Slocombe's Warbots - Part 1 - Sam

Hello, today I have a classic Oldhammer miniature that I hardly know anything about! 

This is my first post on Slocombe's Warbot's the 'Sam' Type Light Wardroid, released on the Citadel Miniatures October 1987 Flyer and sculpted by Tony Slocombe.  I am lucky enough to own all 3 miniatures from this range and I am enjoying breaking open those 'Limited Edition' TSF15 WARBOTS blisters open to give them a lick of paint like they should have, 2 other warbots accompany it in the range the MkII 'Sprinter' Assault Droid and 'Deathblow' Class Heavy Droid which will also be receiving a paint job before the year is out.

Now we get to the controversial bit, I have always been a Battletech fan and played it 1988-92 and I found all these warbots reminiscent of the Battletech mechs so when I posted a work in progress photo on Twitter, a friendly follower @Leaky_cheese replied with a Battletech image by  Duane Loose that was almost identical and other followers pointed out a likeness to the Battletech Vindicator mech, yeah, yeah I here say so what, continue reading...

Well this train of thought lead to me having an idea on the origins of this range and I am happy to hear your thoughts. Like the other obscure Rogue Trader robot range released in October 1987, the 'Limited Edition' SFD Giant Robots, well while I was painting some of these lovely Bob Naismith sculpts I noticed they had GW 1984 date stamps on the bottom which harks back to a time when Games Workshop were still producing miniatures for licensed games i.e. Judge Dredd, Eternal Champion, Dr Who, etc, 3 years before the decline of the licensed games so my idea is were the Slocombes Warbots and maybe the SFD Giant Robots created for an early attempt of 1984 Games Workshop acquiring the Battletech license and failing to do so is why we see these Robots incorporated into the Rogue Trader universe and released 'Limited Edition' maybe trying to claw some money back from this endeavour?

Or it could be just wild ramblings of a mad robot fan.

I went for an Imperial Army type colour scheme with lots of rust and battle damage it seemed fitting, added a few old transfers from various kits and distressed them, added a bit of colour to the power source and visor.

Anyway enough nonsense here's the picts.

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

'Sam' Type Light Wardroid

TSF15 Warbot blister about to broken open

TSF15 Warbot open and ready to assemble

Twitter followers asked for a size comparison so here you go, a very tall miniature that would make an excellent robot for Inquisitor as it is slightly over 54mm high.

Size comparison

Thanks for visiting,
J

LE1 Space Orc

Hi Folks, today's Oldhammer treat is the 'not so' Limited Edition LE1 Space Orc. 

From what I believe the first Space 'Orc' to appear in the citadel ranges, there were other Orcs with a sci-fi twist like the Bazooka Orcs, Sleazy Rider and the Orc with machine gun in the Marauder miniatures Orc range but not until the launch of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader where Orcs were renamed to Orks did true Space Orks come along, was this sculpt just a flight of fancy or a test miniature for the early development of Warhammer 40,000, many other miniatures appeared in the limited edition range featuring a sci-fi theme or technology equipped, Space Skeleton, Wizard with machine gun did anyone ever incorporate these into their early Rogue Trader games?  I do remember we used loads of  Sleazy Rider's.

What I like about this Orc is the primal animalistic appearance of the Orc, gorilla like, hunched over with big long limbering arms, giant tusks, he reminded me of The Planet of the Apes movies so much that I gave him a little U.S. flag on his arm, he wears a Space suit retro fitted with armour plates and a flight pack and armed with a crude combi-weapon of double barrelled blaster and battle-axe!!!

There is a nicely painted example over on Solegends.

These photos appear a little dark I may have to redo them.

LE1 Space Orc - side

LE1 Space Orc - front

LE1 Space Orc - side

LE1 Space Orc - back

Thanks for coming over
J

LE9 Space Skeleton

Hello, today we a fun little miniature, another of the 'not so' Limited Edition's that Citadel Miniatures churned out, the Space Skeleton, released in 1986 and sculpted by Bob Naismith, I don't think there's anything else to really tell about this miniature.  The only undead I remember from the Warhammer 40,00 Rogue Trader rulebook were Vampires (Page 205) and Zombies (Page 207) so I guess you could use the rules for the latter to cover 'Space Skeletons' (I love saying that :D).  I was trying out the new Citadel Technical gemstone 'Soulstone Blue' paints on it's helmet visor and I think it worked quite well simply paint the area bright silver and wash the glossy thin colour over the top for effect.

