A Thousand Sons emergency!

24 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by terryshithole in Burning Of Prospero, Chaos, Finished Work, Space Marines

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Imperial Space Marines, Space Crusade, Thousand Sons, WH40K 2nd Edition

I was sorting out my painting miniatures recently, following our house move. Clearing out the old and tidying up the new, that sort of thing. I was putting all the minis from the various games, assessing what i had completed and what I hadn’t so that if a visitor expressed a desire to play e.g. Burning of Prospero, I knew whether the minis were painted or not and if so, where they were. It turns out that, either by forgotten design or a common-or-garden brain fart, I had painted all the Iron Armour marines as Space Wolves. That wasn’t so bright, I needed a squad of Thousand Sons or the game would be wrong! I lacked a spare squard of Iron Armour or similar 30K miniatures and didn’t want to buy a set as I have more marines knocking around than I will ever get round to painting (and I sold off a big box recently too!). Instead I fished out some ‘old’ marines, making a squad of marines from the Imperial Space Marines, Space Crusade, and 2nd Edition box set (with a Tactical Space Marine as a sergeant). I gave them a random set of weapons to imply that this is a rag-tag collection fighting a guerrila war in the ashes of their home using whatever weapons they can find. Painted them as quickly and as roughly as I could (maybe contrast paints will make this sort of thing even easier). Nice work. Now does anyone want a game of Burning of Prospero?

Thousand Sons guerrila squad
Thousand Sons marines
Thousand Sons marines

Rogue Trader Marines Warband

26 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by terryshithole in Finished Work, Space Marines

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2nd Company, Exo Armour, Rogue Trader, Space Crusade, Squat, Steel Guard, WH40K

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.

Loads of things all at once.

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by terryshithole in Uncategorized

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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!

Steel Guard 3rd Company, I Squad: Squad Pusillus

08 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by terryshithole in Finished Work, Space Marines

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3rd company, I Squad, Space Crusade, space marines, space wolves, Steel Guard, tactical squad, WH40K

Just finished basing these monkeys! I’m quite pleased with these. Compared to my early work they’re Golden Demon standard, but compared to much of the Oldhammer community i’m still little better than a child 😀

I’ve finally settled on a Chapter Badge – nearly 100 marines into my chapter! At first I used a sovietesque star, but freehand stars are surprisingly difficult, and I hate transfers. My fingers are too fat to get transfers right, or maybe it’s a depth perception thing (I only have one working eye), but transfers weren’t for me. Then I used the letters SG, in a kind of art-deco style. That was easy to do, but it didn’t feel right. Yesterday, however, inspiration struck. I discovered astronomical notation. Each planet, moon, dwarf planet etc etc in the solar system has a shorthand sigil. For a comet, the sign is a circle in the lower left hand side, with three lines to indicate the comet tail. Easy to draw, and appropriate for a fleet-based Space Marine chapter. So comets it is. The first 10 look ok! I must have been a bit tipsy when I did the tactical squad arrows though, so those are going to get a touch-up before this squad are consigned to the stasis of the Finished Box.

Not a lot of oldhammer glory in this squad. I’ve taken close-ups of the sergeant, an early-90s metal Space Wolf; and of the special weapon marine, a Space Crusade plastic with a flamer.

3rd Company, I Squad

Sergeant Pusillus

Squad Pusillus Special Weapon Marine

Out Of The Pit

08 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by terryshithole in Out Of The Pit

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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….

Squad Arida – Second Company, IX Squad

29 Monday Sep 2014

Posted by terryshithole in Uncategorized

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2nd Company, devastators, IX Squad, oldhammer, Rogue Trader, Space Crusade, Steel Guard

Just based these today so I thought I’d take a picture. Obviously this is a Devastator Squad. This is about the limit of my painting skills thus far. I’m pretty pleased with them, even though I know that not a great painter. One of the best things, for me, about this hobby, is getting better. 18 months ago, when I first picked up a paintbrush after 20 years away, I was rubbish. And since then I’ve gotten better, slowly yes, but every now and again I look at what I’ve painted and realise it’s better than I could have done a few months ago.

I’ve painted a few squads of my homebrew Marine chapter so far. The chapter are called the Steel Guard, and the colours of grey, red, and gold, are supposed to be vaguely soviet in styling. I’m thinking that I’m going to use a lighter grey next time, see how that goes.

So this squad is a nice mix of old and new. I love the Rogue Trader Marine that I’m using as the Veteran Sergeant. There’s also a metal Death Company Marine (with the power fist) and I’ve painted the blood drops gold, to tie in with the rest of the Steel Guard livery. These are the Emperor’s Tears, awarded to Steel Guard marines for exceptional valour during defeat! You’ll also notice that all four heavy weapons Marines are from Space Crusade. I’ve long had a soft spot for Space Crusade, and I think the molds are wonderful.

Enjoy!