C29 Monsters - Giant Carnivorous Bird aka Culchan

Hello, today's post features a fun Oldhammer miniature that I recently painted while having a little break from Rogue Trader Pirates, so without further ado I give you the superb overgrown chicken that is the C29 Monsters - Giant Carnivorous Bird later aka the Culchan.

No real thought went into this paint job I was just messing around with colour with Parrots on my mind, this is the same original miniature I bought in Games Workshop Birmingham in the mid 1980's it has survived many miniature culls and has had several paint jobs and riders.

Released in the Autumn 1985 Citadel Journal and designed by Nick Bibby, I have included a snippets from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Bestiary of the Culchans stats and illustrations below just to prove that giant chickens were were a Warhammer thing.

Anyway enjoy the photos.

C29 Monsters - Giant Carnivorous Bird - left side

C29 Monsters - Giant Carnivorous Bird - right side

Imagine this running at you

C29 Monsters - Giant Carnivorous Bird - front

C29 Monsters advert from the Citadel Journal

Later C29 Culchan

Illustration from WFB 2nd Edition

Culchan entry from WFB 2nd Edition Bestiary

Illustration from WFB 2nd Edition

Even Orcs rode them!!!

and Ogres!!!

I hope you had as much fun viewing this quirky miniature as I did painting it

thanks for dropping in

J

Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 2

Hello, I am over half way through another Oldhammer project, the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates, some of these guy's are so odd I am surprised they didn't end up in the Citadel Miniatures drawer 101 and never come out to see the light of day, some of them are absolute gems but others have had me bemused, now I am no master of photography (or story telling), I take my photos with an iPhone with a LED lightbox and follow the Warhammer Community guide as it seems the most simple, my macro lens camera is rotting in the loft but I can categorically say some of these pirates have no 'Golden Angle', I usually like to photograph the front and especially the back of a miniature as many people would of never seen it but with these guys it's all over the place and I don't think you are getting the full picture of their oddities.

I've gave a bit background and my thoughts on these Pirates back in my first post: Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 1 go and have a read if you haven't seen my first batch, this post features most of the last miniatures that I consider the rank and file of the range before I move onto the more characterful sculpts like the much loved 'Sensei'. 

My latest batch of RT601 Pirates

I am continuing to use my own reference number system based on the original advert and again I will use these numbers as their identities in these posts. I have again paired them up with their closest sculpt brother or although some are made up from several pirates.

first four

second four

First up we have pirates 17 and 3.  Pirate 17 I gave a big red drinkers nose, he's a great all-rounder who I could use in any game, pirate 3 is an interesting mish mash sculpt based on pirate 17 with pirate 7's right arm and shoulder pad, he has a really cool flight pack, astronauts helmet with tubes coming out of his mouth and is weirdly bent over kissing his chainsword.

RT601 Pirates 17 and 3

RT601 Pirate 3 - front

RT601 Pirate 3 - back

RT601 Pirate 17 - front

RT601 Pirate 17 - back

Next we have pirates 14 and 7, pirate 14 is part bionic with a claw arm which is very Genestealer like (there's a Hybrid conversion in there for someone brave) and lower leg, he has the head of pirate 12, pirate 7 I cut off the original sword blade as it had gone all soft and wiry and replaced it a plastic Warhammer zombies one, a bit of Typhus Corrosion and I think it's hard to spot.

RT601 Pirates 14 and 7

RT601 Pirate 7 - front

RT601 Pirate 7 - back

RT601 Pirate 14 - front

RT601 Pirate 14 - back

RT601 Pirate 14 - side showing bionics

Next we have pirates 9 and 10, nice dynamic poses, both miniatures have that weird half Bolter, half Autogun sculpt with mounted light/scope and strange webbing/bracers that go under their groin, pirate 10 has a breathing apparatus, the pair are decent miniatures to be honest.

RT601 Pirates 9 and 10

RT601 Pirate 9 - front

RT601 Pirate 9 - back

RT601 Pirate 10 - front

RT601 Pirate 10 - back

And finally pirates 20v and 6, not the greatest sculpts, I am going to call this one 'pirate 20v' as I believe he is a uncatalogued variant, the original adverts shows him without a visor and I have seen this visorless miniature about several times and painted by community members, he does have a cool diamond design sculpted into his shoulder pads, pirate 6 has pteruges hanging from his shoulder pads and both have the same weapon a sort of carbine autogun, they have that hunched over pose of the earliest Rogue Trader era miniatures that made them a pain to paint.