There's other great painted examples over on Solegends, another here at Sho3box and on JB's blog Leadplague so get visiting them and show the guy's some love :)

Tim Prow's Diehard miniatures Kickstarter has a brilliant tribute to this miniature, it's a must see here on twitter which reminds me there is a thriving Oldhammer and old school miniatures/games following over on twitter that is worth checking out, it's really cool and tends to be a bit more mature than the Facebook carnage.

Space Skeleton - front

Space Skeleton - back

He gets about a bit

Next up we have 'Rambones' a Oldhammer miniature from the classic Citadel Miniatures C Series days, a 1987 C17 Skeleton sculpted I think by Aly Morrison. I painted this one up at the same time as my Space Skeleton and decided to include it here as it needed a home. Another play on the 1980's movie character Rambo which the citadel sculptors were quite keen on, I have a few citadel Rambo parodies so I may do a post on this subject one day.

Rambones - side

Rambones - side

Rambones - front

Rambones - back

White Dwarf 91 - C17 Skeletons, Rambones is on the top row

thanks for visiting
J

Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos - Compendium One, Now that's Oldhammer 1983

Hi, today a post I have had sitting in my drafts for a while now, 'Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos' is a classic but hideous Oldhammer miniature, this one got a lick of paint for preservation reasons, the lead was getting darker and darker over the years due to oxidation and I was worried that if I let this continue unchecked the miniature would eventually suffer lead rot and go brittle so I cleaned it up and gave it a quick paint job and a dip in Army Painter Quickshade which has completely sealed the miniature in a heavy gloss varnish, an additional highlight and matt varnish et voila a preserved miniature. (in my opinion anyway :D)

This is an early Citadel miniature limited edition from 1983 way before the not so limited edition 'LE' code range appeared in 1988.

Know as the Compendium One Chaos Specials, Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos shared the article with infamous Leaping Slomm Two Face and Zygor Snake Arms (the links painted examples are from Roebeast's wonderful blog I suggest you visit). 

Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos - front

Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos - back

Ngaaranh Spawn of Chaos - side

A snippet from the article that featured in Compendium One.

Another miniature that was sat on my painting table for a year is this Greater Daemon of Slaanesh, I felt this post would make a good home for this miniature, it was a nightmare to assemble and required a lot of filling, I am not overly enamoured with the paint job but it'll do for a battlefield.

Greater Daemon of Slaanesh - side

Greater Daemon of Slaanesh - side

Greater Daemon of Slaanesh - back

Thanks for popping by,

J

Space Marine 30th Anniversary Tribute - LE2 Imperial Space Marine

Hello,
I am sure you are all well aware that it's the 30th anniversary of the (Citadel) Space Marine on 16th April and that Games Workshop will be selling their new celebratory updated version of the LE2 Imperial Space Marine on the weekend of 16th/17th April.  The world seemed to have gone beakie mad since the leak of the Imperial Space Marine miniature and many have dusted off their old Space Marine armies and posted photos of them for our enjoyment across the internet, so when I saw the rumour of this event over on a well known rumours website there was only one thing I could do, dive into the box of heavenly delights and pull out LE2 for a painting session in tribute to my old friend.

LE2 Imperial Space Marine

I painted him up in the colours of the Blood Drinkers chapter although in the Rogue Trader rulebook they do not have black shoulder pad but I thought black suited the gold studs better. Readers who don't remember these original Space Marines before the grimdark will notice that he has a sculpted on power plant on his back that was meant to be a flight pack back then, a large laser rifle with scope and blade and weird looking laser pistol both weapons are far from the weapons of Warhammer 40,000 today.  The real detail I love about this miniature is all the vent holes and computer devices attached to his armour and If you don't keep your paint thin there is a danger of filling in all these lovely details so beware.  
Here's some photos of my efforts.

LE2 Imperial Space Marine - front

LE2 Imperial Space Marine - front

LE2 Imperial Space Marine - side

LE2 Imperial Space Marine - back

Here's the new Games Workshop version for comparison, you see see they have been quite faithful to the original although the laser rifle and pistol now appear more like a bolter and bolt pistol, I like that the helmet studs are still present, I almost filed them off as flash :D 

I will probably buy one but it is a big shame that it's plastic. £18 price tag is extremely steep for a standard miniature, I think you could pick up LE2  Imperial Space Marine on eBay for about £4-5 and I advise you pay no more and just wait for hype to die off.

Games Workshops reimagining of the Imperial Space Marine

LE2 Imperial Space Marines appearing in the Rogue Trader rulebook on page 111 with the proto Land Raider.

And some gorgeous photos of LE2 Imperial Space Marines labelled as Deep Space Mercenaries from the legendary publication Heroes for Wargames (which own 3 copies of :S)

Blade removed from the marine on the right

A head swap on the Marine on the left makes him an excellent officer.  I think the origin of the head is still a mystery.

Last Note, LE10 Power Armoured Marine was really the first Citadel Space Marine for me, it was available in my Games Workshop for ages before we got our hands on a LE2 blister but I don't recall LE10 having a blister or LE code but that's how things were back then just crazy chaos, I may have got it via the mail order trolls which just adds to the confusion as some of my memories are a bit clouded.  (I will take a photo of my LE10 for you another time)

Anyway enough rambling on, I hope you enjoy your Space Marine 30th birthday weekend it's certainly been a trip down memory lane for me, 

Q. Now dare I paint the rest of the C100 Space Marines?

A. No! far too many projects on.

thanks now get following
J

Low output - Beastmen and other stuff

Hello! Welcome back, it's the end of my holiday season (if only work would stop ringing me during said season) and my miniatures are getting some well deserved attention so I have got back to the task in hand and finished some more Chaos Beastmen, speed painted a classic Citadel limited edition miniature and got caught up in a Yogi frenzy (see below).

First we have preslotta C38 Chaos Beastman 'Horseman', well not much to say about this miniature other than it's a naked bloke with hooves who you would struggle to outrun, I remember as a teenager tittering with my rocker mates at this miniatures todger, I'll leave it at that :D

Horseman - side

Horseman - front

Horseman - side

Next we have a CH4 Chaos Beastman 'Vrak', I don't think he was meant to be based on any animal in particular which seems to be the case for many of this range and he even has a true Beastman name 'Vrak' departing from the old names like 'Koala-man' (if only he existed :D), the miniatures were very bestial a precursor to where we are today I think.  For the shield I did not have time to paint it so I dug out a arcane armorial decal (another example here) and stuck it on and in this case the gum was faulty so I had to set it with Microsol, a must have for any serious painter/modeller as it sets the decal, sinks in and follows the contours it is adhered to. 

Vrak - side

Vrak - side

Then I had a day off and was sorting out the thousands of slottabases into a new box I purchased from Aldi and low & behold I found the missing foot to Tinman (mentioned here in the comments back in 2013, thanks Orlygg :D) stuck to a 40x40mm base so after breaking off the crudely sculpted replacement and a bit of pinning and medium Superglue he was good as new.  Tinman was a limited edition miniature (LE14) who appeared in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenario 'The Crude, the Mad and the Rusty' with his maker 'Oxy O'cetylene' the dwarf engineer (I am not a big fan of dwarves so I won't be painting him in a hurry), I went on to paint him aiming for a heavily corroded look, I was testing the new Citadel Nihilakh Oxide techinical paint as I don't seem to be able to find a good copper oxide colour, for the normal rust I used my tried and tested method detailed here. Overall I am happy with the results and to compliment the rusty colours I added some Autumn tufts with leaf fall, which are widely available on ebay.

Tinman - front

Tinman - back

The last miniature on today's post is 'Yogi Yakamoto' from the Citadel Judge Dredd range JD13 Sky Surfers, he appeared in the Judge Dredd story 'The Midnight Surfer',  I painted this miniature after being inspired by several pictures of this miniature on the Oldhammer Facebook group. I copied the colours he was in the comic strip except I accidentally painted his chest which should have been flesh coloured. More will follow as I enjoyed painting this miniature.

Yogi the Sky Surfer with original Citadel flying base

Banzai! Yogi's Sky Surfboard

Here's my new box from Aldi with all my spare slottabases neatly organised, we'll see how long that lasts, plastic shields next. :D

Thanks for visiting now get following this blog.
J