Enjoy all of it! The comparisons between the old and new are cool to see, and the paint on the new model is really top notch! The goat guys are impressive, considering they're goats lol. Remember the Little Mermaid movie cover Disney had to deal with; at least GW caught it before mass distribution. Great job on the GS...looks stellar!
Keep these coming! I'm sure I'm not the only one who enjoys your posts.
Just dropping by to again say "keep it up!". I love your posts!
That genestealer looks fabulous.
Definitely keep posting! I love seeing the mix of “old lead” and the newest models.
Thanks tee!
Cheer DaBeebs. I want to paint the original techpriests (one of which was just a bald man in a lab coat) from Rogue Trader, and show them off alongside the current ott itereations that are full of mad mechatentacles.
Ta Gorb and Dr. Bob.
*********
With Space Marine players jumping for joy that the new Primaris miniatures get jump heavy weapons, I’ve jumped at the chance to do a Rogue Trader era squad – when jump heavy weapons were also a thing.
I regret not thinking of “JUMP THE GUN” as the armour graffiti for the squaddie with Heavy Bolter.
Stamped out in Warhammer 40,000’s second edition, and now only just reappearing 26 years later – Space Marines with heavy weapons could also select jump packs in a number of ways in the various army lists. Squad Taurasi have done it here by being a Tactical Squad upgraded to “Cobra Squad” status in the 1988 Book of the Astronomican army list – and the highly mobile lad on the far right is toting a Heavy Bolter.
Sergeant Taurasi’s graffiti reads “I SAY JUMP” and “U SAY HOW HI”, showing she’s the lady charge.
I had a lot of fun painting checks on the jump packs, to give the squad some visual interest, and distract from the assymetrically lumpen sculpting of these vintage Marine miniatures. This design of jump pack commands a high price on the collector’s market and is frequently pirated, meaning it’s taken years of patient hunting to source five genuine castings – so they’re worth lavishing the paitning time on.
Sergeant Taurasi is not actually a Space Marine miniature, but “Female Warrior Jayne” from the RT601 Adventurers range, meaning this blog counts as part of the Choose Your Own Adventurers series I’ve been doing with cheet0r and axiom. Recently, cheet0r has incorporated some of the Adventurer Cyborgs into his Necron army, and axiom has turned an Adventurer Pilot into a Buck Rogers homage – check ‘em out!
To spin Female Warrior Jayne as a sergeant she’s received a thigh-mounted helmet with rank stripe markings, and an an Imperial Eagle command trinket (in lieu of an unaerodynamic back banner) on her jump pack.
Squad Taurasi reinforcing the Crimson Fists battleline. Fort and towers coming soon from Fogou Models.
Squad Taurasi pushes my Crimson Fists force pleasantly closer to the initial 1000 points goal.
SQUAD
1 Marine Champion [9], Power Sword [7]
16 POINTS
1 Marine [8], Power Axe [6], Bolt Gun [2]
16 POINTS
1 Marine [8], 2 Power Gloves [2*15]
38 POINTS
1 Marine [8], Plasma Gun [5.5], Hand Flamer [2]
38 POINTS
1 Marine [8], Heavy Bolter [15], Targeter [5], 2 Suspensors [2*2]
32 POINTS
Basic Equipment (all models): Bolt Pistol [1.5], Jump Pack [2], Knife [0], Powered Armour [6] (with Communicator [0.5], Respirator [0.5], Auto-senses [0.5])
55 POINTS
TOTAL: 195 POINTS
If you’d like to learn how I paint Crimson Fists, I’ve photographed a Marine in between each step of the blue power armour process.
These steps broken down, with the techniques and theory behind them spelt out, the tutorial is available on Patreon. The skills you’ll learn are transferable to all colours of power armour. The back catalogue of tutorials also covers white armour and brass armour – and will continue to expand every month.
