Wednesday 16 November 2016

Hammertime!

Hi all

firstly, my apologies for you now having the MC Hammer song in your head for the rest of the day....

Recently I was very fortunate to win one of Bryan "Vampifan" Scott's fabulous prize giveaways.  If you can't remember what the prize was, the link is here.  Among all that 2000AD goodness was this awesome dude.

Image result for hammerstein abc warriors

Sergeant Hammerstein of the ABC Warriors, I lifted this straight off of Wikipedia to save myself writing a ton of stuff....

Image result for hammerstein abc warriorsHammerstein is described as a Mark III war droid and was commissioned in the early 21st Century to fight in the Volgan Wars. Hammerstein's right hand is a hammer that is used in hand-to-hand combat while on the back of his left he has a missile launcher. There are tank tracks on his feet to aid mobility. Hammerstein also has two sockets in his waist to attach auxiliary arms but he finds these embarrassing. During combat operations his head has a grim human like face but after he was decommissioned this was replaced with 'civilian' head that features a single square 'eye'.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammerstein_(comics)

The ABC Warriors are/were in my top ten best thing about 2000ADs universe.  I loved the characters especially the sarge and his human consort Terri - who believed she was a robot! They were also involved in the plot lines of one of my favourite comic characters of all time - Nemesis the Warlock. Fab times!

So imagine my delight then when this 55mm monster blasted his way into da Grotto and demanded to be painted first!


Sgt Hammerstein unbased at the back, you can see the size of him compared to the 28mm figs.
First of all though he needed to be based, originally he comes as a single piece with a integral metal base, but considering the size of him this was woefully inadequate and he couldn't stand up unaided.  So rooting around in my bits box revealed a lovely 60mm round mdf base that I'd bought for my Bolt Action medium machine gun crews.  As it is a really big base I didn't want it to be too plain, so I found some scraps of foamcard that I had used in previous projects and with the judicious application of sand and cat litter produced this...



Knowing that the primer spray I use would melt some of the foam, i covered parts of it in PVA leaving some areas exposed to produce a ruined masonary look that is fairly generic looking.  I then covered the grey primered base in a home made black ink and drybrushed it with Vallejo "Medium Sea Gray" and then again with a drop of white added to the gray.  I then painted Sgt. Hammerstein in a mix of GW's "Runefang Steel" and "Mournfang Brown with a drop of GW "Averland Sunset" to create the golden brown colour.  Then picking out the joints and feet/tracks in black and drybrushing with runefang steel.

base colours and drybrushed joint/feet
after that I used Army Painter's "Strong Tone" and washed the whole model in a really heavy coat. Once that was dry I highlighted with the base mix and then gradually lightened it up with successive tones by adding more "runefang steel".  I picked out the ABC markings in pure white and finsihed the base off with some yellow sector markings and one of Bryan's wanted posters that he'd sent me months ago as another gift!

no gold paint was used in the painting of this model

he's massive!

does my butt look big in this?

are you sure?





As for use for the Sarge, I've got loads fizzing about in my head! from generic robot for almost every futuristic setting to the boss level beastie in a Judge Dredd RPG encounter to finding more of his ABC buddies and running them as a skirmish faction for the JD miniatures game!

What ever I use him for you know that he's gonna be a big hit.......groan, I'll get my coat....

hope you enjoy
dGG


29 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Thanks Fran, I'm really pleased with the way he came out

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  2. That takes me back. I remember reading Starlord when I were a nipper. Great job.

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    1. Yes Phil, Starlord was the first comic he starred in (and Johnny Alpha) I was only 5 when it came out though.... I remember him more for his 2000AD appearances.

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  3. Replies
    1. He is Steve, very nice and a mighty warbot he is too!

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  4. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! He has come out well, hasn't he? I can see that painting (and basing) him must have been a labour of love for you. I have three different Hammerstein figures and they are all painted differently. This one is by far, my favourite. Outstanding work, Andy. There is no reason not to use him with your Judge Dredd figures. Stats for the ABC Warriors can be found at the back of the JDMG "Blood on the Streets" supplement. Plus, do you remember that a Hammerstein robot made a brief but memorable appearance in the Sylvester Stallone "Dredd" film?

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    1. Yes Bryan, he was my favourite part of 'that' film lol, not the best film but Armand Assante was excellent in it and he called Hammerstein 'Fido' if I recall it correctly?

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  5. Nicely done indeed! I'm mildly puzzled, though: you mentioned using a "Wanted" poster on the base, but I cannot see any sign (groan!) of it.

    A thumping good model, poster or not (double groan!)

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    1. It's puntastic around here Hugh, but I won't hammer it home.....

      Sorry I took really poor pictures with my iPad and it was dark so it hasn't come out well. On the inside wall on the base is a wanted poster, Bryan sent me a sheet of them a while back along with some newspapers etc

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  6. He came out looking sharp!

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  7. The paint and basing jobs look really well

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  8. one of the few characters from 2000Ad I remember!Great brushwork dGG!

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  9. hat is a smashing figure I have it myself around here somewhere. and one day I'll paint it up (perhaps). Yours has turned out great by the way.

    Cheers Roger.

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    Replies
    1. He is a cracking mini Roger, well not a very mini, mini.....

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  10. Now that's an impressive hunk of metal. Nice paint-job, Andy, and the handy guide to how you did it will be used by me, as I have a particular model that I just know would look ideal this colour.

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    1. Thanks Jez, he's a big beast! I'm really pleased with how the colour came out as I kind of made it up as I went along but thought it fairly close to the idea of Hammerstein

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  11. Lovely job dude and congrats on the win!

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