More Escher Gangers

 Hi again! I've been squinting very hard this week and painting some more of Jes Goodwin's amazingly detailed House Escher models from the mid-1990s. 

Ages back, I bought two miniatures on ebay. I then lost them in my house. Annoyed, I bought the same models again from a different ebay seller, although the second ones I got were broken. One was missing its pistol hand, and the other lacked the barrel of its autogun. I then found the originals again. Oh well, more models to paint!

These are the repaired miniatures. I used a pistol from a Tempestus Scion for the missing pistol, and a leftover Genestealer Cult autogun for the other. As usual, I went for a pretty riotous colour "scheme", vaguely inspired by the old Tank Girl comics (very 90s!). Here are Daisy Chainsword and Helen Highwater.

Then I painted the other two. For variety, I used darker skin tones and tried not to repeat any of the colours on the parts of the first two miniatures. These are Bella Donna and Lou Scannon.

I've actually got quite a few Eschers now. I don't have the full range, as some of them must be rare and go for a lot on ebay (well, more than I'm prepared to pay). But I do have a fair few, some of them repaired. Here they are in batches of four.

So that's the Eschers for now! I have a couple more to go, but I think I'll have a break from all the crazy detail for now. Maybe I ought to go back to the Bretonnians. We shall see!

A Weird Robot Chicken Digression

 Again, a bit of an odd one this week. I've been dipping into the box(es) of unpainted models over the last couple of months and trying to finish some random miniatures that I've picked up over the years. I found a number of steampunk-style models from a variety of manufacturers, and thought that I'd paint them up as a little warband.

First up is a Privateer Press model. Some years ago, they released a faction called "Grymkin", which were Halloween-style monsters with pun names, and was very much not my cup of tea. However, one of them was a bizarre clockwork chicken robot (called the clockatrice), which looked quite cool. Here it is, painted up.

Weird, eh? I really like the model, just because it looks so crazy. I also added a few minions to the group.

The semi-ghostly lady on the left is a Privateer Press body and arm with Frostgrave bits. I imagine that she hovers slightly above the ground, wielding a combination of pistols and magic. I'm not sure where the robed mystic is from. I think he was part of a set of space crew, perhaps by the people who make the Dunkeldorf miniatures.

And here are two henchmen for this weird band of oddballs. On the right, we've got a Reaper miniature who seems to be some kind of mad scientist in a mechanical suit. Fair enough. On the left is a strange metal model from a range that I assume to be defunct. He's Bill Sykes, the thuggish baddie from Oliver Twist, except that he's got bionic legs because why not. He's actually a really nice model, but I've no idea who made him. I think I found him in a bargain bin.

So that's all pretty weird. I've plans to make more of these weirdos, but for the moment that's the sum total of Robot Chicken Brigade. For now...

Pizza Dragon

 Again this week, I've been painting something a bit different. A while ago, I was bought a model dragon (thanks Ruth!). He's a metal Reaper model, and he's wearing a chef's hat and apron, and is holding up a pizza. I'm not quite sure why, but he's a nice and jolly sculpt.

I've never painted a model like this before, and doing so was an interesting challenge. As fits a cartoony sculpt, he's not covered in detail, which meant that I needed to do a lot of shading up and down. I didn't want to paint him red, as his pizza would be red and orange, so I went for shades of purple, a bit like Spyro the Dragon from the old computer game. I wasn't quite sure how to do his eyes, since they've got sculpted pupils, but I'm quite pleased with the result.

I also painted a couple more old metal Trollblood models. They were quite easy to do and enjoyable, and I think they've come out quite nicely. A small force of these guys would look cool. I've no intention to use them for anything, but then I rarely use miniatures for anything!

A Bit Of A Change - Privateer Press Trollblood Test Models

 So, let's talk about Privateer Press - or, more accurately, please read on while I ramble about them. Or it. Lucky you. 

Ten years ago, Privateer Press was a serious rival to Games Workshop. GW was in a bad way, and PP had some clever business practises and an interesting range of models. It also had an extremely complicated game and a weird obsession with win-at-all-costs tournament play which made its writers sound like jerks, but hey-ho. PP's two main games were Warmachine, which involved chunky dreadnought-style robots bashing each other, and Hordes, in which big monsters bashed each other. And you could play one against the other, which was a really nice touch.

