Another week under the belt and just that little bit closer to Crimbo.
Unfortunately I haven’t had much time to get much done this week, but I did receive the plinth through the post….. And I may have made a slight error in judgement.
It’s a little bit small! Never mind I’ve ordered a slightly larger one, while this one can be used for the Imperial Army Land Speeder once that’s finished.
I’m still in two minds about the bear, as the print quality is pretty shoddy when viewed in person.
Roar!
Does anyone have any decent tips for solving this?
Following on from last week’s post, I’ve not been able to get too much done painting wise. However a couple of pieces have arrived to enable me to do a quick dry fit mock up.
Is this a good layout?
As you can see I’ve had a bear rug delivered from a seller on Etsy (apologies I can’t recall the seller). And I’ve had a name plaque delivered from Versatile Terrain.
I’m more than happy with the name plaque which will get painted up and placed on the side of the plinth once that arrives from Green Stuff World. The bear however….. I’m not as keen on. It feels a little too large for the scene. Especially if I’m going to try and include a wall in the background. Also the print quality isn’t great.
I’m tempted at this stage to remove the rug from the equation.
While I’m here I wanted to give a massive shout out to fellow club member Steve Milford who sold me some metal rogue trader models you see below. But who also threw in some of the lovely plastic original space marines from the RTB1 set. Very generous!
Rogue Trader Imperial Bike – I think this is part of RT106 “Vincent Blackshadow”Rogue Trader era terminator (I recognise this, but can’t pin point the exact code, it may be slightly later than RT).I believe this was a Squat from the RT03 set named “Owen Garano” (1987)RTB1 Marines
So what to do with these? The marines will be stripped and then painted up as Crimson Fists (may need to source a couple of arms and a boltgun). The terminator I’m going to to try and track down what set it belongs to before committing it to a paint scheme, however it may also end up as a Crimson Fist.
The Squat will get painted up and placed on a 25mm scenic base of some sort to wait for the rest of his brothers from that set who’ll then also be displayed on a plinth at some point.
I’m hoping that I’ll have the Imperial Commander sorted by next week (as long as the remaining parts arrive) at which point I can start thinking about which of the models to do next (yeah, it’ll be the land speeder).
This is just a quick update to show the progress on Calgar.
Calgar on his ‘throne’
So Calgar is done, I don’t think there’s anything left on him for me to do. Though I’m sure an eagle eyed reader or even myself will spot something further down the line…..
His marine Guard is nearly finished, he just needs his backpack sorting and some freehand symbols on his pauldron.
The armour stand is also nearly finished. I just need to do some final highlights on the gold. The bolter stand is also nearing completion with the wood completed. I need to highlight the bolter and do some of the metal work.
The base is also completed. I’m just waiting on the miniature fur rug to be delivered and the bricks to replicate the background wall. Once that’s in place I can start glueing the piece together and work on the flag stands against the wall.
The whole thing will then be mounted on a plinth like the one below which will have a metal plate stating the name of the model, it’s code and the year it was produced.
Then I’ll be finished (I think) and work can commence on the Imperial Army Land Speeder.
Let me know what you think, anything you think I can do to improve the model?
So following on from my previous post. Marneus is now completed along with these seat.
Calgar in all his glory
I’ve also started work on an 80mm square base, which will have a wall built up at the back for the flags and Imperial posters.
Eventually it should look a little like the artwork.
I’m in two minds over recreating the Dinosaurs (which I’ve since found out are early Tyranids). But if I were to make them I’d pron use these.
I may have also bought the next model for the collection already….
I’ve purchased the Imperial Army one rather than the Space Marine version. More news on that next week though.
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Last week I listed a number of sets on ebay that I knew I’d never get around to painting or even playing.
This was a bit of a watershed moment for me as I’ve hung on to some of these kits since I first bought them back in the 1990’s. The realisation I came to was that I do more painting more than I do playing. This is down to various factors but mostly time.
What has this got to do with Rogue Trader I hear you ask?
Well after I came to this realisation I thought perhaps if this is the case I should gather a collection together of figured that have historic significance to our hobby and that I can paint up to my highest standard without feeling rushed about getting them done for some game or other.
I got into the hobby in 93′ just as 2nd edition Warhammer 40k came out. There were still some fabulous metal miniatures knocking around then from the 80’s you could buy and I would spend hours looking through the pages of mail order catalogues thinking about which models I could try and convince my parents to buy for me.
Now, I have my own money to spend on this hobby and I have (hopefully) improved my painting standards enough to do these classic miniatures justice.
So this week I made my first purchase of a Rogue Trader era miniature.
RT105 – The Imperial Commander
This model was later renamed to Marneus Calgar in the very late 80’s and early 90’s. But the miniature itself is stunning. One of the very few diorama pieces Citadel have ever produced as a product and it’s based on piece of amazing artwork.
Simpler times indeed….
So here’s my first miniature. It’ll take a while to paint but I’m hoping to do it justice. I’m aiming to base this on a larger round base rather than one square one shown in the picture, perhaps complete with the rug, wall and banners shown in the artwork. Still debating the cold one pets.
This will take me some time, but after this the options are wide open on where to go next. I have my eye on the original Leman Russ miniature with Freki and Goki as the next collector piece. Is there a particular Rogue Trader miniature you think I should get? And if so why?
Solo Wargaming for your Favourite Games
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
Bryan Ansell started with his life in wargames by founding and designing for his own miniatures company Asgard Miniatures. He also had his own fanzine named Trollcrusher.
In 1979 Games Workshop approached Ansell to found their own miniatures branch Citadel Miniatures. The company was set up to allow Games Workshop to be self reliant for its miniature purposes, allowing her to create the miniatures for all the games which Games Workshop had the license for at the time. This took their reliance on other miniatures companies such as Ral Partha away.
