07 Monday Mar 2016
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Quickie post here, just to show off a Land Raider I finished last week. Its not great, I’ve not gotten much practise painting vehicles (this is only the second big vehicle I’ve ever done), but I think its a good start and the next one will be better!
11 Monday Jan 2016
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
So I finished this gang a couple of months ago and didn’t take photos at the time because I wasn’t too happy with them. But after a couple of months sitting on the shelf I have decided to take pictures, explain the problems, and move on.
Actually it should be clear what I’ve done wrong here… I’ve mixed periods too much. From Space Hulk to Rogue Trader to Space Hulk 3rd Edition is too much. The difference in scale and quality between the 1st Edition and 3rd Edition makes the 1st Edition Terminator look too small and too square. It really emphasises the limitations of plastic models back then, and I’m not a skilled enough painter to cover it up. I think in future that I will not mix such a wide range of models in one squad.
I Love this sculpt.
09 Saturday Jan 2016
Posted in Finished Work, Imperial Guard, Space Marines
Tags
40k, 4th Company, I Squad, imperial guard, oldhammer, Rogue Trader, space marines, Steel Guard, tactical squad
So it’s been a bit quiet from me in December. December is a busy month for us all, but I got some painting done. I finished two things since I last posted, and to tell the truth I’m not really happy with either of them. In neither case do I think I’ve improved on my earlier work. Still, that’s not the end of the world and after a week or two of them sitting on my shelf I’ve decided to add them to the blog anyway.
First up is another Steel Guard tactical squad. This is 4th Company I Tactical Squad. Led by Veteran Sergeant Sakhalin, a lovely Rogue Trader era mini, mostly this squad are old plastics.
Sakhalin. Would you believe I didn’t notice those stray strands of grass when taking the photos!
After reading a comments conversation on someone else’s blog, I painted the edges of the bases brown this time and I have to admit that I think this is the best way of basing I’ve seen so far.
The scale problems of mixing parts are shown here. I’m not especially bothered as I don’t think it’s a deal breaker but I know some people disagree.
I hated the 2nd Edition Box Set Space Marines when I was a kid. Compared to the RT metal minis and the wonderful mix-n-match RTB01 they seemed lifeless and dull. But as unit fillers they are a pleasure to paint.
The complete squad.
Next up is a unit of Imperial Guard. I’m more used to painting traitors and cultists, and found this lot hard work. The unit consists of a standard bearer and his bodyguards, and 2 heavy weapons squads. Mostly these are Rogue Trader models. I am a huge fan of the RT plastic Guardsmen – though when I was a kid I thought the very boring. The injured guard is a great sculpt, a real pleasure to paint. The guard with the plasma gun had damage to his face which I have tried to paint as a scar, with only limited success. I hate painting eyes – the good eyes in this unit, on the missile launcher guard, were done by the original owners.
24 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Oldhammer Challenges, Orks
Tags
freebooterz, oldhammer, Orks, Orktober!, Rogue Trader, Runtherd, WIP
This is my WIP Orktober! submission.
26 Saturday Sep 2015
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
I’ve recently finished painting the final squad of the Steel Guard 2nd Company. Well, I finished it a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t get around to photographing it until today. But if you want to see what an entire company looks like you’re going to have to wait another day or two. First of all I am indulging the spirit of Rogue Trader and Oldhammer.
Presented below is a Rogue Trader Marine Army (with a few 2nd ed. marines hanging out too). These are all the RT-era Marines in the company. I know the photo isn’t very well taken, but I reckon this would look damn fine on the tabletop. I hope you agree!
Oh, a squat warlord and a servitor have slipped in there too. Just because that’s what happens in Rogue Trader.
17 Monday Aug 2015
Posted in Finished Work, Orks
Tags
40k, citadel miniatures, conversions, freebooterz, oldhammer, ork-genestealer hybrids, Rogue Trader
Now this is a squad I’m pleased with. As part of my ongoing project to create an army of Freebooterz, one mob of each type, I present Snagabog’s Bugz.
These were a lot of fun to paint, and aside from the actual Genestealers that I think I should redo, I am well chuffed with how they turned out. I enjoyed making use of various Gaunt bodies from my bits box to make these, I’m sure some purists will argue that termagaunts and hormagaunts aren’t Genestealer but to them I say piffle! 
excuse the purestrains, i was trying to learn about zenith painting!
Model picked in homage to another OG hybrid freebooter!
17 Friday Apr 2015
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
I know a lot of the Oldhammer fans don’t approve of the whole Insignium Astartes thing, seeing it as a way of dictating how you paint and play. For me though I enjoy trying to get the squad markings right! It has an added bonus that you don’t need any further markings to work out which miniatures are a squad, so that if they get mixed up there’s no guessing what toys go together! When I first started painting I used coloured splotches on the bottom of the bases to indicate which marines went where, but as I became more confident and started painting squad markings I found that there was no longer any need. Of course, I couldn’t tell you why it’s important not to confuse Marine With Bolter A with Marine With Bolter B, but there you go.
This latest squad means that I now have painted (and named) 9 out of 2nd Company’s 10 squads. One more tactical squad and we’ve got a full company. Expect that sometime this year :p
I’m pretty pleased with this squad. Slowly I’m getting better. I reckon I’ve done maybe 500 of my 10,000 hours – the 10,000 hours you need to spend on something to become a master!
