Where are they now? Slaves to Darkness original cover painting found in Canada!

About a year ago, I posed a question. I asked 'where are all of the original pieces of art for the classic 1980s GW releases'? For example, on whose wall did the cover painting from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition rulebook hang? And what about the cover painting of Warhammer Armies? Or Warhammer Siege? 

Did they even still exist? After the tales we learnt together of dumped material in rain sodden skips? If you need a refresher, or were not part of our community this time last year, have a quick look at my original article here.

We have had some success. Tim Pollard's collection was a revelation, with some very famous White Dwarf and other minor supplement covers in his collection. Some of Tony Hough's Eldar turned up too. The Ansell family owned the original Warhamer Fantasy Battle painting from 1983, as those of us at the last Oldhammer Weekend would have seen. But it wasn't until Pat Robinson contacted me to share the fact that he owned the original cover painting for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay did we start hitting on the big league.

Well, Pat has got back in contact with me and is keen to talk to you dear readers about his latest purchase, the original painting from the Slaves to Darkness cover!

I'll hand over to Pat and he will fill you in on all the juicy details. I will just add a big thank you to him once again for remembering the Oldhammer Community and sharing his discovery with us all here.

Over to you Pat...

For all the worshipers of Khorne and the Slaanesh – and who isn’t? – here are a few pictures of the original painting of Slaves to Darkness, by John Sibbick. 

    

When I acquired this, I believe that was one of the last of John’s Warhammer pieces, and my framer framed it as a set with the original WFRP cover from John that was discussed on this blog in October of last year. 

Pat's evocative frame for Slaves to Darkness

Slaves to Darkness is a fun painting, with that smiling hound of Khorne in the bottom right, and the bright colours and contrasts of the various horrors.  

It is exactly what the World of Warhammer is supposed to feel like.  So, we framed this one with a little more fun in mind, in contrast to the somewhat more grim WFRP cover.  The dark maroon suede matting really emphasizes the crazy World of Warhammer, in my opinion. It would be perfect to use as a background on a blog, or something!  

As we framed these together, we chose the identical lizard-scaled frame, but in jet-black this time.   I think they look pretty good together, and they are always fun to review, as there is just so much going on – you will always notice some small new detail.   They are always a conversation piece, to be sure.  Although sometimes the conversation is from my wife, Irina, asking why we have so many monster paintings hanging in the house!

As with all his paintings that I have seen, John kept this one in perfect shape.    I wish I had a time machine to go back and get some more from John, as his paintings really stand out as something special from the 1980s.

The original preliminary artwork for Slaves to Darkness. I am not sure if this has ever been published before! I am certain that I have never seen this.

John emailed me a picture of the preliminary, which I confess I do not own, and he thinks was sold.  There are some interesting points in this very detailed prelim.  Most noticeably, there was at one point to be an orc-type beast on the spine, behind the large axe, but presumably he was cut because John remembered his sacrificial alter did not make it on the WFRP book, due to Games Workshop not having art on the spine, typically.

A close up of the previously unknown (to me anyway) Khornate orc from Slaves to Darkness. In fact, looking at it again poss the question, is it supposed to be an orc? Lizardman? Beastman?

John obviously nailed the colours, as they are exactly as described in the preliminary - it is almost like two paintings.  The prelim details were so precise, there were not many other significant changes in the final painting, other than filling in the details and adding some background villains to give a greater sense of depth.  Also, one of the shields has “Khorne” written on it, if you look closely.

He even planned out some more heads on spikes.  I look forward to a discussion as to who's heads these are?  Sibbick?  Gallagher?  Some luckless GW intern? 

Pat's art collection hanging on his walls. 

As I said, these are great conversation pieces for my gaming friends, and I am honoured to be able to display them.  Sometimes I am asked about this painting’s cousin, the Lost and the Damned cover – “Nurgle” by Les Edwards… While I have a few Fighting Fantasy game book covers from Les, sadly, he sold Nurgle long, long ago (and not to me, I swear!)…  So, there remains a mystery out there as to who can track down what has been lost… and what is lost and damned!!

Cheers from Calgary,

Pat

Once again I have to thank Pat for sharing his collection with us. But he poses us an interesting question, doesn't he? Where is the original Lost and the Damned artwork?

If you know, or know of the location of any other artworks, please get in contact with us here at realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk.

Orlygg

NEW Antiquis Malleum Greens by Drew Williams and more Ackland Concept Art

Great news this morning for those of you eager for more info about Eastern Front's Antiquis Malleum range of Oldhammer inspired miniatures. As you will have seen, Drew Williams (the other principle sculptor we have on the project, along with Tim Prow) has completed his first three greens. What do you think?

Additionally, more of Tony Ackland's concept art has oozed out babbling incoherently from the Realm of Chaos. Among them are the striking images of the proposed 'chaos steeds' that will, hopefully, be used to produce mounted versions of the figures above. And before you ask, there are plans afoot for armoured versions of these mounts too. As with the other models, these steeds will be scaled to the '80s Citadel range so if you are having difficulty finding chaos mounts for your old school models, these will prove to be rather useful. 

Have a look at the ideas and tell us what you think. 

The new concept for the lesser daemon of Malign. There is talk of developing the blades into pincers. 

The new concept for the greater daemon of Malign. 

A variant of the Chaos Steed idea for the initial run of Malign figures. 

Another variant of the Chaos Steed.

As always, please comment below if you have a suggestion or opinion about what you have seen as your ideas really do help this project develop. Additionally, if you want to become more involved, pop along to the Oldhammer Community on Facebook and sign up. Mick Leach, owner of Eastern Front Studios, is a very active member and regularly posts ideas and WIPs that we don't share publicly. 

Orlygg.

A Mini Called Wanda

I love this set of miniatures and I have most of them. If anyone has Johann spare I'd love to take it off your hands as he is the last of the main characters that I need now! 

I have written about the large prices that some miniatures can sell for online. I am not talking about the silly 'Buy It Now' prices that confuse so many collectors and help create the 'myth' that old miniatures are always worth a fortune. I am sure you have seen plenty of ridiculous prices bandied about in your time, perhaps you have even fallen to temptation in the past (I know I have) and have paid a little more than you should have done for a particular miniature. Perhaps you are even guilty of listing minis with very high prices. I have always been a believer in the 99p starting bid, and that a miniature (or a lot of miniatures) will reach the price they are truly worth. Its a live and let live attitude that I shall always stick too. I am pleased to note, that there are a number of very experienced sellers out there who share a familiar philosophy, most notably bridgendsteve (are very own Steve Casey) who seems to have no end of rare and unreleased models to sell on eBay. 

For many years I had a strict £4 rule for buying single cast miniatures, and that price had to include postage. It was very simple to keep to this budget in the pre-Oldhammer days, when I was buying up RoC miniatures in droves for a couple of quid each. I once bought two Palanquins of Nurgle for £10 for the pair (and what a prat I was for selling them on, when one will set you back about £50 in 2014) and won 16 chaos beastmen for £20. I am sure many of us collectors can sit back in our chairs and swap success stories about bidding victories but that isn't really what I want to talk about today.

I have said before that I feel that eBay, and sites like it, are just the 21st century equivalent to the blister racks of yesteryear. You must remember them? You'd walk into Wonderworld (my store in the '80s) and the first thing that would hit you (apart from the smell of damp and cigarettes) was the wall groaning under the weight of blistered lead. Rows and rows and rows of the stuff. The card backings were all in different designs, often with paintings by John Blanche on them, and within the plastic bubbles lay a thousand possibilities. Your imagination would race. The pulse would pound. And you'd dived right in. 

The trouble is, back then the prices were set. You'd look at the price label or browse the funny code wall that some shops used. You 'knew' what something was worth and occasionally you'd be lucky enough to hit a sale and get that Landraider boxset even cheaper than the RRP suggested. These days, there are no price lists for the OOP models that all of us collect. We have our own vague price ranges in out head, one that seems to fit in with my £4 rule of years back. Average models are about £2-3, pop a quid on the top for postage and off you go. 

But what about the more 'collectible' models where the £4 rule isn't going to apply? 

So I come on to Wanda, illustrated above at the height of her fame in the Shadows Over Bogenhafen ad for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. There is no doubting that she is a lovely model. Even my wife likes her and expressed her opinion that she is one of the best miniatures she has ever seen. 'You should paint more like her!' she states without understanding that female figures in the world of Citadel (Old and New) are a rare breed indeed, especially ones that are realistically proportioned and clothed. It seems that many other people agree, and it took me many months to actually win an auction for her.

However, the auction process lulled me into a false sense of what she was 'worth'. You see, the first time I tried to get hold of her I just put a tenner down and walked away. If I won, great, if I didn't I'd have a pretty good idea how much collectors would have to pay. That auction ended with Wanda selling for £38.

