Greetings all;
This post is a bit different to my previous ones as it's not a 'gallery' of my recent miniatures but more of a discussion topic for people to contemplate.
Unless you have been locked in a box for the past few months then it is impossible not to have noticed the rapid rise in popularity of the Old Hammer movement amongst us old school gamers and even amongst newer converts! It seems that every day a new blog appears full of interesting posts and beautiful photographs of models all geared towards spreading the joys of Old Hammer. This is coupled with events like Foundry (which I'm gutted I missed) appearing for like minded individuals to gather, have fun and inspire each other.
The question I want to ask is 'Why is Old Hammer becoming more popular?'
Obviously as sentient being (sort of) I have my own theories on this topic and they are as follows:
1) Disillusion: Firstly I believe that the modern GW games (which I do also collect and play) have become too dominated by 'Power Gamers'; 'Power Lists' and a 'Victory at all Costs' tournament attitude amongst the player base; this appears to be actively is encouraged by GW. I can see why GW as a business would support this outlook amongst it's clientele as it encourages the bulk buying of tonnes of plastic every time a new and more powerful force gets released (which seems to be at a very rapid rate these days); however I can't help but feel its damaging the gaming experience and causing the aforementioned disillusion to take root amongst gamers. Don't get me wrong tournament style play has it's place, but it shouldn't be the be all and end all of gaming...If we look at it from a different perspective then sometimes a kick about in the park is more fun than a religiously refereed premier league football (soccer) match; gaming is no different!
They seemed to have lost what made gaming fun in the first place all those years ago back in the days of Rogue Trader and Second Edition 40k; this was the notion of using our models to tell a story and experience an unique adventure. This narrative style of play was great and when zany/weird stuff happened it just made it even more enjoyable. The experience of small bands of characters battling on a forgotten Imperial outpost while native livestock ran wild (at the behest of the GM) was just so much more immersive than sweeping giant hordes of nameless drones towards an almost identical opposing force!
2) Nostalgia: This is definitely part of the appeal; let's face it; the stuff we remember from our youth always holds a certain charm that nothing else can ever live up to. However I think there is still more to it than that; don't get me wrong I know that modern GW figures are far superior in sculpting and flexibility compared to the older ranges; but I reckon the older, metal miniatures had more charisma to them. I paint models from all eras of 40k and I have to say I enjoy painting the older; cruder sculpts more than the newer plastic/resin that is being churned out.
3) Atmosphere: It has to be said the atmosphere amongst Old Hammer gamers tends to be a bit more relaxed and welcoming than amongst the new generation of toy soldier generals. I read the majority of the Old Hammer blogs across the web and it seems to be almost universally a very welcoming environment for newcomers. The majority of articles are well written, accessible and the authors are always responsive to those readers who engage with them; even when people disagree it appears to be done in a very amicable and gentlemanly way.
This is in stark contrast to other more modern-oriented sites (no names mentioned) where people seem to go at each others throats over minor nuances in army lists that are designed to destroy their opponents at all costs!
Maybe this ingrained attitude harks backs to the GW stores that we visited when we were growing up; I remember loving going into my local store after school or on weekends. It was always full of regulars (both staff and customers), painting, gaming and chatting. It was a wonderful atmosphere that really engendered creativity and fun; and if I fancied a new product I'd ask the staff and they'd give me their genuine opinion and maybe I would by it or maybe I wouldn't.
Fast forward 20 years and the whole place is a completely different entity. Many of the current stores seem to be run by one overworked bloke on the verge of a nervous breakdown and forced to meet targets. For example on entering the premises this afternoon I was instantly accosted and given the hard sell about the new Dark Elves; when I explained I just wanted paints the staff member lost interest and assaulted a child and his parent who were trying to by a SM tactical squad. By the time he'd finished with them he'd forced the reluctant father to buy a battle force and every modelling accessory under the Sun; it was like watching a mugging in action. It's almost impossible to leave the store without feeling like you've been robbed by a gang member! I understand they are a business that needs to turn a profit, but I'd be more inclined to spend money if the staff didn't make me feel so uncomfortable and try to steal the cash directly out of my wallet.
