'Nostalgia' from MartinC - Citadel Orc Hero

The bonus rounds this year have been difficult, which is good as I do like a challenge. Nostalgia was very difficult for me and I found it tricky to think what to do.

A root around my foothills of my lead mountain found the oldest unpainted figure I had.

He is an Orc hero from Citadel (I think) pre slotta anyway. I bought him in about 1985 and has been pretty much unloved ever since. He does remind me of the original Warhammer rules  that I played throughout the 1980s.

I painted him in too dark a shade of green and not overly convinced it worked. Eyes were also tricky. As usual the photography fails on the subtle details but overall he is OK, if not my best work.

'Nostalgia' from AaronH - Goblin Spider Chariot

I wasn't sure what to paint for this bonus round, and honestly had decided to give it a pass. Over the last week I've been reading through people's end of year/beginning of year posts (I love 'em). As I was preparing my own, something came to fruition in my tiny little brain. The death of Warhammer this year had made me (and many others) sad. It got me thinking to when I first started formal wargaming, with GW and Warhammer 6th Edition.

I look back on that edition of Warhammer as some of my happiest gaming. I was just starting to play, I hadn't learned to hate GW. Warhammer was fun and awesome. I played game after game and loved them all.

The front of this chariot is amazing.

There were some great sculpts back in the past of Warhammer. Characterful, eccentric and fun. I found this goblin chariot on E-Bay last year. It didn't have its wolves, but I have a LOT of spider riders.

I call the orange and blue spider Steve. He's painted after a mandarin Gobi I used to have.

I painted this up old school, though I couldn't bring myself to just pain the base green and leave it at that. The red whip and bow are a direct homage to the old orcs and goblins.

The Death's Head spider took forever because of the white.

The goblins were simple but great to paint. They just have so much character in their faces; malice and glee at hurtling at the enemy behind a couple of giant spiders.

I deliberately glued the wheels on wonky. They're gobbos after all.

I wanted to present this chariot as a rather desperate affair in construction, but blinged out for all the gobbos are worth, because they're awesome for getting to ride to battle and not walk.

One of those old school gobbos. This guy and his friends haven't been on a tabletop in well over a decade.

This model takes me back to when Warhammer was alive and vibrant and fun. A time when I could afford the models and everything was new and shiny.

'Nostalgia' from AlanD - Forgotten Heroes of The Advancing Game

I played my first wargame in the late 1970s, probably when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Every couple of weeks, after some badgering from my brother and me, my dad would move the furniture in the dining room over to the side, get out the 1/32 (54mm) Airfix Napoleonic figures, and we would play The Advancing Game. 

 The imaginatively named Advancing Game involved setting up our boxes of Napoleonic Infantry on one side of the dining room. My box was French Line Infantry, my brother had British, and my dad used the Scots. The goal of the game was to advance as many as possible of our figures across the carpet to the other side of the room, moving our armies a hand span at a time. In between each turn, one of us would be at the other end of the room with our treasured Britains 5.5 inch spring loaded howitzer, firing a certain number of nails to mow down as many of the stoically advancing figures as possible. 

During the next couple of years playing The Advancing Game the three of us competed to devise projectiles to cause as much mayhem as possible, even making chainshot from a couple of nails linked by paper clips. Inaccurate and short range, but it could be devastating as the plastic enemies approached their goal of overrunning the gun.

We grew up, the spring in the gun broke, but playing The Advancing Game remains one of my treasured childhood memories. For the Nostalgia round I went looking for the Airfix figures we used. I couldn't find my French, but I located in a drawer the British and Scots, along with some of the missiles my father made that we once used on the dining room carpet, one of which is featured here.

At last, the heroes of The Advancing Game receive this memorial, in honour of their years of service marching into the jaws of death a hand span at a time.

'Nostalgia' from AlexS - Oldhammer Orks

 

For me, playing with miniatures began, like many, I think, with Warhammer, or rather, a game of Computer (Warhammer: Shadow of the Horned Rat).

It was then, for more than ten years ago I started collecting, painting miniatures and play them. And all these years in my closet were orcs old wording, which I was in no mood or the ability to paint. 

 

Now, when Warhammer is already gone, I could leave them lying there, but now I have a good excuse to paint them and remember the days when everything was different: the trees were big, the girls were beautiful, and the prices were small.

