Astartes Consul Does 'Retrohammer'

[Astartes Consul]

In a quest to get back into painting and improve my, shall we say, average skills, I recently salvaged a carry case full of old miniatures from the late 90s - early 2000s when I started collecting Warhammer. I'm not sure whether 3rd edition era truly counts as 'retrohammer', but there are some fairly old, terrifyingly heavy, white metal models as well as a couple of retro tanks and plastic kits that I'm going to strip down and work on.

 

Seeing as I have the attention span of a toddler, I thought I'd create a Project Log to help keep on track. 

 

Some of the miniatures I'm planning on working with include:

 

• The old, 3rd edition era metal command squad. 
• A selection of plastic and metal Terminators - WiP
• The 'original' Captain Sicarius Games Day miniature - WiP
• Original 2nd/3rd edition Rhino - Completed
• Original 2nd/3rd edition Razorback - Completed 
• Games Day mid-2000s Space Marine Sergeant with Power Fist.  -  Completed

 

Mostly I think they'll be redone to match the DIY chapter I'm working on. If I get time, the Wolves will be prepped for the new Codex. Sicarius will, of course, be an Ultramarine for old time's sake. 

 

To whet your appetite, and show you how average early teenage me was at painting, here are a few snaps taken on my phone while organising and preparing things for stripping...

 

One of my first ever Tactical Marines. Before I realised you had to cut the bolter handles off...

 

Standard Bearer from the old Command Squad. Soon to be a resplendent Chapter Ancient. Maybe. 

 

Metal Captain and plastic Grey Slayer used as a test for stripping with methylated spirits. That Captain was once quite a well painted Ultramarine, before I decided I hated the model and hastily used him to see if I could paint halved schemes...

 

The Captain after a five minute bath in meths and a scrub. Needs a clean up and a second quick wash and then he'll be good to go.

 

More updates...at some point. 

[Sword Brother Adelard]

Pretty sure I glued together a fair few marines before realising I had to cut off the bolter handles!

[Supe robot gangster #1]

Haha! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t realise you needed to cut the handles off! I remember back in the day rocking an entire deathworld vets army with the handles still on! :p

[Astartes Consul]

Pretty sure I glued together a fair few marines before realising I had to cut off the bolter handles!

 

Haha! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who didn’t realise you needed to cut the handles off! I remember back in the day rocking an entire deathworld vets army with the handles still on!

 

Looking back, it seems so obvious, but at the time I was just so keen to get paint on them. As you can tell by how thick it is...

 

 

 

 

 

Finished stripping and, weather permitting, will have primed and started on the Command Squad tonight.

 

Regarding stripping plastics, I trialed it on a Space Wolves and weirdly found that, unlike the metal miniatures, the Methylated Spirits only removed the top layer of paint and not the primer. Has anyone had any experience with this?

[Astartes Consul]

 Quick update: here is the old plastic Rhino prior to cleaning and stripping. This was the first ever 40k kit I owned - prior to this I had played/collected Warhammer Fantasy - and although I can't remember exactly when I bought it, I know it wasn't too long before the Mars Pattern Rhino was released.

 

The plan is to remove all the tired looking / broken accessories and the bolter-less hatch and use one of the (now OOP) Forge World Legion Crew to spice it up.

 

 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Will you upgrade its onboard weapons, i.e., replace the boltgun with a storm bolter, maybe add a hunter-killer missile?

[Astartes Consul]

Will you upgrade its onboard weapons, i.e., replace the boltgun with a storm bolter, maybe add a hunter-killer missile?

 

Hunter-Killer, probably. As for the bolter, I'd like to keep it, adds to the retro charm IMO. Might use one of the crew figures that has a storm/combi-bolter though, so that if it is ever used for gaming purposes the right kind of weapon is represented. 

[Astartes Consul]

Small update, as hobby stuff has taken the back seat recently. Stripped and based the Rhino and hoping to see it transformed into an Imperial Fists vehicle in the next couple of days. Also currently struggling to clean up my old metal and plastic Razorback, which I appear to have sprayed multiple times in the past. ,May need something stronger than methylated spirits to sort it...