Well it's midnight and I'm off to bed so that's about it for tonight on my views as to why Old Hammer is on the up and up, but I am sure there are wiser more informed opinions out there and I would really appreciate it if you could expand upon or challenge what I've written above!!
Oh and as an aside I've enticed my mate over tomorrow and we're going to have a bit of Rogue Trader action so I'll try and take some snaps and do a battle report once we're done!!
Friday, 11 October 2013
Saturday, 5 October 2013
Nuns...with Guns
Greetings all;
As promised I haven't left it so long between posts this time!
This time around it's going to be something a little different to my usual Astartes theme. Don't get me wrong; Space Marines will always be my first love, they always have been since I broke open my first plastic beaky marines from the RTB01 box set. However; sometimes it's nice for a change to keep the painting fresh and interesting.
As such I have been working on a little sideline project on and off for a little while; The glorious Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas. These female warriors of the Imperial church are awesome models, though with the crappy new Whtie Dwarf Codex they are basically Space Marines Lite if you ever bother to play 6th Ed! These is furthe compounded by the fact that the 2nd Ed Codex was one of the weaker of the armies that were released, in fact it even says within the book itself that they will struggle as an independant force and should really be used as allies to other Imperial armies.
One thing that I do like about them is that they are some of the few models still available from GW that are still predominantly all second ed casts...anyway here's a few snapshots of my ladies:
This is my Canoness; the leader of my force and I have to say I'm very pleased with how she turned out. The flames and the power sword have turned out well I think.
The squad above is my latest tactical squad (1 of 3). The veteran sister is actually an old version of the Canoness from 2nd Ed. I have to apologise for the poor quality camera work; it was late!
Here are my three tactical squads and a few vehicles that I have recently finished (eagle eyed readers will spot my Rogue Trader Salamanders on the shelf below!)
Here are a few of my girls getting ready to go to war with my mates Imperial Guard force. They are displayed on a City Battlefield that I have built. If you look in the top tier of the ruins you can see my female Inquisitor in the red power armour, she frequently takes to the field alongside the Sororitas.
A couple of shots of my banner bearer carrying the old style printed banners thar came with second edition boxsets. Sadly this model and the old banners are increasingly rare!
I have also just finished three squads of Seraphim for a bit of fast moving, power armoured goodness. These squads do highlight one problem with the battle sisters models, simply that the lack of variety does lead to a fair bit of repetition. Once again I am happy with how the power sword turned out.
Finally a quick shot of my six vehicles (4 Rhinos, 1 Immolator and 1 Exorcist.)
I customised the Exorcist using an Immolator kit and a Whirlwind as I really don't like the organ style travesty that is the official GW model. The Immolator is the resin version from FW.
Anyway that's it for this time around; I hope you enjoyed it!!
As promised I haven't left it so long between posts this time!
This time around it's going to be something a little different to my usual Astartes theme. Don't get me wrong; Space Marines will always be my first love, they always have been since I broke open my first plastic beaky marines from the RTB01 box set. However; sometimes it's nice for a change to keep the painting fresh and interesting.
As such I have been working on a little sideline project on and off for a little while; The glorious Battle Sisters of the Adepta Sororitas. These female warriors of the Imperial church are awesome models, though with the crappy new Whtie Dwarf Codex they are basically Space Marines Lite if you ever bother to play 6th Ed! These is furthe compounded by the fact that the 2nd Ed Codex was one of the weaker of the armies that were released, in fact it even says within the book itself that they will struggle as an independant force and should really be used as allies to other Imperial armies.
One thing that I do like about them is that they are some of the few models still available from GW that are still predominantly all second ed casts...anyway here's a few snapshots of my ladies:
This is my Canoness; the leader of my force and I have to say I'm very pleased with how she turned out. The flames and the power sword have turned out well I think.