'Nostalgia' from BillA - Republic Robots

I was exposed to a lot of vintage horror and science fiction media as a kid.  I grew up renting the Universal Monster movies and getting out books from the library about the history of science fiction - books that were themselves written in the 1970s, and were thus "old" by the time I was reading them in the early 90s as a precocious eight year old.  At the time, I had no concept that H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, the Outer Limits (especially the episode "The Demon with the Glass Hand" - for some reason that was the episode cited in every book that referenced the Outer Limits), etc., were "old" and not new, current things.  One of the many things I was thus exposed to as a kid were the old Republic Serials.  These were precursors to modern TV shows, in that they were broken down into short episodes that would be shown for a week at a time at movie theaters, each one beginning with a recap of the last week's episode, and usually ending on a cliff-hanger with the hero about to (apparently) die a horrible death to ensure a return audience next week.

Republic's sci-fi serials often featured, in at least one episode, some sort of big, clunky tin-can robot, which has become known as the "Republic Robot." They first appeared as Atlantean "Volkites" in 1936's THE UNDERSEA KINGDOM, and later turned up robbing banks for THE MYSTERIOUS DR. SATAN and in 1952, one of them was still kicking around long enough to serve as an axe-wielding (!) "iron executioner" for the ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE.  The Republic Robot would later be lovingly parodied on Star Trek: Voyager as "Satan's Robot" in the "Captain Proton" holodeck adventures of Tom Paris.

While surfing through the Brigade Games website, I spotted these little tin-cans labeled as "Robot Mk II"s in one of their pulp lines.  They're a clear homage to the simpler, water-heater-with-dryer-hose-arms robots of yesteryear, and I picked up a two-pack (they also offer five- and ten-packs for aspiring megalomaniacs) for my Nostalgia entry - not just because they hearken to an earlier era of science ficgtion, but because they remind me of the science fiction of my childhood.

The bases are a secondary homage; ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE is a sequel to RADAR MEN OF THE MOON, so I decided to paint the bases as lunar terrain.

'Nostalgia' from KeithS - Classic Orcs & Goblins

The Holidays are finally slowing down enough to allow me some painting time!  First up for me (for my first painting challenge, no less) is a group of 28mm Orcs and Goblins that have been sitting in a box since the late 80s or early 90s.  They are all, I believe, by Grenadier though I don't have the slightest recollection of when, or why, I bought them.  Anyhow, they scream old school D&D to me, hence the nostalgia!  They might be from a bit later -- they are too big to be 25mm and scale well with other 28mm figs.

The first group is of four Orcs, all fairly well armed and armored.  They always reminded me of old Tim Kirk illustrations for Lord of the Rings, which is perhaps not a coincidence.

They were quite straightforward to paint, which is good as I am in the process of ramping up my skills!  From the back:

I like this style a lot more than the more "modern" Orc look from Warhammer, Lord of the Rings, etc.  I based the color scheme more or less on the description of Orcs from the AD&D Monster Manual (ditto for the Goblins), so more brownish-green skin than just green.  In hindsight, I'd have browned them up even more.

There were also seven Goblins in the pile I dug out of the depths.  These guys were insanely well equipped -- most of them had at least 3 weapons, multiple bags, lots of straps, etc.  Not hard to paint, but a little time consuming.  Still, I like the variety of poses and weapons, especially the military fork.

Some of the lads.  I tried to keep the prominent teeth from being too stand-outish!

I like these guys a bit less than the Orcs, as their faces are too snoutish for my tastes.  Still, fun enough to paint.

I have some more "ash and trash" leftover lead from the 80s to paint, but I did not have enough time for "Nostalgia Week" to get anything further done (I did finish three matching mounted Goblins but did not get to their Warg mounts, so I'll save them for a later week).  After that decades-overdue cleanout is finished, I plan on shifting to 28mm Vikings and Saxons for use in Saga.  Happily, they are all assembled and primed and ready for painting.

'Nostalgia' from BurkhardS - Battletech Battlemaster Mech

The nostalgia round gave me something to contemplate. After all I am mainly painting historical minis these days, so in a way, it is always a bit nostalgic. But in the end i decided that it would be nice to go back to the minis I started tabletop gaming with over a quarter of a century ago (I had painted scale models before, but that would have been too nostalgic for my taste and I did not have the time for something like that). So it had to be a Mech from Battletech. I quit playing and sold my collection (well over 500 Mechs plus tanks, infantry and so on) between 2000 and 2001, so I had nothing left to work with.

