Time ticks on as 2019 ends.

A final post of the year for this little blog that keeps putting out the odd nugget of oldhammer goodness.

For me it's been a good year of painting, certainly my most prolific. Not sure how I found the time to paint the following:

The Witch Lord from Heroquest
A Heresy Werewolf
Two Gretchin for a Squig Catapult
One Goff Ork
One normal Ork
A Kustom Blasta Mekanik
A looney Mad Boy
One Female Sorceress
The Keeper of Secrets that sat in my bits box for years!
An ancient Bob Olley Giant Black Orc
A converted Gyro-Stabilised Monowheel Ork Bigboss
Seven Ork Stormboyz

Now for some photos of things (2019 & older) I forgot to show or meant to include in a blog post that I never ended up creating.

Space Crusade

Somehow I ended up playing a game of Space Crusade this year and was in control of the vile alien xenos. The above photo is when the Blood Angels and Imperial Fists got a bit heretical and accused each other of joining chaos. The Genestealers jumped in for afters :)

Movie Review - Castle Freak (1995)

Castle Freak (1995)

The venerable 40k Quest movie review returns and this time we are delving into 90s horror obscurity Castle Freak.

On a vague off-hand recommendation I picked up this Jeffrey Combs horror film and I am so glad I did. Especially as I love a good HP Lovecraft style horror flick (see Re-animator, In the Mouth of Madness etc ...)

The plot is straight forward, a man carrying the guilt of blinding his daughter and killing his son in a drunk driving incident inherits a castle in Italy after the duchess he didn't know he was related to dies. He and his family; including his Wife who has not forgiven him, move into the place while he tries to sell it. Unbeknown to everyone is the duchess has been keeping her long thought dead, disfigured son in the crypt who she used to beat and treat worse than a dog.

That's right officer an angry, surprisingly strong naked man with no thumb has been prowling around my 150 room castle and I'd like you and your men to find him.

The location is different and interesting. The acting is decent, Combs is great as a slightly off-kilter alcoholic father and Barbara Crampton is good too as the struggling Wife. The blind daughter is a nice addition to the film even if her main role is being a near victim for the beast man most of the time. The star of the show though is certainly the beast in the cell aka Giorgio. The effects they used for his face are top notch and his perverted and self-mutilating actions are amazingly grim. Once he escapes things get very creepy, horrifying and very gory in this film. Although I'm not entirely sure we needed to see his very hairy and very nude body dangling about quite so much, I suppose it is balanced out by the whore Combs meets at a bar, who gets her kit off first.

There are plenty of great scenes in this film from jumping through windows, police beat downs and police deaths. Plus there is the scene involving the previously mentioned prostitute and Giorgio which goes from creepy to downright savage as he literally bites off her nipple!! Also if you like cats then I should warn you this film has one, that doesn't make it to the end.

Overall I was greatly surprised by this film and really enjoyed it. I would definitely watch it again.

Until next time.

Fly me to the moon, let me crash into a tree: Stormboy Orks.

Orks are not reliable, kustom weapons will blow up, madboyz will stand around drooling. Yet nothing compares to the Stormboy Jetpack!

Oh yes the joy of being able to leap miles along the battlefield for a deadly strike ... at that large clump of spiky cactus and deal explosive death ... in midair!? Okay so Stormboys are not great but they have character, buckets of it. 

"Attention! Lads there is report of chaos activity in the mountain!"

Ditch the ere' we go mantra it's time to get professional, regimental and organised! When I think of Stormboyz I think about old time wrestler Sgt Slaughter; not the american patriotism part, but the backstage promos: "Listen Up Maggots!". Angry but ordered and with great pride in there skills and equipment which makes them feel all a bit un-orky.

Camouflage at it's finest.

Now when it came to painting these guys I didn't want the standard drab grey uniform that is found in the codex. All a bit 1940s Germany and also a bit dull. Instead I looked through a variety of military uniforms and found the Georgian Hussars. Now this is more like it for orks, bright yellow coats and boots with red pants. Amazing!

"Ready and waiting. Drillboss Displeen wat orders?"

As you can see although these minis are mostly classic stormboyz the one on the right here is a normal blood axe ork I gave a jump pack too with his axe on his belt (nicked from a trollslayer). I think he fits in quite well and brings the squad up to seven.

Dawn of time painting and the Black Orc

The year is 1992, Rhythm is a Dancer is in the charts, I get taken to see FernGully: The Last Rainforest instead of Aladdin and Ric Flair has become WWF champion.

None of these things are as important as the fact that 9 year old me for Christmas had been given Heroquest! Running through dungeons filled with orcs, claiming gold and potions of healing was amazing. The hook was in and then came White Dwarf 145! Which had so much mini goodness especially for Heroquest. (Well it did for 9 year old me). One thing led to another and one autumn day I got taken to Games Workshop in Hammersmith (child me oblivious this was the very first Games Workshop) so we could get a copy of the Advanced Heroquest Paint set.

The real tale to tell though is whilst in the shop I got to pick a blister pack of models as well. Now to child me this was crazy, new models and they would be made of metal! What to pick? Well I can't remember the thought process but I do remember seeing row upon row of blister packs beneath the colourful big box games like Space Fleet, Kerrunch & Battle for Armageddon.

The Giant Black Orcs. I own Mace 1 and Sword 1 but I have noticed my Sword Black Orc has his sword attached to his head.

Who knows what was in those blister packs I glanced through? What I do know is I ended up picking some Black Orcs. Bigger stronger foes for my Barbarian and Dwarf to fight maybe even use them as the Orc Warlord. With that and the big box paint sent money was paid and I went home a happy kid with the first lead to my name.

How to unicycle your way to victory with Orks ... (part 2)

Now where had we got to, looks at photo of half undercoated Ork on a mono-wheel, ah yes a paint scheme and I need a banner too.

For the first part head over here:
(https://oldhammer40kquest.blogspot.com/2019/08/how-to-unicycle-your-way-to-victory.html)

So what next, well let's see if that monowheel can be covered in some more paint so the day-glow orange and green is less visible.

At this stage I wasn't sure he was going to turn out okay.

First I covered the metal parts in Rhinox Hide using the method I have for the Goff Orks I have painted previously. Next it was time to base coat the Ork. Tyre black, shirt and pouches various browns, the bandolier I think I started with elven flesh for some reason. The skin was the usual Goblin Green and hair blue. Followed by a custom watered down wash of black/dark brown mix for everything that didn't get a dark angel green for the skin. This resulted in the following:

 

Life got in the way at this point, nice trips to Jersey for weddings and Whitstable for fish and chips meant our Orky friend sat on the shelf for a couple of weeks. But free time loomed yesterday and he is now complete including fancy banner. 

No time fur dat, gotz sum Oomans to nok down! Outta way!

Mad Boys, Mad Boys, What'cha gonna do? What'cha gonna do when they come for you? Mad Boys!

It's Oldhammer Ork Madness!! Bob Olley style!

As some of you may know over on the Oldhammer Facebook page this month is #PaintaBob as in Bob Olley. Now my knowledge of Bob Olley is not great so on doing some research I discovered that he made quite a few of the 2nd Edition Ork Wierdboys and Ork Madboys. He also did the Iron Claw Black Orcs, well there is some fun history there but that is a story for another time.

Madboyz are fun, stupid, daft and mostly useless on the tabletop. They ooze charm with the minatures though so many poses, faces and pleasant parts to paint. I chose this chap:

I'm covered in flour, I iz! 

According to the Eavy Metal spread in White Dwarf he is officially a Deliriak so I guess he is either delirious or spends his time serving customers pork pies and samosas at a big chain supermarket.

Where da baddies at den? *snort~gigglez*

Went for a variety of colours for the Madboy because well they are mad, hadn't used much purple recently so felt that would be a good choice for the undershirt. Bit of blue for the hair (I quite like using blue for Ork Hair think it comes out well with the green ork skin) and the rest was standard orky style colours.

Dis is too scariez, me off now.

For a bit of fun I tried making a spiral pattern on the back of the madboy, think I'll make that there logo/brand when I paint the rest. Oh yes didn't I mention, I have another 6-7 of these madboyz. Not that it will help on the battlefield as they will end up just picking there nose or looking for a lost puppy.

Until next time :)

A Favourite Diorama from yesteryear: Lament's End

I was flicking through some white dwarfs for some painting inspiration and I came across this amazing Diorama that won first place at the USA Golden Demon 1992

Just had to share because this brought back some great nostalgia for me. Always adored the Old Tyranid Warriors and this scene is just so alien and creepy. The interior of the Hive Ship by Mike Stevenson is visually amazing, full of sinew and organics like I imagine.

The Space Marine Scout is clearly out classed here as he is about to be diced up. I think the egg on the wall is great, who knows what horror may burst forth from it.

Anyway, until next time :)

Wargear cards of 2nd Edition 40k (General) - Investigation continues

While the Ork on the Monowheel decides which clan he wants to be a part of I thought it might be fun to go through the general wargear cards available to every race in 2nd edition Wrhammer 40,000.

