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

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

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

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman

Hello, todays miniature is of a character that many of the old guard of Oldhammer community know and love the infamous Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman, he made his appearance in the first Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader supplement - The Book of Astronomican on the beautifully illustrated page 47 and there is a short piece of Rogue Trader background that goes with the illustration which pretty much still holds true today.  I have included this text below for completeness. 

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman

"Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman, Hero of the Kynblax Genocide"

I have read somewhere that the 'Kynblax Genocide' got a reboot in Forge Worlds literature and that Joff made a cameo appearance but that's all too new and expensive for me to follow up on.

"The Rogue Traders of Earth are a simple breed.  They are the ultimate human adventurers, explorers and conquerors.  Operating beyond the frontiers of Imperial space, it is their task to uncover alien civilisations, eliminate possible dangers to the Imperium and to investigate new and potentially useful technologies.  The hidden dangers of the galaxy claim many Rogue Traders every year, but there  is still no shortage of volunteers.  Every Rogue Trader receives a charter from the Emperor as well as a special banner and badge.  Example of these are shown in the illustration above.  In addition, each Rogue Trader is entitled to recruit fellow volunteers and may even be put in command of whole units of Marines from various Chapters.  Troops from units of the army are also advocated, often numbering many hundreds.  All of these crusading warriors swear allegiance to their new master, adopting his badges, and wearing his colours upon the special tabard which is worn over their armour."

Joff is equipped with Powered armour, a bionic left arm incorporating a Power Glove and carries a Power sword and Bolt-pistol. (and an antique WWII German respirator case!)

The miniature was sculpted by ex-citadel golden era sculptor Goblin master Kev Adams in 2016 for Knightmare miniatures and it was part of the second Space Raiders kickstarter campaign, eventually being released for non kickstarter backers via the Knightmare miniatures website in the Space Raiders range.  This range has so many nods to the Warhammer 40000 Rogue Trader and Realm of Chaos era, I cannot recommend these miniatures enough, they are nice clean crisp casts and I am proud to say I recently learned they are casted in my hometown of Birmingham, UK by Griffin Moulds JJP LTD.

When it came to the paint job I wanted to try and be as close to the original illustration as my skills allowed and when I started I used the Book of Astronomican scanned picture that has been on the web since it was created in 2004 which I probably shouldn't have done, why? well the scan is very bright and yellow with scanning lines across it the distort some of the detail and it wasn't until I went up in the loft to retrieve my Astronomican, I opened it and started to see details and colours that kind of different but it was too late as when I say a miniature is finished I've probably lost interest.  

The very yellow scanned image of Joff, see Joff as he should be in scans at bottom of post

What I would have do differently, more browns and ochre's on the armour dirt, I totally missed his scar and missing eye until I looked in the book but having a closer look I did spot that the sculptor missed or omitted his Khan like beard, maybe he was using same scanned image as reference? The revelation of the beard had me thinking that this miniature would be a prime candidate for a Whitescars Primarch.

Assembly was straight forward enough, it's a tall miniature so went on a larger round base it would fit in nicely with the more heroic scale miniatures of today, he has a separate power pack which was fun to paint and is huge, fitting it is very tricky but I like it.

Anyway no more waffle to the photo's.

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman - front

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman - front

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman - side

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman - back

Rogue Trader Joff Zuckerman - side

Joff Zuckerman with his away team

Page 47 Book of Astronomican

Marines and Imperial Army in tabards, no thank you

A nice very muted brown Joff

Now it's time for big shout outs to other notable Joff Zuckermans I have spotted out there, of a wonderful and first example from JB here, Dr Mathias knocked a great version here, there are other great ones tell me about them if you see them.

Thanks for stopping by.

J

LE11 Giant Orc Chieftain and Bodyguard

Hello, today's classic miniature post features a lovely Oldhammer pair from the 1980's Citadel Miniatures 'not so' limited edition range the LE11 Giant Orc Chieftain and Bodyguard.  The pair were released in 1987 and I believe sculpted by Kevin 'Goblinmaster' Adams.

