16/05/2023

Bots on the blog

I'm sure all of you fellow bloggers will be thinking of the same thing when you read the title. But don't fear, I'm not here to rant about those ******* bots that write those annoying messages or those that forced you to put measures on the comments on your blogs.

No, today I'll talk about decent bots. Rogue Trader robots, in fact (monocle on).

I mean this

The only bots worth of our time

I'm working on another project (will show soon!), but wanted something simple to paint, something I could start & finish in a few days in the meanwhile. I had these beautiful robots and felt like spilling some paint on them.

Not looking impressive yet

They are a Cataphract and a Colossus. You can see I had some bits missing and had extra right arms instead, so I had to provide a couple of arrangements to make this work. The Colossus is usually seen with a huge hammer on its left arm, but I didn't have any, so I used this Thunder Hammer from a modern Terminator. Here you can see the bare conversions:

Not the same, but will do

Dreadnoughts' little cousin

I thought of cutting and repositioning some arms, bending the elbows or something like that, but cutting just the first arm for the hammer was enough for me, so I went for the unmodified poses.

I know that nowadays everybody uses subdued palettes and desaturated colours, with tons of oils, pigments and so, showing all the minis like really battered and with heavy weathering. But really, what's the point of having Rogue Trader minis and doing that? I had a clear vision in my mind. 

Oldscholars fear not colour

OK, I'l let you a few moments to breathe.

You good? Let's keep on. I'm boldly going where no one has gone in the last twenty years. Some washes and highlights later, they looked a little bit better:

The hammer looks more convincing now, I hope

I've been always fascinated by the fact of these monsters bearing a mere bolter

Now that I had started my path, it all was a matter of adding details. I painted checkers here and there and made the riskiest decision of this project, which was painting fierce faces on the lascannons. Many dioptres later I got some cheesy, stupid faces. Not what I aimed for, but at table distance you won't see the difference, trust me (I hope so!!)

Damn, that area is small

Kind of Super Mario Banzai Bill vibe

Well, little else. I thought I could use some Adeptus Mechanicus decals, and I made some extensive use of them! This is the final result:

The author cannot take responsibility for any viewer's epilepsy condition

Decals, decals everywhere

Oh, no decals! Quick, keep turning!

Oh, there you are again

A final size comparison shot:

How come that guy looks so grey?

I don't know how I'll use them, but the first thing that comes to mind is the retinue for a Rogue Trader. I'll give a thought to that.

In the meantime, praise the Omnissiah!

35 comments:

  1. Awesome old school models Suber, and your painting truly reflects the era, really like the sound of what you have planned for it and would fit these two perfectly.

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    1. Thank you! I really didn't need to think much about it, the painting process was quite organic (which is weird, given that these are inorganic creatures, hmmm...)

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  2. Bien chulos, yo me tengo que conformar con los robots de la guardia imperial del epic que conseguí de un amigo hace muuuuuuucho tiempo.

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    1. ¡Gracias! Oh, yo tengo planeado hace años volver a Epic, pero nunca saco el tiempo... :(

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    1. Thanks! Quite rewarding minis, I have to say :)

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  4. Suber! I Absolutely love the colors! So many great details too with all the checks and decals. Plus that conversion of the hammer for a hand; I wish I had thought of it! Fantastic job with this whole project!!! This reminds me to finish my own bot...

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    1. Thank you very much! It was all kind of an unplanned thing, the minis were really asking for those colors in those places, so it was just a matter of letting myself go :)

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    2. You let the Machine Spirit guide you I guess! The results are really eye catching.

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    3. Thank you! Ye all praise the Omnissiah!

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  5. Suber, that is some serious old school progress right there! Now to break out those original program rules for some true nostalgic fun!

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    1. Those program rules were pure torture to try to play with in-game! Don't do it Suber! LOL

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    2. Hahahaha!! I remember those, they were quite a hell :D I have to confess that I don't have a clear memory of them, only the impression remains. I should at least read them again...