The squad above is my latest tactical squad (1 of 3). The veteran sister is actually an old version of the Canoness from 2nd Ed. I have to apologise for the poor quality camera work; it was late!
Here are my three tactical squads and a few vehicles that I have recently finished (eagle eyed readers will spot my Rogue Trader Salamanders on the shelf below!)
Here are a few of my girls getting ready to go to war with my mates Imperial Guard force. They are displayed on a City Battlefield that I have built. If you look in the top tier of the ruins you can see my female Inquisitor in the red power armour, she frequently takes to the field alongside the Sororitas.
A couple of shots of my banner bearer carrying the old style printed banners thar came with second edition boxsets. Sadly this model and the old banners are increasingly rare!
I have also just finished three squads of Seraphim for a bit of fast moving, power armoured goodness. These squads do highlight one problem with the battle sisters models, simply that the lack of variety does lead to a fair bit of repetition. Once again I am happy with how the power sword turned out.
Finally a quick shot of my six vehicles (4 Rhinos, 1 Immolator and 1 Exorcist.)
I customised the Exorcist using an Immolator kit and a Whirlwind as I really don't like the organ style travesty that is the official GW model. The Immolator is the resin version from FW.
Anyway that's it for this time around; I hope you enjoyed it!!
Thursday, 12 September 2013
Terminate this...
Greetings one and all;
Apologies for the long break in transmission since my last post; I have been remiss in my duties as a keen retro gamer!
I have in fact been on a course with the Army which has limited my access to the world wide web; so really it's not my fault.
On the bright side though while I was away there wasn't a whole lot to do in the evenings so it gave me the opportunity to get some one-on-one painting time with some old school miniatures.
A few months ago I played a couple of games of 40K second ed with two of my best friends (one from the Army and the other is now in the Royal Navy and it just so happened that we were all on leave at the same time). Anyway during these games both of my opponents deployed squads of Assault Terminators which presently ran amok in my lines and killed everything they encountered take nearly no damage in return... be warned Storm Shields and Terminator Armour is a bithcin' combo!
Well after I finished crying and punching the wall I was motivated to field some of these monsters myself. My chums had used the new modern era Termies, but in true retro style I managed to dig out some original second ed assault terminators, I stripped off their old paint job and then set to work sprucing them up ready for our next 1990's style battle.
My main army is actually Crimson Fists (an entire battle company plus) so I decided to paint these guys as Rogal Dorn's bluest sons! The results are below:
This is the complete Squad painted up and ready to go. Three thunder hammers/storm shields should be enough to soak up some punishment from all but the heaviest weapons; plus there are two guys with lightning claws to shred all and sundry to pieces in a whirlwind of blades once the distance has been closed!
And here we have the complete squad in a conga style line a la Space Hulk deployment (which incidentally is another one of my favourtite games that they are likely to find themselves deployed in; after all it would be a shame not to put those close combat weapons to use in destroying the Genestealer menace - 1989 first edition rules only; of course).
Above is a close up of each of the individual members of the squad in all their glory.
The one issue with the old school models compared to their more modern counterparts is that due to the limited amount of variation with each miniature there is a tendency for them to end up all looking a bit similar; however I have found that the way to get around this problem is by injecting some differences via the art work on their shoulder pads. Terminator shoulders are lovely big areas which allow me the chance to try out a bit of free hand artwork as follows:
I chose a lightning bolt for this chap as it seems to be a recurring theme with assault terminators and also he is equipped with lightning claws!
This fellow got a skull as the world of 40k is full of them and I also really enjoy painting them!
The squad Sergeant got a sword as he is an assault terminator and it seemed appropriate; I was going to add wings; but then I thought it would look a little too Death Wing so I went for a stylised '1' (for the first company) and some free hand script.
Veteran/Terminator Cross - self-explanatory really!!
Finally I thought at least one member of the squad should bear the chapter iconography of the Crimson Fists and so this bloke got a nice big red gauntlet.
