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The Harlequin: An interview with Darren Matthews

October 29, 2015, 2:52 am
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Iconic cover art from the original Rogue Trader released harlequins. But what do they have to do with Darren Matthews? Read on. 
Oldhammer is a product of two things. Nostalgia and Social Media. Without both of these, we wouldn't have the community that so many of us enjoy today. And it's an international community too, with regular events held in the UK, US and beyond. The ease of communication that modern technology allows has fuelled our considerable growth over the last three years and facilitated the organisation of events, trades and research impossible a decade ago.

We must owe the existence of this latest Old School interview to Social Media as its subject, Darren Matthews, became part of the online Oldhammer Community through the Facebook Group. In case you do not recognise the name, he was one of the original members of the 'Eavy Metal team way back in the later part of the 1980s. But Darren's connection to Citadel and Games Workshop doesn't just begin in the later part of the decade - he was involved from practically the beginning, as we shall see.

Thankfully for us all, Darren was more than willing to exercise his memory and draw deep into the Warp to bring us some recollections of his time with the company - doing the job all of us really wanted to do: paint miniatures for money. So, on behalf of Oldhammerers everywhere, I will thank Darren for giving up his time to talk to us about his time at Games Workshop.

RoC80s: So what first got you into fantasy gaming and miniatures?

DM: I first got into Fantasy via watching movies and my Dad was a massive fan of Jason and the Argonauts so I suppose it went from there. I bought my first Citadel minis in around 1980 at a little shop on Steep in Lincoln. They were the Fantasy Tribe Skeletons. Kobolds were my next purchase and things sort of went from there. A Toy Shop in Lincoln started to sell blister packs and it was an open road from then on. Around 1985, I met Chaz Elliot in Lincoln and he got totally hooked on fantasy miniatures and I was in awe of his painting and practiced to emulate. A shop also opened in Lincoln that just dealt in fantasy miniatures and games so I started painting for the display case in the shop for lead. Also, I read the Colour Of Magic in its first ever release by a certain Mr Pratchett and was totally hooked after. I never got into gaming or could get my head round it but was collector and painter from the start.


Fantasy Tribe Skeletons: Darren Matthew's first Citadel miniatures.
RoC80s: So you were rather experienced with fantasy miniatures and their painting by the time you began working for Games Workshop. How did you get the job of painting professionally?

DM: In early 1987, when I was in my early 20s, I moved back to Nottingham and enjoyed collecting and painting miniatures. The work I had been doing in archaeology had come to an end through a cut in funding and I decided to send a sample of my painting in to the studio but with no real hope that it would lead to anything. A week later, John Blanche turned up at my front door and offered me the chance of working in the studio!

I was stunned to say the least at the time and until then thought my painting was nowhere near good enough for White Dwarf. Sean Masterton, who was the then editor of White Dwarf, turned up with John. It was after work I found out later and they were going for a curry!

My first day was one of nerves beyond belief and a real baptism of fire meeting the established painting team. At that time, The 'Eavy Metal studio was comprised of Mike McVey, Colin Dixon, Dave Andrews and Sid and John Blanche was our boss. Tony Ackland and H also shared the studio and I really felt out of my depth. After a few weeks I understood most of the banter and what was required of a full time painter in the studio. 


Some of the other 'Eavy Metal boys from Darren's time. Lee 'I have a magnificent set of '80s curtains' Dudley was helping out during his summer holidays. Lucky bugger!
RoC80s: You mentioned the elusive Sid the Painter. We don't know much about him beyond a few photographs and an article or two. What can you tell us about him?

DM: Sid was called Tim Croxton. I think that is how you spell his surname and he came from Eastwood. He was a very intelligent guy, but a bit of a rebel. He was very good natured deep down when you got to know him.He was big into his motorbikes and cars. I don't know what happened to him after he left and I left not long after as the studio vibe had started to change.

RoC80s: What were the early days like training to be a Studio Painter?

DM: For the first few weeks I finished off old projects that had been on the back burner; such as the Wood Elves, Orcs and Snotlings from the fantasy ranges. Gradually, I was given new releases to paint before they would appear in White Dwarf, normally the following month. I also started on a few things in my spare time and meeting the Perry Twins who worked in a different part of the studio started me off on collecting historical miniatures. Bryan Ansell was the owner of the company and we always got on well when I met him. John Blanche encouraged me to experiment with paint and inks and try new painting techniques that I hadn't thought of using before. 

I have always considered John the total master of painting and Mike McVey a very close second. We all had different painting styles at the time and don't think there was a house technique to painting at the time. Gradually we saw the artwork that Tony Ackland was working on for Realms of Chaos and gradually the miniatures arrived in the studio to paint. Some of the sculpts I adored but others I wasn't so certain about and but still enjoyed painting a lot of it.


Darren's iconic colour scheme for this Ork noble. Come on, how many of you have copied this one? Below we have examples of his Chaos Dreadnought and an early Imperial Guard Sentinel. 

And here is the same model in digital form. Photograph by Steve Casey. From The Bryan Ansell Collection, Wargames Foundry, Stoke Hall Stables. 
The sentinel too, though a little blurry. Photograph by Steve Casey. From The Bryan Ansell Collection, Wargames Foundry, Stoke Hall Stables. 
RoC80s: Were you able to work on more personal projects in the Studio? We see a large number of dioramas and things coming out around that time - what did you work on?

DM: I was also working on my own related projects in my spare time (for my own collection) and had the idea one day to convert a plastic Rhino AFV into one that had been overtaken by Nurgle. I liked the idea of melding a tank with living things and ended up sculpting green stuff maggots bursting from the hull. It threw a few people at the time when they first saw it but I just went with it. 

I loved painting tanks and completed some of the first few Rhino AFV's and the Predator. Khorne and Nurgle were my two favourite Chaos elements and enjoyed painting miniatures for both. At one stage for inspiration, Kev Adams sent Phil Lewis to come and take photos of us all pulling faces and they were used for his inspiration for some of his Chaos sculpts. Each day was different and I enjoyed the variety of the painting and kit making. The first plastic 40k Imperial Guard were released to mixed reception in the painting studio and part plastic miniatures were becoming a regular thing and they were always a challenge to work on. Titans were also slowly lifting off and epic scale was also being developed while I was there. A real challenge was painting all of Jes Goodwin's first Eldar Harlequin miniature's for the boxed set in one bank holiday weekend. It took every ounce of my painting ability and threw it together, but looking back still think they were a bit rushed. 


The back of the RTB6 release. Darren's patterns and ideas here still influence painters to this day, so it is a real pleasure to give credit to him here. 
RoC80s: Did you just say you painted the original Harlequin models over a Bank Holiday weekend?

DM: Yes, they were the Harlequins from the very first boxed set release and they were given to me on the Friday afternoon and I delivered them back painted on the Tuesday morning - much to everyone's shock! My girlfriend at the time was away and I just sat and painted for 12 hours solid each day until they were done. I had a very small brief from Jes Goodwin and I was left, more or less, to my own colour schemes and patterns. I got a bit of a telling off for painting nipples showing through on one of the female eldar's torsos, and I was told to paint them out - but i don't think I ever did. I understand that that box set was one of the biggest sellers they had ever had and in some way I am proud that my painting helped sell them. Jes Goodwin's sculpts were stunning and very advanced for the period in regards of the poses he used. Looking back at it now, it was a lot of work - but i enjoyed it!

RoC80s: You mentioned the 'Studio Vibe' - what was it like to work in?

DM: The working environment was great, but it was something I wasn't really used to as I had worked outdoors in archaeology with very mixed teams. At the time I first started, I wasn't that confident in my painting ability and it showed to start with. I have always been very self critical of my painting and don't like to rush things. The banter took some getting used to and I suppose Sid gave me a bit of a testing time teasing for the first few weeks but it came to a head and I stood my ground and we became great friends after. Seeing Sid leave when he did was one of the worst days, if not the worst, I had in studio as we had become a very good friends by then. 

Some days we could each have a single miniature to work on, but on others we had a batch to get done for deadline and that could be a lot of pressure to get finished on time for a publication date. After a few months, I settled in and enjoyed the small level of chaos and the minor anarchy which was the painting studio at the time. We were a superb team and worked well together and were mostly the same age group, so we all had a similar sense of humour and outlook.

The Golden Demon days we did in the 80s, I always found a bit scary and overwhelming to be honest. I was fairly nervous of people but used to put a front on, I also dreaded painting in the shop or in public in those days. I think I could handle it now if I could see to paint well these days. Bryan was an excellent boss though and so was John Blanche and both put up with my nerves. I met Fraser Gray and he was great bloke, I loved his work and was totally blown away by what he could achieve. He visited the studio a couple of times while I was there.


Darren's Nurgle Rhino makes an appearance in this diorama from the back of White Dwarf 113. 
RoC80s: So how did that vibe change with time?

DM: Things had started to go a bit corporate towards the end of my term to some extent and a studio painting style was emerging which not all of us fully enjoyed or felt totally comfortable with. Before that I think people had been trusted to deliver the goods constantly and they mostly did. If you were not happy with something you ran it by the team and got a honest response and the lads were always superb for that and it was highly valued. I suppose by time I was ready to go I wasn't enjoying it as much as I did.

RoC80s: Were there any other stand out ranges that you worked on that really excited you as a painter?

DM: I enjoyed working on the miniatures for Space Hulk. The first terminator miniatures blew us all away when we first saw the sculpts. Sapce Wolves were my favourite marine Chapter and I as one of the first people to paint the black wolf head on a yellow background. By mid 1989, my life had changed and I was commuting between Lincoln and Nottingham and this was putting a lot of strain and pressure on my work. In a rash moment in 1989, I decided to leave and I suppose at the time I wasn't thinking too clearly but had worked for the company for 18 months and needed a change. Looking back, I have no regrets about working in such a fantastic environment and working with so many good and talented people. I will always remember it fondly and enjoyed my time painting miniatures for one the best miniature companies in the world, at that time.

I also enjoyed working on a slow-burning solo Space Wolf project but I never got around to totally finishing it, what with all the other work I had on the go on top, but it was intended to be a full chapter. Some photos were taken by Phil Lewis and I think one got on to a back cover of White Dwarf. I also enjoyed painting the Marauder Dwarves for Trish and Aly Morrison. This was'in house painting' but don't think we ever got credit for it as painters. Mike McVey's Empire troops he did for them were mind blowing at the time. Mike was the best painter on the studio floor.
One of my personal favourites of Darren's time at GW. This magnificent ork gargant. 
I am almost certain that this model was in Bryan's cabinet display of his genestealer cult last year at BOYL.
Chaos warriors are iconic in Warhammer. And the painting schemes were never really any more chaotic than this. Another favourite of mine. 


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A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: The Palanquin is complete!

October 29, 2015, 1:06 pm
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Way back in September I thought it would be pretty straightforwards painting up this miniature for the Tale of Four Oldhammer Painters project. Little did I realise what I was letting myself in for, as the job took far longer to complete than I previously thought. Sure, much of that was due to the impact that a new year group and curriculum would have on my lifestyle - though it is true to say that I am really enjoying the class I have and the challenges they throw up, more so than ever before. But, I get home quite late now and the light has long gone. You see, I much prefer to work in natural light, preferably morning light so painting this time of year is confined to Saturday and Sunday. I have a nice arrangement with the wife which is fairly simple - I have until 10am each weekend morning to do what I like before she can give me anything more 'useful' to do. So there is my painting time! Only, much of the previous four or five weekends has been taken up with weddings, anniversaries or trips to Chessington World of Adventures. 

Ultimately, time has been short. 


