Space ork squad leader

As we come to the close of Orktober, I find that trying to batch paint hasn't quite worked out, for the month-long painting challenge at least! I find myself with ten partially painted orks, and only one painted. I hope I'll get the others done over the next few weeks, but in the meantime here is a squad leader (if you go by the tab), or Ork Nob with Bolter and Bolt Pistol if you go by the 1991 catalogue.

I may add some orange "alien desert" clump foliage to his base, but otherwise I'm calling him done.

A little more progress

My wife had some of her friends round last night, so I escaped to my painting desk in the cellar and splashed a bit more paint around.

A little progress

My ork horde is slowly getting itself battle-ready, with a little help from a couple of hours in front of the telly. Not ideal lighting for doing so, but colour blocking is coming along nicely.

Weekend catchup

The overlap between oldhammer and being (or expecting to be soon) a parent of young children was pretty clearly shown yesterday when I posted the picture below from my weekend prepping my recently acquired Space Ork Raiders set (RTB02, I think) and got well over a hundred likes/comments. I guess that puts the majority of online oldhammerers in the late twenties to mid forties bracket...

Orktober

No matter what I've tried, I just haven't been able to get back into the painting groove since Dad's funeral back in February, apart from a couple of painting challenges. So, maybe, another painting challenge (orktober) will break the funk?

It comes at a good point, anyway, with my impulse idea to run Battle at the Farm for my boys in the new year. Small padded envelopes are starting to drop through the letterbox again, and I've the orks either nice and shiny again or back into the last dregs of my last Fairy Power Spray to get rid of the stubborn bits. I'm using the figures from the RTB02 Space Ork Raiders set:

Picture from Stuff of Legends

Corrupting the youth - or is it the other way round?

Mini-Rab #1 had just started at a new school and, as a way of getting to know the other kids, has joined almost every club going - a bit like a university fresher, but without the alcohol-fuelled excess. I hope. He is only nine!

Why is that relevant to this blog? Well, one of the clubs he's joined is run by his science teacher and seems to be a general "geek club", including lego robotics... and Warhammer 40k in its latest incarnation. Yes, despite my best efforts, he is desperate to join in as they push hordes of unpainted, badly glued lumps of expensive grey plastic around. Fortunately I had a squad of kroot in a box and his automatic assumption was that he'd paint them "at least a bit" before they saw table time to see if he likes the game. He wants to paint for about an hour each weekend until they're finished, so they're a bit more painted each week as he plays with them. Good lad! Perhaps 8th Ed will float his boat, perhaps oldhammer will keep him - as long as he's playing with his friends, and will indulge me in my oldschool gaming preferences from time to time, and having fun, who cares?

So, he sprayed...

Capra Sapiens

Caprids - capra sapiens

+++ Almost indistinguishable from the abhuman homo sapiens variatus (the "beastmen"), Administratum researchers have nevertheless shown Caprids to have evolved independently and should therefore be classed as xenos. Thorough Inquisitory investigation has shown none of the expected taint of Chaos that their visages might suggest and that, accordingly, they may be taken into the service of the Emperor, subject to standard xenos protocols. +++

Eleven from eleven

Normally I'm a pretty slow painter. I take ages to get the basics done on a figure, then get frustrated at how long it's taking and wind up bodging the last bits... So, it was a pleasant surprise this morning when it came up in a meeting that it was the eleventh week of the year and I realised I've painted eleven figures already! One for each week so far! I wonder if I can keep up the pace?

The eleventh figure, by the way, is this lovely Spacelords "Phagon Beastman" sculpt who will be leading the little band of anthropomorphic goats with laser guns in my Rogue Trader's retinue. When I finish the next four (currently WIP), I've got some blether to share about how I see them in the RT universe, organisation, and the like. Until then, here's the photo:

Razak Pen, methul of a full raaz, consisting of two cyrn 

Luthor's Peacock Co.

Ahead of tonight's OGRE games of Necromunda, I've got my Guilder gang finished and based - and even with one spare ganger ready to swell numbers if needed. Handily they also form the start of my Rogue Trader and retinue for some retro RT/40K action in the future. Introducing the final three...