The first Battletech model I ever painted was a Locust, but looking on eBay, those were either incomplete or selling for hilarious prices. So I asked my friends, but the best someone had was an incomplete one as well. But the same person also had a Battlemaster, which was the second model I ever painted for Battletech.

Back then I painted everything in the colors of my own private mercenary outfit, but I felt that I should do something different for that friend who kindly borrowed me this model. Since he had no clear preferences, I went for my favorite House, House Kurita. Namely the 9th Ghost Regiment.

They paint their Mechs in a light grey / off white with darker accents. The left half of the Mech is decorated with a Cherry or Plum Tree in full bloom. I chose a cherry for this one. I had done something similar for another SciFi model in 2014 and liked the looks. Only let down for me was... that other model was mainly black and the tree would really pop. With the off-white it is not as visually impressive.

The Kurita markings on the left shoulder and the Japanese symbol for "4", denoting this one to be the 4th Mech in its Lance are freehand.

'Nostalgia' from ByronM - Eldar Farseer

 With week 1 being Nostalgia, I was really wondering what to paint. I went back and forth on a few things that have old memories for me, but then while searching through my bits buckets I stumbled upon an old Warhammer 40k Eldar Farseer miniature. The Eldar were my first 40k army, and the first version of them that I painted was some of the earliest figures that I painted for wargaming, the only thing before that was Legions of Steel.

Sure I had painted other things when I was younger, like plastic model kits, figures for D&D, a few game pieces, etc, but nothing really for wargaming. Since Legions of Steel is long out of production, and I don’t have any of those figures laying around, I thought the Eldar would fit perfectly for this weeks them. 

The first Eldar army I did (I painted several over the last almost 20 years) was the Ulthwe colour scheme which is a simple black and bone scheme to show that they come from a world with very few living souls left. Black is always hard to pull off and have any depth showing so I actually painted the whole model a neutral grey and then layered in black ink in glaze coats. I still had to go back and add some hard edge highlights on the staff as the glaze method would not work on the really hard corners, but I think it worked out ok on the rest of the model.

I then moved onto painting all the gems, using my old 7 colour method for red gems. It really hasn’t changed much in all my years of painting, but it still works and looks ok.

Lastly, I painted up a wraithstone base I had laying around for him to stand on, clear coated both and then glued him on.
 

'Nostalgia' from StephenS - An Army For My Dad

At first I rummaged through my lead pile looking for an old mini that has been lying around for years unpainted, but nothing really grabbed me. Suddenly, I saw this box on the shelf of my local gaming website, and knew it was meant to be.

Dad's Army - A BBC staple and a show that I used to love watching with my dad as a kid, mostly because it was one of the few shows he would sit down and watch back then. Not the original screening from 1968-1977, as that was a little bit before my time. No, I mean one of the many re-runs that followed afterwards, in my case, the late 80's.

The minis arrived in less than stellar condition, poor Private Frank will have to watch himself with his Tommy gun since the barrel was twisted off. They were however, a delight to paint, and I felt the sculpts captured the... character of the characters =) Hopefully my painting isn't too far off. I wasn't able to get the civilian versions finished, as the cobblestone bases I ordered didn't arrive in time.

I can't wait to get them on the table. I imagine that after an appropriately hilarious misadventure, they might find themselves confusedly wandering around France, with the warden along to make sure they are putting out the lights!

All up that's eight 28 mm figures from Warlords Games, that brought back some fond memories!

Cheers,
Steve

'Nostalgia' from ClintB - Jodie the Belt-Fed Girl

For the nostalgia round I would like to present Jodie the "Belt fed girl" . It is the first figure in the Belt Fed range by Colonel Bill (AKA Stuart) here in the UK.

The figure is a standard 28mm figure but the sculpt is so reminiscent of the nose art particularly on American WW2 bombers flying from Britain to bomb Europe during WW2.

