Space Ork Raiders - 80s style

A little while ago I acquired some old 1980's Citadel Space Orks Raiders, which have sat languishing in a box for some time. I'd originally planned on making 2 little squads with some other Orks for use in GW's Kill Team, but then Shadow War: Armageddon appeared. This meant I could use those lovely little Orks for both!
This little Orks are originally from a set called the Space Ork Raiders:

As you can see from this advert, a very distinct set of Orks in a particular style. Helmets, caps, padded armour and lots of bolt guns. So taking this as an influence I started about painting them up, and wow, they turned out better then I could have hoped.

First we have Hhruk, he's originally the second in command of the Raiders, as you can see I kept the colours simple. But they are nice and dark with plenty of shade to show off all the amazing detail on this mini.

Then we have their leader, Thrugg Bullneck. He's a brutish looking Ork, and I tried to keep too the same colours as the others. but with a little bit of his own style.

So we have the complete squad, with all the colours mixed up, but enough to give them a bit of unison. The rest off the troopers are below;

 

 'Ard with his heavy bolter, do like the highlights on his shoulder.

 

 Bod. Who doesn't love some nice blue trousers.

 Org-Rot doesn't, he prefers red.

 Meza, he went blue.

 Hav'it as you can see is the same sculpt as Meza, there are only a limited number of these models and poses. So you have to mix things up in different ways, in his case its a orange hat and base decoration.

 Tig, another repeating sculpt of Bob this time, yellow trousers and silver helmet.

 Baza, a blister alternative, he's got a rather cool plasma gun and lovely teeth.

 Another hero of the group, an alternative blister sculpt with his power axe.

 Farla in his orange trousers, and another lovely shoulder pad.

 Hello Mig, he likes long walks and smashin' headz.

Finally Waz'ap, didn't paint his skin green this time, but rather blue. To give him the look of a rather snug shirt.

Now you might have noticed a couple of Nobz in the back group, these three will probably not get any SW:A time. Though they where part of my original Kill Team, so got painted first, and are of the same period.
All the names where chosen by my 5 yr old daughter Josie.

 Frank, he doesn't like Imperial Guard. They once knocked over his cup of hot squig juice, and it took him ages to juice that squig.

 Brian, or bionic Brian as everyone else knows him.

Noba, is mostly angry, no one knows why.

Bases, Get to the Bases.

Had a little pause in the blogging over the last few days as I've been out with the family, home life is important to keep a chap sane. So I've been back to the painting, this time its all about the bases. Unfortunately it seems I've done a lot of painting and not looked at something which just as important, the base. Most of these are slotta tab models, and I did think about cutting the tabs off, but I'm reluctant to just to hack away at these little guys and change them to much. Also as it seems I've got everything painted, but not the base, I have a mass of stuff to get finished. Which in hindsight was a bit of a mistake as it was rather a big bit of work, so a little bit daunting. Its only saving grace was the fact that I decide on a different design for each group.

Imperial Army/Guard:

 My little robot, he's got a mix of affects on the base. While easier to do than the others as he's not a slotta, dates back to about 88. So metal/concrete look to try and keep in with an Imperial/Hiveworld feel.

 Some, mud, sand, dead grass and a rock.

 And you can just make out 'STOP'.

A later metal Ogryn, with his 'Ripper' gun, dating from 94. Metal/concrete and stones. 

Some sand, plus you can see the 'hawk' tattoo on his shoulder. 

Couple of Imperial Army from 87, which I've painted using the 91 Warhammer Compendium Imperial Guard Squad markings. Metal/concrete, stones and a few 'markings'. 

 Sniper Lang, one of my favourite paints. As the others he's on a mix of metal/concrete, sand and some dead grass. Added a warn out <!> sign for a bit more affect. Again about 87.

The fantastic Imperial Ninja Assassin, on a metal/concrete base. Some sand, dead grass and the number 5 at the back. I've tried to paint him in style similar to the old GI Joe 'Storm Shadow' character, note the marking on his arm. He dates back to about 88.  

The rest of the group all based up.

Eldar:

The Eldar or Space Elves, depending on your age, were a bit more of a challenge. I wanted them to look a bit like they where on the Craftworld ships, or maybe recovering lost resources from a downed vessel. These are normally Wraithbone, which from the image I could find, a bone and gold sandy colour. So we have Bone White, and Screaming Skull, bit of Druchii Violet, mix of Agrax Earthshade and flicks of gold. This chap dates from 91.

 Same as above, though this Eldar Guardian is a bit older from 90 if I recall.

Spent a little bit more time painting the Eldar Warlock, he dates from 91. 

The complete team all based up. 

4 Guardians, Warlock, 2 Dire Avengers and their Exarch (90/91).

Harlequins:

 The Harlequins have been waiting on a base scheme for a while, and are some of the first miniatures I started painting again. So have been waiting almost a year now while I try to figure out what I wanted. I was trying to keep it all bright and garish, like they are, but not loose their tabs. As I had originally thought about cutting them all off. This Trooper dates 88/89.

As you can see, I've gone for a little sand, some dead grass again. But 3 strong colours on them all, apart from the Death Jester. With a blue, orange, and the colour I hate painting, yellow. Avatar above is from 88/89.

The complete team, all from around 88/89, apart form the leader in the middle who is a later release of 94 I think.

Shadow Wars: Rogue Trader Revival

Welcome to the first post of this blog. I've been painting for about a year now, after just getting back into this hobby again. You can thank Star Wars Armada and X-wing for that, after getting the various sets I decided I needed a few unique craft. So up into the attic I went, for an explore and discovery of my old paints, and apparently my miniatures. I'm going to try and be a bit honest here too, some people might consider what I do a bit nerdy. Though that in turn seems to be the in thing, well I don't do it for that. I rediscovered painting and in turn discovered that it helps me relax rather a lot. I've had a bit of depression and anxiety over the last few years, and while mental illness doesn't have quite the same stigma it had it still can get some questions. I kind of kicked of the help with a bit of art, which you can still see at http://hairylittleewok.deviantart.com/ something I might expand more too. But I have found that while the painting takes up time, it also frees my mind a bit, it wanders to those questions I didn’t realised were bothering me. That then seem to help me release the anxiety and stress behind them. Now, it doesn’t always work, and sometimes I’m up rather late pondering things while I paint ‘hence the blog title’. But it is helping massively, and while I’m at it, my painting technique is improving loads.

Shadow Wars, is something new, by that old gaming brand Games Workshop. Little skirmishes in the 40st millennium using small squads of 3-10 troops normally, rules for quick and simple games. The best thing is that due to the fact that the teams are small, you can get something painted up in a short time and get to the table. Not that I’ve had a game yet, been a bit busy with other things to get a chance. Within a month I’ve painted a created 4 different squads, a set of Marines, Orks, Eldar, and old Imperial Army (now known as Astra Militarum). Unfortunately, the Marines will have to be used with Chaos rules as I didn’t realise they are not in SWA. For this post I’m just including my Eldar and Imperial Army teams, as I’ll feature the others later. The main thing you will notice is that the majority of my figures are from the early days of Warhammer 40K, know as Rogue Trader. So they will date around 87 to 92, and maybe some odd others to about 00 depending on my preference.

Harlequins

 Eldar Harlequins, Solitaire, Trooper and Death Jester

Trooper, Squad Leader and another Avatar being a Trooper.

These are some of the first miniatures that I painted last year, lots of bright colours but only simple schemes as I was still trying to recall how to shade and highlight. Along with this I was still using nothing but my original 80’s paints, I’ve picked up a few more since, with Nuln Oil being invaluable. So we have some basic shading, dry brushed highlights and the starting of highlights with lighter paint mixes. I did try a few bit of detail, like a tear on the Avatar figure.

Eldar

 Warlock, my favourite figure of all the Eldar. I spent a lot of time on him and I'm really please with how his coat came out, its simply Nuln Oil and then a very light lined highlight with blue in key areas. No dry brushing apart from on the sword blade to mix the colours and then light painted lines and flicks.

 Squad of Avengers and their leader, my favourite colour at the moment is this very bright pink, it makes a excellent contrast with the blue below.

These I painted first, and I must say, I think they are some of my best work. The lines where all rather new and experimental for me as a highlight, and the original blue was much lighter until it got a very dark shade. I should have watered it down more, but it seems to have worked out in the end.

Next we have some Craftworld Eldar, these are not the earliest version of the Space Elves that I remember in Rogue Trader. Though they are the last ones I saw before I got out of the hobby around 92. I did think about painting them in very traditional colours, but I’ve tried to mix it up a bit from what is expected. I’m hoping in the future to get a few more original Space Elves and paint those in my own interpretation of the 80s pirates. Overall, these took about a week to get done.

Imperial Army

Both of these figures are form around 87, with a Sergeant on the left (Lt in the publications) and a Trooper on the right. Both had particular difficult faces to paint, which I'm not sure if was damage due to time, or just problem sculpts. As you might recognise I've tried to paint these in a scheme similar to the White Dwarf publication 109.

The first figure as you might notice, doesn't look very GW, and it isn't. Its from a defunct system called Void if I'm right, but I really liked the look of her when I acquired a number of figures. Was have a old 89 Commissar and another difficult to paint faced trooper. 

These two are my 'sniper' element of the squad and probably the hardest to get hold of, both dating from around 87. Trooper Lang on the left has a very nice and detailed sculpt to his face and overall look.

Finally with have 'Hambo' and his buddies, who as you can see below I've also tried to add some very traditional 80's tattoos. With 'MOM', barb wire, dagger and some blood drops.

Finally, for this post we have the original Imperial Army with all but one a non GW figure. These are some of my favourites, though a few of the faces seem to have not stood up to the test of time. Making them very challenging to paint and keep some sort of expression. Three of them as you can see I’ve decided to tattoo their arms, including on that remind me and was inspired by Rambo. Who I’ve decided to call ‘Hambo’ with his ‘MOM’ tattoo, just to keep it really 80’s. These took about 2 weeks to get finished, requiring a little more attention than the others.