Anyhow, brighter minds than mine have considered the downfall of Privateer Press. From my point of view, the upshot is that they made some nice models, a few awful ones, and some that I really liked. Some of their character miniatures are really cool. Back in the day, I bought a load of models from their "trollblood" faction.

The trollbloods were hefty chaps who lived a rugged life, wearing tartan, tossing cabers and drinking to excess. They were basically comedy Scotsmen meets Lord of the Rings trolls, and were as close to the good guys as the setting allowed.

I decided to repaint some of them, because they were lying in a box at home and doing so would distract me from buying even more miniatures for a while. I remembered them being amusingly goofy, like Warhammer trolls: actually, they're uglier and less lovable than I recall. Anyhow, I painted a couple of them up as test models. I'm damned if I'm going to be painting tartan on these guys, so I went for simple red sashes, which contrast nicely with their blue skin. These were metal, and quite pleasant to paint.

So, I'll keep on with these models. I don't like them as much as the old space orks, and there's not a lot of variety in the sculpts or options to do interesting things with them, but they make a nice change and would look good in a small group. I'm not in a rush to make a unit of trollbloods, but they're now on the long list of things for painting.

Even More Random Space People

 In the wider world, sadly, John Blanche died this week. There isn't much for me to say about this that hasn't been said elsewhere: Blanche's influence on Games Workshop and miniature painting on the whole was immense. His grimy, low-fantasy style has inspired and been imitated by thousands of painters, 

Personally, a lot of "Blanchitsu" isn't for me - and Blanche himself made some nuanced comments on it. But he was undoubtedly an artist with a distinct style and, importantly, he was one of the first people to turn painting model soldiers into an art. His influence lives on, but he will be missed by the community.

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I've ended up with quite a lot of plastic historical miniatures, mainly because I've wanted to use them for conversions. I wanted some US soldiers to put on the bases of my Tau, as well as some Men In Black type operatives, and so on. The upshot is that I've had quite a few sets of leftover arms and bodies.

I've assembled more weird space people from these, using the historical bodies as the starting point for odd conversions. I've found that historical models are often slighter than SFF miniatures, and they work well with female heads and arms. Of course, this moves them away from their historical roots, and painting them in bright, usual colours further hides the fact that they were originally supposed to be peasants, GIs or whatever. 

I make these models as a sort of palate-clearer, between more serious projects. I've got about 50 of them now - I have no idea what I'd do with them, but then I don't know what I'd do with a lot of my models. Here are some recent ones.

These models were made with the bodies of medieval pikemen. The left-hand model has Stargrave arms and head, and a WW2 backpack. The steampunky guy has arms and a head from Wargames Atlantic Grognard models, and a cloak that I made out of milliput.

The lady on the left has Stargrave arms, a cultist head and a GW Kroot bag to balance her outline out. The guy on the right has a Stargrave head and Wargames Atlantic Agent arms. 

These guys were made with various historical bodies. From left to right: US marine, Boxer rebellion, WW2 Russian. Heads and arms are Stargrave, apart from the middle guy, who has a Pig Iron head and Frostgrave Cultist arms.

Next time, it's either scavvies from Necromunda or old Privateer Press miniatures. Watch this space...

An Oldhammer marine and some weird little red guys

 Hello again! I've gone back to my space marines this week, touching up some old models and painting a couple of new ones. 

I've had this captain model for a long time. He's from the early 2000s, and was missing his right hand (and gun), as well as his left arm from the elbow down. I gave him a power fist that I'd had knocking around for a while, and a plasma pistol that was at the bottom of the bits box. 

The lead was slightly rough and had lost a bit of detail. I'm not sure if he is a slightly dodgy recast, or this is the start of some kind of "lead rot", but he painted up okay. I went for the usual jolly medieval-style colours, with a bright yellow cloak. For some insane reason I painted a woven pattern on his fist.

I love these old marines with their heavy ornamentation and complex armour. I think they're some of the best marine models ever.

