Time for something completely different

26 Wednesday Aug 2015

Hello chaps & chapesses, something a tad left-field today. About a year ago, I had an amazing game day with Ross, a fine and true Brother-in-Lead, and long-time adversary. We pitted his fantastic oldschool daemonic hoard against my Praetorian Imperial Guard in a series of games that were loosely based on the classic ‘Last Stand at Glazer’s Creek’ scenario from White Dwarf issue 222, (which was in turn based on the famous Anglo-Zulu war battle at Rorke’s Drift of course).

The day was so inspirational that I promised myself that I would try and write a short story based on the game. I love reading, and I used to like writing fiction in school… I know how to put together a decent assignment for my degree studies… my blog posts are (usually) readable… how hard can it be, right?

Well… it has taken me a year, on and off, but I’m finally done… weighing in at almost 9000 words, the true tale of Eidolan is ready to be told. I’ve set up a separate page to keep things tidy, and it is with a mixture of pride and embarrassment that I present it to you now. I hope that it brings some enjoyment to those who take the time to read it:

The Tale of Eidolan

Rogue Trader 8-Ball

24 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Alex in OldHammer, Side projects

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Oldhammer, Rogue Trader

Happy Monday chaps & chapesses, last week & weekend was completely hectic so I didn’t really get too much hobby done, but I did manage to finish something a little bit special. Any Oldhammerers out there will certainly recognise this picture from Rogue Trader:

The chap circled has been a bit of a mystery for many decades, but thanks to the power of the Inerweb Hivemind, we now know that he is an unreleased RT ‘Adventurer type’, and that in terms of being rare, he’s up there with rocking horse poop and hens teeth… Basically, you’re unlikely to ever see an original, let alone own one. Luckily for us, the wonderful people at Foundry have some of the original molds from back in the day, and they re-cast some previously unreleased RT goodies in time for this year’s Bring Out Your Lead event. I didn’t make the event itself, but luckily, Foundry have made the set available, so, long story short, I have a few sets to play with.

I knew that I wanted to do a proper 8-Ball as an homage to the original but the only photo I could find is the RT one, and that doesn’t give much detail other than ‘massive 8-ball head and green clothes’… Not too much to go on really! On seeing the model, you realise what a lovely sculpt it is from the front, but the back is pretty plain. It has a nub that looks like it should have a backpack attached, so I decided to take a liberty and add a Flamer backpack, (minus the excess skullage), and a length of hose to connect it to the front of the suit. I also added a knife on one side, which I imagine is held on via a mag-strip (saving me the effort of sculpting a sheath), and a random cog on the other, just to break it up a little… and because cogs are cool. Paint-wise, I went with a khaki green for the suit, but used grey and red on various pads just to add some interest. The backpack got painted ‘distressed yellow’, and I painted the famous 8-ball helmet black, added the detail freehand, and then glossed it to give it a bit of depth and to allow it to reflect highlights naturally.

On reflection, it’s a bit of a Boba Fett pallet, so I’m really starting to think of this guy as a bounty hunter… I have another one to paint as well, so he can have a pal to play with – got a bonkers idea for him btw ;-)

Anyhow, here’s the finished piece. I absolutely love it – retro, classic, ridiculous, mysterious, beautiful, cool… all of my favourite things in one convoluted little sculpt. Enjoy:

Pirate crew complete

17 Monday Aug 2015

Posted by Alex in OldHammer

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

Oldhammer, Rogue Trader

Happy Monday chaps & chapesses, I’m happy to report that I have finished all of the Rogue Trader Space Pirates from the 1988 summer flier – all 24 of them. They were sculpted by Mike Perry and Bob Naismith back in the day, and released in July just over 27 years ago! I’m so chuffed to have a) collected this little lot, and b) have them all painted up… there are some classic sculpts in here, and even the slightly dodgy ones are real characters… and it kinda feels like preserving this crew is a worthy thing to do.

The eclectic nature of this bunch has presented some real painting opportunities – it is nice to work without the predefined palette that you tend to get with ‘regular’ 40K troops, and I also felt it appropriate to play around with different flesh tones – I still need to refine how I do darker skin, but at least I now have a jumping off point!

In terms of usage, these guys will primarily be for Rogue Trader – a game that I am really looking forward to exploring more fully as time goes by, but they can also stand in as counts-as conscripts for my Praetorians in regular games of 40K.

Anyhow, enough jibberjabber, here are the photos – in smaller groups and then a final ‘class of 88’ group shot. Spot the photo bombing Ogryn! Enjoy :-)