Coming soon – some vehicles and support characters to round out this vintage Rogue Trader force. I’ve been painting a Missile Armour Dreadnought on the twitch, and also powering through the original metal Land Speeder, and collecting the glorious classic Techmarines. Stay tuned!
More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
Wonderful! I love the graffiti you put on your pieces.
Thanks gorb! I'm spilling over with ideas for graffiti for future Fists.
Q. What do you get if you cross a Chaos Centaur of Tzeentch, and a zebra?
A. A “Tzebra”.
Presenting Tzebra Doomstripe, the latest monster to swell the ranks of my vintage Warhammer collection.
This tzoological monstrosity was my entry into the “Make a Trish” competition in the Oldhammer Community. Challengers had a month to model and paint a Trish Carden miniature, and the Mistress of Monsters herself would pick a favourite.
Tzebra is not one actually one Trish Carden monster, but two mashed together. The MM94/1 Chaos Centaur Lord was a metal human torso designed to be fitted to the standard plastic Warhammer horse torso (henceforth: “horso”). But the plastic horso had spindly legs that looked wrong with the human torso’s majestically beefy barbarian arms, so I decapitated Trish’s MM83 High Elf Unicorn and used it as a replacement horso. This new unicorn part is, importantly, also saddle-free – Tzebra is a Lord of Chaos and tolerates no riders upon his horso.
To nudge Tzebra into Tzeentch’s visual territory, I swapped his barbarian broadsword for a scratch-built khopesh. His helmet plume was switched for a plastic Ork topknot, whose flowing lines better matched the new unicorn tail. Historically, these helmet plumes were made from dyed horsehair, meaning Tzebra has made a hat decoration out of his own bodyhair.
The skin was painted light blue at first (using a modified version of the Ur-Ghul recipe /url]Patreon backers have access to), and had dark blue strips added afterwards. I did a digital mockup of the colours to experiment with continuing the zebra strips onto the human elements, and also to work out if the blue and white stripes that worked in my imagination would look too “Bananas in Pyjamas” (thankfully not).
Tzebra didn’t win Trish’s competition, losing out to Jonathan Marshall’s atmospheric Albion Fenbeast. You can check out a gallery of all the entries here . Thanks to Asslessman for organising the competition, and Trish for judging and providing the prize.
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Tzebra Doomstripe leading his Tzebu retinue to battle.
More tzany Tzeentch creations coming soon!
More of my miniatures at: http://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
The gaming table at Ninjabread HQ has a new centerpiece in the form of an absolutely giant space castle. This humungous 18″ x 18″ fortification dominates the desert landscapes of the far future – a rock solid bastion for miniature soldiers to defend. This is Fort Hardknox.
Over three hundred square inches of post-apocalyptic fortress chonk.
This giant resin kit came courtesy of Fogou Models. I got to paint and keep an advance casting of it in return for encouraging all of you to go and back its incredibly succesful Kickstarter campaign.
I’ve kept the paint scheme quite neutral so I can deploy it on the table for games of Strontium Dog, Warhammer 40,000, Judge Dredd, Doctor Who, Necromunda et cetera. It perfectly suits Mad Max, Fallout, Gorkamorka and anything with a post-apocalyptic flavour.
Psycho Sam claiming Fort Hardknox for the glory America.
The Psycho Sam miniature was the event exclusive from the Oldhammer USA Weekend that Grove kindly gifted me. Asslessman, Lopez and Sean have all already painted this miniature in the red white and blue of the American flag, so to out-patriot all of them I modelled mine holding an actual American flag.
Republicans! Sportsmanship! Books!
There’s a gallery of yet more Psycho Sams in the Oldhammer Community.
Asslessman, axiom and cheetor have all painted their own advance castings of Hardknox. The four of us have been comparing notes, swapping photos and bickering about whose painting approach is the best for months now. There’s talk of us combining our forts into one truly giant structure that would be big enough for the smallest of us (cheetor) to sleep inside.
