Sunday 28 November 2021

Rogue Trader - 'The One Big One' Human Renegade

Hello, something a bit goofy for todays blog post, a project I started back in 2014 and lost during our house move only for it to resurface when I was bored of my current paint jobs and was in the loft looking for an interesting distraction, let me introduce you to my take of the Rogue Trader 'Human Renegade'. This character is pictured in the (1st Edition) Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook on page 172 in an image labelled 'Human Renegades'. 

This image has always been a favourite of mine with the 'The One Big One' character sitting there in what could be described as a space adventurers tavern looking all menacing with his flash mate and a pair of pints and some documents on the table, hit contracts, bounty instructions, who knows? The image has always been popular Oldhammer circles and I know of at least two other paint jobs out there of this character on RT01 metal marines, fans on various forums have asked questions like "who are these guys", "what's their story" and "are these still a thing", myself they have always reminded of the kicked out penitent marine character in one of the early 40K novels, out adventuring on some distant planet without any care for the grimdark, I am sure the creative writers out there could knock up a great story.

The build was simple enough, chop up and reposition a RTB01 plastic Space Marine, fill with green stuff, the end product a pretty rough looking sitting down miniature, I built him a seat out of plasti-card and das promo modelling clay. There's a cool looking rifle is depicted in the image which I attempted to copy by chopping up a variety of early plastic weapons, sticking them together and filing the gaps with plastic putty, I enjoyed giving the rifle a wooden stock, for the backpack I used an RTB01 one and shaved down the grill bits to get a smooth top.

Paint job was the fun part as the character doesn't follow Space Marine Codex schemes so I was forced to come out of my comfort zone and get creative with my paints, plenty of dark washes and weathering was required to try and achieve desired outcome, armour graffiti is a bit rough and I really struggled gettting the 'KISS THIS' on the end of the gun barrel.

Back in 2014 I started to build up the pieces to make a whole diorama of this image and have a rough build started on the other character using the first plastic Space Ork shoulder pads, for the table I have an old lead piece from Citadel Miniatures early days which sizes up nicely and for the room I have an even older resin dungeon room made by a company that probably doesn't exist anymore, you'll see more details on all of this when I pick the project back up, happy to here any ideas that might influence build.

On to the photos... and there's quite a few as I was struggling to get that golden angle, enjoy!

'The One Big One' Human Renegade

Human Renegades on page 172 of the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader rulebook.
Rogue Trader Human Renegade - side


Rogue Trader Human Renegade - front

Rogue Trader Human Renegade - another attempt of trying to get the golden angle

Rogue Trader Human Renegade - other side

Rogue Trader Human Renegade - backpack

The finished miniature has gone down quite well Twitter so I thought it deserved an immediate blog post.

Thanks for joining me on this fun project, more to come soon

J

Wednesday 10 November 2021

Rogue Trader - Death Ferret

Hello, quick post today, my Oldhammer blog drafts are piling up and I have very little time to finish them off but here's a nice short one, in this post we have another one of the more uncommon Rogue Trader miniatures out there the oddly named Death Ferret, this miniature was available back in 1989 along side other odd bods the Gyrinx and a Jokaero, unfortunately no background was written for this 'alien' creature which is a shame as I am sure it would of been a right laugh.

How this miniature ended up in the Rogue Trader range is open to speculation, maybe another drawer 101 thing, I guess with the desperate need for alien miniatures in the Rogue Trader universe everything was game and I am surprised there's were not more critter like oddities out there, I, for one, would of loved to have owned a Pterasquirrel miniature. The Death Ferret is reminiscent of the C Series C22 Creatures range and may have roots there although the range was defunct by the time by the time Death Ferret was available.

Anyway time for photos.


