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Cult Of Games XLBS: Why Has Oldhammer Become So Popular?
November 9, 2025 by brennon
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Happy Sunday peeps, Backstagers, CoGs and OTTers!
Oldhammer… a return to the non-sterile time of hand sculpted goodness for a generally well known system. Perhaps its also the cartoon nature of the style that gives fantasy its fantastic appeal. It also allows for the painting to be not absolutely perfect and for a kitbasher to play with the heft of glorious metal.
I think that’s right on the money – helps at a lot of levels within the hobby
I think I last played Rapud Fire in about 1995
Hah wow – was it worth a go?
Too skimishy for me but I think the next edition completely revamped the rules but I never played it
Nostalgia plays a part but, I think the character and each model having something different and interesting is the big appeal of oldhammer. The style is readable from distance, it leaves you in no doubt about what the miniature represents. The painting style is also much more vibrant and exciting.
The thing I have to contend with is that I make models because I love the old style, but i also use digital. I’m sure old world guys won’t buy my minis and take a dim view on 3d printing. Its a bit silly because if I got my minis cast in metal im sure they would sell better even though its literally the same model. The detail isn’t the problem as 3d prints now can get much sharper detail and handle finer parts than metal. Its just a bit of a stigma of sculpting in 3d being some kind of cheating.
Also we just have to accept that metal models are becoming increasingly expensive to produce. Spincasting with rubber moulds is a dieing art form. I love metals but we will have to pay increasingly high prices as the years roll by.
True – I suppose it’s a bit of a balancing act at the moment. I think there’s certainly a mix to be settled on with the 3D printed oldhammer-style figures
I think people also fail to understand *why* the industry needs/needed to move away from hand sculpted design : consistency and durability of the mold making process.
There is only so much you can do to keep an ‘old’ mold available for production once it starts to degrade.
With a purely digital design as your source material you simply reprint the original mould again and have the exact same models.
Hadn’t thought of the mould itself good point well made. Today with 3 printing the mould shouldn’t be as much an issue but certainly back in the day and convenience is king especially in mass production. It’s the amount of bits I struggle with these days, I’m getting old, I might as well buy airfix. The detail and options is great, I really do appreciate war games Atlantic say, it just feels a little fiddly…are bits going to drop off and such….(old man grumbles into heard thinks of hexagon paint pots)
You just create a new mould from the master. You didn’t get many spins out of mould before it started to degeade
That makes sense. I visited trophy miniatures as a kid, company that made display miniatures. One trick they had was imperial troops painted to fit the war, but the miniature, with repeated pose, of course came out of the same mould. Len Taylor, what a lovely bloke, I must have been 8/9. They had this room packed with the old circular moulds and I’m sure constant filling with white not metal can’t be great for a moulds lifespan. They must have reproduced the mould itself as you suggest. Brigade models and GZG must do similar. GW could simply scan an old sculpt then reproduce via injection moulding or 3D print, heck, GW could probably find a way to create single use 3D files for home printing but I think a physical classic line suits GW better.
We tend to use Jed’s modified version of Rapid Fire at the club for 28mm WWII games. Jed has modified the ranges and got it down to 2 pages of A4. Jed also ran a We Were Soldiers Vietnam game using Rapid Fire which was excellent. Callum posted a video of our 2 day Market Garden game on his You Tube channel The Lead Pile.
It works at any scale. I am tempted to do North Africa at 12mm.
Ken Hanning’s You Tube channel Big Wargames is almost entirely dedicated to 20mm Rapid Fire
Ah brilliant – I will have to have a look at the channel!