RT601 Pirates 20 and 6

RT601 Pirate 6 - front

RT601 Pirate 6 - back

RT601 Pirate 20v - front

RT601 Pirate 20v - back

I managed to get hold of the original Pirate 20 featured in the advert without visor and he'll be getting a paint job soon

Thanks for dropping in, more fan sculpts and RT Pirates on the go so stay tuned, I can't wait for my mate to turn up with all his shining Stargrave miniatures and rulebook for a game and I bring some of these out, I did it with Frostgrave and chaos beastmen, you could see the disgust on his face, he thinks I am only doing it to wind him up :D

cheers

J

Rogue Trader - Ymgarl Genestealer - Fan Sculpt

Hello and welcome back, this my fourth post in a row featuring Oldhammer fan sculpts, I just love fan sculpts and fancied getting some of these beautiful miniatures finished and put down the Rogue Trader pirates for a couple of weeks. Today's post features the Ymgarl Genestealer, based on the original illustration featured on page 211 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook and sculpted by in 2020 by Drew Day Williams of Satyr Art Studio.

If you don't know the original Genestealer, here's the lore,

"This enigmatic monster originates from one of the moons of Ymgarl, but has spread throughout space and is threatening to become a real menace. In its native state it is blue, has two pairs of clawed arms, a long muscular tail and a tough leech-like body. Its head is a simple tube full of slobbering tendrils and sharp inward-pointing teeth. What makes the Genestealer truly unique is its deadly and extremely rapid reproductive cycle. Genestealer are of a single gender, and are incapable of reproducing amongst themselves. To reproduce they require another creature, any creature will suffice, of any gender. For all the Genestealer requires is the basic genetic material which is contained in every living cell of the mate. A Genestealer implants its own genetic material in the form of an egg capsule, which is forced into the body of the host by an extendible ovipositor normally secreted inside the head. The implantation does not kill the mate immediately, but the implanted egg quickly grows until ready to burst out as an immature Genestealer. Needless to say, this kills the parent/host. Interestingly enough, newly born creatures, although fundamentally Genestealers, will have characteristics inherited from the host parent. Thus a Genestealer/human may have a vaguely humanoid head, or only two arms instead of the usual four, and perhaps its tail will be shortened or missing. A Genestealer of four or more generations consistent of human parentage would pass for a human on cursory inspection, although a closer look would reveal a bluish skin, sharp pointed teeth and rather disturbing stare. On their home world, Genestealers exploit a large leech-like creature called a Csith which is the usual mate. Matings with a Csith always produce natural Genestealers, no matter what its parentage otherwise." 

The build was easy enough the miniature came in 3 parts so I had to glue two of the arms on, there's some room there for pose variations, when it came to painting this miniature I wanted to go for blue as described in the Genestealer lore above but couldn't decide on which one, I felt Ultramarine would just look silly and other pastel shades of blue I had would make it look like a 1980's follower of Slaanesh, I wanted the tone of the sinister Alien in the movies, in the end I decided to go with Vallejo Model Color 'Dark Sea Blue' as a base which I washed with Citadel Contrast Black, drybrushed the base colour again and highlighted a couple times with the base colour with increasing amount white mixed in.  I did the mouth in a light violet washed purple and black claws highlighted with greys/white. The miniature is quite busy, I found there's a lot going on and picking out a detail or two might spoil the feel I was going for so to finish it off I added some white spots as I had seen a image of a leech with them and then gave it a brush coat of Citadel 'ard coat varnish for a slimy effect et voila I had a Csith Genestealer.

I thought I was done but lo and behold there was a problem, this miniature has a lot of deep detail and where the 'ard coat had pooled it had turned cloudy. It seemed no one knew how to rectify this problem when the varnish was brushed on, sprayed on yes, there was a couple of suggestions on FB but I tried develop my own fix.  My final fix involved a tiny 0/5 brush and 100% acetone, I carefully attacked each cloudy pool with a brush dipped in acetone and the pool disappeared detail was restored although back to matt finish, after that I washed the miniature down thoroughly with water and lightly painted 'ard coat back on and hey presto problem fixed.

** 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.

Ymgarl Genestealer - right

Ymgarl Genestealer - left

Ymgarl Genestealer - front

If you compare the original illustration to the miniature you can see what a good job Drew did on this sculpt.

Ymgarl Genestealer illustration from the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook

This miniature is huge look how it scales up to a fan sculpt Protonid.

Which is better? There's only one way to find out: FIGHT!

Size comparison at the annual hive general meeting

I recently received a gift of a  transparent Ymgarl Genestealer from a very nice chap of the Oldhammer community, one of only 20 transparent resin casts made, I feel very honoured, thanks.

I have no idea how to photograph transparent miniatures but I experimented a little below.

++ Beware Brother ++

Right, I'm going back to smaller miniatures for a while this little journey was hard work :D

J

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