Wednesday, 15 February 2023

Forces of the Imperium - Imperial Assassin and Friends

Hello, todays Oldhammer miniature blog post features an odd mix of Imperial miniatures which I painted in between projects. It's going to be a short post as there are only 4 miniatures.

Imperial Assassin and friends

First up we have the 1989 Assassin with Power Sword and Bolt Pistol which appeared in White Dwarf 118 October 1989 as part of the Forces of the Imperium range, which I think was sculpted by Jes Goodwin, the range mainly consisted of Inquisitors but also featured a Rogue Trader and this female Assassin. 
It's a bit of a lackluster miniature, she is posed lurching forward as if to strike with her power sword, I went for a black colour scheme as you would expect for an assassin, I found the pose and colours didn't lend themselves well to photography.
I think she has a variant of sorts the Forces of the Imperium Rogue Trader  and I think this is evident in the legs, it feels like she was probably sculpted on top of for the Rogue Trader or even she was just the dolly jazzed up a bit.
Assassin with Power Sword and Bolt Pistol - front

Assassin with Power Sword and Bolt Pistol - back

Assassin with Power Sword and Bolt Pistol - side


Imperial Assassin and Rogue Trader comparison

Next up we have 'Lord Revelation' from the Wargame Foundry Empirical Absolution and Liquidation Squad, I've already talked about these a bit here when these previous unreleased Rogue Trader miniatures were discovered and cast up. He is a prototype Adeptus Administratum Scribe as they appear on in the illustration and description on page 140 in the Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book.
Lord Revelation (Prototype Administratum) - side

Lord Revelation (Prototype Administratum) - front

Lord Revelation (Prototype Administratum) - back

Administratum Scribe Page 140 Rogue Trader rulebook



Halt in the name of the Emperor!



Next up we have 'Captain Repentance' another rediscovered miniature from the Wargame Foundry Empirical Absolution and Liquidation Squad, he appears to be an Inquisitor or maybe a Rogue Trader. This one is a variant of the 2000ad Strontium Dog Johnny Alpha miniature and appeared in Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader book on page 11 and an illustration on page 82 bears some resemblance.  I went full 1970's sci-fi on the paint job with lots of bright colours. I have seen a couple of decent paint jobs on this miniature out there and I recommend you check out Curis's lovely version.

Captain Repentance (Prototype Inquisitor) - front

Captain Repentance (Prototype Inquisitor) - back


Imperial Inquisitor p11 Rogue trader Rulebook

Captain Repentance and Johnny Alpha comparison - front


Captain Repentance and Johnny Alpha comparison - back

Lastly we have a Ratling sniper from the first Rogue Trader release from March 1989 sculpted by Alan Perry for the new Imperial Guard release.


Ratling Sniper - front

Ratling Sniper - back



thanks for dropping in
J

Wednesday, 19 October 2022

Rogue Trader RT601 - Pirates - Part 4

Hello and welcome to another Oldhammer project that is at an end, 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
Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 2 
Rogue Trader RT601 Pirates - Part 3

This post features the last four miniatures of the original range I had to paint.

Last four advert Pirates complete

I have included the original advert again for reference with my own numbering system.

RT601 Pirates - White Dwarf 103 - July 1988

First up we have Pirate 11, he is sculpted in one of those horrible lurching forward poses which is quite common for the Rogue trader era miniatures, he has a top knot and googles and has an autogun, curved sword and rum flask all very piratelike so I just had to give him a skull and crossbones badge. As always, I take photos of the backs of these miniatures for completeness, but they are pretty dull and awkward.

Pirate 11 - front
Pirate 11 - back


Next, we have Pirate 16 like most the miniatures of this range he shares the body of another, in this instance Pirate 11 above, this time he has been sculpted with a hood and wearing goggles, a cutdown bolter/autogun mash up, he still has the curved sword and rum flask, I painted a pentagram on his badge as I thought he might make a good cultist.

Pirate 16 - front
Pirate 16 - back

Pirate 16 and 11 - comparison 

Following on we have the original advert Pirate 20, simple miniature so got a simple paint job.

