Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Absolutely lovely stuff. Squiggy stardust has to be my favorite. I also realy like your apothecary. The white paintjob looks amazing. And the sisters... just wow.

I'm eagerly waiting to see your future updates.

Thanks CB! It's nice to see modern GW have a sense of humour peeping through their miniatures nowadays too. The Lenton Campus in the Genestealer Nexos, and the White Dwarf model with a gift-wrapped bolter were both fun touches.

Turtles – I fancy doing another Space Marine with cigar next year as I found out that the miniature was originally designed holding a chicken drumstick and I want to do another one that reimagines that detail.

Thanks Flapjack! I was to do another Squig in a loser's brown cardigan as "The Squig Lebowski".

I normally have a cooling off period before I buy new Games Workshop releases, as every miniature is turbo-exciting on first reveal and owning all of them is impossible. But the new Genestealer Cult Locus is such an instant classic he was not only pre-ordered but jumped to the front of the painting queue.



The sentinel-like pose, with him resting nonchalantly on his weapon in a set of long hooded robes, is one of Citadel Miniatures’ time-honoured sculpting tropes. Chaos Dwarf Khazek Doomlord, Human Wizard Pedregar the Green and one Champion of Tzeentch have also appeared with it. There’s a cheeky little Genestealer tail poking out under the robes’ hem which tells you he’s more than human, and when you get round the back there’s a set of carapace ridges that make you wonder about what generation of Hybrid he is.



The shoulderpads I painted with a little Cult icon and a W so when you look at the miniature from above it spells out “CW” – my initials.



Not the actual Broodlord, but certainly the Lord of Looking Brooding.

Here he is on an advance casting of the Scrap Fort from Fogou Models, which is my ongoing major terrain project at the moment. I’ll be showing off the complete fort soon, and maybe using it as a rationale for growing the Genestealer Cult (can’t have just one Locus knocking about in such a large fort on his own).

As the Locus is 95% robes, he’s a great miniature for teaching the technique for painting cloth. The purple uses a “wet-blending” method that’s been photographed between stages from all angles and written up clearly and comprehensively, breaking down the theory, technique and colours used.




8 simple steps to perfect purple cloth.

It’s my seventh instalment in the Patreon tutorial series that’s proved really popular. Big thanks to last month’s new patrons Craig, John, Steve, Ben, Jason, David, Toby, Jamie, Victor, Dimitrios, André, Alan, Brian, Alexander and Philipe.

The Genestealer Cult range is dripping with great models, from homages to the original Rogue Trader range (the Nexos), and new character types (like the Locus and the Kelermorph) which mean my Cult will inevitably grow. Though I might take an oldskool detour with the vintage 1980s Throned Patriarch and some Bob Olley Hybrids. Watch this space!

He is the broodingest. I actually wasn't sold on the model before but seeing him here has changed my mind.

Very nice Curis.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks turtles! I'm like you in that when I see someone's personal take on a mini I'm super likely to buy it too. It was Mr. Saturday's recent Genestealer bits that made me want this Locus.

Thanks Captain Brown!


*********

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

Curis,

As I mentioned on the other forum, you have painted up models I have only every seen in the pages of old White Dwarves that even GW did not get around to painting.

Cheers,

CB

Thanks Captain! It's so odd going through the old Mail Order fliers and the like and seeing things that only every got boot-polished. I'd like to do the pair of Rogue Trader Fishmen soon, they never got shown in colour pages at all.

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.



The Godbreak 84th garrison Fort Hardknox against Skabsquig’s Skallywags.

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.



Fort Hardknox painting by Doti of Katsina Miniatures.

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

Wow - you are very talented! Not sure what else to say. Love the comparisons of the older models with the newer stuff.

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

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" target="_new" rel="nofollow"> masterclass tutorial 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" target="_new" rel="nofollow">Ninjabread Patreon page, 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" target="_new" rel="nofollow">https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

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

I ni ce Ninjabread readers. Fogou Models recently sent me advanced castings of their brand new mud hut range, on the condition I sent them back painted photographs for their Kickstarter. And now I have an entire mud hut village to play games over.



