PTS 90 + Rogue Trader + 40K Space Marines + Scouts

Scouts. We will do our best!

A belated Painting Table Saturday #90. I have been playing a lot of ITEN lately, which is closer to Rogue Trader than later editions of Warhammer 40k. This has lead to some online purchases of citadel miniatures from the days of my youth.

To keep things interesting I have also made some conversions to add character to some models that are way too similar for my liking. The scouts looked rather uniform, so I gave most a new head or hairstyle. I stopped short of replacing some of the large knives for axes.

The older space marines required stripping. This proved challenging as they had two or three heavy layers of paint in most cases. The next dilemma is what colour to paint them? There are a multitude of Marine Chapters to choose from. I can even create my own. I could paint each one differently (as a tribute to ), or have two squads of five, or even one unit of ten marines from a single chapter.

Perhaps Howling Griffons and Ultra Marines? Or Black Templars and Dark Angels? Time will tell...

Cyborg arm, lizard-skin cloak, new heads and hairstyles.

Janola is your friend when stripping plastic.

Tamiya putty work.

Chronopia staff.

Pink plastic beads for boosters.

Beneath 3 layers of paint, white plastic!

Janola is your friend when stripping plastic.

Painting begins...

God bless you and have a great week.

PTS 89 + Warhammer 40k Robots + Citadel Miniatures + Rogue Trader

Castellan 'Templar' Robot. 

Yes, it's Painting Table Saturday #89. You may recall from last week that I was given some classic Citadel Robots by my good friend Lewis Morgan. Painting these has been a massive undertaking. The initial idea was to paint according to the colour schemes given in Rogue Trader, Warhammer 40k. This proved to be challenging to say the least. Checkers in particular are difficult to paint on three dimensional surfaces.

I gave it a go with one and the diagonals were killing me, so I decided to scrap that plan and let my imagination guide my brush and the palette. Inspired by a variety of not totally recalled memories of robots from my youth, the original idea of including heraldric devices was scaled back. Painting became simpler with bold colours and designs.

The Colossus, Castellan, Conquerer and Cataphract are all great robots. I gave each their own identity and let their character shine through.

The Cataphract 'Lily 9' Robot

The Cataphract 'Lily 9' Robot features the number 9 (thanks dad) and the fleur-de-lis (from my days as a boy-scout), with colours inspired by an Irish folk song about a man whose father was a Protestant (Orange) and whose mother was a Catholic (Green).

The Conquerer 'Legion of the Damned' Robot

The Conquerer began with diamonds on his legs and ended up with flames and skulls! A fighting robot of the Legion of the Damned. What could be cooler?

The Castellan 'Templar' Robot

This one is the real deal. Originally I thought of red and purple but thankfully went with a more saintly white and gold. Or cream and bronze with verdigris. This one bears the Maltese Cross and therefore I named him Templar.

The Colossus 'Optimus Prime' Robot

The Colossus is yet to be finished, in a state of Transformation you might say. I am currently going with something like this:

Ok, computer. I have some work left to do!

God bless you and have a great week!

PTS 88 + Robots + Citadel Miniatures + Rogue Trader 40k

It's the future! 

Another excellent Painting Table Saturday, edition 88. I was given some amazing Robot miniatures this week by my good friend Lewis Morgan. We have been playing ITEN lately and reliving the adventurous and heady days of Rogue Trader, the futuristic (40k) version of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. If you weren't gaming in the 1980's I may have lost you right there.

For those handful of readers who have reached middle-age, you may recall the classic game that came out of nowhere and spawned a new era of tabletop (war)gaming. No?

Citadel Miniatures Robots!

Because I didn't play a lot of Warhammer 40k back then, I don't have a lot of those science-fiction miniatures in my collection. When I'm not fielding my notorious Tharks, I have been playing with miniatures that Dave, Greg or Lewis brought to the table. Generous as they are, I felt it was time to get my own. So I've been bidding online for older miniatures. From those auctions I have gathered a modest collection of Space Marines, Eldar and oddities.

Perhaps this new found enthusiasm for Warhammer 40k is why Lewis gifted me his collection of Robots. They look fantastic and are extremely rare. Hardcore 40k'er Dave commented at the game last night that although he recognised them, he'd never actually seen one! They are so well thought of, other miniature companies have manufactured similar models, both in design and name. These are the originals though. The Colossus, Castellan, Conquerer and Cataphract, equiped with power arms, flamers, bolters, las-cannons, auto cannons and melta-guns!

A plethora of mechanical titans. Only the Crusader and a few weapons are missing from the line-up and who knows, they may turn up in the future? This weekend has been spent cleaning, gluing and undercoating. I based some Scouts and Squats also, to bring to the spray booth. So it begins.

Epoxy glue. It holds a tonne!

Spray booth: Squats, Scouts and Robots!

Lewis also has classic books in his gaming collection.

Converted marines I bought online (thanks Jamie). Damaged in transit. I will rebuild them.

A massive project and one that makes me think. How do we live? Are we robots, non-thinking, following simple commands. What is good in life? No need to worry, I'm not in a hurry. Middle age is a blessing.

100 REM GUESSING GAME
110
120 PRINT "GUESS THE NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 100."
130
140 LET X = INT(100*RND(0)+1)
150 LET N = 0
160 PRINT "YOUR GUESS";
170 INPUT G
180 LET N = N+1
190 IF G = X THEN 300
200 IF G < X THEN 250
210 PRINT "TOO LARGE, GUESS AGAIN"
220 GOTO 160
230
250 PRINT "TOO SMALL, GUESS AGAIN"
260 GOTO 160
270
300 PRINT "YOU GUESSED IT, IN"; N; "TRIES"
310 PRINT "ANOTHER GAME (YES = 1, NO = 0)";
320 INPUT A
330 IF A = 1 THEN 140
340 PRINT "THANKS FOR PLAYING"
350 END

God bless you and have a great week!

PTS 87 + A Very Old White Dwarf

A Very Old White Dwarf! 

It's the weekend and also a beginning of the school holidays. So, a quick Painting Table Saturday update, edition 87. I was gifted some great old miniatures from a while back. My good friend Mark Vuletich had picked them up with some American Civil War armies. They are definitely early D&D (or maybe RuneQuest) miniatures. I did find information online at the time but alas the photo is somewhere on my hard drive and since I've based them, I no longer can read the brand and date inscription on the bases!

Suffice to say, I will get to the bottom of it! One of the group is not like the others. He is a lovely old dwarf. All of these miniatures ooze character but I suspect this one wasn't made by the same manufacturer. I have a few very old miniatures like this one in my collection. Pre-slotta base Citadel figures and their like. Most of my miniatures are classic 1980's sculpts (and the decades that follow), because that's when I began playing role-playing games. He looks like an explorer, ready to go spelunking. His upheld sword arm could as easily been holding a burning brand.

I hope by next week I will have the information on when and where these miniatures came from. In the meantime, I have finished painting the dwarf. Enjoy!

Hi, ho. Hi ho!

Any clues?

Painting begins!

God bless you and have a great week!