From Space fleet to Battlefleet gothic ? Part 1

Over the years, GW has released a vast array of games developping other aspects of their major settings (namely warhammer Battle and Warhammer 40k). For Warhammer Fantasy Battlle you could think of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play,  Mighty Empires, Man o'war, Mordheim, Heroquest, Warhammer Quest, Blood bowl, etc...

Warhammer 40k which was already strongly Roleplay oriented at the start was developped with Space Hulk, Confrontation, the Epic system, Necromunda, Inquisitor,...

One of the games I'd like to talk about today is Space Fleet :

Space Fleet was published in July 1991 by Games Workshop and designed by Jervis Johnson and Andy Jones. It was released as a board game for about 2 to 4 young players. I insist on young players because the rulebook given with the game is actually printed on just 2 A4 sheets (we'll develop on that a bit later.)  Space fleet was not the first step into space ship combat for Citadel who had previously released models for Star Cruisers.

While released in July 1991, the game was advertised in November 1989 in WD119 (that's 20 months before) so let's have a look at that :

Ars Moriendi - A life in progress post

(Some appropriate music first)

It's common knowledge that life's a funny thing. You'll hear the "life's worth nothing but nothing's worth life" motto and all kinds of ready made predigested thoughts when getting on the topic but rest assured I won't bore you with any of it...

It's just that life's funny, you get a slap from one hand and a caress from the other... but memento mori I suppose (OK I did continue).

Why all the weird (and let's face it, slightly gloomy) tone ? Well because among a massive dose of real life that hit me in a face like a trout, some good things have immerged. One of those is that Brian Roe AKA the Roebeast from the Magical house of sunshine blog, has kindly organised a giveaway to celebrate his 200th follower and I've somehow managed to be the winner of it thanks to a fluke !

I think giving away a present in which Brian put some time and effort makes it even more valuable and the excellent thing about it apart from its quality, is that it blends just nicely with my bases and their sort of purplish tone.

Rad mutants - Iron Claw pirates

At last I finished some models !

These have somehow jumped to the top of the paintqueue (well, greatly thanks to The one for sending me Captain Dunbar as a gesture of kindness) and as always with Bob Olley's sculpts, I just let the models paint themself without worrying too much.
I've already told you how I strongly believe you only truly know a model once you've painted it, well that is even more true with Bob Olley's sculpt. I called it the "Bob Olley effect" earlier, you may not like what the sculpt look like (I've been like that a lot in my earlier days), but the minute I painted one (I was kinda forced), I realised it was a tremendous pleasure to work with his models and I have come to be a huge fan of his work. I just love sculptors who work for painters. Just like Jes Goodwin (my own personnal favourite), Bob is a very painter friendly kind of sculptor and that's what makes his work so great and favoured.

But let me tell you about those particular models. They are Iron claw pirates dating from the time when Bob had his own studio producing models for Games Workshop (just like the Morrissons had the Marauder studio).

There's a full range of pirates to pick from, all particularly characterful :

I have most of this range except maybe 3 of 4  and I expect to paint the full set in due time. Looking at the picture above, I just feel frustrated to not have collected Ooglorg the cruel yet as it would have made a set of 5 aliens which would have been pretty cool but anyway... (if any of you feels like trading him, I'm your man)

As you can see, those models all bear the distinctive style of Bob with organic shaped weapons, very detailed faces (you may not be able to spot them but if you've ever handled one of these you surely know every single detail like eye lids and nose hair are sculpted), wrinkles and wrinkles over wrinkles and guns you don't know what to count as.

You may have noticed I didn't place the models in a random way. you can clearly see the one on the left is far more humanoid than his colleague on the far right. This is because I've decided to treat them as mutants. But not the chaotic sort, no, just like my Rad chimera, I want these guys to be the offspring of radiations and fallout of some nuclear holocaust. The further you get to the right, the more the mutant and his ancestors have been exposed to radiations.

That was a way to unite all those models by giving them a similar paintjob to tie them a little. I voluntarily left some remnants of "human" pink skin and coloured red the overgrown or most mutated parts (the heads in most cases).

Limited edition Fimir

After my "girls and beer" hobby hyatus (that would have been around 17 to 21 years old), I quickly decided there would be places I would avoid as much as possible. Amongst those things there were fimir...

Why would I want to avoid them ? Well, they're basically waaaaay too cool and are sought after by a very large number of individuals who make every incarnation of them very expensive. That's the reason why.

I even went as far as to buy some to resell them right away in fear of getting caught in the madness...

But a painter will always be a painter and I have one sweet spot : Jes Goodwin or more precisely the models he's designed over the years. I love almost everything he has done. Amongst those wonders he's produced, there are a few gems and the Limited edition fimir is one of them. What better occasion than the month of Marsh to get to it ?

The Helpful Hobby Guide - How to make a wet palette

Probably the greatest tool in miniature painting history after the brush itself

Most of you must have heard of wet palettes before and many of you might already be using one or maybe some amongst you have tried and hated that.

If you haven't heard of these or have but never got to try it, here's how I made myself another one.

Now because I find my palette is my best friend, jus press play and see for yourself how life can be made so much easier :

The space white dwarf - Toruna Ironwind and acolyte

After painting some quite old references, here is a not too old model. The Space white dwarf was released in 2010 and available as a subscription gift.

My sources tell me that the sculpt is from Dave Thomas and I have to say it is one wonderful model to paint. I really had tremendous pleasure with it as it has that particular balance between detail and simple areas. It is not too full of insane details but the ones present are very fine and a treat to paint. Really a painter friendly model. Thanks Dave.

Tis really inspiring sculpt has really got me to up my game a bit and take a lite more time. You will spot some shortcuts here and there (especially in the metallics).
You also have to remember that for a time I struggled with finding what colour to paint the beard...

During good days, Toruna will be giving the thumb to most people...
during bad days, he'll more likely give people a taste of his dreadful powermace...

Complete Marauder Venators Set

You don't get that many pictures of painted venators around (for now...)

1996 I'd say, yes, I think that's the year.

What am I talking about ? Well 1996 is the year I went into my local independant hobby shop in Nantes to get my fix of old lead (even at the time in the middle of the red era I was looking for older stuff...). And what did I find ? White Dwarves, old ones, a whole lot of them and amongst them these particular issues :

These contained what left a solid and resilient emotion in my teenage heart : the rules for confrontation and amongst them, this picture :

Rad Chimera - Rogue Trader monsters

Alright, back to some actual painted model with the Rad chimera. What is a rad chimera I hear you say? well it's this :

Looks like a disgusting creepy creature right from a sordid mind ? Mmmmm close enough !