My opinion for what it’s worth is oldhammer had a more innocent feel, the pop colours and less grim sculpts feel like toy soldiers not some overcomplicated presentation model that comes in 2000 tiny bits and ends up standing on a rock. I will admit to loving armoured clash but holding that first spru I thought maybe should have gone with more warp miniatures. Yes the detail I love but warhammer the old world is a rank and file game that can’t be placed in rank or file unless put together just right. The old world is something I feel that is simply a collectors clone of the computer game. I liked the old ranks of elves and halberdiers in that one pose, it somehow felt more make believe. Boxed sets seem bigger yes but I still feel that playing old hammer seems more fun and less a exercise in wargaming gymnastics and up to date book. Blood bowl and necromunda seem to be going the same with book after book or special card pack. Nope not for me. I like my games simple and the imagination is able to do the rest. I don’t get how, seeing how space hulk gets bought out every time it’s brought back, why not just release the old games like warhammer quest the original boxset and its supporting boxsets. Is it a licence thing? surely they have the moulds and the minis would be cheaper to produce. Why not the original man o war or space crusade? They can still charge a fortune because all would sell out in my opinion. They could reissue the entire epic range and that would sell. Call it warhammer classics. I’m likely missing something relevant but Anyway that’s my 2 cents worth – it has been said 😊
You’d think it would be a real darn money maker to release some of the older games. I suppose there must be licencing issues, as you say.
I was wondering if the company would own a design or a individual designer….I don’t know anything about licencing but I was wondering if GW would need to.pay royalties but yes fully agree it would be a big money maker and I think at limited run in a classic collectors range they would shift even at high prices. It seems a simple money stream produced at less cost them marketed on nostalgia and in areas of the world these games were not originally accessible…..then you reboot the old computer game…..heck, they could even reissue white dwarf magazine as a classic range…anyway top show thanks 👍
Back? He never went away. Always sitting in front of me!
Happy Sunday!
Very interesting discussion, and I had a genius level comment to make, and then I got distracted by being awarded a Golden Button, and immediately forgot my comment!!
Thanks for the Goldie by the way, very much appreciated, I’ll finish the Farseer and Wraithlord when I get back from holiday!
Essay length comment on today’s discussion, as requested…well, perhaps not, I am in Scotland with haggis to eat and rain to get drenched by.
But I did have a couple of thoughts while I was watching the chaps discuss this massive topic..
Firstly, most classic car enthusiasts who have a 1972 MGB in the garage, also have a Prius on the driveway. Most flair-wearing prog-rock diehards will also dance to Rihanna at weddings. And most black t-shirt, jewellery wearing millennials who are talking about Oldhammer are trying to make a living from YouTube and are trying to stand out to get clicks and views. Even the 28 guys, who really champion the retro-art of the hobby, buy all the new plastic model kits to break up and kitbash from.
I’m old enough that nostalgia is a huge part of it for me, so again that’s a layer of bias which I’ll never clear. And, as Shay outlined, even younger people are being influenced by those who do have the direct nostalgia connection. It’ll be interesting to see where it goes.
So when we talk about a ‘resurgence’, I think it’s hard to see through the fog of social media to see the reality. That said, its GREAT that a spotlight is being shone on the artisanal origins of our hobby, and that it is still being championed, and people are still finding enjoyment from more elegant minis from a more civilised age.
Also, and I think this will never go away, is that a big reason people are in this hobby is the physical, tactile, art and craft aspect of it. That’s where the relaxation, the mental health benefits, and the sense of satisfaction come from for me. For me it doesn’t necessarily matter if the model is cast or 3D printed, I will paint it with a brush and paints. But I do appreciate hand sculpted models, and I do like the nostalgia of metal. Memories of rifling through blister packs on racks on shop walls, looking for that perfect next purchase! People will always want to create with their hands, so I’m sure there will always be that artisanal niche.
And one thing I am pleased to see is the end of the trend of these massive kickstarters delivering hundreds of pvc models that no one is ever going to use, let alone paint. The Superbacker demands for more more more was sucking the life out the hobby and watering good ideas down into nothing. Let people create their vision, back it or don’t. And creators should resist diluting their vision for the screaming minority. I think that’s where my beef is, not so much whether past-GW is sticking its fingers up at modern-GW. I think it probably is though, and I am sure the OG Citadel crew are secretly snickering into their denim vests as a result!!
09:00 @brennon doesn’t have enough Hans’ ? oO
40:00 It’s not @ottshay, it’s me! I’m not OLD!
Oldhammer never left! I’ve got 30,000 points and still growing for massive gaming events.
So why is old stuff more loved currently? Because it’s made with soul and heart? Because you’re not bombarded with a bazillion details? Because small forces of 5 – 10 minis have more charm that way than a 2000 point W’Hamster 40k army?
Or maybe, just maybe, because all those who played the old style “back in the day” in their teen and tween years now finally have the time and money to really grab those things? Because we’re old now too.
And it’s a mix of all of the above.
HAPPY SUNDAY ..!!
Happy remembrance day COGz an OTTers 🌺👍🇬🇧👍🌺
Happy Sunday Gang
Perhaps he’s out of stock because Gerry did find the site🤔
Good show guy’s
For me I feel the oldhammer love is to get things I could never afford when I was 12. Like the squats I recently 3Dprinted. When I was 12 warhammer felt much more grown up. Rogue trader was for 16+ and the guys in the shop in the 80s didn’t seem interested in selling stuff to kids. I remember a shop assistant asking if I really wanted that as I handed over my cash. It felt like I was entering an adult world i didn’t really belong in. Now they’d snap up my cash and convince me I needed it
@brennon Rapid fire is something I wondered about but more likely to go O Group route, so rapid fire came out in the 90s so 20+ yrs and still being played so they got something right, was revamped from the 2nd Edition to Rapid Fire Reloaded about 5 yrs ago, Yarkshire Gamer on youtubes has a 90ish min+ podcast with Colin were they talk about the range and the rules so maybe worth tracking down and a listen to get more idea of the developer thoughts behind it.
RE oldhammer I think its more a response to the old world relaunch and 40k 2nd got popular when 40k 8th came out. I think the more modern warammer is seen as a price gouge but the oldhammer is just about when it was just fun. Balance was shakey, but with 2nd and 5th ed Warhammer you also got the scenario packs some avaliable as PDFs these days and the avaliability of back scanned pdfs probably helping to feed the oldhammer you don’t need to spend a zillion quid to get a copy of the rules/supplements/army book setc.
If you want to play the old world, buy Victrix’s Medieval miniaturs and use them as Bretonnians. They actually scale really well compared to official Bretonnians but you pay less than 50% of the price per miniature. Victrix have got you covered for Foot Knights, Peasant Infantry and Mounted Knights. You could even use their Norman Cavalry and Norman Crossbowmen as Hobilars and archers respectively (although dedicated medieval archers are on the way!) and you can get pegasus knights from Fire Forge. The only thing you might want from GW are the character models,
Good episode. Really interesting topic, thank you for raising it. I agree with a few others that Oldhammer never really went away. That trendier gamers with a YouTube channel have latched onto it and raised its profile online, which may have encouraged others to look into it, is great. There is so much new stuff in the hobby at the moment perhaps some would prefer to go back to a time that is seen as simpler, more fun, less Grimdark or whatever gloss you want to put on it. It seems to me that the reaction to constant change and newness overload is to turn to something which has an enduring reputation but most importantly, is finite. The Old World had a finite set of armies. Because they were hand sculpted and largely cast in metal there was a limit to what could be produced in any given year. This means that as collectors it is possible to get all of the output for a given range. In relative terms it is a cheap hobby, certainly in comparison to the example raised of classic cars. We might think a model at £20 or £50 is a lot and an army for £2,000 seems excessive but that same £2,000 won’t get you far in many other hobbies, especially classic cars.
Thank you for the button, actually being complimented on a tank by John means a lot! I did the camo using the new AK markers, worked pretty well
Thanks for the Golden Button.
To answer Shay’s question the flowers are from Gamers Grass I picked them up from Great Escape Games at a show.
Have played the various versions of Rapid Fire for years and the latest “Rapid Fire Reloaded” has put a simplified “battalion” level game which is enjoyable for larger multi-player games. We use them a lot as they enable you to get a number of tanks on the table rather just a couple in support of an infantry company.
For platoon based games I paly either Chain of Command or Battlegroup which takes yo to a lower level of detail and also adds more “friction” in the sense of limiting the command and control.
Personally I think the new stuff is really bland, best example of the faces on the new middle earth stuff.
Though the one thing that makes me think it isnt just the digital process is the guy over at WARP minis, he does digital now and his sculpts still have a ton of character so maybe its geedubs process thats changed.
Interesting timing, Old Hammer is very much re-emergent with ‘Harry the Hammer’ up for auction: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1949725/