It has to be said the sheer amount of customisation for your characters is one of the highlights of 2nd edition and the general wargear cards add to that feel greatly, providing oodles of strategy and combinations. Unless you are an invasive alien species from outside the galaxy but we'll get to the Tyranids another day.

There will be some additional input from ever hopeful Warboss Slegg Bloodnug because Orks know what's best :)

Slegg: Alright dere, I got de kno'ows bout dese contraptions. Jus let ol' Slegg guid ya and everything will be gud. If not blame a grot! Nar har har haa!

When picking wargear I like to remind myself that an extra Gretchin is only 5 points and they can take an objective or hold up the angry looking Deathwing terminator, before deciding if I really need it?

How to unicycle your way to victory with Orks ... (part 1)

When that mini making, converting and painting bug hits it really is a great feeling. To then be inspired whilst already enthusiastic about a project is extra exciting. Today I am going to be covering an Ork project inspired by a photo of a battle report I saw recently.

A Gyro-Stabilized Monowheel Mohawk Ork gets stuck in!

Battle report and Photo by Orj Etax 

I always thought the Gyro-Stabilized Monowheel was a wacky wargear card but I never saw the actual metal part to use one in my ork army. These days they are incredibly hard to find and expensive so what is a budding ork warboss to do? Oh That's right build my own from scratch!

Stop browsing eBay Wotclankz and help me!

How does one go about creating a gyro stabilised mono-wheel ork? First you need to find something that can be used to represent the Meks madness, a wheel. I used this wonderful toy* as a base, from a long consumed Kinder Surprise egg.

*Example image, mine came in fluorescent green and orange!

Click here to keep reading :)

Never seen you looking so lovely as you did that night, stabbing me in the back in sheer delight ...

Buying miniatures is always a fun hobby, but buying miniatures and forgetting you bought them only to discover them later only leaves the question, why?

Out for a walk.

Why did I purchase Inge: Human Sorceress from Heresy Miniatures. I know she arrived alongside some of the heresy Delaque inspired gangers but I can't remember what use I had for her? It's possible I was going to add her as an alternative mage for Warhammer Quest or more likely she rounded up the price of shipping 😄

Oh no a chugger!

In any case I felt it was time to get her painted up. I went for a blue dress with a combination of tallern flesh and elven flesh for the skin. The dagger is a simple metal and wash while the handle is red mixed with a light brown. The eyes were the hardest think I redid them three times as her face is so small.

"Hi, How are you today, could I interest you in making a small donation to the Slaanesh ..." 

"(sigh)"

Overall she was fun to paint and might even have a role to play in my Slaanesh war party or be used as a civilian. A nice change of pace from the Waaagh and chaotic things I usually paint here.

Until Next Time :)

The Genetic Freak of the Chaos Week! - Slaanesh: Keeper of Secrets

The warp has been fluctating really badly in recent days, not sure if it is the heat, the smell of burning meat or the flow of alcohol on these hot summer nights.

"Mortal you are unworthy to be in the present of greatness!"

Or it could be because I summoned a Greater Daemon of Slaanesh to the paint table. This is a really great model and I have owned it for a long time which is why it might not match up with what you may find in the citadel catalogues of times past.

My first knowledge of Greater Daemons began in the Codex Imperialis: Chaos Section. This image next to the Keeper of Secrets entry really grabbed my attention. What a monster and he is fighting a Grey Knight! Those guys are tough, I need to know more. The thing is I never collected a Slaanesh army of any kind back then, but somehow I ended up buying the Greater Daemon early on.

Follow on for more glorious Slaanesh details ...

Movie Review - Deep Rising (1998)

Ah a movie review, these are always fun:

Deep Rising (1998) is a film that has a multitude of ideas to begin with and then turns into a standard creature feature on a ship. The basic plot is a big ferry is sabotaged by mercenaries, yet something else beats them to the money/passengers ... ominous!

An Ork, a Mek and a Goff walk into some Gretchin.

Summer is here, time for some ork goodness. How much ork goodness you ask, well three orks and a couple of lowly gretchin.

"Ere I'ze erd that oomie"

"Picditz turns back on u!" 

"C'mon Picditz,we got squigs in dis bag"

Picks up a pen, starts typing:

It's the 1st of May, you know what that means, it's World Stationary Day!

True to life art of writing an ork army list.

What better way to celebrate than use a computer to write up a list of miniatures that I have on the painting schedule for the next few months.*

With this in mind here is the list of minis I expect to get painted up:

Galvanise the memory cells with Eavy Metal!: Part 3 (White Dwarf 147)

Holy moly that is a cool bit of art on the cover! Look at these Eldar in battle so full of vivid action yet determined and not comical.