And finally, don’t forget to check out the Fogou Kickstarter, ending today!
More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
It was competition time again over at the Oldhammer Community. The friendly neighbourhood Jeany-Bap-Baps challenged hobbyists to paint miniatures sculpted by the great Bob Olley, and have them judged by the Lord our Bob himself. I couldn’t resist, and so I created this mini-diorama.
"Yeah! Smash the patriarch-y!"
Bob Olley was one of the key contibutors to the nascent Warhammer 40,000 range, and he sculpted a huge portion of the Squat range that I’ve loved collecting, painting and gaming with through the years.
Olley-days are coming. Olley-days are coming. Olley-days are coming.
The Squat Berserker isn’t actually one of those original Rogue Trader miniatures, but a hyper-limited edition that Bob sculpted for a tiny indie manufacturer that’s since disappeared. I was hoping its extreme rarity would mean everyone who saw my painted casting would HAVE THEIR MINDS BLOWN with the novelty.
The original concept art for the Fantastic Miniatures limited edition.
Only not. The first bloke I showed mine to simply said, “Yeah whatevs, looks like the one I did.” Screw you, Paul. Screw. You.
Not only that, but turns out his blogpost features loads of other cool indie manufacturers’ Squat miniatures that he also painted before I did mine. Sho3box is exactly the kind of person that turns up to cool parties wearing the same Decepticon logo shirt as you. And with the girl you were hoping to ask out already on his arm.
A sample of sho3box’s trailblazing indie Space Dwarf collection.
Rogue Trader Squat Cyber-Slayer and some Mantic Forge Father bitsCuris’s woefully derivative imitation collection.
So I had to push further to ensure novelty, and modelled the Slayer standing over another Olley sculpt – an original Citadel Miniatures Genestealer Patriarch. I sawed that huge lead torso diagonally in half, and chopped apart and resculpted the limbs until I was satisfied the Patriarch was looking sufficiently collapsed, defeated, and bleeding out into the cold metal grille of the base.
The Patriarch’s tounge lolling out of his head helps sell the, “Argh! Thus I die!” vibe.
It’s also the second Genestealer model I’ve painted recently, the first being a Locus for a wet-blended purple cloth tutorial for Patreon supporters. Check it out here!
Squats from the Furnace Valley Brotherhood coming together to battle the Genestealer menace.
Over forty people made it to the finishing line in the Oldhammer Community‘s Olley competition, and we wait with baited breath to see who Bob judges the best. (If it’s sho3box, I’ll explode.)
More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
Stunning work, as usual! And an entertaining write-up.
I love the proportions of these models, with their oversized heads, hands and weapons.
So much detail in them too, like the folds in the cloth.
Please keep these coming!
Thanks gorb! Yeah, the proportions of these models make these fun to paint. The over-sized heads mean you can lavish a lot of time bringing them to life. More modern miniatures with more realistic head proportions kinda miss out on that character.
Space Marine Chapter founders love a good animal name. Mythical beasts of terror (Howling Griffons, Minotaurs, Silver Drakes…), apex predators (Space Wolves, Celestial Lions, White Panthers…), birds of prey (Hawk Lords, Necropolis Hawks, Raven Guard…), venomous reptiles (Iron Snakes, Viper Legion, Salamanders…). But I’ve just painted these Deathwatch, the Chapter named after tiny insects that burrow into your wooden furniture.
Deathwatch Aggressors on secondment from (left-to-right): Emperor’s Reckoners, Ultramarines and Imperial Fists.
They’ve come to destroy the xeno-filth of the galaxy just like the beetles destroy your antique furniture. I suppose they’re not the only Space Marine chapter named after insects – there’s Mantis Warriors. But Mantises are cool insects that do decapitation and look like samurai. Maybe my problem with the Deathwatch name is just me, growing up binging on episodes of Antiques Roadshow and Lovejoy, and Joe Public just thinks it’s kewl as it starts with “Death” and death is kewl.