Still, I have managed to slowly chip away at the project in tiny chunks over September and October and I am pleased to say that the palanquin is finished. I have also nearly finished October's entry in the project too, but have about three or so hours left of work to complete on him until he can be shown. I think last time we spoke about the palanquin I had finished work on the chair itself and had the rest of the structure to complete. 

My first job was to paint up the three nurglings that can be found on the chair of the model. As before, I used the new Foundry green paints I picked up at this year's BOYL to pick them out, and used purple as a spot colour. Red and yellow were used to highlight the eyes and provide a few raw looking spots to their bellies. My personal favourite was the little chap poking his head out from under the chair with his tongue hanging out. The palanquin structure was highlighted in a fairly dark gold. I toyed with the idea of using a silver highlight to bring this out, but I felt it made the palanquin look too clean. No good for a Nurgle character I thought. 


I opted to not include the two banners that go with the model for several reasons. The first is a purely practical one - they are quite weak and I was worried that transporting the model with them attached would only result in them becoming broken. Secondly, they are quite small and I fancy trying to convert my own - perhaps adding some iconography based on what the Nurgle warband get up to in games. 

The slime trickling out the back caused a few problems. I wanted the slime to be green, after all that IS the colour of slime but I already had two different versions of that colour on the model. In the end, I created something a little more pastel and used yellow ink washes to bring the colour tone up a little. During this process, I noticed a little maggot thingy had been sculpted on the back of the chair, so I used a little red and white to pink it up and create an interesting contrast. 


With the palanquin complete, it was time to work on the rider. I wanted him to contrast against the opulent colour choices of the palanquin itself, so chose a muted, metallic scheme to start with. This was fairly easy to achieve through a black basecoat drybrushed with a dark silver. This brought out much of the detail and left some suitable shadowing in places - but it was much, much too bright. Once dry, I washed over the silver with a mix of black and chestnut inks and used the wife's hairdryer to speed up the drying process. Then, I washed over the darkened silver with a brown/orange 'rust wash' and again made use of the hairdryer to speed up the stage. 

Next it was a case of painstakingly edge highlighting the armour in the same silver I used to base the model. Here and there I picked out detail in a dark gold too, and then dulled everything down with a black ink glaze. The chainmail was then washed with a blue/green mix to represent verdigris, as were the golden areas on the armour. These were highlighted up with the original gold. 

I chose purple for the gloves to create some variation on the armour. It was a very simple layering job in which a dark purple was painted over the gloves and slowly highlighted up by adding bleached bone to the mix. The face proved to be challenging. After basing in flesh, I washed over with a chestnut ink/ dark red paint wash and highlighted up with the flesh colour, adding increasing amounts of bleached bone until the skin look sickly enough. Purple washes were added to the eye holes and the exposed brain. Once dry, I drybrushed over the brain with bleached bone and glazed with a bloody red. I picked the damaged eye out with a brighter red and a nice yellow dot for a pupil. 

Wanting further contrast with the dark armour and the palanquin itself, I went for a fourth green colour, this time created with the addition of sunburst yellow. I used it to paint up the whip to look like some living coil of chaos - pure yellow was used to highlight the horrible spots that cover the weapon. 

Finally, the sword was painted - and on a whim I went for a blazing red, similar to the one I used fofrone of the faces on the back of the palanquin. I felt that this would add further contrast and tie the seat figure back into the rest of the model. 

Phew! 

It certainly was an epic project and one I really enjoyed. I feel like painting this palanquin has pushed me as a miniature painter and provided some interesting problems to solve. I am also really pleased to have finally painted up one of the this brilliant models. I have wanted one for over twenty-five years so this sees a wish fulfilled!  Sorry about the rather dark snaps -  I use natural light to photograph all of my work and in the depths of October trying to find some is bit of challenge. 

So what do you dear readers think about my Palanquin of Nurgle?


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Night of the Living Lead III: Jeremiah O. Lygg and his hired goons

October 30, 2015, 10:46 am
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Good evening all! I have managed to put together a nice little warband for tomorrow's game at the Wargames Foundry and the leader is this; one Jeremiah O. Lygg, the rather dubious druid. It is fair to say that he isn't a good druid - more a dishonest one - but he was great fun to paint. He is part of the old Citadel C series from 1987 but for some quirk of fate was never actually released. You can find an unpainted example of the figure here at Solegends if you are interested. 

I won him in a painting competition last summer at BOYL3 and he has been sitting around for ages in need of painting up - so I took the impending game as my cue to get him finished. Sorry about the crap photo - but by the time I had based him the light was gone and I had to resolve to using a desk lamp - which washes out most of the colour. I will take some better photos of him and his 'hired goons' tomorrow. 

He will be leading these gents; Paulus, Chico, Stefan and Ratter on a perilous adventure down an abandoned gnomish mine. 

Here's the GM's background: 

Deep in the mines at the dead of night, a grinding sound. But the sound of the rock being hewn is not the work of the miners. None of the gnomes of the village of Thingwall have been down the mine in days. Nobody would dare, not since several of the miners went missing. Some were found days later with their throats slit and their blood spilled on the floor in the shape of a pentagram. Others have simply disappeared.

YOU are an adventurer, called upon by the Duchess of Thingwall to help the little people in their hour of need. YOU and your band of companions have been asked to investigate. Who or what has caused the disappearance of the miners? Who or what is producing the strange grinding sound in the night?

Beware. Not all is as it seems in the village. Who can be trusted? More importantly, what's in it for you? And how can you be sure that the other would-be 'investigators' aren't involved in the murders and disappearances themselves?

An adventure for small bands of warriors (3-5 models) using the Warhammer 3rd edition rules.


And here they are, in a much better picture I took in the summer. 

As always with these scenarios, and you can expect a full report on all the goings on Sunday, we all had to draw up some background for our forces for Richard, the GM, to play around with. Here's mine: 

"Oi, that's my bacon!" Chico blustered, grabbing Paulus' wrist and squeezing his flesh until the greasy meat was released back onto the filthy table. Paulus gave his fellow footpad a hearty shove and leaned back against the slime-ridden wall that held up the abandoned farmhouse, the smirk never shifting from his lips.
"Calm down you two," Stefan mumbled, "I have nearly got the lead up to temperature and need you rapscallions in your places. These coins won't forge themselves."
Chico picked up the stamp Stefan had left on the workbench. Next to it were the cooling piles of the previous hours work - piles of ersatz coins any fence would be proud to shift. He peered at the tiny writing that curled across the face of the coinage.
"What king is that supposed to be?" He asked for the hundredth time.
Stefan sighed, and told him.
"McDeath."
Three ne'er-do-wells, Chico, Stefan and Paulus, are busy doing what they do best - forging coins and running up debts. They are just about to complete work on a huge order of 'McDeath' groats when there is a sharp knock at their door. Sure that their whereabouts were secret, the three footpads are startled and reach for their blades in panic. Before any of them can react, the battered door creaks open to reveal the thin, wiry frame of Jeremiah O. Lygg - the dubious druid of Dunststadz.
"Good evening, there is no need to be alarmed!" The druid said, his deep voice filling the room twice over. "Do settle down Gerald!"
Chico looked at Paulus. Paulus looked at Chico.
"Who's Gerald?" They asked in unison.
"I need your help once again," Jeremiah went on, ignoring (or perhaps, not hearing) the question. Adventurers are needed to clear a mine to the South and there are, well, reasons why I need to be there. Reasons that are not open for discussion... Do sit still Gerald!!"
Baffled, Chico peered around the room to check that there were indeed only four of them. Who the blazes was this Gerald?
"I can pay," the druid went on, "and in Imperial silver too!" The old man's eyes looked over the fraudulent coins on table with indifference. "Do you still have that old hound, what was he called? Fatter?"
"Ratter." Paulus corrected.
"That's right!" The druid exclaimed, adjusting the pouch at his side. "I have need of his nose - stop that Gerald! We shall meet beneath the sign of the crow at dawn. Don't be late."
With the words spoken, the druid turned to leave. "Come on Gerald, let's go home," he said to the large, green toad that curled up on his palm, it's yellow eyes glinting evilly in the gloom.
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Night of the Living Lead III: An Overview

November 1, 2015, 2:28 am
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Good morning all - well I got back nigh on midnight yesterday after an outstanding day at the Wargames Foundry, in East Stoke. As you will know, I attended the Night of the Living Lead event organised by Warlord Paul and Richard Irvine. 

I travelled up to the event with the Sealed Blister Collector himself, Stuart Klatcheff and his wife Mags and we arrived quite early only to see Tony Yates wandering around with his fellow wargaming enthusiast, Alex. 


Tony had brought his pens and set about producing drawings for Oldhammer fans as is usual custom. Hoping to make the most of Tony's skills with a pen I challenged him to draw for me a barbarian princess. 


And here she is completed. Tony had previously drawn me a chaos warrior in pencil and this piece will soon be gracing the conservatory that I use as my painting room. I am sure that the wife is going to love it! 


Bryan, Diane and Marcus were (as always) fine hosts and kept us fed and watered throughout the day. The Mighty Avenger was full of amusing anecdotes and brought in many of his 'treasures'. Don't worry, we will be looking at them in greater detail in a future post. 


We has the pleasure of meeting Wayne England and having a look at some of his recent work. He was full of fascinating tales about life in the legendary Design Studio of the 1980s.


Bryan's stunning collection of vintage Citadel and historical miniatures were on display, and some of them were even unleashed from the cabinets! Here we can see a close up of the 40k ork scenery piece known as 'The Drop' - essentially a greenskin toilet full of fungus. Bizarrely, its made from a piece of mdf bearing the name of a factory not far from the house I grew up in in Wareham!!!


Players came from far and wide and brought all manner of miniatures with them. I shall write about the game in more detail in its own dedicated post in a few days time once I have sorted out the enormous amount of photographs that were taken. 


The scenario was not a pitched battle. It was a small scale scenario game and so offered a wealth of opportunities for the player and GM (of which we needed two!) and provided us all with the need to create small, characterful forces. 


For example, Matthew Dunn brought along this Halloween inspired pumpkin delivery vehicle along with a small band of intrepid gnomes. The figures we used came from a large number of miniature manufacturers but old school Citadel predominated - can you spot the classic gnome wizard here?


We were lucky enough to have access to the brilliant tables at Foundry and loads of buildings that were brought in by fellow Oldhammerers. Tony Yates offered us the use of many unusual pieces from his own collection that were older than most of the players, including the fantastic 'Wicker Man' inspired piece you can see in the photograph above. 


It was a brilliant day and we have organised another one for February. That game will be a pitched battle so expect to see a great number of different units on the table then!

I have loads more posts to bring you. Hopefully, this overview will whet your appetite for more! 

Orlygg
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Unreleased Citadel C series Cleric 1

November 1, 2015, 8:40 am
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I blogged about this model a few days ago but could only share a rather poor photograph. I managed to capture a couple of snaps today in the back garden using my preferred illumination, natural light, and post them up in my usual style. 

This is an extremely rare model. It is part of a wider range of wizards and clerics that never saw the inside of a blister way back in 1987. The CCM website can provide you with comprehensive details of this range of models and it can be found here. As you will have seen, the range has a real mixture of models comprising it. Some are quite obviously unfinished, or were in fact test or training pieces, and it is clear why they never saw release. Others, like the example I have painted above, are wonderful models and you are left wondering why they never made the cut. Talking to a fair few of the personalities involved in the early days of Citadel over the years it is fair to say that things were sometimes a little, and I am quoting Bryan Ansell here, 'disorganised' in the 1980s, so perhaps that explains why little gems like this never made the grade. 

