Saturday, August 31, 2013

Blue Drifts into Sci-Fi....eBay strikes again

Yikes! Nearly a month since my last post! I could bore you with a bunch of excuses as to why...but lets just say RL has been cramping my hobby time in a big way.

So since I've gotten very little done in the way of painting...Lets look at the ever expanding lead pile instead!!

As some of you who haunt similar forums as me know I've been selling off a lot of extra figures from my collection...this leads to money in the PayPal ...which leads to obsessive eBay trawling.... which leads to more small boxes and padded envelops randomly appearing in the mailbox...  which leads to exasperated looks from the wife...:)

One of my latest "successes" on eBay was the acquisition of some excellent Sci-fi models...both from the Rogue Trader Era Citadel range and from slightly further afield.  A gentleman from the States was selling a number of Chaos Renegades individually along with a Chaos Dreadnought.  I put some low ball snipes in on the whole lot of them and promptly left for a short holiday with my family.  Half way through my trip a received a flurry of emails from my eBay account letting me know that not only had I won a few of them...but I had won them all!  They weren't a tremendous bargain but at just north of $5 ($15 for the Dreadnought) each I was pretty happy.

The Dreadnought has been avoiding me for months!
A nice mix of Renegades here.

One duplicate...and the guy in the right is from 1993...but close enough for me!
These twisted disciples of evil will join the other 8 or 9 Renegades in my collection allowing me to field almost two complete squads...a squad of Chaos Terminators...and a dread...Nice!

As you may have noticed the two Plague Marines have different...non-RT backpacks...which I have to say I really like!  Can anyone tell me from what edition they are from?



I had also noticed that this same seller had a fairly large lot of non-Citadel Sci-fi figures and when I went to see what they had sold for I found that no one had bid on them...so I dropped him a message and offered to include some money for those in my payment as well...he agreed and added this lot to my box for only $10!

Thats a lot of metal for $10!
 These are all figures from Alternative Armies Ion Age Series of 28mm figures.  I first became aware of this through the amazing work of Pil....a regular contributor on LAF who painted up a bunch for a client.  I was pretty impressed with the figures then (and Pil's amazing brush work) and felt that they had a very RT feel to them so the chance to get my hands on a fairly large batch at a bargain price was a no brainier.

This lot includes a number of Retained Knights...which I will use as alternative Space Marines.  I think they are at least as cool as many of the old Citadel sculpts.

Perhaps its my fondness for Sallet helmets that makes me like them?

The rest are a batch of more lightly armed infantry...and to be honest I will have to do some thinking about what to play them as in RT...but the sculpts are still quite good IMO.

To Give you an idea what these guys can look like painted...here are a couple of Pil's Pictures (which I hope he doesn't mind if I use)

Of Course Pil's excellent scenery helps make them really look great!
This last shot is of more lightly armored human figures not included in my lot called "muster troops" which I think could equate to Imperial Guard...I see myself hunting them down soon...


Back in the foggy distance of time I had several squads worth of Citadel Space Marines...but stupidly sold them off a couple of years ago when I was focusing my attention on my dwarf collection...but with the discovery of these figures from Alternative Armies I don't see myself trying to rebuild that collection...These seem to be a fun alternative and one that is still in production and can occasionally be found for a pittance on eBay....unlike the classic Space Marines.

Thats all for now...if my painting mojo continues to elude me I'll let you in on a few more of my recent impulse buys.

Cheers for now!

Blue
Posted by Blue in VT at 12:04 AM
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8 comments:

  1. GarethAugust 31, 2013 at 5:03 AM

    An excellent haul old fellow! After all the excellent fantasy stuff you've been showcasing here (with the exception of the LPL entries) I'd be very interested to see your take on the RT setting. Regarding those Olley not-marines; blogger Headnhalf did some truly stunning work on a squad of them a few months back. Have a gander HERE. Happy painting!

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    1. Blue in VTAugust 31, 2013 at 8:51 AM

      thanks for the heads up Gareth...those are wonderful examples...now I'm even happier I picked these up!

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  2. stonecoldleadAugust 31, 2013 at 5:47 AM

    Great little haul of lead there. I remember first seeing some of those Chaos Renegades in a GW flyer I got back around '88/'89 and they've stuck in my head ever since (just like the Copplestone Chaos Warriors that were shown on the reverse of the flyer). Strangely enough though I haven't picked any up off Ebay in all my years of collecting!

    The AA models are great too. There are a few duds among them admittedly but over all they're really nice models. Love the design of the Retained Knights. I recall seeing them reviewed in Games Master International back in the early 90's. I grabbed quite a few off Ebay a year or so back and then discovered that AA still had them in production, although thankfully I still got a bargain. Very big models so some serious weight to them. Not a great fit on the usual 25mm bases though what with the wide legged stance of many and the always irritating integral bases. I intended to trim the bases off mine and replace some of the rather impotent swords with more impressive blades but I fell foul of not being able to decide what colour scheme to go with so they've sat in the lead pile since.

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    1. Blue in VTAugust 31, 2013 at 8:55 AM

      yeah the int bases are something I'll have to figure out how to deal with...maybe a 30mm round? removing them seems very labor intensive....but maybe with my new dremel it wouldnt be too terrible.

      as to collecting Chaos Renegades...you have to be patient...getting these for $5 each was a real coup...they often sell for north of $10 each.

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    2. stonecoldleadAugust 31, 2013 at 10:37 AM

      I was planning on removing the int. bases and using 30mm bases. Keeping the int. bases intact might mean having to go a little larger though for some of the more 'heroically' posed models.

      As for the Renegades, I did notice that UK prices weren't too bad last time I was browsing. Around £5 each with heavy weapon troopers being closer to £10. I've not checked recently as I'm trying to avoid Ebay for a bit after another long run of buying stuff (Amazon got me as well!).

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  3. Chico DanksAugust 31, 2013 at 6:16 AM

    Nice start to a renegade force Blue, those Backpacks are current plastic Chaos Marine ones.

    Also you got a LE102 Chaos Marine (Far right)http://www.solegends.com/citle1990/later/le102traitor/index.htm
    Is his backpack metal? If so you got a real bargin.

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  4. Blue in VTAugust 31, 2013 at 8:59 AM

    thanks for that info Chico...call me a heritic but I might like the new ons better!

    For 3-eyes...I think my backpack is plastic...but I have a metal version I can add to him. he is my favorite sculpt of this batch...except the Dred which is super cool.

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  5. Mr SaturdaySeptember 2, 2013 at 4:32 AM

    Nice! I've been wandering into RT myself over the last while, flittering between chaos renegades and genestealer coven minis. I've amassed a good few renegades, but that bleedin' dreadnought still eludes me.

    I have a dose of the AA guys too, I do like them, I must say.

    I'm looking forward to seeing what you do with the renegades!

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