Other Space Marine Chapters named after insects: Emperor’s Caterpillers, Ladybird Legion and the Astral Lice.
The Primaris Aggressors’ poses are entirely fixed, so the closest thing you get to choice is slicing the tag off the heads so you slightly twist them, though not too much as they’ll just end up staring at the inside of their armoured hoods. Fixed poses aren’t a bad thing, if they’re dramatic, but all three are “video game character selection screen” poses. It would have been cool to them pointing their guns not at the ground, and have the Sergeant pointing dramatically. But attempting any of that requires a filthy amount of modelling work, re-engineering all the pipes and ammo feeds.
Detail close ups.
So, with no reposing potential, I stamped these Deathwatch as “mine” with a big freehand banner on the Sergeant. It’s taken from the Ironclad Dreadnought kit – just like my Nemesis Chapter Intercessor Sergeant. The design is a combination of the Deathwatch and Ultramarines chapter icons, bordered with black and white checks. I was super-keen to get Ultramarines icongraphy front and centre since both the Sergeant’s shoulder pads are taken up with sculpted details.
Sergeant Amorgaudium leading his squad aboard the Eye of Kea.
I picked out the Deathwatch skull in red with a white stripe (along with the skulls on the fist, leg and shoulder), echoing the Codex Astartes veteran sergeant helmet markings. He’s named Amorgaudium as it’s High Gothic for Lovejoy – a rascally antiques dealer who understands how terrifying Deathwatch Beetles are.
The six steps to crisp black power armour.
I’ve photographed and written up a https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread] masterclass tutorial[/url] with all the steps, paint mixes and theory for the black on these Deathwatch. If you’d like access, it’s over on the https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread]Ninjabread Patreon page[/url], along with over a dozen other masterclasses.
Deathwatch supporting battle-brothers from the Nemesis Chapter.
The squad’s now ready to join my Nemesis Chapter army as an Auxiliary Support Detachment. What next for the army? Maybe some Troops, maybe some HQ, (Death)watch this space!
More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
nice, really tidy work on those marines
My WIP thread - where the painting and rambling happens http://www.coolminiornot.com/forums/...ing-lark-again
Deathwatch squad looks great! And great job on the squats.
Buenos dias, Ninjabread readers. Today my Mexican-flavoured vintage Space Marine army gets some Adeptus Mechanicus reinforcements. An “Adeptus Mexicanicus”, if you will.
I’m gonna paint all my Techmarines with that big blue hand symbol so they can rub banners with each other while solemnly chanting “high five” in High Gothic.
This Marine is one of the vintage Mark Copplestone designs, wearing a modified suit of Mk 6 power armour – instantly recognisable from its chest cabling and beaked helmet. What makes the Copplestone Techmarines really stand out is the wealth of bonus tech details – the toolbox, the magnifying lenses, the drillbit and equipment mounted on the belt. They’re a joy to paint.
“A day like today is not a day for soundbites, we can leave those at home, but I feel the hand of history upon our shoulder with respect to this, I really do.”
The gnarly witch hand sculpted onto the right shoulder is the original symbol of the Adeptus Mechanicus, before it changed to the skull cog of today.
Check out the standard Mk 6 backpack, before Techmarines started on their journey to becoming grimdark Doctor Octopuses festooned in servo-arms and mechadendrites.
Back in the olden days, Techmarines were just basic lads with a bolt pistol, who you had to field one for each vehicle or support weapon in your army. Over the years they’ve grown in stature and are now mighty HQ choices striding around the battlefield with an exotic array of wargear and special rules. So that I can field this miniature in modern games of 8th edition Warhammer 40,000 and still have it backwards compatible for Rogue Trader, I modelled his modern wargear as a separate little drone.
Three more of the planned 36 Techmarines this army will feature.