He was a wonderful model to paint but I must admit he has sat on my painting table since August along with the other unreleased wizard I have won in Foundry Painting Competitions. But the need for a small group of miniatures for yesterday's game galvanised me into action. 

The face and hands were fairly straight forwards to paint and I used my usual 'flesh' method. I use a suitable skin tone and a base (in this case it was the new GW Kislev one) and add a spot of dark red and a little brown. Mixing this up gives you a nice dark shade that is perfect for basecoating. I cover every part of the face and hands, leaving no areas of darkness (I used a brown undercoat for the figure) and once dry, wash over with a watery chestnuty ink. Once the ink was is dry, I paint back over with my original base colour and tidy things up. Then adding increasing amounts of the starting colour (the new GW Kislev one) I slowly work up highlights until the face 'pops' as some painters say. 

It is pretty much the same method for everything else you can see here, bar the toad, the laurel and the staff. 

I knew I was going to be using a great deal of white on this figure, so I chose a grey to darken the beard and a blue to deepen the white cloak. I kept the pale tone style for the staff also.  


In case you were wondering, he is holding a small frog or toad on the palm of his hand. It is a wonderful character trait that amused me the moment I saw it and was the reason I chose the model from the selection offered. The amphibian was painted in exactly the same green as the laurel and the bunch of herbs at the wizard's belt, only I used a great deal of sunburst yellow to build up the highlights. I feel that the resulting colour compliments to other green on the fugure very well indeed. 

Overall, he was a real pleasure to work on. 
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Night of the Living Lead III: Bryan Ansell's Treasures!

November 2, 2015, 12:21 pm
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No day tripper to the Wargames Foundry should miss the opportunity of exploring the glorious miniature display cabinets that the Ansells have organised. They are packed with thousands (this is not an exaggeration) of classic models from GW's Golden Age, as well as a wealth of historical models. 

I had great delight in finding many of the miniatures that Darren Matthew's spoke about during his recent interview. I managed to snap the Genestealer Cult Standard Bearer we saw last week among many others - including the Harlequin models from the boxset. Sadly, the pictures I tried taking of them were not very good, so I shall endeavour to take better ones next time I am there. 


While on the subject of the old Citadel models, it is worth pointing out here just how vibrant the colours still are after a quarter of the century. I have worked hard over the last year or so to align my painting style with that vibrancy and try and pull off the depth of colour that the 'old masters' achieved back in the day. No GrimDark TM for me. 


The multi-talented Marcus Ansell was kind enough to unlock many of the cabinets and I was subsequently able to take a few more detail shots of the more unusual models. This frontal view of the famous War Altar of Nurgle (by Ivan Bartlett) shows a few details I had never noticed before, including the rather horrific (in a good way) driver of the vehicle. Marcus and I discussed the model, and he told me how dusty the piece had become. Sadly, the piece is too fragile to clean and Marcus is certain the model has lost a little of its lustre. 


We moved on to look at the Ork fort I spotted during BOYL 3. This is a glorious model (and I spotted the rest of the scenery that went with it back at Stoke Hall later in the evening, so that survives too) that really rewards careful study, for there are so many little details here to enjoy, if you can spot them!


Hang on a minute! A converted Rhino of Nurgle? Maggots bursting forth? I only managed to find Darren Matthew's infamous war machine of chaos among many of the other classic tanks. Interestingly, the Land Raider shown in the WD image used to illustrate this model on Darren's interview was sitting next to it! I sent the images of this model I took to him and he couldn't believe the piece still existed!


Stuart brought with him the 'missing fishman' to give to Bryan - only for Bryan to produce the same model from his pocket. During the summer, The Mighty Avenger told us that he didn't actually own the third model from the range - but if someone could get him an example he'd cast it up with a new weapon in a similar vein to the Laserburn (and later 40k) fishmen models. I own the previous two fishmen, so I am looking forwards to one day completing the triad of terror. 


Kev Adams produced a special 'Halloween' goblin to celebrate the spooky time of year. The figure was given away for free for all attendees and currently sits on my painting table for completion. Foundry were kind enough to give me a second figure to pass on to Chico. 


Check out this monstrosity! Yes, Kev Adams has been at it again and the ranks of the Warmonger goblinoids (and ogroids) has mushroomed. He has moved on to start working on the beastmen range Foundry will eventually release. Bryan plans to have comprehensive models for all fantasy 'races' as part of this project, though the likelihood of this model being cast in its present state is unlikely. An emasculated version is more likely!

Still, its always a pleasure to see the Goblin Master's sense of humour brought forth in greenstuff!


I also spotted a large assortment of 'ogre-face' shields also sculpted by Kev. These were as varied as they were numerous. I own quite a few of these already, but the new greens I saw surpass even those. 

Where does he get his ideas? 


That question was answered a little later on in the evening as we were invited back to Stoke Hall to attend a gathering for Bryan's birthday. Diane cooked some excellent food (as always) and Marcus wowed us all with a brilliant fireworks display! The concepts for the warmonger project were brought out for our enjoyment and proved a fascinating journey through the business of miniature design. 

Recognise any of these faces?


This riot of ideas from Bryan are passed on to Kev to create the greens we looked at earlier on in the post. 


From left to right - Mags (Staurt Klatcheff's wife), Wayne England, Warlord Paul, Bryan Ansell and Steve Beales discuss the creative process behind this latest batch of fantasy models.


We were shown two enormous folders packed with ideas - written on all manner of left over bits of paper and card. Bryan said that he has to write ideas down as soon as they come to him, so uses whatever he can find lying around. 


Even going as far as annotating photocopied images.


Steve Casey spotted this reassuring note on one of the pages. A return to 'proper' beastmen.


As the guests for the party began to arrive, I felt a tap on my shoulder and found Steve Casey, the famous bridgendsteve on eBay, who had discovered something behind one of the sofas. Do you recognise this painting?


Yes, it is the original painting for the cover of the First Citadel Compendium by John Blanche!


Thanks must be made to the Ansells, our generous hosts, and to these fine people, who were (and are) wonderful people to spend time with, roll dice and invent rude and amusing jokes with. 

I will be back tomorrow with a post about the enigmatic Wayne England and a closer look at his glorious sketchbook. 

Orlygg
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A return to normal services?

December 6, 2015, 5:06 am
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This is one of those obligatory 'I am not dead' posts that crop up on dormant blogs the world over, and those of you who grew up in the United Kingdom (like I did) will well recognise the image I chose to open this post with. It is a 'telly test card' if you didn't know, and used to appear quite regularly when nothing was available for broadcast, usually very late or extremely early, and it was a constant companion of childhood. Well, for those children who did not tarry long in bed. 

So where have I been? The answer is simple - I have been here all along, but I just haven't had the time (through a series of events that have no place here) to really engage at all with the Oldhammer Community. Sure, I was able to drop in through social media - but any real Oldhammering long ground to a halt. 

This is my first attempt at getting it going again. 

I have a number of half-finished posts loitering around to complete, including my write ups from Night of the Living Lead, and I hope to get them out shortly, time permitting. I am also mulling over a mini project to get be back into the swing of things. I am months behind in the Tale of Four Oldhammerers thing that Steve, Chico and Paul are racing ahead with too. Luckily, Christmas beckons and with it some much needed opportunities to sit at my modelling table, when I've tided it up! 

But before any of that, I have a great post to share about that Pantheon of Chaos project that I blogged about a few months back. I just need to finish writing it up. I think readers of this blog will find it most interesting!

Until then! 

Orlygg

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The Pantheon Of Chaos Miniatures Project: An update!

December 10, 2015, 11:18 am
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Way back in August I spoke to you about a really exciting project; Pantheon of Chaos. If you don't recall this work in progress range, let me explain a little further. Essentially, a group of sculptors aim to create a series of miniatures (and later rules) inspired by the seminal Realm of Chaos books from the late '80s. 

Well, I had a message from Mustafa Bekir (one of the key players in the project) the other day about some further images from the forthcoming range, so I jumped at the chance of sharing them here. They are, quite frankly, incredible and perfectly capture that mid-to-late '80s Citadel Chaos feel, as the two chaos warrior WIP greens above this writing will attest. 

Mustafa had a great deal to share, so let us have a sneak peak at what they have in store for us!

First up, a range of concept art. I will let the illustrations speak for themselves, but I will say this - don't they look like they were culled from old issues of White Dwarf? The style has been nailed down remarkably well!









There is an excellent Facebook group that the masterminds behind the project have set up. With nearly 700 members at the time of writing, there are certainly a great number of interested people following the development. And like many great community projects, the sculptors are very keen for leadheads to share their ideas and critique the work in progress. 

It is a closed group, so you will have to join. It can be found here: Pantheon on FB.

Next up, the greens! Now remember, most of what you are seeing must be considered to be work in progress but the work that has gone into some of these models is incredible. Just like with this hobgoblin in chaos armour!



Oh, and their beastman range too!!


You are probably thinking - I wonder how well they paint up? Well, I can answer that one too. First up a chaos thug, sculpted in such a way as to represent any one of the major chaotic powers. 


And a superb chaos warrior of Nurgle. Outstanding I am sure you will agree.


I was also lucky enough to be given a copy of a new concept artwork from Tony Ackland - who is continuing to support the creative procress. 


And here is the work in progress sculpt. What fantastic work on that armour, eh?


Big thanks to Mustafa for sharing these with me. I shall be continuing to share content in support of this project and will let you all know when the kickstarter begins in February. I can't wait!!

Orlygg



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Night of the Living Lead III: Wayne England and his incredible sketchbook

December 11, 2015, 9:50 am
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Good evening Oldhammerers and apologies once again for the sudden cut in transmission. Life has proved challenging in several ways in the last weeks, work on this blog ground to a halt and my painting station is now a sorry morass of unfulfilled potential. Still, there is always the work of Wayne England to bring a welcome bit of festive fantasy cheer and makes a suitable topic for a return to work for Realm of Chaos 80s. We have spoken about Wayne before and delved deep into his highly influential dwarf army from the late '80s. 

Those of you who attended the Oldhammer Weekend 2015 were probably saddened by the news that Wayne had fallen ill and could not make the event after all, I know I was, so it was with great pleasure that I finally got to meet the iconic artist face to face. Especially considering that his famous cover to White Dwarf 110 (the third issue of the magazine I ever bought) is my favourite piece of GW art, ever. 

Nothing said more to me about Warhammer 40,000 than that image. The marines were crazed, almost cybernetic killers that seemed, to me anyway, be lacking in any obvious martial code beyond the iconography adorning their armour.  And here it is, many years later, looking just as vibrant, exciting and most importantly (to me at least) unique. And to think it was done with crayons! 



I cannot easily begin to imagine the hours I put into just looking at that astonishing front cover, or the following pages from the accompanying Illuminations article. I have very fond memories of 2nd Edition Bloodbowl and the art that went along with it, not to mention the miniatures - but Frank N Stein, the Star Player, was the epitome of the 'feel' of the game for me. I can recall doodling a sad travesty of Wayne's magnificent artwork in the back of my Middle School dictionary, and thank the Ruinous Powers that it no longer exists too! 

Thankfully, we still have Mr England's fantastic original!


This battle scene also appears among the pieces of Wayne's work in the illuminations piece. I have always really enjoyed work like this - one of those cases of discovering something new every time you look. And it came as quite the surprise that there was another picture in a similar vein that, as far I can tell, was never released found in the collection of Tim Pollard - who, incidentally owns the magnificent front cover illustration from WD 110!


