More Funny Little Maps...

Thought it made more sense to post the whole set of maps for the battle report.

So here's the whole thing.

Deployment

Eldar Turn 1

Space Marine Turn 1

Eldar Turn 2

Space Marine Turn 2

Eldar Turn 3

Space Marine Turn 3

Eldar Turn 4

Till next time.

Cap'n Smyrk

Funny little maps...

Greetings once more fellow Oldhammerers...

Been some time since I've posted anything here and whilst I have done some more painting in these times of enforced inactivity I've not got around to trying to photograph them yet.

However I have been spending time reading through my collection of old issues of White Dwarf. I don't have an enormous collection, the first issue I ever bought was issue 140 (August 1991), although I do have a few earlier issue I've acquired subsequently.

Reading these has brought back some nostalgia for the old White Dwarf battle reports with their little graphic maps of what was happening turn by turn. Which reminded me about a project I worked on a little while ago which involved trying to recreate the graphics used in those battle reports using my aging copy of Adobe Illustrator.

I recreated many of the individual unit icons and some of the terrain pieces. The ultimate result (as a sad, boring individual with nothing better to do with his time even before being locked down) was recreating the maps for the very first battle report I ever read, which was in my second issue of White Dwarf, 141 (September 1991).

 
This was clash between Alaitoc Eldar and Blood Angels commanded by Jervis Johnson and Andy Chambers (and was my introduction to the long tradition of Andy beating Jervis in print...). It had no specific backstory or scenario unlike many later reports.

The original graphics used were a bit basic with different coloured silhouettes of an Eldar or Space Marine being used to represent different units, vehicles being black rectangles with a tiny white silhouette in the middle, and the various characters didn't appear on the map at all!

Thinking back on it the silhouettes used were actually the ones off the epic army cards!

So I set about recreating the individual maps using unit icons (including top down views of vehicles) based on those used in later battle reports. I had some issues, not having a branching tree icon available in Illustrator I had to improvise with offset concentric green rings for undergrowth. Below are my recreations of the deployment map and the first turn.

My recreation of the deployment map

Whilst most of the graphics were based on those used later the Landspeeder and Thudd Gun are my creations based on the Rogue Trader models actually used.

Eldar Turn 1

Blood Angel Turn 1

Anyway just thought I would show some of what I made, makes things a bit easier to follow now that you can actually see where the Farseer, Blood Angels Captain and all the Exarches are without having to rely on the photos.

Till next time...


Cap'n Smyrk

Orctober Again

So its been a bit a fallow time Oldhammer wise for me for quite a while but I thought I would use Orctober as a push to get back into things.

Admittedly these three I actually started for last Orctober and never actually finished. But they're done now, although still suffering from my aversion to finishing bases...

Anyway here are Nogwize the Weirdboy and his (as yet) nameless minderz.

Here's Nogwize himself front and back

I attempted to give the impression that his eyes were glowing with inner light, not sure how well that came out

And the minderz:

And a poor pic of the Bad Moon symbol on his right shoulder

I incorporated the dull brown yellow on all three to tie them together, and the minders both use mostly the same colours although not necessarily in the same places.

Trying out a new lightbox for the photography, although since my camera is refusing to focus properly at they haven't come out quite as well as I hoped.

Anyway, hopefully it won't take me as long to paint something else...

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

My First Space Marine

Been a while since I've posted anything here, or indeed done much painting on the Oldhammer front, however this weekend I finally pulled my finger out and finished a couple of minis that have been sitting part painted for some time (can't quite recall for how long...). They are both from the original C100 range of space marines.

These are the muscle for Inquisitor Tycho's retinue who accompany the Inquisitor to smite the heretics once his more covert operatives have established the perpetrator's guilt.

They are both painted in a similar fashion to Tycho, with a Codex Grey basecoat, shaded with Delvan Mud and highlighted with Fortress Grey.

First up with have Brother Ramius who likes hitting people with his chainsword.

Poor quality photo but does show the red T-emblem that is Tycho's personal insignia

Then we have Brother Honourius who prefers to sit back and blasts heretics with his missile launcher.

I've used Tycho's personal emblem on both marine's shoulder pads

And finally a shot of the two with the Inquisitor himself.

Till next time...


Cap'n Smyrk

Belated Orctober...

So... a bit late for Orctober but these were painted in October but haven't had chance to take any photos until now.

A bit rushed so I'll have to try and take some better photos later.

Anyway first up with have a further member for my power armoured Nobs mob.

Then Gawp Da Banna Waver...

 Finally a Group shot with the other power armoured orcs and the boss I painted for last Orctober.

Painting up some Space Marines to join Inquisitor Tycho's retinue next.

Till next time...

Cap'n Smyrk

I see a bizare alternative dimension (with my third eye)...

Been having a slow period Oldhammer wise but have finally finished a model I started working on at the same time as my Redshirts in the previous post.

That was the navigator from the Adventurers range. He will also be joining Cap'n Smyrk's crew, if the eponymous captain is going to go gallivanting across the Imperium just barely avoiding the authorities he's going to need some "safe" way of navigating the warp...

The back story is that he is a renegade from his house who has signed on with Smyrk and his vagabonds in order to make some cash and receive protection from his relatives.

So I present Jean-Louis Petard l'Trois (still going with laboured the Star Trek refs here...).

Took me a while to decide on a scheme for his fancy clothes, and finally settled on mix of Picard's uniform (he is bald...) and Trois' more variable costumes.

I needed to incorporate the hazard stripes that are the common marker for Smyrk's crew but didn't really want to have them directly present given his more flamboyant style so I tried to use his flouncy sleeves.

Don't know what I'll do next but 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