There is something comforting about nostalgia. I was trying to explain to my son the other day that the music he is listening to now will be with him for the rest of his life. Yes, as grown ups we do discover new music, but the albums and singles we listen to between the ages of 11 and 20 will, for most of us, define us as people. With few exceptions any songs I loved at that age, I still will happily sing along to while I type away at my day job (using headphones of course, I don't need anyone else to be subjected.)
In fact as I type this, I am listening to a track which was the first CD single I ever bought. (I'm too young to be a vinyl purchaser in my youth, although older siblings did own some.) I already had an extensive collection of tapes, mostly copied from siblings or the library. Or, that excellent nostalgic method, recording the top 40 on a Sunday night. This CD was my first pocket money music purchase that I chose purely myself and not influenced by anyone else's suggestions. Go listen to it here and then come back, I'll wait.
Welcome back. It's certainly different, right? I won't apologise, I loved it and stand by that. What I am trying to say, through the medium of terrible stop motion animated rock music, is sometimes something has an enormous appeal to us because it reminds us of the time that we started to develop our own tastes and opinions and start to become individuals rather than a combination of the influence of our parents and older siblings. This is why a lot of gamers my age have a real love for the models and style of painting from way back when Warhammer 40K was in it's second edition. You already know I do dear reader. It certainly wasn't a superior time in wargaming though, the rules were clunky and the models, although fantastic and full of appeal to us now, could be a little chunky and mono-pose. It could be argued that the skills of sculpting and painting amongst the hobby in general have improved since then and there are certainly better rulesets being written today. (There are arguments too that some current new models are dropping slightly in quality due to shortcuts being taken in digital design, but we are not here to debate this too much.)
This waffling pre-amble leads to me not having to explain why I was immediately drawn to purchasing the following models from Ontos Games, the Roknauts. These models have a definite nostalgic feel to them, looking not too dissimilar to the Homo sapien rotundus, or Squats from early Warhammer 40K. The squats were dropped entirely from 3rd edition and almost entirely written out of the lore by GW much to the annoyance of a lot of us Grognards. (They have more recently started to make a comeback, although in a completely unrecognisable style.)
Although nostalgic in style, these models from Ontos have certainly benefitted from a more modern day design and production. They are vacuum-cast resin and of extremely high quality. They took paint with no pre-washing and there are barely any mould lines or flash on them. (A little flash between the boots needed removal on just one of them.)
I don't normally "review" a model range, but these were so impressive that it would be rude not to express my opinion on their quality. I don't know for definite but I suspect the sculpting was done digitally and then 3D printed for prototype before casting as just one model had the slightest visible layer lines on the shoulder pads. These were super faint and certainly nothing to complain about as they disappeared after the primer was applied. (I only mention it as evidence of my hypothesis.)
As expected then, I gave them a proper old school look including Goblin Green bases. The armour has proper orange edge highlighting (although it barely shows in the photos). I had a great time painting these and I have already ordered the alternative squad of five to add to my collection. I'm off now to scour the internet for a suitable tank to match their style.