Chatting with Wayne was a dream come true and like many an Oldhammerer you are keen to meet the architects of the fabulous mythos we all so enjoy. He was full of amusing tales about the creative days of the famous '80s Design Studio and perhaps his most riotous story involved Bryan Ansell being responsible for the creation of Robot Wars - the once popular BBC show. Interestingly, Rick Priestley has mentioned the same project in a recent article which is well worth a look. Just clink the source below for the full article. 

“Bryan and I even had this idea for doing robots. You know those Robot Wars shows? We were going to manufacture robot kits where all of the electronic circuitry was built into their casings. They’d fight each other and the outer casings would be knocked off and they’d gradually lose their abilities, I thought it was a brilliant idea.”

http://unpluggedgames.co.uk


As he promised, Wayne brought along his sketch book and I had a chance to have a goof flick through it and took a number of snaps to share with you today. Of course, these images don't really do the artwork justice but they give to a great idea about how his style has continued to develop. 










To conclude, a huge thanks to Wayne for coming along to Night of the Living Lead and being so generous of his time. During one of our chats he mentioned the 'new' dwarf army he is working on, and hopefully, one day, I can bring you some pictures of that too!

Orlygg
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The Dread of the Dead Leadhead?

December 16, 2015, 11:33 am
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I was aimlessly flicking through the channels the other night while the wife served up our dinner and I stumbled across an episode of Coupling - a sitcom from about ten or so years ago. I didn't really pay the programme much mind, initially, beyond the usual 'isn't Sarah Alexander really good looking?' contemplation. 

Then this little scene cropped up. Go on watch it!

"That Steve guy - how well do you know him? Are you close?"

"Close? We're porn buddies."

These words triggered something in my mind. I knew a Steve! And I also knew he was sitting on a collection of Citadel lead of incredible proportions (just like me) whose depths even he (just like me) had probably not yet fathomed. I also went as far as to predict (just like me) that he had told his 'significant other' a widely undervalued price tag on the said collection. 

I know that I have been guilty of this. Picture the scene. I arrive home from work to find a small mountain of parcels on the kitchen workshop. After a few minutes of blissful unwrapping, I am left with a pile of gorgeous lead figures, which may or may not contain models from the McDeath, Lichemaster or Orc's Drift scenario packs. Then wife walks in and I quote once more that enduring chestnut - 'don't worry love, each figure only cost me a couple of quid - honest!'

Does this little scenario bare any relation to your life? 

Return now to the scene in the video, and replace the stack of jazz Jeff refers to with a deep trough of ancient '80s lead. I mean, what WOULD happen to your collection if your were, heaven forbid, snuffed out tomorrow? Where would it go? 

Asking myself these questions, I would hope that my darling wife would hunt down one of my Oldhammer cronies and pass over my collection, so that another enthusiast could get to enjoy them as much as I. Financial reimbursement would be unnecessary. But the thought of my lead pile just being, well, chucked out would be a travesty. 

I once spoke with another Oldhammer gamer who told me a rather poignant tale. Back in the glory days of the late '80s, his mother had a work colleague who had heard about his interest in Warhammer. That colleague had had a son with very similar interests, but sadly he had died some years previously. So unbeknown to the Oldhammer gamer, this kind lady boxed up her deceased son's collection and passed it on to his mother, who in turn passed it to her son. Over the next couple of decades, he would periodically retrieve part of this collection from storage and enjoy the books and mags again, though in his head he always made a mental nod of recognition to that long gone (and unknown) gamer. 

A nice story, with a good sentiment don't you think?

So what do we do with our collections to preserve them for the future? Thinking about this now, I would hope that my family kept the painted part of my collection - as they are part of me I suppose - but sensibly dispose of the rest to some other enthusiast. 

Returning to Coupling as we conclude, do we need miniature-porn buddies? No! Forget that - it is an awful term. We Grognards require something more gentlemanly, surely? Someone to send the family to if the worst should happen, with the remit to enjoy whatever we retain in our collections to the full. 

"That Steve guy - how well do you know him? Are you close?"

"Close? We're Leadfellows."



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An Oldhammer Bookclub: A review of Brain Craig's Plague Daemon

December 21, 2015, 3:43 am
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Plague Daemon remains one of my favourite covers. Did you know that it was originally to have been published under the title, Ystareth?
"The dire magician stood back, and it was one of his unhuman companions who stepped forward, bearing a heavy halberd, ready to make a solitary charge. The three remaining monstrosities spread out, two with longbows at the ready, the third with a massive spear. the halberdier was the one with the scaly skin and snake-like tongue; he was the most powerfully built of the beastmen. When he charged the door, it seemed as though he would cover the distance in a matter of seconds. But the snake-tongued monster had covered no more than half the distance when something reached out of the water and caught his ankle, bringing him down on the narrowest part of the causeway. It was along, black tentacle, smooth and leech-like...

Thus was Harmis Detz, soldier of the Border Princes, plunged into a desperate struggle against the plague-bearing forces of chaos. The story is told by Orfeo, first introduced in Brian Craig's Zaragoz. 

So reads the blurb.

Welcome back to the Oldhammer Bookclub, and a rather belated meeting it is too, considering I started reading the book in August and finished it in September. Life got busy is all I can say, and it took me much, much longer to complete this novel than I expected. In fact, I found myself reading a few pages each evening just before I put the light out and, looking back, I quite appreciated this slow-burn approach to the story. 

Like Zaragoz, Plague Daemon is a novel I have read before, several times. My first experience with the book was back in 1990 when a school friend (and Bloodbowl enthusiast) called Moley was given the book by his brother. I can recall seeing that dramatic cover on his bedroom floor to this day and getting the opportunity to flick through the novel. At this point in time, the only GW book I had in my possession was David Ferring's, Konrad, and I was disappointed to find that the specially drawn illustrations that had supported the narrative in my book, was not present in Plague Daemon. That is something that still disappoints today, though we do get some fine illustrations of the characters and images taken from the Realm of Chaos: Lost and the Damned book. 

I didn't actually get to read the book until I was at university later on in the 1990s. I had a girlfriend at the time called Nicola, and we whiled away the warmer months exploring the towns and villages of the West Country, particularly in Cornwall, and one of our favourite haunts were second hand book shops. I had just discovered the incredible Conan stories written by R.E.Howard, and unbelievable as it sounds now, they were out of print then and trying to find a copy seemed an impossibility. Whilst looking for Cimmerian adventures, I discovered an ex-library copy of Plague Daemon in a 'fantasy section' and, despite it being a later Boxtree edition, I was suitably pleased. 

I read the book over that weekend. Life was slow for me then and, apart from drinking in the pub come evening, there was little to do but read or socialise in the era before mobile technology, the internet and tablets. At this point, I was between painting kits and had been thoroughly turned off Warhammer by the Red Period - though Plague Daemon did inspire me to buy up some paints once again and dabble with a few pieces, some of which were used as window displays in the old Exeter GW shop. 


I have always loved maps, from Warhammer to Fighting Fantasy. Plague Daemon gives us quite a bit of information about the Khyprian Empire, a part of the Border Princes not chronicled before or since. 
The book took me back in time. I didn't know it then, but the changes I disliked about GW we down to a shift in leadership. Bryan was gone, with most of the painted miniatures. The new owners had debts to pay. So, launching full force at a younger market made perfect sense - but the product had, for me anyway, lost it's charm, and now seemed more child-like and 'toy' orientated. Ironic I know, considering Citadel miniatures are (and were) 'toys'. Plague Daemon took me back to the Warhammer World as I recognised it.

Twenty years later, Plague Daemon still draws me back into that chaos haunted world, doomed to destruction, but with a populace largely unaware of their imminent and horrific end. I loved every page. So, as before with Zaragoz, I present this review using the series of questions I used previously. As with the previous Oldhammer Bookclub review, the rest of this article will contains SPOILERS so if you haven't read Plague Daemon, and plan to do so, I recommend you cease reading now! 


As I have said, the specially crafted internal illustrations were replaced with character sketches.
1) Did the book engage you immediately or did it take time to draw you in?

Despite having read the novel before, I could recall little of it save the identity of Ystareth, the plague daemon, and the method it used to spread it's appalling pestilence. As before, the story starts with a quick prologue chronicling Orfeo's situation in Arjijil and shows us one of the travelling player's attempts to escape his captivity. I know others have found these little scenes distracting, but in all honesty, I rather enjoy them. This little escapade is no longer than ten pages and is easily completed, and serves to develop the relationship between Orfeo and his captor, Alkadi Nasreen. Of course, the escape is foiled, but it's outcome sets up this second tale of Chaos well. Wanting to know more about Orfeo's fate after Zaragoz, I was thoroughly absorbed by this brief prologue.

Chapter One begins the tale proper with a scene setting overview of the land of Khypris and it's periodic threat of invasion by the tribal, Zani. In fact, much of their society to geared around these invasions and Harmis, the central character, has spent his life training to deal with them. Where Zaragoz was very much a slow burning adventure with much of the early book setting up the character of Orfeo, with Plague Daemon the reader is flung into the action from the very beginning. Harmis finds his outpost overrun by what he assumes is a Zani invasion, we the reader are better informed and can recognise the strange signs Harmis uncovers to be the work of a far darker power.  

Thinking about the question once again, I have to say that I was both engaged immediately (by the premise of the tale) but drawn in over time by the experiences of the characters, and in the ways that they changed. 

2) What was your overall 'feeling' about the novel once its was complete?

I found the ending to be rather sad. So sadness remains my overall feeling about the novel. GrimDark is a term thrown around fairly liberally now, but in truth the tone of Plague Daemon is much darker, and far grimmer than anything Black Library would put out now. Women give birth to mutated fetuses, which require burning, children are killed and young people are butchered because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is no 'Boy's Own' tale about Imperial Knights or Space Marines. Actions can have dire consequences and the 'goodies' often die painful, inglorious and futile deaths. 

"He could not bear to look at the hollow eyes of the little children. He could not bear to see what had been done to them!

Bleak.

3) Pick a character - are their actions justified?

When reviewing a book of this type, it is easy to cling to the main character and analyse their journey through the narrative in some detail, and indeed, there is nothing wrong in this at all. Personally, I often find the supporting characters more interesting, especially when they are actually characterised with a little depth. So I am going to pick Astyanax. He appears at the very beginning of the novel and is mortally wounded in battle with chaos mutants, but the echoes of his actions resonate through the rest of the story as to make his a far more important character than he initially appears to be. 

Astyanax is a powerful wizard in the mould of many fantasy wizards; he lives in a remote tower, along with his apprentices and works tirelessly to extend and enrich his knowledge. However, his purpose is the protection of the land from chaos, and he seems to be well versed in the threat Ystareth poses to Khypris. So well versed, that he has prepared agents to act in defence of the realm once the daemon is lose - with one of their responsibilities being to break the bridges that span the waterways in an effort to slow the daemon's progress.

He has also spent a long period enchanting the local waterway, the Black Tarn, so that it's waters can help nullify the effects of Ystareth's magic. Averil, one of Astyanax's apprentices, uses the magic of this water source to prevent the disease that cripples the land consuming Harmis along with it. 

Though Astyanax is killed in battle against the forces of Chaos, his actions are thoroughly justified and if anyone can take the credit for preserving the state of Khypris, it should be he. Without the knowledge he passes to Averil and Nicodemous, and the magical properties of the Tarnwine, there would be no way that the forces of good could stem the tide of corruption that Ystareth wroughts across the land. 

4) Is the overall plot engaging?

