Back at the turn of the millennium, there was a hyper-rare Space Marine that was only available in England if you spent £500 in a Games Workshop during the Skulz programme. On a pocket money budget, it took the co-ordinated efforts of all my friends to get one. And over two decades later, here he is painted.

He’s a stellar miniature that was really ahead of his time for a number of reasons. First, he came with a solid metal base (40mm no less, when nothing larger than 25mm for infantry had ever been seen) depicting a fallen Chaos standard – at a time when scenic bases were incredibly rare. Second, he clutches a standard of Ultramar – a sculpted banner at a time when banners were paper affairs you photocopied from White Dwarf or came supplied as self-adhesive labels. Third, he was sculpted by Shane Hoyle, one of my favourite sculptors – and notable as he’s one of the first Imperial Space Marines since 1990 not sculpted by Jes Goodwin.

I wondered back in 1999 if he was Ancient Helveticus – the Ultramarines special character. But Helveticus’ defining feature is the Banner of Macragge, and this sculpted banner didn’t match the design from White Dwarf 195. Plus his wargear didn’t match the 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000 Ultramarines Codex (or the 3rd edition Chapter Approved incarnation). And critically, as you can just about see in the photo above, his left shoulder has a skull marking inside an Ultramarines’ inverted omega sculpted on – meaning his rank is more likely Sergeant than Chapter Ancient.

On the subject of shoulder marking – his right pad features a sculpted-on Tactical Squad arrow. This is a source of irritation to me, as I’ve copied the white trims of the original ‘Eavy Metal paintjob. If you’re strict about the Codex Astartes – and Ultramarines are strict – the only two Companies identified with white shoulder pad trims are First and Tenth, and neither has any Tactical Squads. I will conceptualise my version not as a Chapter Ancient (or Company Ancient for that matter), but as a Third Company Sergeant with non-standard trim markings denoting Veteran status (and will back this up by pointing to the Crux Terminatus on his left calf as further proof of Veteran-ness), holding a sacred Ultramarines standard (but not a Company or Chapter banner).

HIs release through the tertiary channel of exclusive Skulz retail incentives makes him one of the rarest Ultramarines miniatures, except for perhaps the 2004 Black Library Uriel Ventris diorama. So here he is alongside my other limited editions, marching for Macragge.

Ninjabread out!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.)

Golden Demon!  Games Workshop’s prestigious painting competition I’ve dreamed about winning since I was an eleven year old boy.  Like the Oscars – there’s big statuettes.  Like the Nobel Prize – the winners are selected by internationally respected judges.  Like the Turner Prize – there’s a no contribution to the actual world of art.   It’s the ultimate battleground for miniature painters.  And these Sisters of Silence Prosecutors took home the bronze statuette at the Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Open Day.

Silence is golden (demon).

I spent three weeks of hobby time getting these miniatures from sprue to plinth, sweeping all my ongoing projects aside to focus solely on these Sisters.  The pressure of an immovable deadline and the harsh scrutiny of the judges meant I pushed myself hard to make the squad’s copper Vratine armour truly shine.

Prosecutors in early November, broken into sub-assemblies and looking intimidatingly unfinished.

The Prosecutors are each designed with one fixed pose – your only real choice is the way you point their head. Assembled out of the box, all have their Boltguns held across their chest.  Reposing is a challenge, but with lot of cutting, putty and spare arms I opened up three of the poses to make the squad more action-packed.

Silent.  But deadly.

I was itching to introduce a bit of component variety into the squad, such as a heavy weapon, or a fancypants sword for the Sister Superior, but the Index Imperium wargear options forbade it.  To get the squad to (silently) scream “LOOK AT ME” I added a massive banner from Wood Elf Eternal Guard kit.  The original detail has been carved off and sanded away so I could paint on my own Adeptus Astra Telepathica designs on both sides.

“Exigua est virtus praestare silentia rebus, at contra gravis est culpa tacenda loqui.”

I wracked my brains for a phrase to freehand onto the banner.  I considered Latin versions of “Enjoy the Silence” and “Hello darkness my old friend” – but tongue-in-cheekiness didn’t suit these dour space nuns.  So I found two high-minded lines in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria which translate as “Slight is the merit on keeping silence on a matter, on the other hand, serious is the guilt of talking on things whereon we should be silent.”  I’ll save the Depeche Mode for some goofy Rogue Trader or Blood Bowl nonsense.

