Jabberwocky...

I certainly seem to have found a rich new strain of motivation for Oldhammer of late and have managed to continue painting up more models.

Although one of these is a bit of a cheat since it was technically already painted...

The first is a old C29 Jabberwock, a model that I have had for years (and previously seen in a previous post) the reasons it was acquired are lost to the mists of time.

It was originally painted in its somewhat eclectic colour scheme by my late elder brother and as such I didn't want to repaint it so all I've done is give it a few washes and some highlights (and a coat of varnish), eventually I'll probably mount it on an base once I have one of a suitable size.

Also painted this week was another Imperial Inquisitor. This one inspired by a certain other science fiction character. Although I bought the model especially for this purpose on seeing it up close I can't help thinking the designer may have also drawn inspiration from the same source...

Although not desperately visible in this image I painted the inside of his cloak a dark red just to reduce the amount of black on the model, for a similar reason I went with making the bionics metallic.

I'm currently working on Pilot Rav from the Adventurers range and Beast-Trooper Gaxt as a pair of roguish scoundrels.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

Sorcerous undertakings...

Hello again

As mentioned in my posts about old style battle report graphics I have done a little bit of painting recently. Not actually oldhammer specifically being a set of Heresy Miniatures fantasy sorceresses (formerly Spyglass figures I believe).

They may not be to some people's tastes but I was using them to practice skin, cloth and hair which they all have plenty of.

So the first figure was an trying to paint pale cloth colours and I also attempted to give a sort white/platinum blond hair.

I may have over emphasised her rear end...

The second sorceress was trying darker out colours and keeping up the racial diversity of my figures.

She is unfortunately looking to her left, due to my continuing struggles with eyes...

The last sorceress has a crystal ball that I wanted to try painting.

I'm fairly happy with how the crystal ball came out, although the photo is not great

Just about finished a pair of Imperial Guardsmen so once their varnished I'll be posting them as well.

Till then...

Cap'n Smyrk

And now for something fantastically different...

Just finished off a couple of minis this morning, a bit different from my normal fare, being neither 40k related nor produced by Citadel.

It's not often I do fantasy figures these days and these two don't have any particular story or project that they are connected to I just painted them on a whim.

The first is by Reaper from their Pathfinder RPG tie in range, I originally bought her to use as Regis d'Sarck but she was so much taller than any of the old Rogue Trader minis that I was using that she didn't really fit so she was replaced with the Black Scorpion Governor's daughter I finally used.

She sat undercoated for quite sometime whilst I decided what to do with her.

To go with her I have a Hasslefree dwarf "Kain", who I bought at Salute last year along with the barmaid and strumpet I painted a while back. He wasn't bought for any particular reason other than I liked the mini.
I pulled him out recently and decided to paint him and it seemed to be a good opportunity to paint the Reaper mini as well.

Still working on the Rogue Trader Navigator that I started sometime back.

Till next time...


Cap'n Smyrk

Collecting Conumdrums...

So recently I've been contemplating the collecting side of the Oldhammer hobby and its numerous facets, especially as it is the primary direction of my own hobby.

However despite that I've never really attempted to collect the entirety of a particular range as many people attempt. I have mostly worked on finding particular figures that I have always wanted or really liked the look of.

Admittedly I have by chance managed to acquire most of the original Eldar range with just two or three that I am currently missing.

This line of thinking was mostly inspired by a recent purchase which has moved me closer to completing another range. Here is the offending individual WIP.

He means that I have only two figures remaining to complete the first two Adeptus Arbites ranges (even if I had the fiscal means to afford them I'm not overly bothered with the Necromunda Enforcers).

The above acquisition means that I have only two remaining, the bolter armed Arbite from the RT range and the Arbite Champion from the 2nd Edition range.

Of course the chances of finding the Arbite Champion at an price I can stomach are limited but a man can still dream...


Anyway the new recruit should hopefully end up like his buddies sometime soon.

Also on the painting table at the moment are some fantasy minis that will form the start of a "Champions of Law" warband somewhat inspired by the amazing work of Asslessman at Leadplague.

My current plan is to have a series of "champions" each with their own "apprentice/sidekick" who will reference their master in appearance and colour. Have three champions currently and plans for one or two more (my painting speed means they will never match the small army JB has reached).

Till next time.


Cap'n Smyrk

Rampant battling Dragon Gods...

So to keep up with my resolution to post something at least once a month and realising that the end of the month has snuck up on me I've thrown together this post on the fly without anything specific to show off.

As such I'm mostly going to be talking about some of the stuff I bought whilst at Salute a couple of weeks back. Unusually given my predilection for Rogue Trader and sci-fi subjects these mostly consisted of Fantasy rule sets...

I will admit to being somewhat of a collector of rules possessing many which I've never really played but enjoy perusing. Anyway this post isn't going to be a review of these rules, I leave that to more qualified observers but will mostly be my rambling thoughts.

First up was Dragon Rampant which is obviously fairly well known in the old school gaming scene along with its historical parent Lion Rampant.

The other was Foundry's God of Battles by Jake Thornton. I will admit to having fairly fond memories of Jake's tenure as White Dwarf editor (despite it being during the dreaded 'Red Period'), possible as it was around that time that one of my favourite GW games, Necromunda, came out.

Notably there are are some similarities in the basic rules concepts of the two sets although they are intended to work on slightly different scales and Dragon Rampant is of course a lot more generic not being tied to a specific world or miniatures range.

Having said that creating your own lists for GoB wouldn't be particularly difficult, and the concepts behind some of the armies included are quite interesting. The army based terrain tables and weather charts add a touch of flavour to the proceedings. The Habitat rules which have terrain pieces inhabited by various denizens that will defend their homes violently (often against both sides...) are also quite amusing.

I particularly liked the 'Miracles' magic system in GoB which is a relatively simple card based (using normal playing cards) system but includes a lot of tactical depth at the same time.

I suspect that overall Dragon Rampant is likely to be more useful to me if I ever feel like getting any fantasy games, mostly as I'm only likely to ever be able to field a enough models for a skirmish.


On the painting front I'm currently painting some Hasslefree villagers (also bought at Salute) to use a non-combatants.

Till next time.


Cap'n Smyrk