I also went back to some little red chaps that I built about 10 years ago. They're based on Bretonnian peasant bodies, with Tempestus Scion heads and weapons left over from a box of plastic marine scouts. I think that you could use them as scouts - perhaps they're servitors assigned to protect a techmarine. The arms had to be lengthened a bit with wire, which was slightly awkward, but I think they have an odd charm.

I also had a plastic miniature from the Elucidan Starstriders Kill Team set, which I bought on ebay. It's an odd model - all the miniatures from that set look much weirder and steampunky than "normal" 40k miniatures. I converted it to have a new arm and head. He's miles taller than the other red helpers, but I think he's their boss and is telling them where to go.

Here is the little group of red helpers together. They're strange, but sort of cool!

So, what next? I've got some more scavvies for Necromunda, and a batch of odd Stargrave militia types made out of medieval and WW2 plastics. And I've also got a bunch of Privateer Press Trollkin to paint. I'm trying to summon up the bravery to start them: they're nice models, but I'm slightly daunted. And then again I might just paint something entirely different!

Space Ork Kommando Skwad

 I thought I might quickly explain how I paint ork skin. Orks vary in colour from the quite drab to the lurid, and these days I tend to do it one of two ways, depending on the lightness.

Usually, I start with Vallejo Russian Uniform, a slightly drab colour that looks about 3/4 green to 1/4 grey. Then I give that two thin washes: one with dark green (GW Caliban Green) and one with Leviathan Purple contrast paint, watered down to be effectively an ink. The green one provides shadow. The purple one is important because purple is a "flesh" colour and gives the impression that ork skin is the equivalent of human skin (at least, that's the idea).

Then I highlight with a mixture of Russian Uniform and Game Colour Sick Green. Finally, I add some bright yellow (Warpaints Daemonic Yellow, to be exact) for the eyebrows and so on. And that's it, really! If I want an ork to have lighter skin (I assume younger orks and gretchin are more brightly-coloured), I would start with Sick Green as a base coat, used both washes and leave out the Russian Uniform.

Anyhow, on to the models. 

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First up, here's a random bionic ork. He's not actually a 40k model at all: he's an old Blood Bowl miniature, called cybork. But he certainly fits in with the others. As with so many of these miniatures, he's a nice sculpt and has a good mixture of detail and simplicity.

But now for something a bit more ambitious. Sometime in the mid-90s, towards the end of the old-style orks, Games Workshop produced a few kommando miniatures. Kommandos were wily orks who, instead of charging at the enemy, could creep into position, and were allowed to infiltrate on the board. 

The design of the miniatures is obviously a nod to WW2 British commandos, with their uniforms and wooly hats (with predictable ork logic, the Stormboys are equally obvious Nazis). As every British boy of a certain age knows, commandos are awesome. 

I'd painted some of these models a while back, but I wanted to spruce them up and bring them into line with the rest of my oldhammer force. That meant redoing the skin, as well as generally tidying the painting. While I had three of the same sculpts (there aren't many different models in this group), some of them had lost their original axes.

One got a dynamite stick made by drilling into the hilt of the broken axe and inserting a bit of string. Dynamite and kommandos probably go together quite well. The guy beside him got a knife from a leftover Warlord Games plastic Roman's sword. The shape looks quite like the classic fighting knives carried by WW2 commandos.

One of the models had been hacked to pieces, and was missing an axe and an entire arm. I did some repairs, and was pleased to find that a broken power claw fitted perfectly. He got a chaos bolt pistol to match, and is now the nob of the unit. 

Here he is with a friend.

The final two are unconverted. I really like the expression of the guy on the right. He's seen a lot and he's not having any.

One of the best touches about these miniatures is that each kommando is carrying a Swiss Army knife on his belt, just in case he has to open a tin or get a stone out of a horse's (or tyranid's) hooves.

And here, then, is the entire squad. They just need a suitably dramatic caption.

Deep in the storm-wracked ruins of Plogius Minoris IX, Leftennant "Grabba" Gutrog and his kommandos stealthily advance on the unsuspecting forces of the Imperial Guard.

You know, I never actually set out to make an oldhammer ork army. Oh well! Gork and possibly Mork must have willed it to happen!