Dogon Princess Aminata looks upon her kingdom at dawn, preparing to break into a soulful power ballad.

I imagined my buildings as a Dogon village at the time of the Arab Conquest, as that’s the period I want to game in. But I kept the paint scheme neutral so that with a tactical choice of accessories I can pass the buildings off as coming from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B era, the Tunisian campaign in World War 2 and ANY POINT IN THE INTERVENING TEN-THOUSAND YEARS OF HUMAN HISTORY.






If the giddying versatility of mud huts through history is simply not enough for you, the buildings can slip into a similarly vast array of fantasy and sci-fi wargame settings. Oldhammer peers axiom and asslessman both science-fictioned up their advance castings with all sorts of greebles transgressing the historical wargamer’s sensibilities. Rather than stare on enviously, I asked Fogou nicely for another hut that I could spin as a Space Ork adobe.



Morkus Masher atop his workshop, preparing to break into a soulful power ballad.

I had so much fun painting these buildings that even though I’ve blasted through a whole village I’m keen to do more. Maybe fill a whole 6×4′ table and play big games of Warhammer 40,000 Cityfight but in an Ork city rather than the bog standard Imperial one.

The thing that doesn’t come across in these photos is how the kits are designed to be painted super quickly. Assembly is minimal, and they’re moulded in yellow resin that you can drybrush without having to prime or basecoat. You could paint up a whole Dogon village so quickly I begged and begged and begged Fogou to call the project…

Thanks to Fogou for all the buildings! Check out the Kickstarter, which ends this week. K’an bεn!

More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

Those mud huts look awesome!! The cracked texturing looks especially ace. Is that texture modelled onto the huts or did you achieve it through some kind of paint finish??

Also, after reading through your blog I've realised I came across your work a few months ago but didn't realise it was you! Awesome work on the Primaris marines. The Nemesis chapter symbol is a very clever use of the omega and the ironclad banner works really well!! Keep up the good work

Cheers Zahnib! The texture is cast onto the huts, they come like that.

More Nemesis coming soon...

It’s Bob Naismith Challenge Time on the Oldhammer Community. Painters the world over are working on pieces from the grandmaster’s extensive back catalogue of gems, to be judged by the Lord Bob Almighty himself. Bob was so prolific in the 1980s (and still is today) that my shortlist of entries was 38 ideas, and one mini that bubbled to the surface was the Traitor General.



Citadel 2000AD Rogue Trooper Traitor General

The Traitor General is the central antagonist in 2000AD’s Rogue Trooper strip – a treacherous military commander being hunted by the eponymous Rogue Trooper.



“Natseon natseon yeojaui natseon hyannggue! Yes I want some new face!”

The Citadel Miniature is a great likeness of the comic art, burnt face and all. Bob’s sculpted him with a blinded swollen eye, permanent snarl from soft tissue damage to the lips, and the ultimate signaller of evil – a bald head.

I have modified the miniature – filing away the original scupted detail of the burnt scalp, which I feared would look like a hairpiece rather than damaged skin.



I added a little Souther symbol to the air tank.

The miniature came courtesy of Jason Fulford, who’s already painted a copy and has been a great help pointing me at reference material and inspiration for the colours. A lot of Citadel’s 2000AD range never appeared painted in the official publications, and the comics were in black and white so colour choices took some research. Thanks, Jason!



All the 2000AD miniatures I’ve painted as an adult. More on Johnny Alpha and friends here.

There’s still loads of time to get your own entry into the competition, just head over to the Oldhammer Community for full details.



The Traitor General in the Quartz Zone.

But this one miniature isn’t my complete entry to the competition. Coming soon… more Naismithery!

More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

I never knew there was a traitor general mini, wow!

Beautiful work as always.

Also, lovely stuff with the old tech-marine and his drone - I had so many 'bionic' marines back in the day who had legs replaced with epic land raiders.

Lovely updates. Those mud houses look really neat.

More great classic old school.

Cheers,

CB

Awesome work on the traitor general, you've got such a great painting style. That's an awesome level of detail Fogou has managed to get onto those mud huts.

