• About me
  • Knight-world Silurum
  • The Tale of Eidolan

Leadballoony – It's a lead thing

~ (sorry, no balloons)

Leadballoony – It's a lead thing

Tag Archives: Oldhammer

Populating Spero Secundus part 4

05 Saturday Sep 2020

Posted by Alex in OldHammer

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Oldhammer, Praetorian Imperial Guard, Rogue Trader, Spero Secundus

Greetings Terrans, long time no post!! I thought I’d better get a quick post out to confirm that I’m not dead or ill, and that I haven’t seen the light, grown up and decided to jack in the whole hobby… Neither have I won the lottery & jetted off to my own private island. No, I’m afraid the reason for the long hiatus is a rather more mundane affair of too much work to do & too little time to do it in resulting in far more evening work than I’m used to. I’ve also been pretty fired up at the gym since lockdown relaxed a bit here in the UK, so that’s a few less hours of painting per week as well. All in all, finding time to blog, comment, follow and paint has been beyond me, so please bear with me while I navigate this lil’ patch of busy. I still love all your work and am watching with interest – please don’t be offended if I’ve been lame on the commenting!

That said, I haven’t been entirely idle… I did manage to finish a platoon of House Sevelli Guardsmen from hive Platus:

 

They aren’t my best work, but honestly, I was sick of the sight of them by the time I was finished… I’ve easily painted over 150 of these little buggers over the years, and even though they were done in Praetorian red, or the green and purple of House Malocchio, it’s still the same old sculpts… suffice to say I’m pretty bored of them by now, and I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to get any more.

Other than that, I’ve been busy building Primaris marines from the Warhammer 40,000 Conquest run of magazines… I’m adding to the Primaris Legion of the Damned I put together back in April, and I’m actually pretty motivated to put together a force to try out the new version of 40k.

Speaking of which, I couldn’t help but be amused about how ‘edgy’ some of the new Necron minis are… I reckon I was pretty damn close back in 2014!!

 

That’s all for now folks, catch you on the flip side.

Populating Spero Secundus part 3

23 Thursday Jul 2020

Posted by Alex in OldHammer

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Oldhammer, Painting, Praetorian Imperial Guard, Rogue Trader, Spero Secundus

Greetings Terrans, I have another little trip to Spero Secundus in store for you today. This time, it’s a visit to Hive Platus, the second hive city on the planet, ruled over by the decadent House Sevelli. Here we have a small squad of House Sevelli Guardsmen:

 

The officer is a Valhallan I think – he had a head swap with an old Curious Constructs piece to give him that snazzy helmet and plume. The remainder are based on the classic Praetorians, just with a bit of sculpting work on their helmets to help them match the officer. The kneeling guy was a loader without a corresponding gunner, so I did a little more to turn him into a radio operator. I need to add an antenna, but he’ll do for now.

The painting was good fun – I experimented with the colours until I arrived at this rather French looking scheme which I think is just delicious. I also settled on a darker North African skin tone as Hive Platus is in the warm southern part of Spero Secundus… Yes, I know the sunshine levels are irrelevant when you live in a hive, but the richer skin tone works beautifully with the blue and gold, so screw you logic – I’m running with it!

I have about 24 more of these guys to do, and then I’m back to building and undercoating. Near-term plans include more mutant cannibals, (characters, including a witch), lots of civilians of all kind, and I need to crack on with my Daemon Ink warband too. Onwards and upwards!!

‘EAVY METAL part 3

18 Monday May 2020

Posted by Alex in OldHammer

≈ 37 Comments

Tags

Dreadnought, Oldhammer, Rogue Trader

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? This is the last ‘EAVY METAL post for a while – I’ve finished the last two Dreads that I had squirreled away for my Dreadnought Band, and although I will certainly be adding more in the future, for now it’s just these two Ork jobbies:

 

I absolutely love these guys – they are some of the best Orky models of that era, and definitely the coolest Dreadnoughts… well… ever if you ask me!

I took the time to drill out a leg on each one & screw it to the base at a funny angle so I could get some movement into them… This is exactly how I imagine Ork Dreadnoughts getting from A to B – lurching about with all of their limbs flailing 😊

Yellow has a pair of short legs, and is packing a pair of flamers and a pair of Power Claws… This guy is a close quarters beast, as Ork Power Claws are +4 Strength (so basically 10), and flamers are really really fucking nasty in RT…

 

Red is a bit more versatile – he’s packing longer legs, (because red wunz go fasta!), a Conversion Beamer and a Multi Melta, so he can deal with armour multiple ranges. Alternatively, I can count the Beamer as a Heavy Plasma, so he can take on heavy infantry with ease. I also swapped the power claws out for 2x twin bolter arms for extra Dakka, and he got a boss pole to show just how hard he is!

