To Boldly Go - Captain Quirke (Bring Out Your Lead Commemorative Figure 2021)

Back in January 2020, it seemed that Bring Out Your Lead might still take place that August. A commemorative figure was needed, and we were lucky enough to get Bob Naismith on board. The obvious choice for Bob was to sculpt a pirate captain to lead the scurvy-ridden sculpts that made up the original Rogue Trader pirate range.

And what a fine figure of a captain Bob sculpted for us!

Captain Quirke and some of his terrifying crew.

The Iron Fist - Inquisitional Commandos

I know that the Inquisition hangs around with the Deathwatch or the Adepta Sororitas a bit, but they're overkill when it comes to an every-day world of the Imperium setting. Storm Troopers and Tempestus Scions are a little bit militaristic. So I'd put aside a few Imperial Light Troopers (AKA No Face Fargo) and Garrison Troopers (AKA Kylla Conditti) with the intention of using them as a tools of the oppressive Imperial regime in a mundane, non-battlefield setting.

And so, along comes January and a new painting challenge on the Oldhammer Facebook group. The rules of 'Naismithery' are simple - pick one or more models sculpted by Bob Naismith and paint it within the month of January. It just so happens that Bob sculpted both No Face and Kylla...

Inquisitional Commandos conduct door to door searches on the trail of a notorious space pirate.

Bob Naismith's Overrunners Kickstarter

Bob Naismith is a hugely respected name in the miniatures sculpting industry, being part of the team that created the iconic Rogue Trader figures for Citadel, as well as working for a huge number of other companies since.

Bob was kind enough to let me interview him about his time with Citadel during the early days of this blog, and I'm delighted to see that he's just launched a Kickstarter of a self-designed line of near future soldiers.

The Overrunners Kickstarter is currently live and funded, comprising some very nice science fiction soldiers and supporting vehicles.

Doing Some Heavy Lifting - SFD Giant Robot

In the 41st Millennium, circa 1987, Citadel decided to release a limited edition set of Giant Robots. Your imagination goes wild at the thought. These things should be ogre-sized at least. Or possibly, if they have been named correctly, giant-sized.

SFD Giant Robots (image from Stuff of Legends).

It is possible that Citadel created these figures for a Battletech licence (or perhaps a similar in-house game), because in actuality, these giant robots are anything but:

'Scavenger' is barely larger than the Eldar Ghost Warrior or Paranoia robot!

2D to 3D: Creating an Eldar Adventurer

This is probably the last post for a few weeks as I'm heading off on holiday later in the week. I've managed to squeeze in one last project before I go however. This time it's a rather self-indulgent recreation of a character from the Rogue Trader rulebook, specifically the un-named Eldar Adventurer on p188:

Snap! I've Got A Pair!

You might think that the right number for a group of miniatures is a squad of 5. Or perhaps it's a regiment of 30. You're wrong of course, I've recently had the realisation that the correct number is 2. This realisation only came to me through two sub-consciously created events:

Event #1
I purchased this Citadel Pilot from the classic 40k Adventurers range:

"So what's my point?", you might ask. It's a perfectly good purchase of a lovely, classic Citadel figure. No different from buying the Space Eunuch or Worldburner.

An Interview With...Sculptor Bob Naismith

Over the last 12 months or so, the various Oldhammer blog entries I have enjoyed most have been the interviews with some of the key personnel from Games Workshop's golden period (see Realm of Chaos 80s for some fantastic interviews). Having been inspired by other interviews, I decided to get back in touch with Bob Naismith who sculpted me a lovely little female space elf trader back in 2011:



Sculpted as a companion piece to the Citadel Eldar Trader

Bob kindly subjected himself to questioning about his career and work with Citadel in the 1980s: