Thursday 26 September 2019

Adeptus mechanicus team - Iron Claw


Alright so I've been a little quiet, working on too many things at once but at least it means being busy (mostly) doing stuff and amongst the many things I was working on, there's this team of Adeptus mechnicus designed by Bob Olley.
After the really pleasing challenge around Trish Carden a few months back, I've decided to ask Bob Olley to judge another friendly competition based in his work this time ! So this month was the #paintabob marathon for plenty of us and great fun it was.

I really wondered about which models I would pick as Bob's sculpted a mind blowingly large amount of stuff and I finally settled for his iconic Adpetus Mechanicus range.

Picture from Solegends


7 models at once might not be the smartest thing to sign for but honestly this is a set you want to paint in a go as a group rather than one piece at a time (YMMV). This set is as iconic as yuo get and for me totally representative of Rogue Trader.

Illustration from Rogue Trader by Will Rees
 It was fun coming back to some of those models, I first painted  the left techpriest 25 years ago when I got it and made a mess of it (he even lost the top of his axe in the process) and I also painted the right one for our dear Mr Kinch a few years back. This older version is actually the one I based all this new paintobs on this time !


I think those sculpts have every Olley signature moves you can think of, intricate organic details, folds and details everywhere, just keep in mind those guys are wearing mk6 power armours and see how crazy the design is !
It was very tempting of course to copy this fatastic piece by John Blanche but many have done it way better than I could before so I kept to the plan and inverted the scheme (oh and in rogue trader, white is colour for the adeptus mechanicus anyway).

Illustration from Rogue Trader by John Blanche
Now the servitors are quite something, of course these aren't as famous as the other sculpts, probably eclipsed by the Jes Goodwin version (I'll have to paint now). I have opted for a sick blueish skin tone to reflect the tons of chemicals these guys might be onto and the bleached hair as well, as a little nod to everyones favourite replicants Roy Batty and Priss. Those guys have an insane amount of details sculpted on them with cables running in the hair and all that, defintely puzzling models at first, it took some time to block all colours in but when this was done then it was a pure delight to just follow the path !


Now these 2 are even less fmaous as you almost never see any painted or played, tehy're peculiar for sure, especially the female servitor. Of course, the real trap when you first look at the model without seeing the painted version at the beginning is to assume she's wearing and armoured monokini with breast window. Don't do that, just don't.
The squats is very fun especially since he's the least admech of them all with barely just a bionic saw in place of a hand. He has a set of very traditionnal tools at his belt which is rather fun I find.


So here we are, I'm pretty pleased to have this unit ticked off the list to be honest. I know I rushed a fair bit in the end to move onto the MANY other projects I have in line but I know I'll add a few more admechs and it will be much easier to do so now I have a solid base to build on.
I love that none of these guys have a gun and although they have massive power axes, they should make great NPC's should I need some !

37 comments:

  1. These look excellent.
    I love the colour use, the greys and that shade of red work really well together, and of course fit the artwork and theme nicely. It great to see how you have picked out the wonderful detailing of Bob Olley's sculpting. Good call on how you painted the female Servitor as well.
    Congratulations on having the full set. You're right, it can be difficult to choose which of Bob Olley's sculpt to choose from.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you sir !
      In hindsight I wish I had paited the suits darker to contrast with the skin. It looks different in real but too close in the pictures I reckon. Colour placement is often tricky on intricate models like these.
      I did consider adding weathering as well but thought it would only make the models even more busy.

      Delete
  2. Great work on these. They are probably one of my favourite Olley sets. It's fun to see all the details brought out by your paintwork. Until you actually paint an Olley there are a myriad of details you just don't notice. I love the squats little toolbag.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had never realised there were so many cables all around on those servitors, like fractal cables.

      Delete
  3. Je n'ai jamais été attiré par ces modèles, mais de les voir ainsi mis en peinture me fait changer d'avis ! Les technoprêtres sont mes préférés mais j'aime beaucoup le traitement de la peau sur les serviteurs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. C'est très particulier c'est certain et c'est un goût acquis comme disent les anglais mais à peindre c'est un truc à part je dois dire ^^
      Merci !

