Rogue Trader - Protonid - Fan Sculpt

Hello, l am currently working through some of my favourite of Oldhammer fan sculpts and todays post features a fan commissioned tribute to the extremely hard to come by limited release prototype Tyranid, there is a lot of speculative fiction surrounding the origins of the prototype Tyranid miniature on various forums and blogs but I am not going into that here.

If you have not seen the original protonid miniature it features in the photo 'Battle for Geo-Station Erpes - Orks battle Marines' on pages 102/103 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook, this fan sculpt really captures the essence of the original protonid miniature and apart from the original having a gaping mouth, I think it's a superb alternative.

Painting was a bit on and off for 3 months, it's huge daunting miniature, 90mm long and 40mm high but I finally got into it, I started to go for a similar tone to the original and there was a lot of space to fill but no matter how much highlighting and shading I did on the it the miniature still felt a bit flat so then I deviated from my plan and went for an alien with a touch of horror thrown in and tried to break up the space with animal type patterns and other details like running blood, veins, etc which I think brought the miniature to life.  Due to the miniatures size I had to source a modern Games Workshop base and I raided the skulls box chucked on some sand, textured paint and job was done, after I have matt varnished this miniature I plan to gloss the eye over.

** 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.

Protonid - left side

Protonid - right side

Protonid - front

Size comparison with the super tall and chunky Inquisitor with power weapon

I have included a few images of the original Tyranid so you can make your own comparisons.

Tyranid illustration page 201 Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook

Tyranid miniature page 103 Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook

Bryan Ansell's Tyranid (photo borrowed from Steve's old thecitadelcollector website)

Thanks for dropping in, more fan sculpts coming soon.

J

Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter

Hi Friends,
Todays classic Rogue Trader miniature is an Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter, I painted this miniature while working on the Forgeworld Solomon Lok which I can say I am not enjoying painting although the sculpting on this miniature is inferior to Solomon Lok, on Lok there is just too much detail, you need to be of Golden Demon standard to do it justice.

I love the ecclesiastical outfit and personal power armour he wears, adorned in runes and Imperial emblems, he is armed with a Daemon sword and a holstered PSI-cannon.  If you remember from the all fluff in the RoC SoD book I still laugh now remembering to even see an Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter meant you faced extermination only Adeptus Astartes were exempt as it was seen as a waste.

Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter - front

Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter - back - note the plastic Space Marine power pack

White Dwarf catalogue advert below, labelled slightly wrong as Inquisitors with force weapons, which if you look at the miniatures they are clearly carrying Daemon weapons.  Luckily I own all three :)

Ordo Malleus Inquisitors - White Dwarf 118

Ordo Malleus Inquisitor - White Dwarf 117

I also painted one of the many broken plastic Tyranids in my Advanced Space crusade box, just to see if I could restore the miniature to a decent standard, it might be the start of another project for the future.

Tyranid - front

Tyranid - side