15 Monday Dec 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
2nd Company, 2nd ed, cultists, devastators, Exo Armour, Orks, Painboy, Rogue Trader, Space Crusade, Space Hulk, space wolves, Squat, Steel Guard, Terminator, Werewolf, WH40K
It’s not that I haven’t been doing anything recently, it’s just that I haven’t been completing anything. But over the weekend I said to myself that I need to do some basing and get the last month’s fabulous minis photographed. As ever, my paintjob isn’t really the draw, but the wonderful variety of miniatures.
This is the X Squad of the 2nd Company. I’ve used a miniatures from a lot of different periods – the Sgt is a Rogue Trader Marine, there’s some 2nd Ed Long Fangs, and lots of different plastic ones including a Dark Vengeance marine. In the middle of this shot you can see one I’ve modelled as a casualty, knocked of his feet by a shot to the head.
A group shot. That RT sculpt really is very odd. I count it as artificer armour. Does anyone know what the wrist-mounted weapon is?
Here we have a couple of old favourites. The Painboy I am using as a Servitor – hence the multi melta arm. The model is possibly one of my favourite ever sculpts and I wanted to use it in my armies despite not collecting Orks. Except now I’ve decided that I collect Orks too. The lure of RT Orks became too much to bear!
I love the Exo Armour Squat too. I haven’t yet found anywhere to shoehorn him into my collection. I think I’ll make a Rogue Trader warband, or just use him as a chaos champion. Either way it was a joy to paint.
A mark II terminator suit (with mark 3 arms). I was intrigued to discover that this was sculpted before the space marine mk VII armour and so that this is the first appearance of this style of helmet.
The rest of the squad. Note the two Space Hulk terminators hiding at the back here. Surprisingly tricky to paint, they were.
This werewolf isn’t from Citadel, I don’t think. I enjoyed painting it just the same. It doesn’t look that good, more practise on fur needed i reckon.
A close up of a Cultist Squad. You may well recognise a few of these old miniatures. The leader is a beastman but that photo didn’t come out too well.
Some DV bikers.
“Scenic base”
No once cares about the Tau, do they? But a converted 2nd Ed Sergeant might be a bit more interesting. It looks better in the photo than it does in real life, unfortunately. But it’s a start.
That’s all from me for now. On my desk at the moment is a ruin, and another squad of cultists. See you soon!
08 Wednesday Oct 2014
Posted in Out Of The Pit
Tags
40k, assault squad, captain, citadel miniatures, death company, oldhammer, Rogue Trader, RTB01, Space Crusade, space marines, Steel Guard, WH40K, WIP
Having finished painting a load of stuff yesterday (pics to follow), I’ve reached into The Pit (aka The Big Box Of Models) to see what happens next. An overpainted Ork Freeboota Kaptain? Into the dettol with you! A plastic marine with a sword? Good for me! This means that the next painting job will be a Space Marine Assault Squad. I root through the box until I’ve got ten marines that have assault weapons or no weapons at all. Below is a picture of all ten in their beginning states. A couple will immediately join the Ork in the dettol though!
As you can tell, I buy my miniatures from ebay! I love poking through a box of old miniatures, seeing what gems are there or looking at other people’s wild conversions. Because I want a whole chapter of Space Marines one day there’s not really any other way of doing it.
In this batch there are 6 modern plastic multipart marines, 1 RTB01 marine, a metal death company marine, a Space Crusade captain (with a home-made paper cloak that i think i will keep), and an RT Dark Angels Marine Captain. You’ll next see these guys when I’m done painting them!
I like the mix and match nature of having different eras of marine in the same squad. I like the idea that sporadic rearming, damage to armour, deaths and promotions etc mean that squad armouring is in regular flux and therefore it is the squad markings and paintjobs that indicate a squad, not the armour mark or styles. Also, because the Steel Guard don’t have a homeworld and recruit as they go, there will be marines from dozens of different cultures within them, hence a variety of styles of personalisation. Let’s hope they’re not too individualistic though, I can’t imagine the Inquisition would have anything good to say about that….
06 Monday Oct 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
3rd company, 40k, captain, citadel miniatures, master of the arsenal, oldhammer, Rogue Trader, space marines, space wolves, Steel Guard, wd197, white dwarf
Just finished basing this guy. Oldhammerers will recognise the model as a Space Wolves Captain from about 1990. It’s a beautiful model, and one that I felt deserved a special paint job (by my wonky standards, obv). So I decided that I’d use the non-metallic gold painting instructions by Neil Hodgson in White Dwarf 197. Whilst I don’t think its turned out too badly at all, it’s not gold, is it? Still, it’s a paint technique I’ve never tried before, the next one will be better.
WD197 has loads of painting techniques in it, and a Modelling Workshop article on making different types of hedges. So at some point in the near future I’ll show pictures of three or four different types of home-made hedge. If that doesn’t give you a warm glow of trepidation then you’re dead inside 😀
So anyway, without any further ado, may I present Captain Niqal Vosuqabad, the Steel Wolf!
The Steel Wolf
Doris Plunger's Lead Mess 