 

Here’s a group shot of the Metal Heads as they stand today – the Eldar are notable in their absence!

 

So that’s all for this project for now – I will definitely be coming back to it, but not for a while. Instead, I’ll be shifting gears a bit for my next post – I have a few things on the go at the same time so it might be a bot disjointed, but it should be good fun 😊

Until next time!!

‘EAVY METAL part 2

11 Monday May 2020

Posted by Alex in OldHammer

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

Dreadnought, Oldhammer, Painting, Rogue Trader

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? Just a quick Monday post from me today – I have a couple of Dreadnoughts to add to the growing ‘Metal Heads’ Dreadnought mercenaries – another pair of ex-Imperial machines:

Both are of the wide body/long legged variety, and were a bit of a rescue job because I didn’t have enough bits to go around (cheap ebay deals). The green one had his left shoulder mount replaced with suitable plastic parts, and has a heavy flamer for some up-close anti infantry work. He also has a plastic mechanical arm from a Sentinel kit, complete with snazzy power claw, (stolen from some random Commissar or other). Also, his left leg is actually a right leg – I had to amputate at the knee and reverse the lower leg to get him stood up!

The blue machine needed a replacement right shoulder mount and had an Orky Multimelta fitted for some serious anti-tank work (though it could be played as a flamer of course). Otherwise, blue is a standard build, complete with twin-bolter left arm.

 

I did finish up another thing as well – it’s this awesome key that Mark (heresyofus) very kindly printed up & posted out to myself and the other droogs that are playing the rpg/virtual tabletop/inq28/Frostgrave mashup that I’m running:

It’s a faithful copy of a sketch that I made of a xenos relic found in ancient tomb, and it is proving to be a recurring symbol throughout the game…  I gave it a good layer of Greenstuff first, just to smooth out the marks from the printing process, and then I gave it a good coat of bronze, a load of wash and some corrosion here and there. I reckon it turned out very nicely indeed, and I am chuffed to have it! It’s little acts of generosity like this that make the difference, and it is so kind of Mark to do this for the group – thank you Mark!!

Oh ,and I should point out that I didn’t come up with the symbol in the first instance… it predates this game by a good few years, thanks to the pilgrim sculpt (on the right) from the original Colony 87 Kickstarter back in 2015:

The concept art for this range was done by Will Beck in 2014, though I can’t find a sketch of the pilgrim character on his web site… The minis were sculpted by Mike Anderson I think, so maybe the symbol got added at the sculpting stage? Hopefully Axiom can shed some light on it 😊

Anyhow, that’s all for now – stay safe out there.

‘EAVY METAL part 1

05 Tuesday May 2020

Posted by Alex in OldHammer

≈ 35 Comments

Tags

Dreadnought, Oldhammer, Rogue Trader

Greetings Terrans, I hope you and your loved ones are all fit, well, and bearing up in these strange times. I have another slice of oldschool fun for you today – yes, another project idea has been dusted off, reappraised, and dragged into the socially distanced light of day.

In order to provide context, I need to mention that I managed to get hold of the first 40k Compendium a few years ago – it’s a great book that collects a load of WD articles from the dawn of 40k and presents them in one neat bundle. I didn’t have it back in the day, but my mate did, and it is full of fond memories. It was the compendium that inspired the Primaris Legion of the Damned that I posted a few weeks back, but I have another project idea that this book inspired… It all comes from one paragraph:

“The Dreadnought is the ultimate form of personal armour. Inside his giant armoured suit, the wearer – or more correctly the pilot – controls the Dreadnought’s movement, armament and defences. To an extent, a pilot’s awareness becomes merged with his suit controls, sometimes to the point where man and machine are inseparable. As a result of this perculiar (sic) bio-mechanical relationship, experienced Dreadnought pilots cooped up inside their suits for long periods run a high risk of insanity. Perhaps it is fortunate that so few live long enough to go mad! Of those that do survive, some go rogue, joining the notorious ‘Dreadnought Bands’ that roam the galaxy, hiring out as mercenaries or living upon the spoils of wanton pillage.”

