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Tag Archives: Oldhammer

‘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!

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