Small Scenics: Armorcast Short High-Tech Walls 4″ and 6″ for Necromunda/Shadow War/40k

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Armorcast Short Sci-Fi Walls

Another couple pieces of simple sci-fi terrain today, again dating from the 1990’s. These are Armorcast’s “Short” Sci-Fi Walls. Fairly simple casts, and rather simply painted by my good self back in the ’90s. These were a matter of spray black, drybrush gunmetal/chainmail/etc, and then pick out some parts using copper and brass before finally adding some burnt metal around the blast holes and a few decals for interest.

Armorcast Short Sci-Fi Walls

They look a little plain to me today. If anything, I think they could do with a wash of Army Painter Dark Tone (Black) to emphasise the panel lines and rivets followed by a bit of a detail pick-type drybrush of a brighter steel. Then a bit of either oil wash or rust. I might mentally file that as something to get done once the weather warms up again in November/December as it’s a horrible time of year for working on scenery right now. Then I can show these again!

Armorcast Short Sci-Fi Walls

Despite their simplicity and their age, I think these are still pretty nice pieces. Both the 4″ and 6″ versions are still available from Armorcast, and for a pretty reasonable price. If not for the current cost of shipping from the U.S., I’d probably drop a couple of hundred on some more of these and some of their other good looking stuff. There’s a July coupon with 10% off and free shipping over $200, and apparently it works for people outside the U.S….

Armorcast Short Sci-Fi Walls

As always, I’m not receiving anything for pimping their stuff, I paid full retail for these (in the 1990’s) and my opinions are my own – though after publishing this post I will be bringing it to Armourcast/Ginfritter’s attention, which is something I usually do after reviewing or sharing more obscure items, because why the hell not?

 

Rogue Trader Black Templars Terminators Pt.2 (RTB09, 1989)

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Black Templars Terminators, Oldhammer, Rogue Trader, RTB09

As I mentioned yesterday, when these models were fished out of a figure case they were all mounted on 25mm rounds. Since 40mm bases are now standard for Terminators, this presented a bit of a quandary, given how much smaller these original Indomitus Pattern models are to the current range after nearly 30 years of scale creep. I took inspiration from my RTB01 model that I painted as a Mega-City Judge and rebased onto a 32mm, and, well, he looks good – so I decided to just go for it. I also thought that if I added some slate, then it would help to “fill” the bases as opposed to if I left them plain. I think they worked out quite nicely in the end.

Black Templars Terminators, Oldhammer, Rogue Trader, RTB09

When it came to the modelling options, I wanted to keep them really unadorned, as befits the original models – so only original parts used here. I’ve got plenty of BT terminator bits and BT bling I can glue to models, but that can go on a subsequent squad. In keeping with the whole “old school” thing, I originally planned to keep the paint scheme pretty much only to black and white. No red outside of eye lenses and such. In the end I decided to do a bit more to the models. This was based on wanting to do something small with the Sergeant’s shield along with recognition of the fact that Black Templar Terminators are “Sword Brethren”, and as with other chapters’ terminators, they’re veteran elites with a penchant for personal heraldry, and such individuality is even more of a thing in Templars forces.

Black Templars Terminators, Oldhammer, Rogue Trader, RTB09

Because of this, I decided to allow myself to use a limited amount of red in each marine’s chapter iconography, and also that each marine’s shoulder pad would be different. I used a mix of freehand and decals, some of which turned out to be messed up, necessitating extra time to fix them -which I could have done without.

Black Templars Terminators, Oldhammer, Rogue Trader, RTB09

I chose a metallic for the Crux Terminatus on these, rather than the usual bone I’ve used in the past in single Terminators. Both to differentiate the Templars further from my other models, and to give them more of their own distinct look with a kind of polished iron. Again, the Sergeant was allowed a little more colour, with a touch of brass/gold and some gemstone paints for ruby inlay to his sword and sergeant’s icon.

So here we are. Seven editions and almost 30 years on and I’ve finally completed my first Terminator Squad. Let’s hope I can improve on that workrate or I’ll be dead before I get my next squad done. At least these guys are still 100% legal in 8th!