cloudy pool with a brush dipped in acetone and the pool disappeared detail was restored although back to matt finish, after that I washed the miniature down thoroughly with water and lightly painted 'ard coat back on and hey presto problem fixed.

** Update **

Now I have had a lot of messages on FB and Twitter on about where one could potentially get hold of fan sculpts and I've always been unhappy tagging a person as they might get spammed, anyway I happy to announce that these miniatures are available from Ye Alchemist now do yourself a favour and go buy you will not be disappointed.

Ymgarl Genestealer - right

Ymgarl Genestealer - left

Ymgarl Genestealer - front

If you compare the original illustration to the miniature you can see what a good job Drew did on this sculpt.

Ymgarl Genestealer illustration from the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook

This miniature is huge look how it scales up to a fan sculpt Protonid.

Which is better? There's only one way to find out: FIGHT!

Size comparison at the annual hive general meeting

I recently received a gift of a  transparent Ymgarl Genestealer from a very nice chap of the Oldhammer community, one of only 20 transparent resin casts made, I feel very honoured, thanks.

I have no idea how to photograph transparent miniatures but I experimented a little below.

++ Beware Brother ++

Right, I'm going back to smaller miniatures for a while this little journey was hard work :D

J

Confrontation 40K Space Marine - Fan Sculpt

Hello, today I bring you the third Oldhammer fan sculpt miniature I have recently painted, most of you will be well familiar with this miniature from it's Facebook exposure, blogger, etc and probably have this miniature in your backlog.

This miniature is based on the Les Edwards painting 'Confrontation 40K' which depicts a Blood Drinker's chapter Space Marine stationed on the world of Necromunda blasting an attacking mob of Scavvy gangers with his bolter, the painting appeared on the cover of White Dwarf 137 May 1991 (the one with the Confrontation combat rules in it) and in the Blood and Iron book of Les Edwards art produced by Games Workshop Books in 1989.

The miniature was sculpted in 2020 by Drew Day Williams of Satyr Art Studio (give them a follow), keep an eye on him as there are some superb retro inspired miniatures being produced, this miniatures details are spot on, the ornate shoulder pad, the gauntlet, face, earrings and bolter look exactly like they should, he's even done the Blood Drinker's icon on shoulder pad and gauntlet!! The miniature was distributed by some very nice chaps of the FB Oldhammer groups.

Painting I went for colour scheme of the Space Marine in the painting with plans to build a diorama base for him to slot into that represents the scene in the painting, my reference picture was from the Blood and Iron book and I didn't realise how washed out it looked compared to the polished version on the Les Edwards website so my miniature might be a bit more muted when compared. I also had to go for the green gold gauntlet I could swear Les used the old first Citadel Colour Gold, do you remember the one? it had a tinge of green and was green when separated, his armours battle damage was fun and easy to copy from the painting, the chapter icon was freehand as I couldn't find a Blood Drinker's transfer/decal anywhere, I am a bit out of practice, not entirely happy with it.  Lastly I had to fight temptation to 'ard coat gloss this miniature to try and get the glossy finish the Power armour has in the painting but in the end I went with a few highlights and a coat of matt varnish.  Oh and I wimped out on the Necromunda writing on the shoulder pad. :D

Now for the photos.

Confrontation 40K Space Marine

Confrontation 40K - Les Edwards

Confrontation 40K image from Blood and Iron book

Confrontation 40K Space Marine - front

Confrontation 40K Space Marine - back

Confrontation 40K Space Marine - side

Confrontation 40K Space Marine - side

Ornate shoulder pad

Freehand Blood Drinker's icon

Below are the Confrontation 40K Scavvies that have just landed at my house and will be getting prepped up soon, when I say soon probably this year. These are just a thing of beauty.

Scavvy gangers

Thanks for visiting and get following loads more cool stuff to come,

J