Finish the job, don't get killed, get paid, don't drink or gamble it away. That was Tyler Watson's mantra and he stuck to it fervently. See, he'd been above the Line once, and that had been enough. Now every waking moment went towards The Plan - buying the bio-signs and passes to sneak across and set up in a new life where the air was barely 'cycled, no-one was trying to blow your head off, and the food wasn't just nutri-sticks. Finish the job, don't get killed, get paid, don't drink or gamble it away.

Nico and Dean, the Marl Brothers

Dean inhaled deeply and appreciatively, rolling the smoke around his mouth before exhaling gently and regarding the glowing tip of his cigar as if it contained all the answers to all the questions in the universe...

The crash of falling masonry and his brother Nico yelling for him to get up and start blasting snapped him out of his reverie and back to his day job - shooting the people Luthor told him to shoot. Life could be worse, eh?

The brothers from the front (Dean on the left with the stogie):

Luthor Pavonis

Luthor caught sight of himself in the mirror and raised an appreciative eyebrow; all his items of clothing clashed with at least one other piece - perfect! He'd explained it to Gregor one evening while the brute was having one of his regular memory wipes. Some men of wealth and power took great care to dress exquisitely; what did that say but they had money and lots of people have money. Some wore discrete clothing; this said they were confident that everyone knew who they were without having to catch your eye. Luthor's approach was different; dress like a colourblind pimp to send out the message that no-one dared to tell you how stupid you looked.

Besides, he had whispered as Gregor went into the deepest part of the reboot, Luthor loved to feel fabulous!

Gregor

Before the incident with the fungus harvester, Gregor had been regularly mocked and knocked around because of his diminutive stature. Since they rebuilt him (they had the technology!), very few dare to mess with the eight foot of servo-enhanced plasteel pit fighter and bodyguard he has become - the only thing that is short about him now is his temper...

 

"Lefty" Johanssen

Lefty sucked habitually at his prominent overbite and sighed. "A straightforward job" the boss had said. "Quick and easy" he'd said. "You lads are just there for show" he'd said. Lefty sighed again and settled his trusty autogun into the crook of his arm; things were never that simple and now he and the others were holed up behind an abandoned generator surrounded by armed and angry locals, waiting for the shuttle to come and get them out. Yet again.

Life's never easy for redshirts, even when you paint them orange! Here's the first member of my Sanctioned Privateer crew for Rogue Trader/Necromunda/Confrontation, and actually the first ever Imperial Guardsman I've painted.

Still in need of a matt varnish to flatten the gloss from an ink wash over the armour, but otherwise done.

It's a figure from the old Metal Magic "Spacelords" range, now being produced by Doug at EM4 miniatures. You have to email him directly for them, but they are so characterful and just scream "big bad universe" at me.

Realising he was my first guardsman inspired me to set up an "I've never painted a ... before" painting challenge for Rogue Trader over on the Oldhammer Forum, blatantly copying Colin's fantasy version that is well underway.

His fellows are coming along and should be ready to join him behind that ruined generator any day now.

Rab

Spacemen and other spacepeople

Inspired by the second Oldhammer Forum (link on the right) legacy project which has just gone live, I dug out the Metal Magic figures I've been picking up from Doug at EM4 as he rereleases them and picked those that would be needed for the Sanctioned Privateer crew for Rogue Trader that I rolled up last April, as well as the figure I've chosen for the legacy project.

Stuff from the interwebz #5 - CP Models

One of the more interesting, and frankly unexpected, outcomes from the resurgence of interest in scenario-based fantasy and sci-fi gaming with an 80s aesthetic (i.e. Oldhammer) is that not only are old molds having the dust knocked off them but new models in a sympathetic style are being sculpted.

The latest lot to catch my eye are these horrible little gribblies from CP Models:

New spacelords sighted

That lovely man, Doug, from em4 miniatures has been slaving away over hot moulds to return the sadly departed Spacelords range into active service. Well, there is actual lead you can buy from him now. This needs to be done directly by email, rather than through the website (enquiries AT em4miniatures DOT com).