This March I am proud to present an Ultramarines combat squad deliberately contrived to conjure up a very particular point in time – November 1990. It’s March for Macragge.



Tactical Squad Rhenus. Their presence remakes the past.

In November 1990 Space Marine design saw a step change with the release of the RTB15 Strike Force boxed set. The new age of Warhammer 40,000 was ushered in with these brand new metal-plastic hybrid Marines.



Sergeant Rhenus’s left shoulder pad omits the red skull marking of the Sergeant, as it wasn’t established until circa 1994.

It was the transition point from mk6 power armour to mk7 power armour. It was the transition from one-piece metal castings to metal torsos with plastic arms and accessories. It was the transition from Bob Naismith, Aly Morrison and Mark Copplestone designing Space Marines to Jes Goodwin.



A lot of people assume the bare-headed Sergeant is a conversion. But he’s actually an obscure variant of the Strike Force torso that didn’t appear in the original boxed set or any of the catalogues at time of release, though he was available in some blisters.

There are two versions of each of the Strike Force torsos – the earlier verion had rounded shoulders which made them backwards compatible with the RTB01 plastic arms, and the later version had the shoulders flattened off to fit with the 1991 redesigned arm sprue. The 1990 arm sprue from the Strike Force box was curiously discontinued – if you know why, please enlighten me in the comments.



Original torso designs with the RTB01 arms on the left, and the later redesign with the 1991 redesigned arms on the right.

The 1990s would go on to see the mk7 range fully rounded out with more torso designs, special and heavy weapons, jump packs, and all new accessory sprues. But in November 1990 if you wanted any of that for your mk7 marines you had to use the old mk6 pieces – which is what I’ve done on this squad. The Sergeant’s powerfist and weeny bolt pistol, the rocket launcher, various ammo packs and binox are all pilfered from the RTB01 kit.



Okay, I admit the back banner is an anachronism, coming from the 1999 Veterans blister, topped off with an icon from a spare Marneus Calgar. But I like sculpted banners more than paper affairs.

The RTB01 rocket launcher (below left) requires a bit of fiddly modelling to get it to work on a Strike Force torso – the arm toting it is a combination of the original RTB01 arm with a Strike Force shoulder pad, and some putty for the wrist armour.



“Ahhhh, so that’s why I’ve been stuck with the snidey Space Crusade affair.”

The Ultramarines project means I’m painting three blue Space Marine armies concurrently. I’d be nice to have the three projects more visually distinct, but I’ve got strong emotional reasons for each scheme individually so I will just have to live with a big jumble of blue in the display cabinet. It’s like that Eiffel 65 song. Da Ba Dee. Da Ba Daa.



Left to right: Crimson Fist, Ultramarine, Nemesis Chapter

I’m bursting with ideas for other Ultramarines squads, and while I’m not going to collect the entire Chapter there are 99 other squads to explore with 1990s-themed collecting and modelling ideas.



Squad Rhenus looking as cowabungily rad as my collection of POGS.

This squad makes me feel as nostalgically 1990s my other hobby – standing outside derelict Global Video stores.



I beat on the windows and tearily demand “True Lies” on VHS.

I’m putting together a full tutorial for Ultramarines power armour which will publish soon. If you head over to the Patreon, there’s already a wealth of tutorials for how to paint Blood Angels, Crimson Fists, Nemesis Chapter, an Apothecary, Deathwatch, gold power armour and battered yellow armour, as well as lots of skin recipes and special freehand walkthroughs.

Coming soon, more blue Space Marines. Ninjabread out!

More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

Very nice Curis.

Exalted.

Other than metal Scouts, that was the last era in which I purchased Marines...which I shipped off to my cousin in the UK.

Cheers,

CB

Those are some nice looking marines!! Where'd you manage to get those sprues?! Your photography really does your painting justice, well done

Thanks zahnib! I've had sprues since I bought them as a child, though I've picked up loads more down the years in various giveaways and trades and ebay purchaes.

Introducing the classic plastic 1988 Warlord Titan Ferrum Dux, part of my growing War Griffons Titan legion.



Intact cardboard Void Shield spinny disc and everything. Mwah. Mwah mwah mwah.

