LE1 Space Orc painted - a new project begins

I had been painting a few of the Pantheon of Chaos models by Knightmare Miniatures (Fantastic old school styled models. Many of which are recreations of artwork from the old books) lately and while they are certainly extremely fun to paint, I was itching to do something Rogue Trader. Something with shooty bits I could put on a hex base and after thinking it over and perusing the lead pile I decided to paint up my LE1 Space Orc. He looked so sad and lonely sitting in a box of Rogue Trader era orks, the only one of the bunch unpainted, so I primered him up and got my brushes ready.

Primed and ready

His space suit was a little.. confusing to me. I wasn't sure what color to paint it. At first glance I thought he was wearing power armor but after looking at him more closely it seemed like perhaps it was instead something more like that of an astronaut suit. I decided to try a basecoat of ghoul grey which looked a little.. meh in my opinion. His shoulder pads, however, distinctly reminded me of Spinys from Super Mario Bros and I had to paint them as such.

Ghoul Grey basecoat

I fussed around with the space suit, adding washes of red ink, blue ink, some other ink I think until it ended up looking like a bit of a hodgepodge of colors. However, I think the rather dirtied look fits the ork just fine and serves as a fine contrast to his unusually clean shoulder pads and boots. I definitely wanted him to look fun and old school, not taking it too seriously as I feel orks should be made fun and with plenty of character and individuality. In the end, he's perhaps not perfectly how I imagined him looking, but he is definitely a model that I can be happy with.

Based and finished

I'm not sure what that tank is for but it looks dangerous

After I finished this model I remembered that I had a complete unassembled RTB02 Space Ork Raiders Boxed Set. 16 shiny new unpainted, untouched Rogue Trader era orks that were begging to be given colour. With a little encouragement from one of my friends, The Rebel Grot, I thought "Why not start painting some RT orks and build a squad?" So that is going to be my next project. 9 happy friends and a transport for this fellow to lead. Very exciting!

First post of the blog - Introduction

Hello and welcome to Knee Deep in the Lead, a blog where I attempt to paint the multitude of metal models which surround me and hopefully record some games of 3rd edition Fantasy Battle and Rogue Trader too.

First off, an introduction. I am not a longbeard. I didn't grow up with Warhammer as a kid, nor was I alive in the 80s. I did often paint Battletech and similar miniatures (poorly) with my brother in the 90s but I had never even heard of Warhammer until around 2008 which sounds absurd to myself now. I had heard about it from a guy in high school who was building a Blood Angels force. I was living in a lonely desolate house in a canyon in the middle of nowhere in eastern Idaho with nothing to do, so I ordered a Tau Battleforce off Games Workshop's website and had some fun assembling and painting figures from it. I never finished it, never got to play any games with it (The guy who got me interested flaked out and wasn't interested in playing after that.) but it made me aware of Warhammer and got me interested in what it was.

My first painted Warhammer models

It wasn't until about three years later in 2011 that I came across a second-hand store find which I believe changed my life for the better. At this "Used Store" (I believe that was the name of the store) in Pocatello, Idaho there was a pile of boxes in a corner filled with strange little lead miniatures. They looked so different from the modern Warhammer that I knew. I only assumed they were Warhammer because there was a Warhammer Battle Magic box and a couple old books next to them. The store owner was reluctant to let them go, however he had no idea what they were and in the end I walked out with nearly 600 Citadel, Marauder and Ironclaw metal dwarfs from the 80s plus a plethora of siege weapons, vehicles and even a Blood Bowl team for only 100$.

The complete Dwarf army as I found it.

I soon became obsessed with researching them and finding out what they were. I was and am still very grateful to the members of the Bugman's Brewery forum for helping me out so much in the beginning with identifying them and introducing me to places such as SOLegends and CCMWiki. From lurking about the forum I learned a lot about the hobby in general and an environment that was much different to the Newhammer mentality of preparing for cutthroat competitions and just getting as many figures painted to a suitable level in as short amount of time as you can in order to simply field more forces. When it came to the older miniatures there was love for the miniatures, the history and the game that I saw. Great care was taken to paint these very characterful and highly individual models, with many often being bestowed names upon their baseplates to further highlight their individuality. There was a special kind of magic that attracted me to it. Something that seemed to be lacking from the newer stuff.

Fantastic little models.

Of course, my love for Oldhammer didn't simply occur overnight. It grew gradually through the years. I still collected and painted the newer stuff (Mainly when it came to 40k. I had fantasy all set with my dwarfs) but as time went on I became less and less interested in GW's new releases and I wanted more of those Gorkamorka Orks, Squats, Beakie marines and Chaos Renegades. I wanted more story than just straight wargaming and I wanted characters rather than faceless soldiers. It was probably around the time that the Oldhammer forum came into being and GW ended production of metal miniatures that I fully embraced the ideals of Oldhammer and left Newhammer behind.

The first dwarf I ever painted

I hope with this blog I can be more part of this community and find motivation to paint these great many miniatures because sometimes I feel like I really am knee deep in the lead. Seriously, these things are all over my house.