Now, I absolutely loved the idea of Dreadnoughts, (still do tbh!), and I thought this was such a cool piece of lore. With hindsight, it is almost certainly the origin of later Ork Dreadmobs, and also maybe the birth of the idea of Marines going insane while interred in their Dreads, or of Eldar ‘ghosts in the shell’ type situations, with long-dead spirits having a tenuous grasp on reality. This is all good fluff that is now firmly entrenched in the lore, but back in ’89, we just had that one throwaway statement… Notorious Dreadnought Bands…

My 14-year-old imagination ran riot with this, and I had visions of renegades from Human, (Dreadnoughts weren’t just a Marine thing back then), Ork and Eldar society putting aside their racial differences and choosing to forge mercenary bands of mechanised warriors who were bound only by their shared ‘bio-mechanical insanity’ – a band of iron brothers that stomped their way through the galaxy, hiring themselves out to the highest bidder… That 14 year old boy didn’t have the money to do anything about this vision, but 30 years later it’s game on, and with that in mind, I’ve been picking up the odd classic Dread here and there for a few years now. It gives me a lot of pleasure to present the first three members of the ‘Metal Heads’ Dreadnought Mercenaries.

First up is a classic Ork ‘Super-attack Onslaughter’ Dreadnought – I’ve always had a soft spot for the old Onslaughter egg-dreads – they are goofy as hell and a sod to put together, but there’s just something about them that makes me happy… They also happen to have the best name ever 😊

I swapped the usual weapon mount situation for a pair of ex-imperial las cannons that mated directly to the chassis. I actually think they work better as twinned Heavy Plasma Cannons, so I gave them a bit of a glow effect to sell that idea. I also replaced a missing top hatch with the pilot from an old Scorcher – no doubt he’s popped his head out for a better view of his target, or possibly to escape the after-effects of a particularly spicy squig curry. Either way, I see this guy as a long range specialist, (though like all good Orks machines, it’s no slouch in combat either, with twinned power claws).

 

The next Dread is a battered old Imperial machine, this one has the thin chassis and the long leg options:

Technically, it’s a Las-cannon equipped ‘Furibundus’ or ‘Fury’ class, but it is missing a twin-bolter arm (donated to another machine, to be revealed in a future post), and instead has a nifty little power claw that I had to hand. It also gave up its imperial pattern las-cannon to equip the Onslaghter above, so it has a slightly less impressive version salvaged from the bits-box. To make up for having such a piddly little cannon, it has a whacking great big missile – no particular reason, I just like it:

 

Finally we have another beaten up ex-Imperial machine – this time with the wider chassis & short legs:

I think this one was also a Fury at one point, but as with the example above, its arm went to a ‘yet-to-be-revealed’ machine, and its las cannon went to the Onslaughter above. Both missing limbs were replaced with missile launchers from the Sentinel kit – I always liked the idea of a mobile firebase type Dreadnought that doubled down on dakka at the expense of any manipulative limbs. I expanded on this idea with a pair of HK missiles to make an even more impressive fire platform, and I think the wide squat frame really sells that idea. As was the fashion at the time, I am christening this variant and am going for ‘Gundogan’ or Gun-Dog for short.

 

Here’s a final shot of the three of them together:

They don’t look especially cohesive at the moment, but wait until we add a few more into the mix…   Until next time!

Odds and ends

27 Monday Apr 2020

Posted by Alex in Frostgrave, OldHammer, Terrain

≈ 32 Comments

Tags

Oldhammer, Painting, Rogue Trader, scenery

Greetings Terrans, I hope this post finds you well. I have a bit of an assortment of odds and ends for you today – just a wrap-up of various items that I’ve completed in and around other work. First up, I painted a small group of Rogue Trader beasties prior to me running the Wolf Time campaign a few weeks back – I remembered regretting not having some way of balancing the game back when I ran it at BOYL, and was determined not to make the same mistake. I had a rummage in the lead pile and turned up a pair of ‘Crawling Insectoids’ (with slightly converted jaws) and a ‘Xenoursid Predator’ – all made by Knightmare Miniatures – they are clearly designed to match the Ambull and the Cthellean Cudbear in the Rogue Trader bestiary, (hence the purple coat for the Cudbear):

I’m glad I did do these guys – I didn’t need the Ambulls in the end, but the Cudbear came in handy when he attacked the Marines in the rear as they entered Kulo’s Castle. It killed 8 Space Wolves, and made for a much more balanced game in the end.