Ferrum Dux was painted for a game of vintage Adeptus Titanicus (none of that fancy new 8mm stuff) against the forces of Jean-Baptiste & Associates. He joins the Warhound Titan that Jean-Baptiste also strong-armed me into painting, proving I’m nothing more than a monkey dancing to the whims of that man.



Epic scale Warhound Titan, Epic scale Walord Titan, and a 40K scale Intercessor Sergeant.

The Warlord kit is simple kit of only about a dozen pieces (compared to the modern version’s 144), and has to be assembled in a very fixed pose of striding forward with the left leg. This has the effect of making multiple Warlords (like there’d be in this game) look like a dance troupe. To avoid this I amputated both legs at the knee, and replaced them with a pair of right legs so the ankles and knees would be symmetrical.



The indomitable power stance of an 1980s heavy metaller.

The humongous number of weapon options the kit came with have been cannibalised by years of my frivolous conversions, so I had to resort to some trimmed Technolog missile pods for the carapace. For bonus hipster points, the banner pole fitting is a cut down Zoid cannon. I magnetised all these options though so I can switch them out later if the guilt becomes too much. Or I find even rarer indie kits to incorporate.



Look at my pods!

The carapace banner designs are adapted from the Wayne England illustrations on the War Griffons spread in White Dwarf, as is pretty much the entire Warlord’s colour scheme. However, this time I experimented with introducing the yellow you see a lot of modern War Griffons in. I’d previously thought it would look odd alongside the gold, but it worked a treat. And ultimately, I’m glad I’m getting all these colour experiments done before I commit paint to the 40K scale Armorcast Titans.



War Griffons spread from White Dwarf 120, December 1989.



Carapace banner, front and back.

This mighty metal plastic warlord is now ready to come crashing down in sheets of flame on the gaming table, as it did right at the start of the long-anticipated game with Jean-Baptiste. War Griffons, huh, yeah, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing!

Here’re my Titans fighting against my old tournament Ork army. You can see I have a big thing for big Titans with big banners and lots of big rockets.



The Bad Moon Ork Gargant Rokkit Bastid engages the War Griffons outside the walls of Gork’s Fort, Nuke Castle.

Two Titans done, more on their way. I’ve got a second Warhound and a Reaver on the desk at the moment – watch this space.

More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

Ninjabread out!

Come friend, come and learn of the secret origin the first Inquisitor at the dawn of Warhammer 40,000. This is the tale of Inquisitor Lord Augustus Hargen and his ingredient parts.



Left to right: Sir Gigal de Appliance, Inquisitor Lord Augustus Hargen, and Traitor General.

Sculptor Bob Naismith made this O.G. Inquisitor by combining two Citadel Miniatures from earlier ranges – Warhammmer Fantasy’s CH2 Chaos Warrior Sir Gigal de Appliance and 2000AD’s JD14 Traitor General. I painted all three so they could stand side-by-side radiating mad Citadel Crossover Energy.

This magical combo of medieval fantasy tropes and British military scifi elements established the tone for Warhammer 40,000. The whole gothic techno-fantasy universe spins out from seeds like this and Inquisitor Ezquerra. Thirty-three years later Games Workshop are still designing ornately armoured Inquisitors like the upcoming Kyria Draxus.


Hargen popped up multiple times in the seminal Rogue Trader rulebook, and featured in the Spacewar Citadel Combat Cards.

Shout outs to the Jason Fulford, Danny Kastigaunt, Loorg and Matthew Sullivan renditions.


Inquisitor Lord Augustus Hargen and his Scooby Gang solving mysteries on Helsreach.

I entered Hargen, along with Sir Gigal and Traitor General into the Oldhammer Community’s Naismithery Competition, and to my astronomical levels of delight Bob Naismith chose the trio as the winner. Bob’s sent me a super-special one-of-a-kind prize which I’ll show soon. Thanks, Bob! Bob’s currently working on his Overrunners range which you can check out here.

More of my miniatures at: https://www.ninjabread.co.uk/
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

Great painting on the Inquisitor and his parents! I love seeing minis getting dissected into their original forms. That certainly is a face that only a mother could love!