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  6. All of this is excellent! I really like the wild colours: they've got a weird punk heraldry that really appeals. The details and conversions are cool too. Great work!

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    1. Thank you! I knew I couldn't make a monochrome pattern or use any desaturated colour, these were asking for a carnival. I refused the idea of uniformity, making them both of a Maniple or whatever. I believe they look better in bright colours, and I hope I found the right balance!

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  7. They look very nicely done, mate. Always satisfying rescuing older sculpts that are missing bits or questionable to begin with, great work!

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    1. Thank you! These robots look kind of crude sculpts if you compare them to current robots (which are also huge!), but they also have their own charm, I enjoyed them a lot! :)

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  8. Really cool project (Like ALL of your projects, if I have to be honest) and I love the bright schemes! Robots were such fun additions to the lists in the Compendium (Or was it Compilation? *shrug*), but their rules were... awful to say the least.

    The Venator was my fav variant with their Preying Mantis design elements and I was super excited to see a new model being made by Forge World a while back. Then I set eyes on the prices for those things and.... yeah, no thank you.

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    1. Thank you very much! Robots have indeed their place, I loved when they were part of Rogue Trader, as so many other sci-fi tropes. I'm quite disconnected of modern fluff, so I don't really know what's the current excuse to bring them back into 40K!
      Oh, I had that robot (Venator! Oh, my bad, I thought it was the Crusader!), but I don't keep it anymore. Right, I loved that one!! Look, I just found the blog post:
      https://oldschoolworkshop.blogspot.com/2015/07/another-kind-of-robot.html

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    2. Yeah, I'm way out of the loop on current 40K fluff, though I think robots are only featured in AdMech armies these days. :(

      Your Venator is a lovely piece! That added gun on top looks bonkers, but fits very well I think.

      Noticing you were posting about Relic Knights back then too! (Flippin heck, 2015 doesn't feel like 8 years ago...) I really need to get back to my own Relic Knights minis...

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    3. Ohh, Relic Knights! I had almost forgot about them! Yes, I can't focus on a single thi... Ehm, I mean, I do a lot of different stuff! :D

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    4. It would seem that that is a frequent theme of a majority of the blogs that I follow. ;) (Including, of course - my own!)

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  9. Excellent work as usual Suber. There is just so much detail on show here. As for the bots, they actually got my blog shut down by Google once. So now I have to moderate all comments in case it happens again :(

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    1. Thank you! Oh, that's a shame. They can get somehow noisy over here, but I can still keep them at bay!

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  10. Old-school charm to these miniatures and the paint jobs. 👍

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    1. Haha, I tried the most oldschool approach I could! The only thing I could have added was stripes on one of the quarters, something like that :D But that was too much even for me!!

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  11. So awesome to see these old-school Robots resurrected in such a modern-yet-classic manner. The OG paint schemes look fantastic, right down to the markings, hazard stripes and I appreciate the replacement weaponry made from period-correct parts. :)
    I never had these figures myself, but seeing these does make me want to paint some RT models again. :)

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    1. Thank you very much! I reckon they hardly resist a comparison with their current cousins from GW or FW, but they have a quality of their own beyond mere nostalgia :)

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    2. It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest to see these designs reborn with 2023 sculpts as part of something like the Ad Mech Codex - or perhaps new plastics for the HH game!

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  12. Awesome to see these chaps painted, I never had any idea what to do with them I just thought they looked good!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you very much! You made this possible, so any word I could say really falls short!

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    1. Thank you! They were a true delight to paint, I'm happy you like them!

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  14. Dude, I am so sorry for not keeping up with your fantastic work! These sculpts are absolute classics and you've done them solid justice with your painting. Everything about what you've done screams Oldhammer, from the colours to the checkered bits to the decals. Excellent work!

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    1. Oh, please! Real life sometimes gets us all! Please don't worry, thanks for the effort! Thanks for your words, I had a real good time with these, it was kind of fresh air :D

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