Patterns in the Ivy

The ivy on the banner was originally a Captain Crooks suggestion.  I used swirly ivy creepers on the breechcloths and cloak outsides, and angular ivy leafs on cloak insides.  In folklore, ivy is taken into the home to ward off evil spirits much like Sisters are taken in your Imperial force to ward off evil.  Aaaaand, ivy is mildly poisonous to humans, in the same way Sisters of Silence and their Pariah gene are psychically unsettling for humans to be around.  I’m so happy with the symbolism of the plant that I might spin it out to the iconography of the whole Sisterhood Vigil (equivalent to a Space Marine Chapter), if I do any more.  Call them “Crimson Ivy”?  Mmm, no, too burlesque.  “Ivy League”?  Mmm, also no.

The skullrific bases are from a Shadespire warband (Magore’s Fiends) with their footholes sculpted over.  To ground them in the Warhammer 40,000 universe I added a helmet from a Thousand Sons Scarab Occult Terminator.

Squad Philomela supporting the Nemesis Chapter battlelines.

Patreon Painting Tutorial

Last week the Patrons of Ninjabread got access to a detailed stage-by-stage write up of the paints and  techniques used to paint the copper armour.

If you become a supporter today and you’ll get access to this in depth masterclass tutorial, and also the back catalogue that also covers two varieties of Space Marines power armour, and human flesh.  Thanks to everyone’s that signed up to date, I’m really enjoying spending the time sharing the secrets.

Now the competition is over, and the intense focus has ended, I’m enjoying picking at preslotta odds and ends on the painting desk, toying with possible future competition entries.  I need to blast through some gaming level paintjobs for a bitand get back to my Space Marine armies over the Christmas break.  Watch this space!

The Crimson Fists are getting reinforcements, hand over fist.  My 1980s Rogue Trader Space Marine army grows with the addition of another 5-man Tactical Squad composed of vintage metal and plastic Citadel Miniatures.

Time to put the huert on – Squad Huerta.

To my amazement and envy, in the time taken to finish this second squad of Battle at the Farm Crimson Fists, Nico has painted every Crimson Fist for the scenario, plus he’s modelled an evocative scenic base, plus he’s painted all the Orks and – if that wasn’t enough – some Ork reinforcements.  I feel like Falcon running round the park and being lapped repeatedly in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Freehand & Crimson Fist Icons

Again I had some fun adding freehand chapter icons and armour graffiti to the squad.  “THE TRUTH HUERTS” is just punning off the Sergeant’s name.  “INFINITE PLASMA” is a reference to the Battle at the Farm scenario, which Zhu points out gives the Space Marines unlimited Plasma Missiles (as they normally cost 1 point each, it technically means the Marines outclass the Orks by INFINITY POINTS).

I now need to paint a second Missile Launcher so I can reference Elton John’s Rocket Man.

“FOR NOW WE SEE BUT THRU A SCANNER DARKLY” on the Marine with scanner is a 1 Corinthians 13:12 / Philip K. Dick reference simply because he’s holding a scanner.  “FIST OR FAMINE” is from my handy stockpile of fist-based puns.  It’s a treat at the end of the painting process to choose some scrawly handwriting to give the battle-brothers an additional touch of the Rogue Trader era.

Crimson Fists Grand Plan

To fit into my planned 1,000 points (using the Whitescars army list from the Book of the Astronomican) the five Space Marines come out as:

SQUAD HUERTA

1 Marine Champion [9], Power Glove [15], Bolt Hun [2]
26 POINTS

3 Marines [3*8], 3 Bolt Guns [3*2] and 3 Frag Grenades [3*1]
33 POINTS

1 Marine [8], Missile Launcher [30], 12 Plasma Missiles [12] Targeter [5], 2 Suspensors [2*2]
59POINTS

Basic Equipment (all models): Bolt Pistol [1.5], Knife [0], Powered Armour [6] (with Communicator [0.5], Respirator [0.5], Auto-senses[0.5])
45 POINTS

TOTAL: 163 POINTS

Here are the two squads in action alongside each other, with a sneaky eleventh Citadel Miniature tucked away somewhere… can you spot it?

Squads Huerta and Onan fighting in the ruins of Blas in the Gallego system.