I would say so, yes. Though the plot seems to unfold far slower than in Zaragoz. Brian Craig gives the reader plenty of time to experience the impact a plague daemon (and the Zani invasion) has on a remote society. As I have said before, much of this is pretty bleak and compares the fragility of human nature when under pressure with the hideous evil of chaotic power. The temptation to abandon your humanity lies manifold during the journey, and through greed or fear many a minor character succumbs all too easily. Despite the depressing circumstances, I never gave up willing Harmis to victory - an easy feat considering I knew that he'd emerge victorious in the end. I felt myself concerned for the fates of the other characters too, particularly Averil, and Craig adds a nice little sexual tension sub-plot involving her, which was nicely wrapped up at the end of the tale. 

The tension builds nicely as the novel develops and I felt like I too was being drawn inexorably towards the daemon too. The final battle inside the plague choked palace of Khypris is atmospheric, if a little short. Some of the best writing in the novel can be found there, but I felt the final battle was a little rushed, almost as if Craig was approaching his word limit.

And images taken from other publications, such as White Dwarf and the Lost and the Damned.
7) Which passage in the book strikes you as being the most poignant or memorable? 

Choosing a memorable moment is never as easy as it sounds. And in doing so I considered, and discarded,several key scenes. The first was the attack on Astyanax's tower at the beginning of the novel, an action scene that best resembles what a 'great Warhammer battle' requires, at least to me. The 'goodies' of the mythos defending themselves against the horrors of the world, and prevailing despite the heroic cost of doing so. In fact, I have long thought about designing a scenario based around this small conflict, as it would require but a handful of models, a few pieces of custom scenery and a whole load of narrative and tactical choices for both sides. Perhaps I will one day. 

The second would be the aftermath of the attack on the gypsy camp. There are no heroics here, just the awful suffering of a survivor. But such scenes help to show the consequences of evil upon the world the characters seek to save. It helps with connection. For me, many of the later Black Library books were so shallow I felt little, or no connection with the world or it's characters at all, nor did I feel that their choices would have any real impact on the wider, or smaller, world in which they lived. 

My favourite moment has to be when Harmis faces the daemon, and knowing it's true name can finally exert his power over it. There is a lovely exchange between the two opposing characters that continue the theme of what chaos is that Craig began in Zaragoz. Here it is:

"Know, Harmis, that every nation of the earth is but appearance and illusion, and that the power of kings and princes have is but a shabby shadow of the real power which stands astride the world. Your rulers are but puppet clowns, dancing on the strings which gods and daemons tug for their own amusement. This world is but an eddy of dust in the whirlwind of eternity, infinitisimal in the eye of time. What do you think it can signify, to save a nation? What do you think it can matter to the masters of chaos, if a world such as yours were here, or gone, or never at all, when there are so many worlds in the universe of stars?"

"I do not believe that there are masters of Chaos," Harmis replied, as steadily as he could. "Not even those who style themselves as its gods. And I do not care at all what matters to them, or to you or your monstrous kind. I care about what happens to me- which is this world, this nation, and my friends. You have murdered my brother, and thousands of our kin, but you still have me to face, and in the power which Astyanax and fate have given me you will meet your last reckoning. Come down from the throne Ystareth, for it is I who am the judge here, not you."


Ystareth, like so many lost to chaos, have lost sight of what it means to be human. That mortals will fight, not for power, but for the earth upon which they live. For their family and friends. For the very things that make us human. And that characters such as Harmis will sacrifice far more than their souls to do so. 

During my games of Warhammer, I have always attempted to orchestrate such meetings between characters. That final duel between good and evil that will decide the fate, not of nations, but of the characters themselves. Once all that stood between victory or defeat was a single halfling, alone between the broken barricades. A troll squared up to that fragile break in the battle line and charged, yet that halfling summoned his courage and passed his fear test and stood his ground, preventing the troll from breaking through and ultimately winning the battle. So incredible (an unexpected) was this feat, that all the players clapped and cheered the little chap, even those on the 'loosing' side, and everyone agreed that that small event was one of the finest moments in their gaming lives. 

True heroism. 

Overall Score: 4/5 - another worthy read that builds on the successes of Zaragoz. An unexpectedly bleak vision of the Warhammer world. 


So, have you read Plague Daemon recently, or long in the past? What are your thoughts and memories of the novel? 

Orlygg



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Acceptable in the '80s: Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf Army

December 23, 2015, 7:56 am
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It has been a fair few months since we last dipped into Acceptable in the '80s, my history of Warhammer Third Edition through its releases, supplements and associated publications. We are drawing close to the end now. With only seven issues remaining until the first Fourth Edition rules are published! Still, Warhammer sees a bit of a late surge of activity, after a long period of not really being discussed in the magazine. You will have to remember that this period was the mighty age of the Big Box Game, and Space Marine, Dark Future, Heroquest etc were all on the shelves and were often expanded on in the magazine. 

White Dwarf had by now lost it's community feel. 'Eavy Metal articles tail off for a while, largely due to the fact that Bryan took all of the models with him when he sold the company. New models, and indeed games, would follow along shortly, as the company was in dire need of cash. Still, there are one or two gems still to discuss and today's visit is no exception. 

For it is the turn of the Marauder Miniatures Dark Elf Army. 


Karasashalla's Reavers

I must admit to really admiring this army. Looking down at the yellow circle to read the price of this collection on release is enough to make a leadhead weep these days, with eighty four metal models for eighty pounds! The sculpts are nicely varied too, which is something I value deeply about Oldschool Warhammer forces but that is just a quirk peculiar to me I guess, give me fiddly to rank up models any day of the week over generic poses.

There are some fantastic models here, most notably the command figures. Both the mounted leaders are well designed, even if they are sitting on the same cold one sculpt, but it is the Deathcap Hero that has to be one of the finest Marauder Miniatures of all time. It is a tried and tested pose I know, but the combination of the armour, helm and gigantic sword really do tick all the fantasy boxes for me. I know that this range isn't as graceful as the earlier Bob Naismith one, produced for Citadel, but the chunky militant look really chimes a bell, don't you think?

The two crossbow 'regiments', if a unit of ten could be considered such, are probably the weakest design wise in the army. Still, they are solid enough models, even if some of the paint jobs here are a little to be desired. As we know from Tim Prow, Andy Craig and Darren Matthews - these models were often painted at speed during lunchbreaks as a favour to the Morrisons. 



The rest of the infantry models are suitably twisted and look nice and varied which grouped together. Worth mentioning here is the standard bearer model (which appears twice in the advert), as I am pretty certain that I have seen that standard at the Wargames Foundry in Bryan's collection, though it seems to have become detached from the original figure. 

The Whelp Masters are great figures. And the warhounds are unusual in that they are rather historical in nature. These models would serve just about any force that can deploy warhounds, as with a change of colour you can have chaos, undead - whatever. They are certainly worth looking out for, if dangerous canines are your thing. 


To round things off, we have the Dark Elf cavalry that we discussed way back when. They appeared originally in White Dwarf 125 if you are interested in such things. Sixty-five pounds would have seen you fielding twenty mounted Dark Elves. Not bad at all. 

All in all, a solid release from Marauder. Who at this time were the only regular source of new releases for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It makes me wonder if these deals were actually 'worth it' back in the early '80s. I mean, £80 is a fair bit of money today, twenty-five years later, and if you whack the amount into an online 'value' converter it states that the sum is equivalent to just over £160. 

That seems reasonable to me, if you think you'd be getting eighty odd models for your money. What do you think?

Orlygg





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Merry Christmas

December 24, 2015, 12:23 pm
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Do you remember this festive illustration? I found it among the pages of Tony Ackland's incredible portfolio of work at this summer's Oldhammer Weekend. Those warm, balmy days seem a million miles away tonight, on Christmas Eve, but I thought I might share this image once again. 

Happy Christmas to all who have contributed to, or indeed read, this blog. May your stockings be packed with bumper toy solider fare!

Orlygg

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Orlygg's Hobby Review 2015

December 29, 2015, 10:04 am
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With the turning of the year closer than ever, these last few days often become a time of reflection and critique, and having been feeling thoroughly uninspired on the painting front lately, it feels right to start thinking about what I accomplished over the last 12 months. I need a lift in my hobby spirits you see!

A couple of other bloggers have attempted similar things, and indeed, browsing through their body of work from the last twelve months has been highly inspirational and really got me wanting to whack paint on lead again. The dreary winter nights and the lack of decent natural light really put me off my stride, you see. 

Matthew Sullivan ( over on Oldenhamer in Toronto  ) is one such individual, and he has managed to clock up an impressive 161 miniatures in that time. Wow! And if you are not a follower of his blog, I am not talking about 161 basecoat and dip plastic randoms, but an incredible collection of highly quality painted models that stretch from the classic Citadel Gothic Horrors range (of which he painted 18 individual figures) to 73 Star Wars assault miniatures! 


Matthew's Talisman Samurai really made my eyes pop with its gorgeous riot of colours. I am sure that you will agree that he has a beautiful highlighting technique and can produce crisp, sharp colour without any bleaching or fading when lighter paint is added. I am particularly taken with the approach he has used to create that all important depth in his painting and I am guessing he uses a black undercoat and works up the colours. A truly terrific piece and inspiration enough to get me going with something suitably bright and exciting. 

Axoim, of Magpie and Old Lead, also posted a blog about the year in review, only he had been even more prolific that Matthew. with 173 'things' painted, and that includes scenery too! He also fared very well on the gaming front and if you spend any real time on his blog you will quickly see how much effort and time goes into his gaming sessions. And talk about ambitious, he has only gone and created a 'hobby performance' graph to track his development over the last few years. 

Impressive stuff, which helps rekindle the painting flame within old Orlygg, especially with Axoim sharing interesting painted figures like these eldar. 


So what of me, then? How did I fair this year? To be honest, I haven't a clue. But I can flick back through this blog and have a glance over the painted models I produced during the past year and complete a rough tally. I am going to concentrate on painted figures only to start with, so here we go. 

1 Halfling 
2 Night Horrors
4 Clansmen (McDeath)
Banquo (McDeath) 
33 Barbarians
1 Giant
1 Dwarf
Thrud
5 Orcs
1 Chaos Sorcerer 
Julia McEwman, Dokko and Donald (McDeath)
3 Treemen
1 Skeleton
1 Dwarf
1 Knight of Harkness
1 Undead Cavalry 
1 Chaos Thug
Foundry Snorkling Mini Diorama 
Renata/Renate (Death on the Riek) 
Brooban Keyler (McDeath) 
Chaos Hound (McDeath) 
Lord and Lady McDeath
Turtle Dragon
2 Wizards
1 Chaos Beastman (Commission) 
3 Militia 
Ratter 
Palanquin of Nurgle
8 Sheep
8 Scenic Markers

So about 94 completed painted models. Not too bad, I suppose, but nowhere near the lofty heights of Axiom and Matthew. My out put has been quite varied now I look at it, which doesn't surprise me, as I much prefer to paint different things, over working on units or regiments of many similar models. McDeath makes up a large proportion of the complete models, and I probably have the same number again in storage to work on next year. 

So, as my fellow Oldhammerers have done before me, I need to set myself some targets. I definitely want to be well into the 100s by this time next year, with say a rough target of 120 complete models by the end of 2016. With my single glass cabinet already packed with painted models, I am going to have to invest in another display case if I am going to have space to store all these models too! 

A great job for the wife! 