      Delete
  4. Magnificient! Can really see your love for the figures shine through in the amount of time you've spent on their super-detailed backs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I did enjoy them but honestly felt the need to rush at some point and it might show here and there. You have tp make choices sometimes ^^

      Delete
  5. Excellent stuff. I have mt own Servitor 401106 on my painting shelf. I will certainly be using your finished example to work out what everything is during the block colouring.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh man you're gonna have a good time with all that stuff on his head ! ^^'
      Cheers mec.

      Delete
  6. Lovely set! Really great to see them all painted up in a complementary scheme. I've always particularly liked the squat servitor and the one with the big wrench for their passive and neutral stances (just like lobotomised slave cyborgs should be). I just love that pale robe colour on the tech priest.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I kinda wish we had servitors with low shoulders and dripping mouths but maybe that's too much ! ^^'

      Delete
  7. Houlàààà... T'es allé cherché très loin dans le passé là ^^

    Le old school n'est vraiment VRAIMENT pas ma tasse de thé comme tu le sais... Néanmoins, je salue ta peinture qui leur donne un aspect très particulier ^^

    Serviteur,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pour être honnête, ceux là je comprends que les avis soient mitigés car c'est un plaisir très particulier, je les ai longtemps dédaigné mais à peindre ils sont un régal inexplicable, comme certaines chansons qu'on aime sans comprendre pourquoi.
      Merci à toi ^^

      Delete
  8. Personally I love the light blue on the weapons. It's the 'x-factor' color for the entire scheme ... to me at least.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, I believe you always need a spot colour to make things work !

      Delete
  9. Absolutely amazing miniatures and you've done them true justice with your painting. Love the skintone and oh my that red is gorgeous!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love painting red ^^'
      In hindsight I wish I had done the suits black to contrast with the skin (n00b mistake) but t's a good range to have ticked off the bucket list !
      Thanks mec !

      Delete
  10. This is incredible. Never saw those before, but they scream Bob Olley. You did a fantastic job on them, congrats!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They score pretty high on the Olleymeter indeed ^^
      Thanks !

      Delete
  11. Love these sculpts. That Squat was my admech attache back when I had my Squat army in the early 90's. Used to think he would service my Biker's rides between battles. :)

    As usual mate, your reds are sublime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ugh... No idea why Google logged me out. Anyhoo...

      Delete
  12. Gorgeous work! I like the unhealthy looking gray skin. Love these figures!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I knew for sure those guys can't have a healthy diet !
      Thanks !

      Delete
  13. Belle mise en peinture, longue vie à la collectionnite (^_^)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Je suis pas trop collectionneur mais des fois il y a des gammes qui méritent un petit effort !
      Merci mec ;)

      Delete
  14. The robed Tech-Priest is, for me at least, in the running for the definitive Warhammer 40,000 figure, I love it.

    Painting ALL of the Olley Ad-Mech was ambitious, but you pulled it off nicely.

    If someone who had never heard of 40k asks you what 40k is, yiu can now show them that set. That will provoke and unanswer all of the right questions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I fully agree about the robed techpriest, I did take a few shortcuts but it's definitely a cool unit to have done ^^

      Delete
  15. These are fantastic! I'm very jealous as I couldn't even find one of those figures, let alone 7, when I was looking for Ad Mechs awhile back. I had to go with a newer Techmarine and Enginseer instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I reckon this one was collected over a long period with 3 purchased in the old days and the rest luckily gathered afterwards ^^
      Thanks mec ;)

      Delete
  16. Excellent, ça change de l'admech récent c'est clair... pour les sculptures féminines de l'époque, j'avoue que j'ai tendance à couper les "tétons" en relief pour avoir un plastron lisse.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pas bête, déjà pas les peindre couleur chair comme j'ai pu en voir mais couper la pointe est pas mal à mon avis.
      Merci à toi !

      Delete
    2. J'avais eu la bonne surprise de voir ça en récupérant une vielle fig grenadier, une chevalière (ça se dit?!). Nichon a l'air au-dessus du bustier, bouark. Sans les deux "excroissances" (parce que bon, on en parle de l'échelle ?) Ca faisait un beau plastron lustré une armure de plates pas bien différente d'un homme.

      Delete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...