As an appetizer, here are some ship's crew:

Spacelords

Several of you, dear readers, may be well aware of the (mostly) excellent line of miniatures that formed the Metal Magic Spacelords line. Some of them have been available, quietly, from em4 miniatures for quite a while. Indeed, it's where my brilliant Phagon beastmen came from not too many weeks back. Doug at em4 is a good chap to trade with, by the way, so give him all the custom you can... not least because he's gradually bringing back the rest of the line! Woo-hoo!

There's a pretty lively and enthusiastic thread running over on the LAF where Doug is taking votes on the next codes to reintroduce. Vote for your favourites to get them made again! I'm particularly hopeful that some of the S.E.C.S. troopers make it back into the lead as they may be just the ticket to solve my RT imperial guard conundrum...

I'll play you out with some of the fabulous pictures that Viruz from the Metal Magic Forum has kindly made available from the collection of images that he and others have painstakingly built up over the years. If you want higher resolution pictures, you'll just need to join that forum as well!

Sanctioning a Privateer

Having come up with a framework to create a random Sanctioned Privateer and his Crew, I had to give it a go. So, after a couple of tweaks (I've updated the image in the previous post as well) and grasping a pile of d6s and d100s, I set to work...

Sanctioned Privateer

Like I said in my previous post, game reports and nice miniatures were a big draw to get me to start some science fiction gaming. And, before I go any further, I should make sure I plug Doug at em4. I emailed him on Wednesday about some of the sci-fi beastmen he sells that were showing as out of stock, asking when they'd be back in. Really quickly he emailed back to say he thought he had one or two available, sorted out the order and posted it Thursday morning on his way to root canal work by his dentist - they were in my grubby little hands by elevenses on Friday. Brilliant service, beautifully cast models with fab detail, and a good bit of banter by email in to the bargain. Go give him your money! Go now!

Back? Spend lots? Ok, back to me! What got me planning this new project was Whiskey Priest's post in which he came up with the necessary tables to create an Inquisitor warband in an RT/RoC style - it made me want to make one for a Rogue Trader. 

Going Rogue

It was only a matter of time. Posts like this, this, and this have broken my notoriously weak willpower. So, just when I seemed to be scaling the lead mountain with greater impetus, having only a couple of at least partially overlapping projects, I've fallen for the lure of lasguns and rocketships. I'm going rogue... Rogue Trader, that is. In the same way as I've been enjoying the skirmish level gaming of RoC over recent months, I plan to do the same with RT.

Step 1: The Rules

Well, I've read them on Scribd and am bidding on a softcover set on that auction site. I actually had the book on medium term loan from a friend back when they were newish so lots of it is pretty familiar (why is my head so full of, frankly, useless information from decades ago, rather than useful stuff?).

Step 2: The figures

Interestingly, considering the large nostalgia element to most of my gaming, I think might go almost entirely non-Citadel for this. Partly expense, partly just to be different, partly because there are some lovely old-school (or old-school style) figures out there to choose from.

Beastmen

These abhuman troopers were always high on my favourites list. Possibly because of the beastman thing (goes along with my RoC enthusiasm, I guess). Anyway, it's almost impossible to get hold of the originals for a decent price and there weren't many different sculpts, so I've ordered some of the old Spacelords' range of Phagons from Doug at em4 miniatures. Not only are there TWENTY-THREE different sculpts, but Doug has been really helpful, rooting around to find a single copy of a currently out of stock figure for me. Since I started this post he's found one and I've been able to ping some paypal credits his way this afternoon. Understandably, I recommend em4 and Doug for their customer service!

When they can be made to look this good (admittedly by a talented painter like Pil), how could I refuse?

See the trader chap in the middle? Absolutely screams Rogue Trader to me.

You can find more photos of his brushwork in this thread on the Oldhammer forum. I shall certainly be returning there regularly for painting guidance for these chaps.