But if 146 was an an immense showcase of what White Dwarf could do to inspire a young me then 147 was hugely disappointing. A brief Space Fleet article followed by an section introducing Eldar to the Epic Space Marine game is not a great start.

Adorable, but scale wise how big are those banners?!

Don't get me wrong some of the titans can be impressive and I did actually play a couple of games of Epic back in the day (heck the very first time I saw a miniature was a cousins game of Epic). Yet the tiny little minis representing troops or tanks never held my attention for too long. I guess they were just too small or fiddly.

 On my list of minis to find :)        War of the Roses style armor, a rare Empire unit I like.

The next article is about the new Empire miniatures being released and a comprehensive army list to use. My interest in Empire is not exactly high, sure they have some cool monstrous mounts for lords and a few of the units have my attention. Overall thought it is that renaissance style I just don't find appealing or want to paint. 

Having said that the two images above show a couple of empire units I do like. The champion who I am still looking for would be great in Warhammer Quest as the Imperial Noble. Whilst the Reiksguard unit is how I think armour plated medieval knights look best. Moving on.

Galvanise the memory cells with Eavy Metal!: Part 2 (White Dwarf 146)

Where was I, oh yes White Dwarf 146 and it's Mad Max hybrid space marine scouts cover?

That front left guy looks like he is about to join a genestealer cult!

I have no idea what is going on here but these guys are very odd space marine scouts, more like some Necromunda gangers cosplaying as space marines. What with Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Blood angels all represented and look at the guy at the front with the mohawk and commando facepaint. Still it is very striking as they descend down into a hive city, a tomb the London underground?? Let's move on.

"Nom,nom,nom..."

Ah yes Space Fleet, a game I have never played or really had any interest in, including it's eventual follow up Battlefleet Gothic. This article is covering the Tyranid ships being released. There is some great art of a hiveship which looks kind of like a nautilus pity none of the ship minis match up to the artwork. Especially the Humboldt squid hiveship. Let's keep going...

Galvanise the memory cells with Eavy Metal!: Part 1 (White Dwarf 145)

Today we go back in time, to the early 90s. To be specific 1992 a time of mere 9 year old wonder when chocolate bars were a decent size. The Woolwich was a building society and this blog writer picked up a copy of White Dwarf for the first time in his local newsagent.

A mighty fine selection of readin'!

I do like going back and looking at old White Dwarf magazines when others post some nice painting displays or an interesting scenario. However these retrospective walks down memory lane are always within the early 100s of White Dwarf when 3rd edition Fantasy Battle was getting it's footing and Rogue Trader was but a companion and not the juggernaut 40k it is today.

Movie Review - Q: The Winged Serpent

Hey look it's another movie review :)

What can I say about this little gem. A pretty great film about a monster summoned via ancient Aztec sacrifice that promptly goes about decapitating and eating the residents of New York.

"It's as big as a battleship!", wait wrong film.

Even though I mainly watched this for the dragon like monster I really got into it because of Michael Moriarty playing a small time crook and David Caradine the main cop, the acting from these two is really good although Moriarty's character is a complete jackass. The actual reason for summoning the Quetzalcoatl isn't really explained but if it creates a loony killer sacrificing people as a sub-plot then that's fine by me.

These Canadian Geese are getting out of hand!

The monster effects are not too bad although it's not quite Ray Harryhausen quality, but the creature works as a fleeting menace for the early parts of the film and as a suitable finale, it gets quite the kill count by the end. Also I loved the Aztec cult leader who would give Boris the Bullet Dodger from Snatch a run for his money in survival.

Overall decent acting and a unique view of New York makes this a better that you think giant flying monster movie.

I give it 3 out of 5 pumpkins.

Close your eyes ...Werewolves open your eyes!

It's awfully bright for night time! Why can I smell wet dog?

"Hoooooowl!"

(Throws stick.)

Yep this is a little post about Werewolves, notably the Heresy Miniature which I picked up when I bought some of the Heresy hive ganger minis for my Delaque gang (A post for another time) along with a few other bits.

Expectantly bounces around hoping I throw the stick again.

New Year, Old Projects and an Ancient Evil

2019 is here and the cold weather is settling outside, the perfect climate for outdoor activities, no wait that is summer. This is the perfect time for indoor activities like tabletop gaming and painting. With that in mind; blows the dust off a very old box ...

Braawd Swoord!!

The Heroquest: Design your own Adventure Kit! Ah yes this is an amazing blast from the past. This is what you needed back in days of yore before PCs had become affordable and could only just about run Space Invaders. 

Dib dib dib dib