In 1980 Ansell wrote his first wargaming rules called Laserburn which he had published via Tabletop Games. Although only a foot note in gaming history, Laserburn contained many elements and wargear of the future Warhammer 40,000 game, such as Power Armour, Dreadnoughts, Jet Cycles and Bolt Guns.
By 1982 Games Workshop was depending on the sales of Citadel Miniatures and Bryan Ansell brought out all of Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson’s shared in Games Workshop and all the operations were eventually moved from London to Nottingham.
Laserburn which you can still find today as a PDF.
Ansell worked with Richard Halliwell and Rick Priestley on Games Workshops‘ Warhammer Fantasy Battles. This was originally designed to be given out for free to encourage customers to buy the new Citadel Miniatures range.
He later left Games Workshop to Tom Kirby in 1991 and instead focused on his own company Wargames Foundry, a company which sells historical miniatures. These miniatures were originally sculpted by the Perry Twins for Citadel Miniatures, but were no longer sold as part of the Games Workshop fantasy ranges. Ansell took a number of figure molds used for historical and fantasy figures under Citadel Miniatures and Games Workshop, and they have become part of the Wargames Foundry range. Wargames Foundry continues to sell a range of metal figures for historical, sci-fi and fantasy war gaming.
Although not as prolific a writer as some of the other people focused on in “A Life in Wargames” Ansell has been involved in the rules development of 15+ games.
Rick Priestley grew up in Lincoln and dtart d writing wargames as a teenager with his friend Richard Halliwell. In 1979 the pair wrote their first game Reaper while still in school. Tabletop Games (a small games publishing company with no sales output) printed their rules and they contacted Brian Ansell who worked for Asgard Miniatures at the time before his move to Citadel Miniatures. Brian Ansell put them in contact with Nottingham Toy Soldier Shop who agreed to sell the Reaper rules.
Halliwell & Preistley’s first game
With one rulebook for sale, Halliwell and Priestley collaborated on a second effort, a science fiction miniatures wargame titled Combat 3000, also published by Tabletop, that used 15mm/25mm “space marine” miniatures from Asgard. Around this time Brian Ansell left Asgard Miniatures, and with backing from Games Workshop set up Citadel Miniatures.
Priestley joined Games Workshop in 1982 as part of their subsidiary company Citadel Miniatures. At that time Citadel produced the miniatures for use in Dungeons and Dragons. Brian Ansell the manager of Citadel asked Richard Halliwell to develop Games Workshops’ first in-house game, Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Rick Priestley and Tony Ackland developed the product. Warhammer Fantasy contained many of the core mechanics or Priestley and Halliwell’s earlier game Reaper. Warhammer Fantasy was released in 1983 and was a huge success.
It allowed them a vehicle through which they could sell their own Citadel Miniatures. Earlier miniature wargames were designed to be played using generic models that could be bought from any manufacturer, but Warhammer Fantasy’s setting featured original characters with distinctive visual designs, and their models were produced exclusively by Games Workshop. This paved the way for Games Workshop to become the company it is today – all thanks to the three men who developed that first game.
Since before his time at Games Workshop Priestley had been working on a set of rules of Spaceship Combat called Rogue Trader which mixed Science fiction and fantasy elements. Priestley incorporated many aspects of this setting such as the lore and space travel into Warhammer 40,000 and dropped the ship combat element due to not having enough room in the book.
Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader
Games Workshop planned to sell conversion kits for their fantasy line to make them useable in Rogue Trader but eventually decided to instead dedicate an entire production line to the game and in 1987 Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader was born.
During his years with Games Workshop he was involved in the design of virtually all of their top games such as Necromunda, Mordheim, Warmaster, Lord of the Rings, Gorkamorka, Mighty Empires and Warhammer Ancient Battles (affectionately known as WAB by those in Historical gaming circles).
Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB)
Rick Priestley left Games Workshop in 2009 stating that the corporate culture had grown too focused on sales and no longer cared about innovation in Games Design. He expanded on his view of Games Workshop in an article with Bell of Lost Souls in March 2015. In that, his thoughts on where Games Workshop was heading, was as a manufacturer of collectible miniatures and not games design.
After Games Workshop, Priestley co-founded Warlord Games which after Games Workshop is arguably the next biggest games and miniature manufacturer in Europe.
With Warlord Games, Rick Priestley has continued to develop fantastic wargame rulesets and being no longer held back by Games Workshop, these have included historical as well as Fantasy and Sci-Fi. The biggest games at Warlord such as Bolt Action, Black Powder, Gates of Antares, Hail Caesar, Pike and Shotte and Warlords or Erehwon have all been designed with Priestley’s input.
Bolt Action
In 2011 Rick Priestley was elected to the committee of the Society of Ancients. The Society of Ancients is a non-profit organisation that intends to promote interest in Ancient and Medieval history and wargaming.
This man is a true legend of Wargaming, is the father of Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 and has done a lot that Games Workshop fans and historical wargaming fans have to thank him for.
I have tried to give a flavour of the 115+ rules and add-on’s he’s developed below. But as with Jervis’ article, this really does not even scrape the surface as to the lore and depth of his many games. Rick, thank you! I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
I’m in the process of creating a series of Wargaming Aids which allow players to play their favourite games in a single player format against an AI controlled enemy army. To find out more on this click here.
For as little as £1 a month (the price of a chocolate bar) you can help support me in this endeavour and receive cool perks as a thank you, such as access to our Discord Server as well as downloadable copies of the gaming aids which you can print out and use at home.
Why not pop over to Patreon and sign up and help me in this project? Money raised will go towards making these as physical products.