Death Ferret - side

Death Ferret - side

Death Ferret - front


thanks for dropping in,

J

Saturday 18 September 2021

Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 3

Hello, coming to the end of another Oldhammer project, the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates, my previous blog posts on this odd range can be read here Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 1 and Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 2. This post features some of the gems of this range, still odd miniatures but certainly some of the more desirable miniatures of the range like the beloved 'Sensei'.
Rogue Trader Pirates part 3

I have included advert again for reference


 
First up we have we have Pirate 4 aka the famous Sensei and although the miniatures in the advert are unnamed he is the only one who isn't named Pirate on his tag, it clearly states 'sensei'. The Sensei concept first appears in the 1988 Realm of Chaos Slaves to the Darkness book on page 217 and there are some lovely illustrations that show various Sensei's which I included below, now you can see from the advert above the Pirate 4 paint job is something special compared to his counterparts adorned in gold armour and white robe, it makes me think was this odd bod pirate range which was released a month before the Realm of Chaos book hit the shelves was going to be originally part of something that was going to be a Sensei Warband range maybe before all the miniatures got their variants made up to bulk out the pirate range, at the time I believe Citadel were churning out miniatures for Warhammer 40,000 and needed to keep the momentum up but the Realm of Chaos books still needed work so maybe this Pirate range was down to that. The Sensei warband list appeared in Realm of Chaos Lost and the Damned on page 186 and if you look at the equipment for the followers I think this Pirate range could be an easy fit as a Sensei Warband range.

Now I always try and point out variants, well it could be Pirate 19, I tried really hard to pair him up with Pirate 19 because if you follow the pattern they come in two's (and one 3) and you can usually work out the original miniature and then the variant with all his donors, Pirate 19 below has very similar lower leg plates and leg spacing so the only candidate I am putting forward for now.

Paintjob I went for neutral tones pretty much how I like my home interiors done, he's not interested in looking flash like your archetypal pirate as he has a higher purpose so buff, medium grey, stone grey, khaki was the colours of choice.

Pirate 4 Sensei - front 

Pirate 4 Sensei - back
Sensei as illustrated in RoC SoD page 217

I have painted and modified this miniature before the second I got it back in 1988 and here a shot of him with my 2021 version.

Old vs New paint jobs

Following on we have Pirate 24, he is quite a portly fellow in a boiler/space suit unfortunately accentuating his obesity but hopefully he thinks his flash equipment will draw the beholders eye from his poor space diet, the helmet is an amazing sculpt with an eye augmentation, nice blaster and my favourite bit the power glove which is like an industrial machine, I think he is a later modification of Pirate 1 as some of the lovely detail on from Pirate 1 is obscured but still visible if you take a close look.
Pirate 24 - front
Pirate 24 - side
Pirate 24 - back

Next up is Pirate 1, his bloated appearance with roll of fat around his neck, this miniature always made me think of Baron Harkonnen and I'll always wanted to chop up another copy to get my very own 'floating fat man' as he was called in the Dune movie by the original Emperor, this pirate is totally Rogue trader era it's a totally bonkers sculpt, like Pirate 24 he is in his boiler suit and he is has some pretty expensive equipment, consisting of a Chainsword and arm replacement multi missile launcher.  His head also ended up on Pirate 21 but I painted the fatty neck as a scarf on that one.

Pirate 1 - front

Pirate 1 - side

Pirate 1 - back

Following on we have Pirate 8, this is a cool miniature definitely a Pirate leader with his cigar hanging out of his mouth, two guns an Autogun and some sort of taser looking pistol and kitted out with a visor and body armour, I am still looking in the loft for his variant Pirate 2 I may have to trade him in to complete this project.


Pirate 8 - front
Pirate 8 - back

Lastly we have Pirate 19, now this is my long shot for a Sensei variant, it's all about the legs :D I went scruffy biker style with this one with his head scarf, rosy drinkers nose and black leather waist coat, I painted angel wings on the back as a nod to Daryl in The Walking Dead.
Pirate 19 - front

Pirate 19 - back

Only 3 more to do, 2 in the stripping jar and one of them I can't find at the moment but on a plus note I found the original Pirate 20 without the visor the variant was shown in my last post and painted him, he'll be featured in my last post of this range soon Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 4.

