02 Tuesday Feb 2016
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines, Uncategorized
Tags
40k, conversions, space marines, Steel Guard, VIII Company, WH40K
Finished these yesterday, not sure what I think of them. All three were a rescue mission. The Attack Bike had previously been stripped and the plastic is kind of bubbly and rough. I think the silver and grey trim isn’t as good as I had hoped. Still, they are what they are!
14 Thursday Jan 2016
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Tags
40k, conversions, Honour Guard, lead, oldhammer, space marines, Steel Guard
Another set of recently painted Space Marines I’ve had sitting on my shelf for a while. Apart from the eyes I’m pleased with these guys. The chap with the sword and shield was a mess, missing his hands, and being thickly coated with paint and glue. The chap with the bionic leg was one of the minis I really wanted when I was a kid, so it’s lovely to have gotten to paint him now. All in all I think these make a convincing and pleasing Honour Guard.
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.
10 Saturday Oct 2015
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago I finished painting the whole 2nd Company of the Steel Guard. Actually, when I laid them all out to photo them I discovered I’d actually painted 11 squads! Not sure how you can miscount squads of Space Marines but I achieved it.
I posted the pics of the Rogue Trader period miniatures already, I think they make a wonderful little warband. But here’s the whole lot. Warning! Modern Space Marines included 😀
The whole lot!
This is the newest squad. I have started making scenic bases for them.
This RT chap makes a great assault sergeant.
Based around a damaged mid-period Calgar miniature I converted this captain to be a close-combat monster.
The gulf in quality between the earlier and later marines is huge. One of the best things about this hobby is being able to watch yourself improve.
This sergeant is from Dark Vengeance. Next to him is a Rogue Trader plastic.
This techmarine is one of my earliest conversions. I found painting red really tricky.
In the end I fixed upon using the astronomical icon for ‘comet’ as their insignia.
I tried out different iconography as I went along.
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.
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!
10 Monday Nov 2014
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
So I’ve just finished basing this lad. On paper it looked good. A Terminator Chaplain, home-made crozius, a lamp instead of a banner. But look how it’s come out. Black really is an awful colour to work with for the beginner. the edge highlights look like it’s chipped. the face on this is a terrible mould in my opinion, painting it bone-coloured looked awful, then instead of stripping it and starting again I painted over the face with gold and tried to use washes and drybrushes but it doesn’t look like it at all! I’m still quite pleased with the little conversion but the paintjob, not so much. Still, it’s all practic
e innit?
26 Sunday Oct 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Been a quiet couple of weeks on the posting front. It’s not that I’ve not been doing anything, it’s just that I haven’t gotten anything finished, so nothing to show off really. But I’ve just finished basing this Terminator Assault Squad for my Steel Guard Space Marine army. I’ve used a variety of models, an old lead Grey Knight body for Segeant Rakosi (though I’ve used modern plastic arms so that I can give him a thunder hammer and storm shield), an old lead lightning claws termie, a couple of plastic terminators from mid-late period wh40k, and finally a Dark Vengeance termie that I have given a truly huge thunder hammer for uber-smiting. I’m generally quite pleased with these. I’ve tried a few new-to-me techniques here and whilst none of the actually worked, i can see better how to do it next time. Here’s Squad Rakosi in all their (slightly shabby) glory!
Brother Tucker
Captain Rakosi
08 Wednesday Oct 2014
Posted in Finished Work, Space Marines
Tags
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
Doris Plunger's Lead Mess 