Wednesday 22 August 2018

IC301 - Iron Claw Pirates - Part 1


Hello, today's post is on a Oldhammer project I have had simmering for a long time, the IC301 Iron Claw Space Pirates, they were released in 1987 and appeared in the fabled Rogue Trader Book of the Astronomican in 1988.  
They were sculpted by Bob Olley, to some Bob Olley is a bit of a marmite sculptor some love his sculpts and some not so much, I love these Space Pirates but was never the biggest fan of his Realm of Chaos Beastmen although I did paint one up, example here, I also have the Bob Olley Limited Edition Bolt Thrower Miniatures Space Viking to paint one day.

Now what I love about the Iron Claw Space Pirates is that they ooze character in a similar way to how the Rogue Trader Adventurers do, have you checked out the characters up close up you have a female cyborg, a sentient robot, a handful of aliens, a space seer, lots of strange and identifiable weapons and unlike the slightly later range of Rogue Trader Pirates not a pirate cliche in there. Some superb naming character in this range too.




Two down 15 more to go.

First up we have 'Banzai Jones' a rugged looking human, he is wearing a flying jacket and helmet adorned with strange markings that appear like a bat or insect, could this be his pirate gang insignia who knows?  Armed with what looks like a classic shotgun. He appears on the classic White Dwarf 100 poster painted by I think John Blanche.

IC301 - Iron Claw Pirates - Banzai Jones - front

IC301 - Iron Claw Pirates - Banzai Jones - back

Next we have 'Loritta' aka Cyber Girl as the miniature tab reads, sporting a little dress, big boots, a cybernetic face, a massive machine gun slung over her shoulder and brawling gloves with mounted claws I pity anyone on a starship when she is on the boarding party.

IC301 - Iron Claw Pirates - Loritta - front

IC301 - Iron Claw Pirates - Loritta - back

IC301 Iron Claw Space Pirates

Bob Olley Space Viking coming soon


Thanks for popping in, lots more blog posts queued up
Stay tuned
J

Monday 23 July 2018

C Series C23 Oriental Ogre

Hello, todays post is another queued up blog draft, the classic Oldhammer Citadel Miniature C Series C23 Oriental Ogre sculpted by the legendary Jes Goodwin and released in 1985.  Everyone loves a bargain right and this one cost me £5.00 with a broken weapon which was an easy fix with a bit of pinning, I never overlook a cheap damaged miniature and always enjoy the restoration job.

This Oriental Ogre or Oni has obviously been plying his trade in Nippon, armed with some sort of Naginata (polearm or glaive) with a spiked ball and chain attached, adorned in segments of samurai armour but I dare not name them all as I would bore you off to another blog.

I went for feudal Japan with my style and choice of colours on the clothing, influenced by those beautiful flowing garments in my favourite 1980's 'Samurai' movies and shows like RanShogun Assassin and James Clavell's Shogun miniseries (which I have to watch every time it's on TV). Finally I added some electrostatic tuft flowers which I purchased really cheap off eBay.



C23 Oriental Ogre - front

C23 Oriental Ogre - side

C23 Oriental Ogre - more side

I originally attempted to paint the word pain in Japanese on his sword scabbard but it was a disastrous effort so I started again in English, it was well received by the twitter masses.



C23 Oriental Ogre - back

C23 Oriental Ogre - coming at ya!

C23 Oriental Ogre - trying to get the angle right


C23 Oriental Ogre 

C23 Oriental Ogre - White Dwarf Advert

Close up of C23 Oriental Ogre 

Now if this post has got your juices flowing I suggest you go and enjoy Colin's excellent blog posts on all things Nippon here and here, its very enjoyable and I must not forgot Zhu with his very unique style of blogging has much to say on the subject here.

I hope you enjoyed this classic miniature, more to come so follow me on Twitter for lots of #Oldhammer tweets, the Twitter Oldhammer community is growing come join in.

thanks
J




Tuesday 12 June 2018

C22 Creatures and other Oldhammer delights

Hello, today's post is a mishmash of recently painted Oldhammer miniatures that have been sitting on various drafts for a while and I don't really have enough content for their own separate blog posts. 

You may notice that some of today's photos have a fading (gradient?) blue background, these are my newer photos as I am currently experimenting with a more Oldhammer looking background, any tips are welcome.

First up we have the 'Chaos Demon' from the Citadel Miniatures C Series 1985 C22 Creatures.  This is a hideous creature with two horned heads mounted on worm like necks which are connected to want appears to be an upside down bloated human female body, a vagina between the heads and warty backside while saggy breasts dangling between the muscular arms the propel it.  As the description above portrays I think you will agree it is a grotesque creature that would be well placed in any Nurgle chaos army, it reminds me of the terrifying creatures from the The Thing 1982 movie.  As for the paint job, I used original Citadel Colour Rotten Flesh as a base and washed it with various browns, purples and greens then highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Dead Flesh, simple job really.