I have a ridiculous amount of drafts on the go so stay tuned, they will trickle out.
 
thanks for dropping in, 

Friday 4 June 2021

Rogue Trader - Mark VI Techmarine - Fan Sculpt

Welcome back! In this post I bring you my fifth blog post featuring fan sculpts that are either a direct tribute to classic Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader artwork or a have an unmistakable Oldhammer style, this one is an Adeptus Astartes Techmarine in Mark VI Corvus armour, sculpted by the very talented James Sherriff in 2017, it's  a beautifully crisp metal cast and if I get the terminology correct it's either true scale or heroic scale which is more akin with the modern Space Marines some of you paint today, the sculptor has added lots of beautiful little details, the wrist scanner, fuel tank and lump hammer, I was instantly sold when I came across it.

Assembly is simple as it's a single cast, I mounted it on a modern round 40mm base there was no other way really due to the stance, the Techmarine comes without a powerpack and an Oldhammer community member gifted me an resin Mark IV powerpack sculpted by fan sculpt master Drew Williams (who has featured on this blog previously) that sizes up nicely with this miniature.

Now usually I get a lot of messages on FB and Twitter questioning where one get hold of the fan sculpt featured in a post and in this case this miniature is available from Ye Alchemist at a very affordable price, go get one, half the pubs are still closed and it's cheaper than a couple of pints of craft beer :D

Painting I went for the Flesh Tearers scheme that I seem to be painting all my Space Marines in lately, I have tried free hand painting the chapter icon several times and have never been happy with the result so I went eBaying and purchased some Flesh Tearer vinyl sticker decals and some 3D printed curved shoulder icons for my Rogue Trader era Space Marines, in this case I used the vinyl sticker which was very malleable when warm and only required a bit of tidying up with black paint.

Now to the miniature.

Techmarine - front

Techmarine - back
Techmarine with vinyl Flesh Tearer icon
Techmarine - side
Techmarine - side
Techmarine - side
Techmarine comparion to Rogue Trader era Techmarine


Thanks for visiting, I hope you enjoyed this miniature
J

Sunday 30 May 2021

Rogue Trader RT601 Adventurers Space Amazon - Take 2

Hello, for years now I have been mostly painting individual Oldhammer era Citadel miniatures and when I finish a miniature I rarely revisit it let alone paint another copy unless its stripping down one of my awful teenage jobs from the 1980's but today's miniature is one of my all time favourites so I had another go and decided to take my time and put a bit more love into it.

You may of seen my previous attempt back in February 2013 on the Space Amazon - RT601 - Adventurers blog post, I was never happy with this paint job, I had envisioned her as a sci-fi version of Amazon Gothique in an eternal champion type multiverse and not a character in her own right.  Many of you will own the book Ratspike by John Blanche and Ian Miller which was published by Games Workshop in 1989 and will be familiar with John Blanche's painting 'Amazon' that features in the book along with lots other amazing pieces, I have included a picture of the Amazon painting below.  The Amazon in the painting has a real likeness to Siouxsie Sioux of 'Siouxsie and the Banshees' that great British post punk alternative group, I really wanted to try and capture this feel in my latest attempt and pay homage to the painting.  The Space Amazon of the RT601 Adventurers range like Kinky Chaosette/LE15 Chaos Amazon and Lune are other wonderful examples of John Blanche's art in miniature form.

When it came to painting I started by blocking all the colours in very neatly before moving on to multiple washes, some blending then I did some nice highlights and the miniature could passed off as finished but to me it wasn't Blanche's Amazon.  I opened up the Ratspike page and studying it I wondered if I could achieve all that outrageous detail on a miniature, it was time to drop my own painting style and go a bit crazy which I found very technically demanding the characters clothing is so chaotic, embroidered basque, multiple different animal fur types, Zebra, Leopard, Dalmatian, brown/white and black furs, other quirky details like in the painting where she has a stocking on one leg, tights the other, both with different patterns,  it's details like these that really mess my brain up but I got there in the end. 

I hear you say stop waffling and show us the miniature so here go enjoy.


Space Amazon - front

John Blanche's Amazon

Space Amazon - back

Space Amazon - side

New vs old - front

New vs old - back

Thanks for dropping in, I hope you enjoyed this revisit as there are a couple more in the works

J





Tuesday 13 April 2021

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





Thursday 8 April 2021

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