Well that's it for this time guys; I promise not to leave it so long between posts next time!! Stay safe; and remember; the Emperor Protects!!
Apologies for the long break in transmission since my last post; I have been remiss in my duties as a keen retro gamer!
I have in fact been on a course with the Army which has limited my access to the world wide web; so really it's not my fault.
On the bright side though while I was away there wasn't a whole lot to do in the evenings so it gave me the opportunity to get some one-on-one painting time with some old school miniatures.
A few months ago I played a couple of games of 40K second ed with two of my best friends (one from the Army and the other is now in the Royal Navy and it just so happened that we were all on leave at the same time). Anyway during these games both of my opponents deployed squads of Assault Terminators which presently ran amok in my lines and killed everything they encountered take nearly no damage in return... be warned Storm Shields and Terminator Armour is a bithcin' combo!
Well after I finished crying and punching the wall I was motivated to field some of these monsters myself. My chums had used the new modern era Termies, but in true retro style I managed to dig out some original second ed assault terminators, I stripped off their old paint job and then set to work sprucing them up ready for our next 1990's style battle.
My main army is actually Crimson Fists (an entire battle company plus) so I decided to paint these guys as Rogal Dorn's bluest sons! The results are below:
This is the complete Squad painted up and ready to go. Three thunder hammers/storm shields should be enough to soak up some punishment from all but the heaviest weapons; plus there are two guys with lightning claws to shred all and sundry to pieces in a whirlwind of blades once the distance has been closed!
And here we have the complete squad in a conga style line a la Space Hulk deployment (which incidentally is another one of my favourtite games that they are likely to find themselves deployed in; after all it would be a shame not to put those close combat weapons to use in destroying the Genestealer menace - 1989 first edition rules only; of course).
Above is a close up of each of the individual members of the squad in all their glory.
The one issue with the old school models compared to their more modern counterparts is that due to the limited amount of variation with each miniature there is a tendency for them to end up all looking a bit similar; however I have found that the way to get around this problem is by injecting some differences via the art work on their shoulder pads. Terminator shoulders are lovely big areas which allow me the chance to try out a bit of free hand artwork as follows:
I chose a lightning bolt for this chap as it seems to be a recurring theme with assault terminators and also he is equipped with lightning claws!
This fellow got a skull as the world of 40k is full of them and I also really enjoy painting them!
The squad Sergeant got a sword as he is an assault terminator and it seemed appropriate; I was going to add wings; but then I thought it would look a little too Death Wing so I went for a stylised '1' (for the first company) and some free hand script.
Veteran/Terminator Cross - self-explanatory really!!
Finally I thought at least one member of the squad should bear the chapter iconography of the Crimson Fists and so this bloke got a nice big red gauntlet.
Well that's it for this time guys; I promise not to leave it so long between posts next time!! Stay safe; and remember; the Emperor Protects!!
Monday, 15 July 2013
Group shot as promised.....
Ask and ye shall recieve....I have uploaded a group shot of my Rogue Trader Marines.
Apologies that the quality isn't great but I will try to re-shoot it when the lights better...
Apologies that the quality isn't great but I will try to re-shoot it when the lights better...
Sunday, 14 July 2013
More Rogue Trader goodness
Greetings fellow Imperial citizens;
As promised I have taken a few more photographs of my Rogue Trader era Space Marines hailing from the Salamanders Chapter. As per my previous post I have tried to paint them in the style (and with the correct hand painted insignia) of the early Rogue Trader period (c.1987 - 1991).
Well every one loves a chracter and I decided that my Marines required a little spiritual support in the form of an original lead Chaplain armed with a bolt pistol and crozius....
I love this model; admittedly the skull mask is a little 'stylised' but the miniature oozes menace and character.
Next I decided to paint up a generic Veteran (maybe he will be used to fill in as anything from a sergeant up to a captain) with a massive power axe....
Again the sculpting is reminiscent of the times, but still....he's also very characterful.
Well it's time for a few more squads; and so I decided to give my Marine force a little more firepower in the form of two devastator units.