If only Games Workshop had the courage to make such miniatures today.



C22 Creatures Chaos Demon - front

C22 Creatures Chaos Demon - back

Next we have another 1985 C22 Creatures miniature, a 'Werefox' this miniature was painted last year for the Night Horrors Facebook Group Halloween painting competition which is always good fun as rarely get a chance to go through my Gothic/Night Horror miniature boxes.  This miniature is tiny and was quite a challenge to paint, the legs are as thin as pins, I went for dirty flesh tones as I imagine she lives in the forest and googled fox faces for the head colours.  The red squirrel on the base came as a freebie in a trade from a OTC member, I can't remember who but I thank you.  I have plans to visit this miniature when I acquire some brass etched leafs.


C22 Creatures Werefox - front

C22 Creatures Werefox - back



Following on we have two Chaos Hounds which also carry the C22 C Series code, the C22 Chaos Hounds and Handlers were released in 1987 and had ten hound types and appeared with 3 different handlers, a Chaos Warrior, a Chaos Dwarf and a Dark Elf.

Below we have Weirdspike and Saberwolf the only painted two so far but others will come soon as it was quite enjoyable. I went for a flayed flesh look for Weirdspike and rotten flesh for Saberwolf.


Weirdspike and Saberwolf - Chaos Hounds

Weirdspike and Saberwolf - front

Weirdspike and Saberwolf - side

Weirdspike and Saberwolf - side


I am also still slowly working through my Pantheon of Chaos miniatures by Knightmare Miniatures I picked these up during the Kickstarter campaign but if you missed this campaign you can now buy these from their webstore.

First we have Pantheon of Chaos Beastman PTB08 'Arnak Ghuul' this towering beastman makes the perfect Khorngor champion.  He was sculpted in the style of the original Realm Of Chaos artwork, heavily armoured, carrying a massive chopping weapon and adorned with trinkets, talismans, etc  There was only one colour I could possibly paint this one, red.


Arnak Ghuul - front

Arnak Ghuul - back

Arnak Ghuul - side

Arnak Ghuul - side



Another Pantheon of Chaos miniature recently finished, this time a Chaos Champion PC06 'Zz'andor' a favourite of mine as it's obviously a tribute to 'Zygor Snake Arms' the 1983 Mark of Chaos miniature featured in the Citadel Compendium One.  He carries a multitude of weapons, an axe, spiked mace, stone hammer, some sort of sword and has a magic potion in his belt, would you fight him? I certainly wouldn't :D

A nice and bizarre miniature to paint which truly represents the hordes of chaos to me, for the flesh I went for Citadel Colour Titillating Pink base then Citadel Expert paint set no.6 purple and then brought to life with various Vallejo pink shades.  I may revisit the weapons soon as I am sure I never finished them off, they look ok in the cabinet but under photographic scrutiny they need more work and I may paint the flesh in 'Ardcoat' for a slippery wet effect.

Zz'andor- side

Zz'andor - front

Zz'andor - side

Zz'andor - back


Thanks for reading, stayed tuned as some Bob Olley Space Pirates are coming soon.


J

Tuesday 29 May 2018

Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader First Releases

Hello, I finally finished a very personal project to myself the Rogue Trader 1st Flyer miniatures, some of these I have already blogged about and others are coming soon on this blog but for now please enjoy the results of a project that has taken many years :)

My latest version of the 1st Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader) releases - March 1987 Flyer
1st Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader) releases - March 1987 Flyer
1st Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader) releases - March 1987 Flyer Miniatures

1st Warhammer 40,000 (Rogue Trader) releases 


Tech-Priest Zon/Telepath, Ground Combat trooper/Souther, Piscean Warrior/Saharduin, Space Dwarf/Squat Irn Bonce
Telepath blogged here
Ground Combat trooper/Souther blogged here
Piscean Warrior blogged here
Space Dwarf blogged here

Imperial Garrison Trooper/Kylla Condotti, Space Goblin/Gretchin, Imperial Light Trooper/No-Face Fargo

Imperial Garrison Trooper blogged here
Space Goblin blogged here
Imperial Garrison Light blogged here

Imperial Bodyguard, Imperial Psycher/Astropath Yerl, Pirate, Dark Elf Space Trooper

Imperial Bodyguard blogged here
Imperial Psycher blogged here
Pirate blogged here
Dark Elf Space Trooper blogged here

Imperial Heavy Trooper/Fast/East-Star John, Space Orc with blaster/Ork, Imperial Heavy Infantry/Space-Dout Sam

Imperial Heavy Trooper blogged here
Space Orc with Blaster blogged here
Imperial Heavy Infantry blogged here



Hope you enjoyed
J

Rogue Trader Inquisitor

Hello again,  finally got around to finishing another draft and today's Oldhammer treat is another classic Citadel Miniature that is much loved and blogged about the first standalone Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader Inquisitor.  This miniature is often referred to as 'Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau' as he is obviously based on the Martin Mckenna illustration on page 142 of Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook.