Ah, Raybees. A model that helped drag me from the doldrums early last year. I was very pleased with the finish on his face, but the glow-in-the-dark green of his tunic is a bit over the top perhaps. I am still very pleased with the blue and white stripes on his trousers - which is something I am keen to work on again in the future. 
I spent some time over the last twelve months working on flesh tones and this Night Horror was an early attempt at improving my painting skill here. 
I was able to further improve on painting flesh with my Clansmen...
Barbarians...
And on a far larger scale, this giant. Looking back, I am really pleased with how my technique has improved in this area and I am beginning to experiment a little bit with other tones. 
I have long sought to improve my shield painting skill, something that I was particularly poor at five years ago, and teeny-tiny surfaces like this really push me to my limit (which isn't far!) 
With Thrud, I had the chance to perfect the skin tone I was working on. One of my favourite pieces this year!
Chainmail, and metallics in general, can be a little hit or miss in my work. So one key area I hope to improve in future is the painting of chainmail and platemail. This orc was an early attempt at improving my technique.  He was also my second speed paint of the year. 
Robes and fabric have also been a bit of a bugbear for me. With the skills I developed from painting all those mighty thews in fleshtones, I managed to work sharpen up the look of clothing too. There is still some mileage to go, but I feel like I am making some progress. 
This Night Horror was an attempt to apply the blending I use to create flesh, with a different colour. I am not sure of it worked with red but I am keen to give it another try in future. 
These three warriors showcase my work with metallics. I feel that armour and chainmail painting is much stronger in my work now, though sword blades have regressed somewhat if I am being honest. I think I need to find a very bright silver paint to pick out the edges of the blades. 
Goodness, did I struggle with these treemen but I am really pleased with the end result. I think these are version three. Like Thrud, these models are some of my best work this year. 
I had these models loitering around my paintstation for years and I set myself the task of getting them completed. Again, I had the chance to work on shield designs. 
Brown and black are two colours I need to work on. I am after more rich tones of brown than I currently produce (the highlights look too washed out) and as for my black, they look either too flat or too grey! I was pleased with the result I got here though, even if on other figures the colours are hit or miss. 
I was pleased with the armour on this Knight of Harkness. I used a blue wash to try and make the armour 'shine' a little and create a little tonal difference to the other metal armour I have painted. Probably my best armour paintjob yet.
My first speed paint. I took my just over an hour to paint this whole model - and it shows - but the experience was very beneficial. My painting style became a lot faster as a result. It is an experiment I would recommend to anyone. 
This was another early speed paint. Not one of my best, but perfectly acceptable for rank and file. 
I painted this in a morning and really enjoyed the process. It was also my first piece of painting all in the new Foundry Paints. Oh, and it also won a prize at the Oldhammer Weekend this year. Thanks Chico! 
I was pleased with the colours on Renata. I wanted something bright that would reflect the gypsy inspiration, so used lots of different colours for her clothing. She is also the most expensive miniature I have ever bought - don't tell the wife!
My favourite model this year. A wonderfully characterful sculpt and my best paintjob. I am really pleased with how the colours I chose just 'work' as a coherent whole. 
Spot was a restoration project and if you don't look too closely, I did an okay job. 
Lady McDeath came out better than I had expected - considering I was attempting to recreate her look from the John Blanche artwork. My second favourite piece of the year. 
Creating a sense of depth is important in figure painting, and this one (Fergus McEwman) is one of my very best. I am also very pleased with the skin tones here. 
The Dragon Turtle was a rather fiddly job. With no base to hold onto, I had to be careful not to smudge or damage the painting I had already completed. I am pleased with the shell - and it is always worth having a look at natural history photographs for inspiration if you are attempting a large creature. 
Mergrey Calchoner, a wizard from McDeath, who's colour scheme came directly from the card handouts in the game itself. A lovely combination of colours. 
These were hard work. As I have said, I dislike painting big units of samey models but I am pleased that I managed to get these barbarians finished. I used speed painting throughout. 
Though rather dubiously clothed, these barbarian ladies were also fun to paint. I have another four or five of these models and I hope to add a rank and standard to this unit in future. 
More barbarians from the lengthy painting process for the McDeath rank and file.
Though a Scottish caricature, the clansmen were entertaining to paint up, though I feel that I could easily done better on the tartan. Still, they needed to ready to take to the Oldhammer Weekend so they had to stay as they were. 
My final batch of barbarians, and though these were painted very quickly, it was at this point that my speed painted output started to resemble my usual style. 
McDeath was a challenge. I wanted to use the established artwork as a basis for his colour scheme (as I did with Lady McDeath) and gold is hardly a strength in my work. Still, I think I did an okay job and old McDeath is ready for battle. The model on the left is now part of the Stuart Kletcheff's collection. This beastman is a true one hour speed paint and was a frantic rush. 
Three rather blurry orcs. I tried to change the colour of their skin from my usual recipe. I hope to do some more orcs in this same style soon.
I loved doing these. The Three Murderers for the Glenwoe scenario - oh, and Ratter! 
My Tale of Four Oldhammerers contribution. My only completed model so far. I need to get going with this project once again!
My unreleased Citadel druid that the Grubzup! model won me at BOYL3. Here, I was keen to do something with pure white as it is always a difficult colour to shade. I used blue in the end. 

Like Axiom, I dabbled with a little bit of scenery this year, though it was nothing spectacular. My major project was the creation of a mini-gaming table out of the junk I had lying around the house. I used two old pinboards as bases, and built them up with sheets of foamboard (including old fashioned hills) and I must say, the experience taught be a great deal about creating the 'third army' - a gaming table that looks as good as you painted figures. 


Here you can see the board in action. It is very lightweight and portable (which was exactly what I wanted) and though small in scale, it is just the right size for a large warbands game. In the photograph above you can see Stuart Klatcheff's McEwman force advancing on Drew William's embattled Greevant/McArno alliance while Tony Ackland, the original artist who worked on McDeath, looking on. 

 
To help bring the board alive a little bit more, I painted up some sheep. Foundry do a lovely little set (complete with shepherd) in metal and I bought a pack during Salute. Small clumps of foliage do the same.


I mentioned earlier that I painted 8 little scenery markers and you can see some of them in this shot. Little tables, chairs, sacks of flour or barrels help break up the space around buildings and made a place look a little more lived in and realistic. They are also useful objective markers. The stone sheep pen was created from some old Brittain's walls I bought at a carboot sale. Based with plasticard and textured with a little sand and static grass, it makes a fine scenery piece.

You can also see most of the four buildings I completed this year (though I have three others than are not yet finished so I will not be including them here), two of which are original Warhammer Townscape cardstock, and two of which were printed out. Can you tell which is which?

I was also able to get more games in than ever before, largely thanks to the wonderful community we have built over the last three years. 

My first game was in May, on the 16th actually, and I travelled up to the Foundry to meet up with Oldhammer colleagues, most notably Stuart Klatcheff, Warlord Paul Mitchell, Steve 'Citadel Collector' Casey and Thantsants for another in our Albion Adventure games. With the election (and referendum) still in people's minds, the game was all about the greasy politics of getting your vote cast.
I was also able to catch this fine shot during our May visit. Oldhammer fans cluster around the Mighty Avenger to gawp at the wonders he brought forth from Stoke Hall. 
Of course, August means Oldhammer like no other month. As has become traditional, many of us gathered at the Wargames Foundry in Nottinghamshire to take part our biggest event yet! I managed to get two very good games of McDeath in during the weekend, though I must confess, I spent most of my time just chatting and enjoying the enthusiasm of others.
Later on that month, I managed to catch up with my old friend Dan, who you may recall from my Realm of Chaos Warseer days. I hadn't seen him for quite some time, so it was great fun to create and play through a scenario with him in the warm sunshine of my gaming conservatory. 
And finally, on Halloween I visited the Wargames Foundry for the THIRD time in 2015 and played out a scenario in the Night of the Living Dead series. 
So, looking back it has been a really exciting and productive year. I think that spending this afternoon going through my 2015 Oldhammer journey was well worth it, as I now feel much more positive about the pile of lead and dusty paints on my desk. But what to paint first? Something different and simple to help get the old muscle memory back on form. 

But what exactly?

Before I pop off to undercoat something interesting I would just like to thank everyone who rolled dice with me this year, especially Warlord Paul, Steve the Citadel Collector and Thantsants. Special mention must be made at this point to Stuart 'My Chauffeur' Klatcheff, who drove me to the Foundry and back more than once this year. 

Hurrah! 

See you all next year, if not before!

Orlygg
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A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers: December

December 31, 2015, 6:56 am
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Published just time time to make my fellow gamer (Warlord Paul's) blog post out of date, points wise at least, I have returned to the business of A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers after a long absence. Sadly, we have had quite a bit to deal with family and work wise and hobby time has been seriously reduced. My mojo has also been seriously drained by the bleak winter light, but inspired by the glorious output of many a Oldhammerer I have picked up the brush once again and set to work. 

The chaos warrior you see before you is the second model in my new Nurgle army, after the Palanquin of Nurgle I completed last time. If truth be told, I began work on this model in late October, and started work a proper in November. It has taken me just under two months to finish it. No wonder I am languishing at the bottom of our league table!

As with the palanquin model, I used the randomly generated charts in the Lost and the Damned to create the background to this model. There is a handy champion chart on p.209 and I rolled a d1000 to determine what my second character would have in terms of attributes. The dice came in with a lowly 44, so I hastily flicked through the book to find out what fate had in store.

Well, my second character would be a human and have Blood Substitution (maggots) and Agility as their attributes, along with chaos armour. You can field an infinite number of champions as part of your army, each costing 100 points at a base rate, so reaching the target each month shouldn't be too difficult, as if I am in a fix I can just roll off and create a new champion. The trouble is, some of them can turn out to be pretty weak and feeble, a bit like my leader, so there is always a risk. 


The model was pretty straightforwards to paint, if time consuming. As you might have guessed, I have painted A LOT of chaos armour of a variety of hues in my time, so finishing this was no real struggle. I used Foundry's bright green as a base before mixing in a little yellow and bleached bone to achieve the highlights. The shading was added using the same base colour I created with the addition of plenty of black and green ink. 

I quite like using red alongside green, so chose a fairly dark shade to pick out the gloves. I opted for a cheeky blue spot colour too, on the fiendishly faced codpiece! Gold, again Foundry, was used to pick out a few details here and there and silver drubrushing brought out the detail on the chainmail and sword. I used a series of glazes to cut back the brightness of the silver paint and make the figure look a little more dirty. 

The Lost and the Damned has some great ideas for iconography and I wanted to do something a little different on his shield. I chose the plague chalice design and painted it up on a yellow background (chosen to contrast with the green) but used a very similar green for the cup - to help tie the shield back in with the rest of the model. 

If you look at the chaos warrior model, you might notice that it has several maggots or worms wriggling from within. I painted these up using a nice pink created by mixing a dark red with pure white. I repeated the maggot idea on the shield - again to tie the two together. 


Having now completed two character models I am going to opt for a proper unit for January. As I love the old plastic GW skeletons, I am going to do a unit of them. In the Nurgle list, they are known as plague skeletons - and will need an undead hero or chaos champion to lead them. If I plan to paint 14 models - this will take me up to 140 points for the skellies plus whatever the leader of the unit will cost. Of course, If I upgrade the unit further I can probably reach 200 points, which would make up for the month of November that I missed. 

Right, I am off to finish a couple of other painting projects. 

Happy New Year!

Orlygg
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The Mysterious Citadel Chaos Agent

January 1, 2016, 6:55 am
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Welcome to 2016. I have to say that I am glad we are getting a little more light now as the days are slowly becoming longer. With my will to paint now quite strong (and I have a number of little projects that I am working on at the moment) and with the need to complete fifteen skeletons by the end of the January, I felt its necessary to get going with brush, water and paint something. I chose this rather unusual model from the depths of my collection. 