The first squad is ten marines strong, four of whom who are armed with lascannons. These models are the oldest Space Marines produced (some are pre-rogue trader and are c.1984 +) and are real gems; though they are pretty hard to get ahold of. They were made as part of Citadel's generic sci-fi models to support Talisman Timescape back in the days before 40k existed; however whilst there are some differences it is easy to see the progression from these guys through to the RTB01 wombles we all know and love. Pictures of them feature heavily in the RT rule book....
The next devastator squad is made up of 'standard' RT womble Mk VI metal and plastic marines; 1 carries a heavy bolter, 1 carries a conversion beamer whilst another two are armed with missile launchers....
Next another tactical squad is added to the fray. The sergeant is a plastic RTB01 marine with Power Fist and appropriate 80's rank chevrons. No heavy weapon as of yet, but you might like the special weapon trooper who has apparently mugged an Eldar and stolen his shuriken catapult...
Now it was time to up the existing assault squad from five to ten battle-brothers. Once again I have utilised a mix of metal and plastic marines to add some variation. The sergeant wields a power fist and bolt pistol whilst one marine is packing a hand flamer and another sports a plasma pistol...
I then decided to add an extra Rhino for increased mobility. Like my last Rhino (picture also included) I saw this a chance to go to town with hand painted insignia, honour markings and vehicle mounted flags. I really enjoyed trying out my blending techniques (from old WD paint guides) on the flames and lightning strike. I think they have turned out okay.
Well that's it for this update....I hope you've enjoyed seeing some old models given a new lease of life with a fresh paint job!
Stay safe out there....Legio
As promised I have taken a few more photographs of my Rogue Trader era Space Marines hailing from the Salamanders Chapter. As per my previous post I have tried to paint them in the style (and with the correct hand painted insignia) of the early Rogue Trader period (c.1987 - 1991).
Well every one loves a chracter and I decided that my Marines required a little spiritual support in the form of an original lead Chaplain armed with a bolt pistol and crozius....
I love this model; admittedly the skull mask is a little 'stylised' but the miniature oozes menace and character.
Next I decided to paint up a generic Veteran (maybe he will be used to fill in as anything from a sergeant up to a captain) with a massive power axe....
Again the sculpting is reminiscent of the times, but still....he's also very characterful.
Well it's time for a few more squads; and so I decided to give my Marine force a little more firepower in the form of two devastator units.
The first squad is ten marines strong, four of whom who are armed with lascannons. These models are the oldest Space Marines produced (some are pre-rogue trader and are c.1984 +) and are real gems; though they are pretty hard to get ahold of. They were made as part of Citadel's generic sci-fi models to support Talisman Timescape back in the days before 40k existed; however whilst there are some differences it is easy to see the progression from these guys through to the RTB01 wombles we all know and love. Pictures of them feature heavily in the RT rule book....
The next devastator squad is made up of 'standard' RT womble Mk VI metal and plastic marines; 1 carries a heavy bolter, 1 carries a conversion beamer whilst another two are armed with missile launchers....
Next another tactical squad is added to the fray. The sergeant is a plastic RTB01 marine with Power Fist and appropriate 80's rank chevrons. No heavy weapon as of yet, but you might like the special weapon trooper who has apparently mugged an Eldar and stolen his shuriken catapult...
Now it was time to up the existing assault squad from five to ten battle-brothers. Once again I have utilised a mix of metal and plastic marines to add some variation. The sergeant wields a power fist and bolt pistol whilst one marine is packing a hand flamer and another sports a plasma pistol...
I then decided to add an extra Rhino for increased mobility. Like my last Rhino (picture also included) I saw this a chance to go to town with hand painted insignia, honour markings and vehicle mounted flags. I really enjoyed trying out my blending techniques (from old WD paint guides) on the flames and lightning strike. I think they have turned out okay.
Well that's it for this update....I hope you've enjoyed seeing some old models given a new lease of life with a fresh paint job!
Stay safe out there....Legio
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