Pirate 20 - front
Pirate 20 - back

I've talked before about this guy in the previous Part 2 post where I unveiled Pirate 20v and linked in Pirate 6, my theory was that Pirate 20 face deteriorated with continuous casting, so the cyclops visor was added, I stick with this as Pirate 20 disappeared from the catalogues and Pirate 20v appeared.
Pirate 6, 20 and 20v - comparison

However just the other day a valued member of the Oldhammer community Kev Squebb made a new discovery (I shall call him 'Pirate 20 v2'), this Pirate 20 v2 has goggles, no idea when or why he came along and how many are out there, but it does raise a question in my mind, was he part of the transition to Pirate 2v (cyclops visor).  The completionist in me will be on the lookout for this one.

Pirate 20 v2 (courtesy of Kev)

And finally, Pirate 2, now I didn't originally own this one and it was a real pain to track down, but I got him in the end, he shares the body of Pirate 8 and is quite an awkward sculpt where some of Pirate 8 previous equipment is still visible, checkout the boot knife.  What is cool about this miniature is that I think it is the only Rogue Trader era miniature with his weapon slung over his shoulder which I found surprising as it was a staple pose of the plastic soldier era.  I had a go trying to paint him in tactical black, it helped his big menacing knife stand out.

Pirate 2 - front
Pirate 2 - back
Pirate 2 - side
Pirate 2 and 8 - comparison

thanks for taking a look
J

Sunday, 18 September 2022

Confrontation 40K Diorama & Scavvies - Fan Sculpt

Hello, in today's Oldhammer post I show you my completed diorama based on the 'Confrontation 40K' painting by Les Edwards. You may remember I completed the Necromunda Blood Drinker Space Marine back in March 2021 and since then the accompanying Scavvy gangers have been sitting around my workbench getting the odd flick of paint here and there.

The Scavvy gang miniatures were again sculpted by Drew Day Williams of Satyr Art Studio, please visit the website for some great limited edition Oldhammer inspired miniatures. 

As you might remember from my previous post on this subject, I planned to build a diorama of the painting and faithfully recreate the paint schemes of the characters involved on the miniatures, well today the gangers are finished and I knocked up a quick diorama based out of plumbing supplies, I feel the base is a little small but that was the only piece of mdf I could find lying around the house, my original plan was to integrate the bases in drilled recesses but I ended up just placing the miniatures on it, time is always my enemy.

Anyway here's the photos, they quite didn't come out as I wished but hey ho, enjoy.

My take on Confrontation 40K
From above
"kill him you scavvies!"
Scavvy Gang line up

Scavvy Gang line other angles
Enemies of the Imperium receive swift justice

Here's a couple of shots of the original painting for reference.

Confrontation 40K - Les Edwards

Confrontation 40K image from the 1989 Blood and Iron book


Thanks for visiting, I will be back soon with something cool
J

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Rogue Trader - RT01 Space Marines - Flesh Tearers Part 3

Welcome to my latest post continuing the Oldhammer Flesh Tearers Space Marines project I started back in November 2018, previous posts can be seen here Part 1, Part 2.  I now have enough bolter armed marines to play a scenario like the Battle at the Farm and for part 4 I plan to move on to more exotic marines with special and heavy weapons. In this post you will also see that my marines get a reinforcement, a fan sculpt Colossus Imperial Robot.


Latest batch of Imperial Space Marines with robot support.


Another 6 Flesh Tearer Space Marines finished

First up we have Brother Slater, I spotted the original Brother Slater on my first visit to Warhammer World, a well known painted version as an Emperor's Children Marine from around the launch of Space Marine Epic 1st edition used for scale against a Star Wars Scout Walker Titan conversion in White Dwarf 120 (see below). 

As with all the marines in this post I continued to use the Flesh Tearer 3D printed decals from mars_forges on their shoulder pads.  As this marine holds a technical device he might make a good controller for the Imperial  robot.

Space Marine Brother Slater - front

Space Marine Brother Slater - side

Space Marine Brother Slater - back


Brother Slater - White Dwarf 120
The original Brother Slater from WD120 at WHW



Next we have Brother A Skull or renamed later as Brother Dixon, his interesting helmet gives rise to his name and he appears to been awarded the iron cross before the days of Terminator honours, he is armed with a bolter and power glove,  I've seen this odd looking marine used several times as an Inquisitor back in the day. As variants go Brother Marine Quiff from the same range shares all but the head.