He was part of a big job lot I bought a couple of years ago, I knew he was something unusual then, just from having collected these models for years, but I knew very little about him beyond him being some kind of follower of chaos. If your observe the detail on the model - and my photograph is too poor for you to do so here - you will see a tiny Khorne symbol on his chest badge. So he was clearly meant to be a follower of the Blood God in some way. 

I am an advocate of speed painting. It really does help strengthen your skills and can help get a greater number of models complete and on the table, if you can cope with the drop in finish (which I can). I set myself of two hours for this model and set to work. Most of my time was spent on the robe, which was built up in stages using layering. To each layer I added a little bit more yellow to slowly draw out the folds of the material. I spent just under an hour on that part of the model, which meant that I had an hour left for the rest of it!

The rope was simple. A brown base coat and wash (dried with a hairdryer) layered over with my Foundry triad for bone. This took all of five minutes to complete and I really cannot recommend Foundry paint and hairdryers enough! The flesh took a little longer to work out, but I ended up with a purply pink. It was at this point I realised that the face and hands were a little mis-cast and much of the fine detail obscured. I just painted the worse affected areas black and highlighted with a little grey. I don't think it looks too bad. 

With time running out, it was a case of a quick layer of dark silver on the blade and gold on the pommel of the dagger, and a quick highlight before work began on the base. I used my usual high speed retro method for the base and took advantage of what little natural light remained to snap this picture. 


All in all, I am pleased with the result but I was left wondering what range the figure really belonged to. So, I headed straight over to Solegends and the collection of Orclord. By my reckoning, the famed collector (who also goes my the strange moniker of Richard Hale) would have a decent painted version of him and I could find out a little more. I was in luck, as it seems he was originally called a Chaos Agent and was released with two zombies - one of whom was the Vietnam dressed example. This rang a bell with me somewhere, and I recalled fairly certainly that I had seen these figures in Rogue Trader packaging at some point - so perhaps they were part of 40k. 

Now as many of you will know, I am a Warhammer-centric painter and collector, and Rogue Trader doesn't really interest me much at all. The figure is still very useful to me as a character model for my Khorne army mind, and it was with such a purpose he was painted. But what did he have to do with Rogue Trader? I certainly don't recall seeing him in a White Dwarf, nor can I recall any associated rules for chaos agents and their zombies!

Luckily, Orclord has already found the answer to this mystery. It seems that they were produced as an expansion of the Chainsaw Warrior miniatures set, but were ultimately released with 40k packaging. More visual material can be found here if you are interested.

So the Chaos Agent has a bit of a strange pedigree. Designed for Chainsaw Warrior, released under the Rogue Trader banner and now serving as part of my old school Khorne army.

An interesting figure to own and paint.

Orlygg
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So what was your first miniature?

January 2, 2016, 7:02 am
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Psychostyrene Dwarf Artwork used as the backing art for the blister they were sold in.
As miniature collectors and painters we ask each other all kinds of questions. How much did you pay for that miniature? How did you achieve that effect with paint? What are the rules for using chariots? I could continue in this way for most of the day, easily, as I suspect could any other grognard. 

One question that we don't seem to ask very much concerns that moment in time, long past, when we bought our very first miniature. For the first time, we peeled open one of those blister packs and held a miniature in our grubby hands, or perhaps tore away the cellophane wrapping around a Big Box Game, like the immortal Heroquest, and sat gaping at the mass of plastic sprues that lay before us. 

So to ask my question: What was your first ever miniature and in what year did you buy it in?

Casting my mind back, it is actually pretty difficult to be sure what my first miniature (or miniatures) actually were. I know when I bought them, in late '88 in Wonderworld near Bournemouth. Surprisingly, the shop is still there, though not quite in the original location, and it concentrates on the comics trade these days, so I doubt that there will be a copy of Rogue Trader left on the shelves after all this time. I am 90% sure that the first pack of models I bought were these: 



Oxy O'Cetylene and the Tinman. But I have vague memories of having a Paranoia robot or two way back then, so it may have been one of those, though it is more likely that I bought both at the same time. I can recall spotting the advert for Wonderworld in White Dwarf and badgering my dad to take me. The shop wasn't far from a Model Railway Shop and dad was a keen enthusiast of steam trains, so was happy enough to take me after I had spent what felt like forever wandering around looking at tracks and signal boxes. 

I can still feel that excitement upon entering Wonderworld that day. It was dark, dingy but crammed from floor to ceiling with gaming kit. Car Wars, Dr Who soundtracks (illegal copies on tape), roleplaying books and rows of movie tat. Then there was the enormous Blister Wall and the boxes and boxes of Games Workshop products. I expect that Oxy and friend were part of a bargain bin lot, as I can faintly recall grubbing around in a pile of battered blisters. Being a parent now, I know that you don't really want to spend much when your offspring get interested in something new, you must purchase something cheap first to check that the interest level maintains itself before spending the serious money. So I guess that is what dad did. 

When I got home, I used pots of Humbrol enamel to paint the Tinman but considered Oxy too fiddly to attempt in that first session. Though later, I did use the paints I had for my plastic Airfix Napoleonics to blob colours on Oxy. He didn't look a pretty sight and my dad put him in turps so I could have another go. Which I did a few years later, when I painted him up as a leaving gift for my Teacher, Mr Cooper. Sadly, in my teaching career, none of my pupils have presented me with an unusual Citadel miniature at the end of the year! 

And so Oxy left me. The Tinman lived on for a while, taking part in many a battle on the bedroom floor. In my games, he was elevated to a more powerful central character, and fought a long war against the ogre, Vomitbreath, until suffering that most serious injury of the snapped ankle. In the days before I knew about pinning, this meant retirement for any of my models. But this disaster had a positive outcome in future years, as because he was broken, my Tinman model survived the two periods of 'selling off the collection' that I carried out in the early 2000s. Hence, I was able to find him in my garage the other day when I was thinking about our question at hand. 

After a spell in the Dettol, I attempted to clean the Tinman up, and in doing so nearly lost his other foot! At some time in the past I must have repaired both feet, but I had clearly forgotten that and risked losing a vital piece of him down the plug hole. Once clean, I did a really decent job of pinning him back together with decent wire. I left a long piece of wire sticking out of each foot and used them to attach him very securely onto a large, square base. Luckily, some time ago I picked up a second Oxy from eBay as I knew that I had the Tinman lying around somewhere. Scrabbling around in the collection for a while, I spotted him in the odds and sods bag in the Welsh Dresser and the two were re-united once again (even if Oxy is an imposter!) 


If you didn't know, the Tinman and Oxy were a limited edition release and were part of a scenario published in White Dwarf called the Crude, the Mad and the Rusty. There are only 6 models in this little collection and the scenario includes the original, and highly sought after, Skrag the Slaughterer. I may have a go at tracking down the rest of the models one day, to make Oxy and Tinman feel even more at home. 



If you are interested in finding out a little more about the scenario (including it's brain-meltingly bad full colour game board) then I have embedded a link to issue 83 of White Dwarf via Scribd. The scenario details begin on page 30 so it is pretty easy to just scroll through the other pages to find it. 

I suppose that simply sharing the story of your first miniature is not going to be challenge enough for some folk, me included. So I took things a step further forwards and set about actually painting my 'first ever miniature/s' in glorious technicolour. 


And here they are! Apologies for the unsightly blond hair, but my three year old daughter was playing with my scenery just before I took this little shot and left one of her little markers for us all to enjoy. Perhaps it is chaos tape worm? As you can see, Oxy is an interesting little dwarf wearing grubby working clothes, so I chose a suitably oily blue for his overalls and a dirty brown for the apron. Both painted up very easily. It was very easy to just basecoat the metal parts silver, give them a black and chestnut ink wash and highlight with two lighter shades of the colour. I added a few little spot colours to the other tools in the apron, which you can just about make out in my photograph, as well as using silver once again ti pick out files, hammers and screwdrivers. 

The flesh tone was my usual method, with an added layer of red to make Oxy seem a little more ruddy than normal. I used a red ink wash to draw attention to the spots that cover his face (though they might also be warts, I suppose?) and dotted their heads with a little yellow. His blond beard was easy enough to paint on, again with layering but I chose to fiddle around a bit more with his welding mask and blow-torch. 

The mask was a case of basecoating in a sliver/black mix and washing over in black ink and wiping away the excess on the flat surfaces with a damp brush. I then drybrushed over the top in silver to bring out the detail. Blue ink was dribbled into the eyeholes to give them a slightly different glassy sheen. The blowtorch started out much the same, only I watered down the blue ink wash and used it to glaze over the silver paint, giving the torch a blue tint. Once dry, I just drybrushed over with silver and used straight ink (black and brown) to make the end of the torch look used. Then, all I had to do was base him and old Oxy was complete.

Tinman was a little different. A nice black/silver mix created my basecoat and I washed over the lot with black ink. A brown ink wash followed up to create rusty patches here and there. Once dry, I blocked in a mid silver all over the body, leaving plenty of black lining to create depth, and highlighted in pure silver. Here and there I painted a few brass sections and a red wheel on a gas tap for interest. Then it was just a case of basing him in a similar way to Oxy and he too was done, though I may come back to him later and tart him up a bit more when I buy a brighter silver paint. 

So, to conclude. There is my story of the first miniature I ever bought: The LE14 Oxy O'Cetylene and Tinman blister. For bonus points I have tracked down the actual models and given them a sparkling new paintjob. Now, dear reader, you can do something for me! Kindly share with me the details of what YOUR first miniature was and the year you bought it. I'd love to know!

Oh, and if you fancy a challenge, why not have a go at tracking down those models once again and repainting them with all the flair you can muster today. Just let me know somehow because I would love to see what you come up with. 

Looking forwards to hearing your stories!

Orlygg
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Women In Warhammer

January 3, 2016, 1:02 pm
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No matter how hard an artist works, sometimes it is impossible for them to not reflect the age they are working in. Much like those Hollywood films they play on Sunday afternoons where no matter the period in history, every lady has a nineteen-fifties or sixties haircut. I think the same can be said for David Gallagher's Dragonslayer (see above) on the cover of White Dwarf 88, for though encased in a very serviceable suit of armour and wielding an equally serviceable sword, she has a distinct whiff of the nineteen-eighties when it comes to the hairdo and makeup. 

I love this piece of art and I find it as striking an image today as I did when I first saw it. I like the way that Gallagher presents this lady as being both very capable (not only does she look it, but she's slotted a dragon too) but also more realistically clothed. Her armour, after all, is plausible and take away the black tights, looks identical to the armour a man in her situation would wear. As an historical aside, Norman Knights wore hose under their armour and kept them secured with suspenders apparently, so perhaps we can let the tights stay. 

One thing I often find a little frustrating about women in wargames (the sculpted figures, not the players or painters) are the daft and implausible models that you see on offer, e.g. the big breasted glamour-girl type who forgot to put her clothes on in the morning when she has a dragon to slay in the afternoon. 

I am sure you can think of many examples of the models I mean, from both wargames and roleplaying games, on both paper and pixel. I am sure that there are plenty of people out there you enjoy figures like this, but I am not one of them really. I much prefer the female figures in my games to look like they are actually capable of fighting, if they are a fighter, or casting a spell if they are a wizard. 

This figure originally appeared as Mace Lady. Painted by Cubs.
My kind of woman in Warhammer is Julia McEwman. Realistically armoured and equipped as seen in this beautifully painted example by a chap known as Cubs. In many ways she is similar to David Gallagher's Dragonslayer. She wears plausible armour and carries a plausible weapon. Her gender is highly relevant to the McDeath scenario but not for the reason that many would think. McDeath after all cannot be harmed by any man, so Julia is one of the few options they attacking player has of felling the villain of the piece. Having collected McDeath figures for a long time and having gone as far as creating the first scenario in which she appears, Winwood Harbour, in great detail, I cannot say that anyone I ran through the game with thought any less of Julia because of her gender, she was just another powerful commander to be fielded and fought with. 