Sculpted by Bob Naismith (which he confirmed today 30/05/2018 on the 'Emporium of Rogue Dreams' Facebook group and released 1988 appearing on this Rogue Trader flyer, it's quite an interesting sculpt with irregularities in the coat which you have to try and paint out, this has been pointed out on Axiom's excellent blog here, I think that's the reason the miniature wasn't around for long and certainly not available in the later back catalogues, I think the casting process was probably to blame for the coat fault.  In the illustration he appears to be welding a Chainsaw, the sculptor has interpreted it as some sort of ranged weapon on the miniature although the handle and lower part appear the same, I was thinking combat shotgun or railgun.  A resculpt of Rogue Trooper Major Magnum and Judge Dredd Chimichunga.

I went for the classic look most interpretations of this miniature go for with the ying-yang symbol necklace and blanchitsu checkerboard around the coat hem as per illustration.  He appears to have penal arrow sign on his coat or a sign similar to the 2000ad Torquemadas Terminators sign on his coat.


Rogue Trader Inquisitor - front

Rogue Trader Inquisitor - back

Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau - Page 142
Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau - Page 221

Inquisitor Obiwan Sherlock Clousseau - fluff


thanks for stopping by
J

Thursday 26 April 2018

SFD Giant Robots - Scavenger

Hello,
For today's post another classic Citadel Miniature, one of the SFD Giant Robots this time called 'Scavenger'.  Sculpted by Bob Naismith in 1984, the SFD Giant Robots had a limited release in 1987 via the Spring 1987 mail order flyer for use as Warbots in Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, see page 42 in the  rulebook.

This is my third robot finished from this range, I went for a different approach and painted it very difference compared to the other two I have painted previously which were sharp and bright.  I went for a really waethered, dirty, damaged appearance to reflect it's name Scavenger, started off with the colours of a JCB or CAT plant vehicle and then distressed the paint job with washes and weathering powders to extreme levels, luckily here in Birmingham UK it's been like a building site for years so I have had plenty of reference material and everytime I made it dirty it just wasn't dirty enough compared to what I was seeing on a daily basis.

You can read my previous post on the first two I painted a couple of years ago here and you can read some of my ramblings and own theories on these Robots here.



SFD Giant Robots - Scavenger - front

SFD Giant Robots - Scavenger - back

SFD Giant Robots - Scavenger - front

SFD Giant Robots - Scavenger - back


I hope you like my latest work please come back and enjoy my take on more classic Citadel Miniatures and get following lots and lots of Oldhammer projects on the go.

J

Tuesday 17 April 2018

Rogue Trader - Mercenaries Part 4

Hello, Today's we have the final 2 miniatures from the RT502 - Mercenaries code so I am happy to say that's another Oldhammer project complete.  As you know I completed the Rogue Trader RT601 - Adventurers a while ago and now this code is complete I need to decide whether a do the Bob Olley IC301 'Iron Claw' Space Pirates featured in White dwarf 93 or the RT601 Space Pirates from White Dwarf 103.


My final 2 RT602 Mercenaries


For we have 'Kylla Condotti' another Warhammer 40'000 Rogue Trader 1st Flyer miniature who found his way into the RT07/602 - Mercenaries code and Imperial Army blisters.  Originally listed as an Imperial Garrison Trooper and another of those miniatures with a sculpted on backpack which I know you all love. His tab says 'Low Tek Trooper'.   This miniature ended up in several blister codes over its lifespan.  His name is based on the famous historical mercenaries the Condottieri for anyone interested.
The only variant of this miniature is another Mercenary and 1st Flyer miniature No-Face Fargo/Imperial Light Trooper.


Kylla Condotti/Imperial Garrison Trooper - front
Kylla Condotti/Imperial Garrison Trooper - back

Imperial Garrison Trooper on page 165 of the RT rulebook


Next we have 'Catachan Luke', I have painted this miniature many times as a Catachan Jungle fighter like his name suggests, there are variants of this miniature in the Mercenary range and these are Hacker Harris and Breakout Con.  I went for an Afro-Caribbean race for him as I did this for my Catachan Jungle Fighters in my 2nd Edition Days.


Catachan Luke - front
Catachan Luke - back




One day I will treat you to my 2nd Edition Jungle Fighter units but I currently can't get through the clutter guarding them in the loft.

Thanks for dropping in, another project complete.
J