Greetings Terrans, I hope this finds you all well. Wow, it has been over a month since I last posted, but honestly, I’ve had nothing to show you! I’ve been very slowly prepping a crew for a Stargrave weekender in Dublin next month, but I only just picked up the paintbrush the other day. Life is busier than ever at the moment- mostly in a good way I think, but hobby time is in short supply. I’ve also gotten a bit sick of the constant GW churn these days – I had a game of Cursed City and it was absolute dogshit, so I’m feeling pretty done with it all. So far this year, my GW spend is zero, and I want to really be strict with myself in that regard & paint what I already own as much as possible.
That said, there is no way I’m not putting together a new crew for Dublin though, so, as is usual for me, the first step in a new project is to decide my theme. In this case, I knew I wanted to go OldHammer, but given the caliber of OH Grandees at the Dublin event, I knew I wanted to do something a bit different to any of my previous projects… In the interest of painting what I already own, I went for a rummage & found a box of Bob Olley minis that I have been slowly accumulating since having so much fun painting the Iron Claw Pirates almost three years ago… I’ve been kicking around the idea of building an entire Rogue Trader army of Olley minis, and this seemed like a good opportunity to have a practice. So, the theme for the crew was decided – zero spend and Olley sculpts only!
Next I looked into the rules to sketch out a crew, but with a lot of back and forth to see what would work with the minis I had available. I settled on a Veteran Captain in combat (i.e. ‘power’) armour & grenade launcher, a cyborg first mate with a Rapid Fire gun, a ‘Burner’, a Medic, and two each of Troopers, Chiselers and Hackers. I also build an alternate version of the Captain because you can’t guarantee that your combat armour is always available in-game. Some converting was needed here & there, but nothing too hectic. I went with hex bases for a touch of whimsey & I cobbled together some loot tokens too. Building done, I just needed to wait for a warm enough day to get the crew primed – the Undercoat Gods duly granted my prayers late last week.
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The Combat Armoured Captain seemed like a good place to start, so start I did. Here is Captain Zebulon Scoville*, resplendent in his Ion pattern Combat Armour.
Zebulon is a veteran of the Olleyan Expansionist Wars, and he has been running his own crew of privateers (provisionally called ‘the UMF’) since demob:



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The base model is an old Ion Age ‘Retained Knight’ from Bob’s ‘Alternate Armies’ range – these minis have been kicking around since the late 80’s, but are still available for the princely sum of £3.50 on http://www.alternativearmies.com if you’re interested. They are a funny bunch with some strange poses & proportions, but honestly, they are a joy to paint.
He had some light conversion work to attach a combat blade to the weapon, and I glued on a Tau sidearm for his pistol, but otherwise he’s pretty much standard. I just went with the flow in terms of painting him up, with ‘Mantis Warrior Green’ as my main colour, and red & bone for the spot colour. Cheques were a must for that proper OldSkool flavour, and I do love the ridiculousness of hazard stripes on a chainsaw. Other than that, the only other thing to note is that I restrained myself on the weathering front, and I left out the skulls & other grim-dark GW guff, just to keep this project distinct from that whole vibe.
And that’s it folks, that’s as far as I’ve managed to get! I have the rest of the warband in various stages at the moment, so should have more to share soon :-)
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*Zebulon Scoville is a superb name, but is also an actual superb person too! He’s a NASA flight director who gets to drive the ISS… I read an article on him carrying out emergency maneuvers on the ISS back in 2021 & the name lodged in my brain to be used for just such an occasion.
Great start to your warband Alex, and remember this sculpt, the small conversions add to the model as well.
Cheers mate, I’m happy with how things are shaping up 😊
Wow, Zebulon Scoville is some name! Did he change it to Zebulon when he became an astronaut do we know, or did Mr and Mrs Scoville just really want him to grow up to be a space man? Anyway, lovely work on your own Zebulon and looking forward to seeing the rest of the crew- if they match their captain they’ll be a treat. :-)
Cheers mate, it’s a belter isn’t it? Biblical I think, but yeah, cool name, and glad I could put out a mini worthy of it! 😁👍
Now that is a nice mini! :-) I really like that shade of green! In a brief moment of stupidity (they usually last longer) I thought “it’s a sci-fi Croatian” (the shoulder pads)!
Cheers mate, it is a nice green to paint with – the word ‘zingy’ springs to mind! 😂
Red & cream/white cheques are a classic combo imo, no affiliation with any nation or sports team intended 🤘
When I saw the first pic I thought, “Is that a rare Beakie model?” LOL! He looks great, I love the sculpt and the green is a gorgeous shade. You’re right, the checkered pads really do add a ton of old-school cred!
Cheers mate, glad you like him. Funny you should say that – the Ion Age minis certainly are peers of the first Beakies, and given Olley’s involvement in GW, he would’ve been aware. I think that any ‘generic power armoured humans’ are likely to look a bit like Space Marines tbh!
They come up large against their GW buddies, but, ironically, they are a better scale to modern eyes. You could easily do an oldschool ‘Marine’ army with these, and for a lot less cash too, (there are a few examples kicking around I think). I’ll certainly be exploring this range more in the future!
Excellent Alex. 🙂
Cheers mate, it’s a nice compact project 😊
Great painting. I feel like these coloured armour plates suit your style very well so I’m looking forward to seeing any further crew members. As for the sculpt, it certainly does have a nostalgic 80s vibe to it.
Cheers mate, that’s the vibe I’m lookin’ for 😁
Hey Alex,
I agree with your sentiments about the awkward proportions and poses with this range of minis, but they fit in with the aesthetic of the time perfectly….maybe even because of it? They’re full of cables and intricately detailed weapons & accoutrements. It really adds to the overall appeal doesn’t it.
Love the green colour scheme you’ve gone for! Is there a tint of another colour in there too? Is it the wash or something that has given it a different hue?
Also, that Zebulon Scoville is an awesome name, if a little unbelievable :D
Looking forward to seeing the rest if the gang/crew.
Stay frosty hombre.
Wow! Firstly, thanks mate – yeah, I used a little yellow for the edge highlighting & then glazed over with the green. Bob’s minis really are a joy to paint, and there are always weird details to discover.
Secondly, great to hear from you dude! How have you been? I tried reaching out a few times – are you back on the scene now?
Great looking mini and I’m excited to see what the rest of your crew will look like! I’ve been slowly painting some SciFi minis for Stargrave, but no real rhyme or reason to what I’m painting so far. I know that will bite me in the butt at some point, but hey sometimes you just have to paint for fun!
Cheers mate – absolutely agree with you on painting for fun!
Awesome Alex. A nice striking green. I hope Dublin went well
Cheers mate, it’s next month but yeah, I hope it goes well too 😊
I’m late to this party but have to echo the sentiments of those above, as you know I’m a bit of an Olley fanboy, plus I loved the old retained knights mini’s back in the day, but I have to say this is the nicest rendition I ever seen of one of them!
Smashing stuff mate!
Cheers Roger.
Cheers dude, there is something about them isn’t there? I’d certainly be happy to paint more, that’s for sure
That scheme works really well on the power armour – you’ve made a slightly wonkily proportioned sculpt look bloody amazing!
Cheers dude, you’ve just got to lean into it with Olley 😁