The figures in WW2 did tend to be "Saucy" rather than rude so more suggestive then crude. And this figure really looks like one of the things that would have been painted on the "Nose" of a Bomber. They did also appear on fighters but were more common on bombers.  With luck you will accept this model as nostalgia not because it is my personal nostalgia but that of the airmen who served our nations. Quite often they would be parted by armature artists in the squadron.
Modern Nose art seems to be more politically correct Things like wasps, Lightning bolts or thunder clouds or even shark's mouths and just slogans. These forms of art did exist in the past as nose art Icons but generally one thinks of the pin up girls. The era of female inspired nose art seems to have passed, yet they did look spectacular.

'Nostalgia' from EdwinK - Doctor Who Cybermen

Thoughts of Jenna Coleman to one side, there’s only one reason why a man of my age should be a Doctor Who fan – pure nostalgia. That being so, I thought it appropriate to submit these for this bonus round. 

Although they barely appeared during the tenure of ‘my Doctors’ (Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker), Cybermen are one of the more iconic of the Doctor’s foes. I’m not going to go into the multitude of design variations here – we don’t have space or time! So here is a squad of six 28mm Cybermen from Black Tree Designs: in two different poses and a Cyberleader. 

I’m afraid they’re a bit of a rush job (bonus round!), and I’m not too happy with the bases – they ended up as a mixture of moonbase and Home Countries sand quarry, but fans will appreciate that. There was a seventh, but his base was even worse than the others he’ll appear in a future submission.

'Nostalgia' from EvanH - Plan G

Greetings, Challengers, friends and followers!

OK, so I'm a fortnight late getting anything on the board, and about 12 figs short of my original idea for my Nostalgia-themed entry. But I can plead extenuating circumstances.

I should have paid more attention to Year 11 Chemistry back in high school, because then I might have remembered that metal oxidises over time. And if that metal happens to be lead or an alloy of that metal, it does so with catastrophic results for the painter seeking to relive the glory days of his youth, when he went out and bought two boxes of Citadel's officially-licensed RuneQuest figures, and then left them untouched in the garage for 30-odd years before deciding that they'd make a good entry for the Nostalgia round.

Well, folks, I'm here to tell, you; old lead needs to be cleaned really thoroughly before undercoating. Because when you apply colour over what looks like a perfectly safe layer of primer, there is nothing more disheartening than to see that paint bleed away from various spots on what was to have been your triumph of nerdstalgia. Repeated applications of paint met the same fate, colour fleeing the area like picnickers who'd just had a wasps' nest fall into their midst. I consulted noted figlimner and blogmeister Michael Mills, who told me what the problem was. But by then, it was too late...

So here's my Plan B, or perhaps my Plan G - G for Groucho. Copplestone Castings' excellent Captain Spaulding, as seen in 1930's Animal Crackers.

"One night, I shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas,  I'll never know."

Nostalgic as all get out for me, since I was a fan of the Marx Bros' anarchic and surrealistic brand of comedy from a very early age. Here we see the good Captain looking for the Amazon. And he won't stop until he finds one! *waggles eyebrows  suggestively*

So there it is, my first ever submission in my first ever Challenge. Hopefully not the last! Stay tuned...

'Nostalgia' from FranL - Sometimes I wish for the old days...

When I was a lot younger and first started wargaming or playing with soldiers, I used boxes of plastic figures (unpainted) but being very naive I would pitch forces against each other that were simply different colors but not necessarily enemies (Prussian Landwehr vs Scottish Highlanders, Viking vs Romans etc....?).

My mum would go to town to shop and play a bit of bingo most Saturdays, now my Mum hated my hobby and would throw out and any figures she found but this just made me more determined, so I would hide the figures under a loose floorboard in my bedroom and with the aid of an old subbuteo cloth pitch (turned upside down) and maybe a book under the cloth to show hills (terrible for figure stability) and sometimes a river was needed, so some blue paper and we have water!

I would have the best of times and pack away everything before Mum got home, these were the days of easy games and knowing nothing anything  better, now we worry about historical accuracy, paint guides, the best sculpts, scenery, rules etc...... (I used to just throw small bits of lego at the figures and if the figure fell over it was dead!).

Now I love wargaming and actually playing games with rules, but I look back at those days with a twinge of nostalgia and sigh.......

I put this bit of tat a display together with some 15mm (ish) plastic figures, some green stuff to represent the subbuteo cloth, the figures were given an undercoat, a basecoat with a touch of drybrushing, it does look a little shocking but then so was the gaming at the time...........