Crimson Fists Painting Tutorial

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I paint Crimson Fists, so I photographed a Marine in between each step of the blue power armour process.

If you want to see these steps broken down, wth 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.

Coming soon – more vintage Crimson Fists to creep the army closer to game legal.

I painted my first Primaris Space Marine!  He’s Nemesis Chapter – an Ultramarines successor chapter with origins in the dark days of the Horus Heresy.

Sergeant Glaucon, 2nd Battle Company, 3rd Squad, Nemesis Chapter.  His banner reads ΝΕΜΕΣΙΣ – “nemesis” in Greek capitals.

This Intercessor Sergeant, from Games Workshop’s Dark Imperium starter set, is largely indistinguishable from the squad he leads.  Traditionally, Space Marine sergeants have a different weapon configuration (something Napoleonic like pistol and swords), bare heads and big banners to mark them out.  I originally finished painting the mini, but was uneasy with how he looked alongside the rest of the squad.  Only thing to distinguish him was the helmet being red.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will also spot the checks added to his right pauldron since this photo was taken.

So I added a dirty great banner.  This one is from the Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought, which matches the swollen proportions of the 2017 Space Marine iteration.  Here’s Glaucon next to some classic Space Marines with flags to show the scale creep over the last 30 years.

Left to right: 1987 Blood Angel; 2013 Ultramarine; 2017 Nemesis Marine.

Yeah yeah, I know you’re gonna say “Marines got swole cos of Guilliman’s super-seed”, but I reject your fluff-led view of Games Workshop’s miniatures and state flatly that Primaris is the new de facto Space Marine and is directly comparable to the other two Marines above.  Nurrr.

Glaucon leading his little brothers from Ultramarines Squad Varenus.

The Dark Imperium box is overwhelming with the amount of Marines in it, and I’m going to trick myself into thinking it’s one of the smaller starter sets so I’m making better progress through the purchased model pile.  Next off – the rest of the Intercessor squad!

The Rogue Trader Lizard is an obscure collector’s piece.  Designed to take the plastic RTB01 Space Marines, this miniature was only available through Mail Order for a brief time in 1988.  I nabbed one for a bargain years ago, but never had the willpower or funds to collect enough to make a full squad (as, enviably, Ed Gladdis has managed).  Then axiom had a game planned and an opportunity arose.  Presenting Mungo Beefhead and his trusty steed Drayne.

Yes, he’s called Drayne.  Drayne the Lizard.

axiom’s game was grox-herding.  Grox are the Warhammer 40,000 equivalent of cattle, and as a participant I’d have to bring a figure to round up herds of this dino-livestock.  Lacking any sort of subtlety I deployed every cowboy cliché I could.  But in space.  Space Cowboy.  Like that Jamiroquai song.

The rider was originally Johnny Cuba from the Citadel Miniatures Judge Dredd range.  I’ve had the figure knocking around for years in my bitz box as I’ve been buying up power boards.  But with his cowboy hat and his lunging skysurfer legs, he needed only minimal further conversion.

Johnny Cuba as he appeared in 1985’s 2000AD Prog 427.

Citadel’s JD13 Skysurfer range.  Image thanks to Source of Legends

.
I swapped his bare feet for boots from an Imperial Army jetbike rider, and then after some experimenting I added a lasso made from brass rod (for the top section where robustness is important) and lead solder (where the ability to bend it made modelling easy).

An early experiment with an entirely solder lasso.

Painting-wise I went for garish primary colours because the concept and source miniatures were inherently goofy.  I intended to paint Mungo in a palette evocative of Bravestar (who is cool) but ended up channelling Sheriff Woody from Toy Story (who is not cool).

On the day of gaming itself Mungo Beefhead rounded up his herd and led them to the pen at the speed of cheeba, but was pipped to the post by sho3box thanks to a series of poor tactical decisions (read: me nobbing over the wrong people with special play cards) and being nobbed over by people’s special play cards.  Great fun.  Thanks to axiom for putting together a very fun gaming experience.

Photo courtesy of Jean-Baptiste of Lead Plague.

I have absolutely no future plans for this figure.  I will not make a squad of them.  He will not build into an army.  Though, very generously, axiom did give out grox hatchling miniatures to all participants, so I can revisit the theme at a future date.

Check out axiom’s post about how he made the herds themselves and modelled the grox pen.