Thursday, 12 November 2015

RT601 - Adventurers - Eldar Trader

Hi Folks, 
I am finally getting back my Rogue Trader Adventurers, the project that this blog was originally created for and the latest miniature I have completed is the Eldar Trader from the RT601 - Adventurers range published in White Dwarf 99 back in March 1988.

Progress on my project can be seen here.

Eldar Trader - front

Eldar Trader - side

Eldar Trader - back
Eldar Trader - side

Now I don't like to gloat but this miniature cost me the tidy sum of $1 from eBay U.S, well actually $5 as there were 5 Rogue Trader Eldar in the auction lot and no one was buying so I had to rescue him as I did not have the time to strip my terribly enamel painted original from the 80's.  
I did really enjoy painting this miniature, he sports the obligatory Rogue Trader mohican (which I have talked about before) and is covered in the trappings of a swashbuckling spacefarering trader, tights, codpiece, jewellery and a discrete weapon. I went for gold jewellery as I imagine him landing on savage human fringe worlds and impressing all those greedy little eyes with all things shiny while relieving them of their rare xenos artefacts.  There is quite a wide gap on his base that is reserved for a Gyrinx (page 213 RT rulebook), I was given two suitable cat miniatures by Paul over at Sho3box a long time ago (be sure to follow his superb work)  but alas they are too big for the base and still sit half finished, I recently found a little present in a trade in the shape of a realistic tiny Squirrel miniature that fits the gap perfect and I am sure painted neon blue or something would pass as a Gyrinx.  I would like to get your thoughts on the Squirrel proxy before I commit (no Ptera-Squirrel on page 215 suggestions please that's just ridiculous :D).



Eldar Trader with proposed Gyrinx
Squirrel Gyrinx

I think the Eldar Trader miniature really captures the Rogue Trader universe as illustrated in the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook, a good example is page 188 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook which has similar character concepts that would not be out of place in the RT601 - Adventurers range.


Page 188 Rogue Trader Adventuers


I went with a Gyrinx familiar in the end :D


I hope you enjoyed this post, please get following all you lurkers :D

More Adventurers on the paint station as we speak.
J

Friday, 25 September 2015

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

Saturday, 22 August 2015

C13 Kaleb Daark and other work

Hi Friends, today I finally got around to finishing Kaleb Daark, I am not going to go into his history as it has been covered in countless blog posts, here and here are two good Oldhammer blog examples. He has been sitting on my paint station for about 6 months and after several disasters during his paint job I almost threw in the towel as this is the third time I have painted this miniature from it's original purchase back in the late 1980's, be warned neat Vallejo game colour Black wash is very dark, I spend hours getting the perfect black following the teachings of an artist I once read saying there is no such colour as black and after several shades of grey (ooer) I was almost finished and then decided to give the miniatures a wash of Vallejo game colour Black wash to add more depth, the miniature turned out like a lump of dusty coal, anyway I put a lot of work in salvaging rather than stripping the miniature and am sort of happy with the end result, I have tried to stay true to the comic strip a homage to the late Brett Ewins with the shield and helmet design but the miniature did deviate from the comic strip in many places which also wasn't always the same in every illustration, I hope you like.

Kaleb Daark on his mutant warsteed
Side view displaying his shield design
Front view with Dreadaxe
Side View 2
Front view 2
Next we have C27 Chaos Beastman 'Kiss of Death', a collection I have now completed :), this miniature I managed to acquire for £2 from a member of the Facebook Oldhammer Trading Group as it had a broken club which I easily replaced with a club from the Warhammer Empire Militia plastics, heresy I know but it looked right to me. 

Kiss of Death - front
Kiss of Death - back
I  always like to do my own research on my miniatures and try to stay clear of others findings as this can be taken as the final answer, I have convinced myself that the 'Kiss of Death' Beastman was not a new sculpt but a modification of another which is very common in early Citadel miniature ranges so after much searching I think the base miniature for this sculpt is from the C32 Slann range either Polo Slave 1 or Slave 2, I think you would agree that the club on Slave 2 is very similar to the 'Kiss of Death' Beastman's original club (if you have him to look at close up), other evidence is that the C27 Chaos Beastman were sculpted by Trish Morrison and the C32 Slann Trish and Ally Morrison are credited as the sculptors.  Not a easy miniature to find painted examples of but I managed to find one by Orlygg on realmofchaos80s, go check it out here.