I hold these miniatures close to my heart my first Warhammer Fantasy Battle Army was Orcs way back in about 1983-84 during the transition from 1st edition to the more exciting 2nd edition so large were our armies and that we tended to field everything we had, it would take about 2 hours to put your army out on the field, play all day and then 2 hours to pack it all back up, these guy's were some of the few miniatures remaining from that army so I had to get them out and strip them for a revisit here.

These are really nice sculpts and demanded some extra attention both prepping and painting, I attempted to go for those classic goblinoid skin tone colours that appeared in the White Dwarf 'Eavy Metal pages of the time, working up the greens to a yellow highlight, dirty dull metallic armour, I painted all the studs on the jerkin and spear staff first post undercoat as I find it a lot easier to paint around the studs rather than clumsily painting them all in at the end plus a dark wash blends them in nicely and I put some extra time in on yellow and black checked shields as it brings the pair together and it one of my favourite shield patterns, I would hope it dazzles their opponents during a fight.

LE11 Giant Orc Chieftain and Bodyguard

LE11 Giant Orc Chieftain - front

LE11 Giant Orc Chieftain - back

LE11 Giant Orc Bodyguard - front

LE11 Giant Orc Bodyguard - back

I should of probably saved these for Orctober but couldn't wait, I hope you enjoyed them.

Come back soon!

J

Blackstone Fortress - The Explorers

Hello, today we have some modern Warhammer 40,000 miniatures from the Warhammer Quest Blackstone Fortress game, I really want to play this game so much that completing the explorers is a massive milestone to me on the road to getting a game on with painted miniatures.

For the paint job I wanted to go as close to the examples on the Games Workshop website as possible to make them easily recognisable to my little boy, some of the ridiculously professional detailing was ignored for obvious reasons, here they are my efforts.

Janus Draik, Rogue Trader, like all Rogue Traders Janus is a pioneer tasked with exploration and expansion beyond Imperial space boarders, they are granted permission to trade and interact with aliens out in the fringes of space. Janus Draik is looking to bring archeotech and artefacts back to the Imperium.

Janus Draik - side

Janus Draik - front

Janus Draik - back

Espern Locarno, Imperial Navigator, sanctioned mutant, he seeks to search the Blackstone Fortress for lost archeotech, hoping to discover cargos that will unlock the arcane secrets of warp travel. 

Espern Locarno - front

Espern Locarno - back

Thaddeus the Purifier, Ministorum Priest, Taddeus has come to the Blackstone Fortress to bring the Imperial Cult to Precipice. He wants to purge the Fortress of any taint he finds.

Thaddeus the Purifier - front

Thaddeus the Purifier - back

Pious Vorne, Missionary Zealot, she used to be a hive ganger and after imperial conversion she now fights along side Taddeus the Purifier.

Pious Vorne - front

Pious Vorne - back

Amallyn Shadowguide, originally from the now shattered Craftworld Biel-Tan, she now searches the Blackstone Fortress for ways to save her dying home. The lost secrets and archeotech may have some clues on how to restore her craftworld. 

Amallyn Shadowguide - front

Amallyn Shadowguide - back

Dahyak Grekh, Kroot Tracker, is a Kroot mercenary and heading into the Blackstone Fortress in search of more genetic material to consume which could unlock the secrets held within.

Dahyak Grekh - side

Dahyak Grekh - back

Dahyak Grekh - front

UR-025 is an Imperial Robot in the service of a Magos. Is this Robot sentient and possibly one of the legendary "Men of Iron" sentient robots who threatened the earlier human civilisation of the Dark Age of Technology?

UR-025 - front

UR-025 - back

UR-025 - side

Rien & Raus, Ratling Twins, they come as a package, have Astra Militarum training and gear but are now hired guns. 

Rien & Raus - front

Rien & Raus - back

Now to paint the core box 35 hostiles, come back in 2 years for an update :D

cheers

J