Great - and instructive - trio! It's always funny to me how monolithically cannonical things like The Inquisition have their earliest roots in stuff like an artist shrugging and mashing a sci-fi model into a fantasy suit of armor, from which generations of artists iterate and embellish and codify into something grander. You see it in Star Wars, the MCU, etc. but it's particularly fun in Warhams, with how intensely grimdark the present is and how whimsical and pulpy the past was.

Anyway, great stuff, love that Bob recognized you too

Thanks gobert!

Yeah, Boss. I really really like seeing the secret shortcuts that creatives take that result. There's loads of 2000AD bits that pop up in 40K that I go mental for. And when toys do it, I kinda just start hugging myself. Like learning that the Kevin Costner Robin Hood film toyline reused Star Wars bits – wow.

Last time I went to visit the great sho3box he treated me to a day out at Prince August – Ireland’s finest toy soldier factory. It was the greatest day ever.


sho3box (left) and me (right) being all cool at Prince August.

There at the factory of dreams I feasted upon the piles of vintage Warzone blisters with great plans to rebuild the exact same Imperial Mega Corporation Army of my nerdy teenage years – starting with a squad of Wolfbane Commandos.


The derpy eyes betray the anxiety of standing on a non-standard 32mm base.

Wolfbane Commandoes suffered from the classic 1990s problem of feet spilling over the 25mm base edge, so Wolfbane #1 I painted (above left) got a 32mm base. But the more I looked at it, the more I feared I’d betrayed the Spirit of the 1990s, so Wolfbane #2 got a classic 25mm base with dark green drybrushed sand, with which I was much happier, and so I did the whole squad this way.


An actual shelf in my house, or a highly contrived setting to make you feel it’s the 1990s? Answers in the comments!

The colour scheme is a pretty straight copy of the original studio colour scheme, as I wanted to relive those days when “giant yellow shoulder pads” and “commando” could be unironically synonomous.


Woflbane Commandos advance through the ruins of Hexau Prime.

I really enjoyed painting these old metal nuggets, and hope to build the army up with some Imperial Blood Berets next.

Ninjabread out!

More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread

These old minis are great, there so much wired creative energy going on with them and your painting really makes the pop!

I ran across your Ninjabread blog a while ago but never realized you were a Dakka member!

Much love and respect from Finland! We need people like you to keep the history alive.

What a great thread, this type of quality retro hobbying always gets me inspired

How large is that sweet Crimson Fist force by this point, in total?

Thanks Guarding! Can't wait to show you whats happening next.

Thanks Tauist. I'm not so much on Dakka these days, forums are in their twilight years. Which is a shame, I think they build a stronger and more engaging community than the Facebook Groups that've suffocated them.

Sherrypie – my Crimson Fists force in the cabinet at the moment is 44 painted models. I'm guilty of painting them faster than I can blog.

*********

Mario, Sonic and Zool: the Holy Trinity of video game mascots in the 1990s. Two of these characters are going strong to this day. Zool – the lovechild of Cool Spot and a Ninja Turtle – explored a visually intense platformer landscape deep with thematic heft, which let the Amiga gamer grapple with complex socio-cultural questions such as “What if world, but made of Smarties?”



Zool in action in the diabetes-inducing first level.

If you want to express your personality through the consumption of Zool merchandise, there are only dog-eared tie-in novels from 1995 to collect. And that’s not enough for me – I dreamt of owning a plastic rendition of my hero from the Nth Dimension. SO I MADE MY OWN.



This is my digital sculpt of Zool, created in Blender. As he’s some sort of weird ant, I printed him the size of a two-pence coin and painted him up with a specially made Chupa Chups base.



And then, to recreate the sugary joy of the original computer game levels, I emptied sixteen packets of Smarties into my lightbox.



Now that I’ve found a way to conjure miniatures from my imagination into paintable pieces, I am completely giddy with sculpting potential. What next? Maybe a 1990s British pop culture Justice League, with Superted and Bananaman.

Ninjabread out!


More miniatures at:https://www.ninjabread.co.uk
Painting tutorials at: https://www.patreon.com/ninjabread