Next we have some Runequest Broo, the original Chaos Beastmen, it's funny that I acquired these miniatures in a battered none padded envelope in the pub when meeting up with a mate, we were both wrecked and the miniatures were too, originally painted in the early 80's they required a lot of TLC to bring them back from the brink of destruction, not the greatest paint jobs but I had battered painted miniatures with dark grey patches and lead oxidation in places to play with so I was happy with the restorations.


Sometimes charity costs you dearly (well in time anyway)
FF68 Goat-headed Ogre always considered a Broo with the addition of a old, old Citadel Orc axehead

The next 3 are from the Runequest Box 4c: The Broo


Broo with Dagger
Broo with spiked mace
Rhino Headed Broo (I have many more of these to paint up :D)

Thanks for visiting, now get following
J

Friday, 14 August 2015

GO BUY NOW! - Unreleased Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader miniatures

I have just returned from my holidays to find these wonderful miniatures delivered to our house, they are unreleased Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader miniatures that were never released during the golden age of Oldhammer and have been cast up on general release by Wargames Foundry.



You can purchase these miniatures here.

Lets have a breakdown of who these unreleased miniatures are.

EMPIRICAL ABSOLUTION and LIQUIDATION SQUAD
  1. Captain Repentance: a Rogue Trader miniature that appeared in a photograph on page 11 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book, a prototype Imperial Inquisitor, the base miniature for this was the 2000AD Strontium Dog Johnny Alpha from the Citadel Judge Dredd miniature range.
  2. Sergeant Shame: a prototype Adeptus Custodes, another Citadel Judge Dredd miniature was used as the base miniature for this one, the SJS Judge holding Rifle
  3. Private Penitence: another prototype Adeptus Custodes miniature sculpt based on a Citadel Judge Dredd miniature and in this case it's Judge Giant
  4. Corporal Contrition: another miniature that appears in a photograph on page 189 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book sporting an 8 Ball helmet and is based on the RT7 Mercenary 'Old World Jack
  5. Lord Revelation: he is clearly depicted on page 140 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book as a typical Administratum Scribe.

Fishmen
These miniatures were based on Citadel Fiend Factory Ferocious Man-Fish and were modified to carry Sci-Fi weapons, previously only available at events, just give Wargames Foundry an email at: customers@wargamesfoundry.com, they cost about £5-6 each plus P&P. There are only two poses available at the moment, a third may be coming soon.






Please support Wargames Foundry and purchase some of these fantastic miniatures doing so may help in making it financially viable for the guys at Wargames Foundry to dust off more Ex-Citadel moulds and cast them for our enjoyment, it takes a lot of time to do so please support them.

I was happy to find a gift of a Street Violence Swat miniature in my parcel too.



For many more Ex-Citadel miniatures go here: http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/ex-citadel

I am also proud to show off my new paint brush rack courtesy of my father-in-law's woodworking skills, thanks John :)



I hope you enjoyed your visit, now get following :D
J

Thursday, 25 June 2015

More C38 Chaos Beastmen

Hi, for today's post we go back to 'C' series Chaos Beastmen, luckily they vary so much you don't really get bored of them.  I have painted four new additions which all are being drafted into my Morcockian 'true' Beastman regiment.

Four new Chaos Beastmen ready to join their friends
The first Beastman in this post is not actually a Beastman but a Devil from the much loved C18 Night Horror range,  This miniature started life as a Runequest Broo (the original Chaos Beastmen, see Broo previous mention) and he can be seen here but at some time later must have had his arm re-sculpted with the bottle removed replacing it with him making a demonic sign before going into the C18 slottabase molds. His head was available separately too in the Runquest Broo range.  Last thing I would like to say about this miniature is that the original Runequest Broo swigging the bottle appears in the ranks of Byran Ansell's Chaos Beastman regiments here's a photo (thanks Steve), a great pedigree for this miniature indeed.