I think her equipment helped create that feeling towards her. She can be taken seriously. 

Now Warhammer, and Warhammer 40,000, has been given some flack online about being sexist. Perhaps you have seen one of the threads that occur here and there. There is an interesting article here that bemoans Slaves to Darkness as being a sexist tome for not portraying women in equal proportions to men, as well as poaching various quotes from the interviews I have done with Bryan Ansell and Tony Ackland. There are others online if you search for them, though they haven't nicked quotes from my work and not provided a link to their source. 

Gender and Representation in Warhammer's Realm of Chaos is typical of it's trope, an attempt to brand Warhammer sexist because it lacks an equal number of female characters and roles. This kind of argument is heavily flawed, as for starters Warhammer's background is based on Renaissance Europe and a period in time when women were treated very differently than they are today, hence they appear much more infrequently than their male counterparts 

The same 'logic' of a sexist agenda can be applied to almost any other toy too, just look at this catalogue page for Barbie toys that I used to buy one of my daughter's Christmas presents - she had the bubble making mermaid if you are interested - and you will see over the first two pages of products that out of forty odd dolls, only three of them are male and two of those dolls are represented wearing very little, baring their muscular plastic chests! The same trend can be seen in the other toys she is interested in, with a wealth of predominately female characters and a few male. 

I don't believe for one minute that Warhammer, Barbie or Disney Princess are in anyway sexist but it is fair to say that Citadel Miniatures, and other manufacturers, have released some truly awful examples of female models, but there have also been some really good examples though sadly, these are much fewer in number. 

I thought it might be interesting to have a look at some Citadel's lows (and believe me, they go pretty low at times) and some of the highs in the way they have represented women in the game. I am going to stick to period with this list, and pretty much focus on stuff released in the 1980s. 

From Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki
By far the worst offender in Citadel's long history has to be the series of models released as part of the Fantasy Specials range in the early '80s, of which this example, FS10-1 or Naked Girl Roasting on Spit over Brazier, has to be the most extreme. Not only is the model very crudely sculpted, it is generally an very unpleasant concept for a toy soldier and I can see little merit in producing models like this apart to revel in their brutality. A drunk dwarf is fun, but this is not. 

From Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki
There were a whole range of sculpts produced in this series and they all shared a similar theme - women without clothing being tortured on historically accurate devices. Stocks, pillories and the rack all have their examples, as does an iron maiden (the punishment, not the band.)

From Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki
If having a collection of tortured girlfolk wasn't enough, you could always invest in a topless torturer herself! Though not as bad as the models we have seen so far, this girl looks like an extra from one dreadful 1970s exploitation films. But at least she has a few clothes on. This model has a number of variants but the basic premise is the same on all of them. 

From Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki
Unlike this example, though at least she is just sitting down. Still, the model seems to imply that she is somehow subjugated or held captive.

From Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki
Still, there were other female models about at the time which portrayed women in a more aggressive way, like this rather scary looking individual from the Fantasy Adventurers range. There are a number of variants again with this model, and indeed I have one of them. I like the fact that the ladies here and shown to be much larger than normal, reflecting different body sizes and so on. Though very different from the dragonslayer that opened this post, you feel that this lady knows her business and isn't anyone's fool. 

Looking through the rest of the Fantasy Adventurers range, there are a number of other female figures in there that fit more closely with the scantily clad cliche, particularly spellcasters, though there is an amusing model called a Seductive Wench, who though she looks harmless from the front, look behind her and you can see she is holding a dagger very firmly behind her back. But, she isn't a fighter like our dragonslayer but there are three other examples in that range alone that could easily join her. Have a look:

FA 18-2 Female Cleric with mace from Stuff of Legends
FA 19-2 Female Fighter with Sword  from Stuff of Legends
FA 30-2 Female Ranger  from Stuff of Legends
Sure, you could say that some of these models are a little leggy - but their outfits could be found on male miniatures in the same (or contemporary ranges) and on historical equivalents. And again, these examples portray an individual who knows their business - so I quite like them. They all have echoes of Julia (or Mace Lady) and the dragonslayer from White Dwarf 88. 

Amazons - from Orclord's collection.

Later on in the 1980s Citadel released the Amazon range in support of the Shrine of Rigg scenario in Compendium 2. These are excellent models and are now highly sought after. Here, though obviously female, none of the bugbears I have mentioned before are on show. They look competent and wear realistic clothing that seems appropriate for their role in the scenario. There are no scanty thongs on show here but a consistent and well designed series of models. Much better than the slave girls from earlier years. 

Of course, no discussion on Women in Warhammer can be complete without the villagers and townsfolk ranges produced throughout the 1980s. There are an abundance of female miniatures to be found here, and though not overtly militaristic like the Amazons, they do attempt to show females in the Warhammer world in all aspects of society - just like male figures. 

Take a look:

A Noble Woman from Orclord's collection.
Mother and Child from Orclord's collection.
Mother and Child from the dwarf villagers range - and yes, there were once female dwarf models in the game. Orclord's.
An old hag from Orclord's collection.
Washer Woman from Orclord's collection. 
The villagers and townsfolk ranges are some of my favourites and I have a large number of them. There are far more female figures in the ranges than I have had space to show here and all of them sit comfortably with me. Sure, you have some less moral stereotypes in there, and some lowly tavern wenches too, but you also have some haughty ladies in fine dresses, just like in any genuine Renaissance town or village. 

From the author's own collection.
And no discussion about Women in Warhammer can be held without mentioning these two, Wanda and Kristen, two of the characters from the epic Enemy Within Campaign. They were originally villager models but were pressed into service for the miniature release of the roleplaying supplement. Again, they don't bother me because they represent real people in a fantasy world, Wanda is dressed as a wealthy woman and Kirsten in the clothes of a sneak thief - which reflects the backgrounds of both characters nicely. It is worth pointing out that these are major characters in WFRP's biggest scenario, and though there are five other male characters, these are broken down into two humans, a halfling and an elf. The human characters are presented equally - two men and two women. 

Wanda and Kirsten were not the only major female characters in WFRP's The Enemy Within either, though only one of them received a new model to represent them. That was Renata/Renate and I am lucky enough to own a painted version of this rare model.

Have a look: 

From author's collection
I bought her for a hefty price because she doesn't look like a ridiculous caricature of a woman in Warhammer. She wears appropriate clothing and knows how to use a bow. She is a variant of another female character, and we return to McDeath as we begin to wrap up this blog post.

I am talking of course about Sandra Prangle. Here he is:

Taken from eBay listing. Photographer unknown.
There are slight variations between the two models, but they are appropriate and realistic - in fact the only proposturous thing you can say about Sandra, is the price tag she often sells for! While on the subject of McDeath, perhaps the single Warhammer release bar the Shrine of Rigg to have such a high number of female characters, we need to mention Lady McDeath - the evil sorceress and all round evil doer. 

From the author's own collection.
Of course, this blog post has missed out a great number of female models released in the 1980s for use in Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000. There simply isn't space as there really are so many of them, and yes a few of them (and I really do mean a few) are incredibly awful, but on the whole there are far more female models than I had originally expected and most of them are quite positive. Of course, the amount of them is far fewer than their male equivalents and some of them do slip into the dubious zone of implausible clothing, at least they are there. 

Which cannot really be said on the more modern ranges of Warhammer or Warhammer 40,000. A browse through the modern ranges reveals very few female characters. It seems that though the rest of the world has progressed in terms of gender equality, Games Workshop seems to have regressed significantly. 

And that is very sad. 

Orlygg
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A Warhammer Bestiary: Manticore

January 10, 2016, 6:32 am
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Ages ago I started a painting project, but like so many others before me, it became lost in the myriad of other projects that I started working on. It was called A Warhammer Bestiary and it was my attempt to paint one model for each entry in the Warhammer Third Edition Bestiary. Clicking on the link will take you through the models I have completed so far, that is the entire 'Intelligent Races' section from the book. I also managed to get a giant painted (the first entry in the 'Giant Races' section, obviously) before McDeath and a couple of other projects took hold. I just checked through my blog and discovered that I first started trying to work through the bestiary over two years ago, and that the last entry I posted was way back in March last year!

Rather by accident, I have started work once again on the project. I had a Jes Goodwin manticore lying around on my workstation for ages and ages, and last night, while I was working on one of this month's entries to A Tale of Four Oldhammer Gamers, I slapped on a little colour and inked on the shading. He is way off my chronological list ( minotaurs are next for the project) but we can treat him as a detour like we did the treemen. 

As it was reasonably bright this morning (for winter) I put my entry to one side and cracked on with this beautiful beast. Surprisingly, he painted up rather quickly and I was very pleased with the result, though there are a couple of areas I would like to revisit on the mane and scorpion tail - but he will do for now. 


The background for Manticores can be found on p.256 of WFB3 and it states that these chaotic beasts were created as a side effect of the collapse of the Old Slann warpgates. They generally have a head of a man, and I painted my model to reflect this little nugget of information, the body of a lion, wings and some kind of prehensile tail, in this model's case - the tail of an arachnid, complete with sting! 

I tried out a few new things with this piece. Painting a decent orange was the first and most significant. Usually, my oranges come out either too muddy (looking like a yellow clay) or far too red, so I am really proud of the rich tone I have managed to bring out here. My secret? The Foundry yellow triad, oh and some careful highlighting too. 


Painting black can be tricky, so I was keen to try out highlighting the colour with blue on the tail. Andy Craig mentioned such a technique to me way back when, so I thought it about time I had a crack at it. It was fairly straightforwards- I selected a bright blue, mixed in a fair blob of black and basecoated the tail, slowly, I added a little more and a little more of the blue until I was using just blue as the final highlight. 

Having a read through the rules, Manticores are fearsome creatures on the tabletop and weigh in at an impressive 200 points each, 250 points if winged! So this model is one terrifying beast! Have a look if you are interested..



Right, I have a couple of other projects on the boil at the moment as I have already said, but hopefully it won't be months and months until I have another crack at a model in this one. I shall be returning to task next time, as I am supposed to be attempting to paint all of the models in the order they are listed in the Bestiary - so my next piece will be a minotaur!

Orlygg
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The Malignancy of Malal: A Pantheon of Chaos WIP of a 'Malal Beast'

January 13, 2016, 9:37 am
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I saw this when I got home and I just had to share it for all those bloggers who don't frequent Facebook. The Pantheon of Chaos boys are at it again and they have only gone as far as sculpting the suspected 'Beast of Malal' creature.

If you don't recall the image, have a look below, and cast your mind back a couple of years when I worked with Anthony Ackland to recreate the daemonic pantheon of Malal. A number of other websites have now jumped in on this piece of research and are displaying the creatures on their webpages and wikis, but the original article can be found here. 



Of course, what those lesser websites don't state is that the Malal pantheon we presented is more conjecture than fact, but nevertheless it gives interested parties something to work with. The famous 'Beast' drawing under discussion was published in the the Lost and the Damned as part of the 'independent daemons' section, and never officially tied to Malal.  

Diego Serrate shared a few snaps of this startling sculpt today and, fingers crossed, we will see some of the other creatures from those old concepts created in putty in the not too near future. When, oh when will this kickstart!!!!?


Further information about the Pantheon of Chaos can be found on Facebook. Just follow this link!


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