While I was in the ‘creatures’ section of my lead pile, I also grabbed this fella – not sure where I got him from, but he makes for a nice warp creature:

And here’s a quick pic of these beasties attacking my Olleyan Mercs – just to give you a sense of scale:

 

I also did some painting with the kids – here are three ‘Time Warped’ wizards from Wargames Foundry. My youngest painted the chap with the pink beard, (with a bit of help), My eldest painted the not-Gandalf, while I did the turbaned chap on the right:

 

We were going to play Frostgrave as a trio of Wizards, but my eldest got a bit teenagery about it all, so it has just been me & my youngest son playing co-op. We deliberately went for non-fighty wizards to start – he went Illusionist, and I went for Soothsayer. Neither has any combat spells in their starting deck, and we haven’t taken warbands either, so we’ve been a bit crap really!! 😊  That said, the illusionist can cast ‘Monstrous Form’ or ‘Beauty’, and my son and I agreed that it would be good to have minis to represent this. We roped in a mildly converted Knightmare Miniatures ‘Hook Horror’, and some random nudie elfin lady that I had in the pile. Both got a spooky glow-type paint job to show their illusory & magical nature on the table top:

We are now two games in, and we have enough money for a couple of Grimoires, so I anticipate some Elemental Bolt action next game 😊

 

Finally, my Frostgrave terrain has been left out & has been staring me in the face these last two weeks. It is lovely pre-painted stuff, and has been worth every penny spent on it, but the lack of detail was starting to annoy me. You can see in the pics above that it is just grey, grey and more grey. Usually this stuff gets packed away straight after a game, so I don’t get to dwell on it too much, but I took advantage of it being left out for so long & gave it some attention. Nothing hectic really – a bit of green wash, lichen spots, the odd blood splat and painting up the wood, but I think it makes for a big improvement overall. I also did the same to my Garden of Morr set to tie it all together:

 

And that’s it in terms of painting, but not in terms of hobby… I’ve just embarked on GMing an experimental rpg campaign/tabletop skirmish thing with a few like-minded hobby pals. It is set in the 40k universe, uses the core Frostgrave mechanics for combat, and is being conducted via zoom using hand drawn maps… Yeah, it’s a lot for me to get my head around – I’ve never GMed an RPG before, and I have only sat in on a handful of D&D games… My hat goes off to proper GMs everywhere, especially those that write their own scenarios, because it’s fucking hard core!!! It is taking up all my hobby time at the moment, (there is just so much work in developing and writing the story arc, sketching out maps, etc!), but I am absolutely loving it. Luckily, the party seem to be enjoying it too 😊

Anyway, that’s me for now dudes, I’ll catch up with you all the next time I have something painted to share – until then, stay safe and be excellent to each other 😊

← Older posts

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Mythic Battles: Pantheon continued AND a new project!
  • Mythic Battles: Pantheon – introducing the Amazons
  • Happy Commencement of New Arbitrary Terran Orbital Cycle
  • Last Post of 2020
  • Found Daemons

Archives

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • Mythic Battles: Pantheon continued AND a new project!
  • Mythic Battles: Pantheon – introducing the Amazons
  • Happy Commencement of New Arbitrary Terran Orbital Cycle
  • Last Post of 2020
  • Found Daemons

Recent Comments

Mut on Mythic Battles: Pantheon – int…
Fembruary 2021… on Mythic Battles: Pantheon – int…
Alex on Mythic Battles: Pantheon – int…
Blax The Kleric on Mythic Battles: Pantheon conti…
Goblin Witch | Conve… on Mythic Battles: Pantheon – int…

Archives

  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014

Categories

  • 215th Praetorian
  • AoS
  • AoS Undead
  • Blood Bowl
  • Bloodbowl
  • BOYL
  • Daemon Ink
  • Daughters of Khaine
  • Dragon Rampant
  • Eru-Kin
  • Fembruary Challenge
  • Frostgrave
  • Ghost Archipelago
  • Legion of the Damned
  • Mag Bellum
  • Mythic Battles: Pantheon
  • Necromunda
  • OldHammer
  • Primaris Marines
  • Scuplting
  • Side projects
  • Spacewolves
  • Terrain
  • The Chapel
  • Uncategorized
  • Warcry
  • Warhammer Quest – Silver Tower
  • Wolf Time

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Blog Stats

  • 95,309 hits

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×