Devil Night Horror - front
Devil Night Horror - back
Next we have have Sea-horseman from from the C38 Chaos Beastman range, a bizarre creature with armour festooned with all sorts of aquatic creatures and a nicely sculpted chaos star on it's shield, you may have noticed that many of the later Realm of Chaos Slanneshi Chaos Beastmen resemble sea life of some sorts, could Sea-horseman have been inspiration for these miniatures?   I have two more variants of this miniature, Fishman  and Fishman with Slug man's head. (I think Sea-horseman is another miniature I have to thank Steve for)


Seahorse man - front
Seahorse man - back
Next we have another C38 Chaos Beastman simply named again as Beastman who appears to be a variant of the C38 Eagleman, I was not overly keen on this miniature and only painted him for completeness, it's not a great sculpt, he appears to have a grotesque little head grafted onto the side of his head.


Beastman - front
Beastman - back
And finally we have another C38 Chaos Beastman that you don't see around often again simply named Beast man, he was in a terrible condition with lots of brittle metal, the bow just fell off and needed gluing back on, oxidation needed brushing off with a hard brush but the nice thing about this one is that is he is armed with a bow  a rare option for Beastmen, I did not really feel the Beastman vibe with this miniature as it looks more like a Half-Orc or Goblinoid, I wanted to give him an unusual skin colour as I did not want him to be mistaken as a goblinoid so I opted for Vallejo Pale Blue which worked well then I realised the finished miniature looked like a cross between Rogue Trooper and an Avatar Na'vi but I am happy with it and he fits in nicely with the others. This Beastman is a variant of the Horned C38 Beastman (better picture to come) who also has variant not standing on a rock when it was later converted to a slotta base mould.


Beast man with bow - front
Beast man with bow - back
Beast man with bow - side
Here is how my Beastman units are forming up on the Chaos shelf in my display case.


Chaos Beastmen regiments ranked up
The chaos shelf in full.


Chaos Shelf
The display case in full, a recent present from the in-laws.

Showcase with my favourite miniatures displayed
I hope you enjoyed this post, now get following
thanks
J
























Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Painting Rust - Brogar Brainbeater

Hello Friends, in this post I would like to share a simple technique I used for painting rusty armour, this is the first time I have ever used it on a standard sized miniature but often used it on my Imperial Guard tanks back in the mid 1990's when we were playing Warhammer 40k 2nd edition.  I needed a short break from painting Chaos Beastmen so I when I went through my storage box of chaos miniatures and selected victim for this experiment, who but none other than 'Brogar Brainbeater' fitted the bill with his heavy armour and halberd, he started life as a F5 Marauder and was eventually discontinued and incorporated into the Chaos Thug range, I really like this heavily armoured miniature and wanted to give him the degenerated look of a knight who had turned to chaos.

So this is how I went about it.

What you need:
An old Brush 
Tub lid with rim to keep your crushed pastels on as they are really messy 
White Spirit (I used Winsor and Newton but any should be fine)
2 artist pastels Orange and Terracotta both crushed
A can of Army Painter Platemail primer spray (only £3 in my model shop) 
Vallejo Oily Steel acrylic paint




Method:

  1. Clean up miniature as usual.
  2. Spray with Army Painter Platemail primer.
  3. Constantly wetting the old brush with white spirit,  dip and mix with the Terracotta crushed pastel and paint liberally over miniature getting it in the recesses while leaving some raised areas in the original platemail colour, it is important to keep dipping your brush as the pastels soak up the white spirit in lightening speed and it will go dry.
  4. do the same again with the crushed Orange pastel working it on top of the Terracotta but leaving some Terracotta still visible.
  5. Any raised areas where you wanted to show the original metal but went over it with pastels revisit and carefully paint over with your metal colour in my case Vallejo Oily Steel.
  6. Paint in your details, horns, belts, etc
  7. Base as usual and Acrylic SPRAY varnish, do not brush varnish or you will be left with a reddy brown mess as the pastels go powdery when dry and will reactivate.
  8. You should now be finished, quick and easy.

Here the final miniature I hope you like the results I think it is quite effective.


Rusty Brogar Brainbeater - front

Rusty Brogar Brainbeater - back

I hope you enjoyed this post and let me know if you give this technique a go.

thanks
J