 

 

[Astartes Consul]

Finally got my camera situation sorted and had a free afternoon so did some work on repainting my old, mid-2000s Games Day special mini. 

 

I'd previously stripped and re-base coated it, pulling off the storm bolter arm in the process. I'm aiming for a dark Ultramarines colour scheme, a sort of semi-Blanchitsu style although I am nowhere near good enough a painter to pull it off as I'd like. Any tips greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

 

[Astartes Consul]

And now with two arms!

 

 

[Astartes Consul]

Next on the desk, some old plastic terminators that have seen better days... Think I first painted these in the early 2000s with help from my Dad. Saw a lot of tabletop use so happy to be working on them!

 

 

Also managed to neaten up an old dreadnought. Didn't bother stripping it but did darken the blue, touch up the metals and add washes and weathering. Have *just* noticed the blue overspill onto the exhaust at the back though... 

 

 

All C&C welcome! 

[Astartes Consul]

Continuing shocking burst of creativity going on...

 

Retro plastic terminators before:

 

 

And during:

 

 

 

 

The front two have all the colours blocked in - bar the chest eagle and sword hilt - and some washes done. Back three obviously a few steps behind.

[RobWrath]

Were the plastic terminators from Space Hulk?

 

I remember getting one free with WD, painted him up as a Space Wolf and still have him in my Wolf Guard.

 

The casting is noticeably worse than the metal equivalents from the time and he's in a weird leaning back sort of pose (like your front storm bolter guy seems to be).

[Astartes Consul]

Were the plastic terminators from Space Hulk?

 

I remember getting one free with WD, painted him up as a Space Wolf and still have him in my Wolf Guard.

 

The casting is noticeably worse than the metal equivalents from the time and he's in a weird leaning back sort of pose (like your front storm bolter guy seems to be).

 

These ones were just from the normal Terminator Squad box set, but they may have been the same cast as the Space Hulk ones?

[RobWrath]

 

Were the plastic terminators from Space Hulk?

 

I remember getting one free with WD, painted him up as a Space Wolf and still have him in my Wolf Guard.

 

The casting is noticeably worse than the metal equivalents from the time and he's in a weird leaning back sort of pose (like your front storm bolter guy seems to be).

 

These ones were just from the normal Terminator Squad box set, but they may have been the same cast as the Space Hulk ones?

 

I don't remember there being a normal Terminator plastic boxed set at the time; I thought they were all metal. 

I would have bought plastics to save money!

 

Also, I stopped with the hobby when 3e came out so maybe that's when they produced a plastic set?

[Canadian_F_H]

Yeah they had a plastic set thru 3e

[RobWrath]

Yeah they had a plastic set thru 3e

There I go again, showing my age.

[Astartes Consul]

Now working on...

 

 

[Canadian_F_H]

What is that off of?

[Bjorn Firewalker]

What is that off of?

I think it's from the 1st or 2nd Edition Razorback, which had an open turret for its Space Marine gunner, instead of later Editions' remote control turret.

[Astartes Consul]

 

What is that off of?

I think it's from the 1st or 2nd Edition Razorback, which had an open turret for its Space Marine gunner, instead of later Editions' remote control turret.

 

 

Correct!

 

Here is the rest of it, after a long bath in paint stripper. The gunner looks quite miffed that his turret is elsewhere...

 

 

 

[Canadian_F_H]

Oh wow... Haven't seen that in a while. Didn't recognize it uninstalled.

[Astartes Consul]

Oh wow... Haven't seen that in a while. Didn't recognize it uninstalled.

 

Tbh, until I opened up a box from storage about six months ago I had no idea I still had it! 

 

Would kill to get my hands on one of the old Predators or Whirlwinds. 

[Canadian_F_H]

Yeah. In a box here somewhere is a predator annihilator with the old rhino chassis. the turret and sponsons are metal.

[Astartes Consul]

Yeah. In a box here somewhere is a predator annihilator with the old rhino chassis. the turret and sponsons are metal.

 They are monstrous lumps of metal, aren't they?

 

Some updated shots of the Razorback, both with and without turret. Going for the full red on the cupola.

 

 

 

 

Also, a finished shot of the 2005 Games Day miniature I posted some WiP shots of back at the start of December. More photos on this thread here.