Space Marine Brother A Skull - front

Space Marine Brother A Skull - another angle

Space Marine Brother A Skull - back

Brother A Skull

Brother A Skull conversion from back in the day

Following on we have Battle Brother Dedmole later renamed to Brother Taylor, who knows why was he the only marine named 'Battle Brother'?  In original advert he had a different backpack which I go into further on down, this marine is quite different compared to most of the marines of the range, armour pieces and helm are smaller, eyes more together, I feel he fits in with the marines of Rogue Trader rulebook illustrations much better.

Space Marine Battle Brother Dedmole - front

Space Marine Battle Brother Dedmole - side

Space Marine Battle Brother Dedmole - back

Space Marine Battle Brother Dedmole - side

I'm a big fan of painting Space Marine backpacks and when I used to pore over the original Space Marine adverts I spotted a strange looking backpack on Brother Dedmole in White Dwarf 93 it really excited me as it was clearly different to the backpacks on all others, I had to know more.

Brother Dedmole, what strange backpack is this?

Analysing the few photos of Dedmole that existed I was convinced that it wasn't a conversion and some lost backpack exists and after a lot of research I identified the backpack as the one included with the Rogue Trader unreleased metal multi part marine, which I'll probably never own as the price tag would be way too high to reunite it with Brother Dedmole.  I am also starting to think that other pieces of this multi part kit were used when sculpting Dedmole.

Rogue Trader unreleased metal multi part Imperial Space Marine


Next Brother Meredith, I have painted this marine so many times over the years and still have them in the loft but I had another go for this project, originally I was going to include him in my medics post but he is walking wounded so I didn't as he still has some fight in him, I painted him as if he had taken a blast on the one side, the sooty face might appear a bit comedic but it can really happen like this.  He'll need some serious work when he gets back to the tech adepts in the chapter monastery.

Space Marine Brother Meredith - front

Space Marine Brother Meredith - side

Space Marine Brother Meredith - back

In part 2 of this project I painted Brother Sheer and mentioned that he was a variant of the first wave of Imperial Space Marines Brother Froth who we have below, I always like to point out variants and the variation in Brother Sheer is so subtle the uninformed may trade him off thinking him a double (I've done similar, a costly mistake :D).  In the last post I suspected that the gap between bolter and shoulder pad was filled with a gun light due to problems with the casting process with the Brother Froth miniature and hence Sheer was born.

Space Marine Brother Froth - front

Space Marine Brother Froth - side

Space Marine Brother Froth - back

Space Marine Brother Froth vs Brother Sheer - 1

Space Marine Brother Froth vs Brother Sheer - 2

Space Marine Brother Froth vs Brother Sheer - 3

Space Marine Brother Froth vs Brother Sheer - 4

Next we have Brother Harris, I love this marine, the facial scars and metal plates holding his head together, he looks like he has been through the wars. His armour has some extra armour plates and his bolter has a different configuration to others, it's longer with an extended back and barrel and he appears to be either opening the top of it to clear a jam or have a custom grip on the top, it also has a vicious looking combat blade, this is my ideal boarding marine.

Space Marine Brother Harris - front

Space Marine Brother Harris - side

Space Marine Brother Harris - back


Lastly we have a fan sculpt Colossus Imperial Robot, this miniature is huge and I feel a great improvement on the original, it was available at TrollSoup for a very short period of time and I managed to snap them all up before being discontinued. It was sculpted by Drew over at Satyr Art Studio. It has the classic configuration of Bolter, Melta and Siege Hammer.  I used the Mighty Brush decals on this one, they are out of this world!!.

Fan Sculpt - Imperial Colossus Robot - front

Fan Sculpt - Imperial Colossus Robot - side

Fan Sculpt - Imperial Colossus Robot - back

Fan Sculpt - Imperial Colossus Robot - side

Fan Sculpt - Imperial Colossus Robot - side


I just have to share the great packaging art

Robots packaging art


Comparison shot with the originals


Anyway I think I have rambled on long enough in that way I do but i hope you enjoyed the post and will be back for more in the near future, get following this blog and on twitter: @fuljason

Cheers

J