Bob Olley's wrinkly warband

Bob Olley has the most identifiable style of sculpting. I didn't appreciate that quite so much when I was painting models as a teen in the 80's, but I recall finding them fun to paint. I remember thinking that the faces were kind of goofy with the poorly aligned teeth and wrinkly skin, but that they also made painting easier because there is so much depth in his sculpts. Those wrinkles across the model are perfect for applying deep shadows and pronounced highlights. Even with enamel paints.

A lifetime later and I further appreciate his models even more. A #paintabob challenge on the Oldhammer Facebook page inspired me to rummage around for my handful of unpainted Olley miniatures that I had lying around. It just so happenned that they had been primed and lined up for completion this year (having just returned to this post I notice that I had 6 Olley's but I only managed to find 5 for this task, never mind). His sculpting style really is unique and still really fun to paint; those flared nostrils, wide, open-rimmed boots, quirky details such as a fluttering flap on a satchel or an intricate head-dress and frowning foreheads to name but a few, remind me of why I love the old Citadel classics so much. The sculpting style of the sculptor provides character in the model. And this makes painting them such fun; in my approach I cannot take anything for granted, I have to look closely at the model to identify what is what before I start painting and I certainly don't have to worry about large areas of flat colour! In fact those wrinkles are perfect for my diluted wash/washing up liquid/layering technique over white primer; it's quick and easy to achieve great depth and contrast in with these washes and layered highlights because that depth is already there in physical form.

So here are the 5 Olley Rogue Trader models that I painted up for this months challenge:

First up was the Ogryn, painted first for the only reason that I wanted to start large, as it's been a while since I've had such a chunk of lead in my hand and also because it's size gave me ample opportunity to get stuck into painting his surface textures:

I used a multitude of washes here to start defining all the textures. I then built up my lighter layers of highlights over the top of this. The biggest decisions were what colour to paint the goggles (I went multi-coloured, green and purple ski-mask) and then an attempt at grey camo on his trousers.

Next up was a Squat, mostly because I just liked the contrast in size with the Ogryn. So many great little details on this fella; including the extravagant headset, buttons on his weapons and of course the protruding tongue. He needed a purple beard.

Following on from him was a more exotic creature, the face is pure Olley which of course poses it's own challenges. Is that hair or a partly revealed brain? How do I tackle that elongated mouth/tooth combo? I deliberately left them both ambiguous and instead turned my attention to a striking orange jumpsuit with a pale blue stripe. He deserves it.

I then moved onto Lorrita, who seems to be something of a cult sculpt of Olleys. Check out those flared boots, iron clawed gloves and cyborg-esque face mask. She was given a limited palette treatment to partly contrast with the vibrant colours of her peers but also because she seemed to me to be quite a darker sculpt. 

Looking at this large photo, I may have missed a bit of her facemask that follows the contour of her jawline. 

And finally I finished this one last night. I decided to go subdued again with the palette, staying with colours that blended in with the bland, desert basing, that kind of desert camo effect. Of course the visor/shades required a touch of colour:

So that was a fun month of painting. It's always easier to stay on task and motivated when there is a specific focus and deadline and I thoroughly enjoyed my month of painting Bob Olley's iconic miniatures. 

Next month: Orctober and I'm considering aiming to batch paint my unit of Ruglud's Armoured Orcs...