The drone’s chassis started life as an upside-down 6mm Epic-scale Land Raider with the smoke launchers and sponsons sliced away. The weapon is the business end of the standard Rogue Trader Imperial Conversion Beamer, mounted on the much meatier body of a Eldar D-Cannon.
To descale it, I added big chunky rivets made from sliced down plastic tubing, and a big fat radio-control antenna with a pennant with the classic Beamer identification symbol.
Crimson Fists Techmarine happy to see action. “Positively beaming”, you could say.
In games of Warhammer 40,000 he’s been great at zapping enemies, but has yet to unlock his full potential as the army has precisely zero vehicles for him to repair. But I plan to remedy that soon with some solid lead Dreadnoughts, Landspeeders and support weapons!
Ninjabread communication complete!
More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
Excuse me while I clean up the drool I left on the keyboard after reading this
Loving the history, backstory, and chunky conversions to bits!
amazing job on all of these old figures and great back story you create for them!
Love the old 40k back story and as usual great conversion and painting
Thank you for asking but I don't do commissions.
- 'Painting is a companion with whom one may hope to walk a great part of life's journey.' W. Churchill
Thanks Gorb! Cheers ekipage! Ta ten ball! I get loads of time to while painting stuff to think through the reasons why they're all there.
Len suilon Ninjabread readers. I’ve painted a set of Dúnedain Rangers in order to play some Fellowship of the Ring games set on the borders of the Shire.
Eleven Rangers – enough for a whole football team. Like Rangers F.C. I know football.
With the exception of Aragorn, Dúnedain Rangers don’t appear directly in Tolkein’s Fellowship of the Ring book, or the Peter Jackson film adaptation. They’re just noted as lurking in the background being mysterious.
“…in the wild lands beyond Bree there were mysterious wanderers. The Bree folk called them Rangers and knew nothing of their origin. They were taller and darker than the Men of Bree and were believed to have strange powers of sight and hearing, and to understand the language of beasts and birds. They roamed at will southwards and eastwards even as far as the Misty Mountains; but they were now few and rarely seen.”
– The Lord of the Rings, At the Sign of the Prancing Pony
This is no mere Ranger. This is … oh wait, yes, it is a mere Ranger.
Six of the miniatures (all the ones with masked faces) are Citadel’s ME-25 Rangers of Ithilien, but I’ve repurposed them as their distant Dúnedain cousins, as Tolkein is sparse with descriptive details. Modern Games Workshop also produce a set of “Rangers of Middle-earth” that they recommend you use as any type of forest-lurking human group.
This is no mere Ranger. This is Aragorn, son of Arathorn. And you owe him your allegiance.
Attached to the group is the ME-12 version of Aragorn, in his Strider the Ranger persona. He’s a really strong sculpt, with a weathered nobility on his face. A nice detail is that his left hand is clutching a second sheathed sword – the pieces of Narsil that he carries as an heirloom of his family and to symbolise his birthright to the throne of Arnor.
This is no mere Ranger. This is Halbarad, son of Halbaron. And you owe him twenty Euro.
In command of the Rangers is my slaphead with an earring rendition of Halbarad. The sculpt’s expression of withering disdain is his main tool for keeping the group of strong-willed loners together. Thanks to Jesper Moberg over on the Oldhammer Community for identifying the figure as a C04 Thief.
Sing about the Rangers lads we`ll sing another song,
Sing it with the spirit that we’ll start the world along,
Sing it as we used to sing it 50,000 strong,
While we we’re marching to Ibrox
I’ve added some further variety to the group with a pair of Citadel’s Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Thieves, and a wannabe Hobbit ranger to impress on players they’re not just anywhere in Middle-earth, but defending the borders of the Shire. I’m excited to see how they get on in games against the Nazgûl and other nasties.
More from Ninjabread’s version of Middle-earth soon! Novaer!
More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread
Last edited by Curis; 12-02-2019 at 01:22 PM.
My miniatures blog: www.ninjabread.co.uk
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