Wow! I thought, that is quite a bit of money for one, small metal miniature that wasn't even that limited! Still, I wanted her and was happy to flog off the lead I didn't want to fund getting hold of her. A few weeks later, she arrived once again on the eBay scene. It was a simple 99p start so I was pleased to find a seller who followed a similar set of rules as I do. Learning from my previous experience, this time I put £30 down as my starting bid. In my mind, this would be enough to be in a strong position throughout and I like to win things for less than other people - who doesn't. This strategy paid off until the final minutes of the auction, when someone sniped me for £40. My wife, who was watching the auction said, try £50 and with spousal permission I typed in the amount with about a minute to go.

I was outbid by a pound.

I left it at that. Rather disappointed that I had lost out on her. Still, I had saved myself some money but I kept an eye on eBay for similar figures. A few weeks later, a Wanda model popped up as a 'Buy It Now' for £29.99. Oh, I thought, that is a good price! The trouble was, I was at work when I noticed the auction and had to wait until I got home to buy her. All day, I imagined other collectors noticing the lot and snapping her up for a bargain price. After work, I got home and raced up stairs to grab the KindleHD Fire and loaded up the eBay app. Wanda was still there! Phew, I gasped and I was just about to click the buy button when I noticed ANOTHER Wanda.

This one had a starting bid of £9.99.

Not wanting to drop £30 when I could spend a tenner, I put a healthy bid down on her. £20 to be precise. I hoped that having another example of the mini up would reduce the price for the listed auction version. Incredibly, and following on the rule about buses, another Wanda arrived on the site a few days later. This one was listed as starting at 99p. I was overwhelmed with Wandas!

Anyway, nothing really changed in the coming days. A few bids were made for the 99p Wanda, pushing her up to a couple of pounds while 'my' Wanda remained at £9.99 and a single bid. In fact, this remained this way until about 45 seconds until the end of the auction, when someone dropped in a sneaky 'sniper' bid taking her up to £17.00. It was too late though, my initial £20 sailed through to victory and ensured, finally, that I had a copy of the sculpt in my collection. What struck me was the variation in price, especially when the the other Wanda sold too. Have a look what I mean...

Wanda #1: Sold for £38.
Wanda #2: Sold for £51.
Wanda #3: Sold for £17.
Wanda #4: Sold for £21.

Calculating an average of these four amounts gives us a average price for the Wanda miniature, namely £31.75. Now that is a lot of money for a single cast model that was neither particularly limited or unreleased isn't it? Yet, looking at the bidding history over the last couple of weeks you can see how the price of the same item varies enormously.

Strange isn't it?

To conclude, I have learnt an important lesson during this little journey. Namely, Citadel Miniatures are not always worth as much as we think they are, and often, price can be determined by availability. You just watch the price of the Ass Cannon come down when five people list them all in the same week!

Before I go, I am am interested in asking you lot if you have had any similar collecting instances where you see a model you have been after for a while soar in price, only to be snapped up by your good self later at a opportune moment for much, much less. On the reverse of that particular coin, have you ever forked out big money on a model and then regretted it later?

I await your experiences with interest!

Orlygg.

My beautiful Wanda! 

Acceptable in the '80s: Dwarf Ski Troops from White Dwarf 116

Three things have inspired me to post today. 1) The grind of writing school reports - yes its that time of year in my house and I sit here with still 10,000 words to write and two days left to complete the job. So switching topic and doing some blogging is welcome release. 2) Because Jamie Loft is building a new dwarf army over on the Oldhammer Facebook Group. 3) I have lost another auction to win one of these beauties! 

I have said before that Warhammer Fantasy Battle was a victim of the success of 40k. And the terrible slide that we can see today, actually began in 1987 when the number one fantasy wargame was replaced by one involving space marines. The amount of WFB material dropped away in WD, but there were still some stunning articles that saw the light of day and this was one of them. 

I have always loved this model, and it seems that many others do to as, though the are not uncommon on eBay, that can fetch a relatively high price (about £20 seems to be the average in my experience). They are wondefully characterful, as is much of the '80s dwarf output, and have some interesting rules too. Really, they are perfect for a little conversion project as any suitably well dressed dwarf could have the tab cut away and home made skis attached! 

Not as nice as having the original mode though. 

Anyway, here are the rules. Its about time I got cracking on with the rest of this series but with everything else going on in Orlygg's life and other directions pulling at me its hard to focus on the rather tedious job of scanning documents. 

So enjoy them. 

WD Dwarf Mountaineer Rules by orlygg

The rules are fun, as you will have seen. Considering that this is just a one page hit to help promote a model the content is very good. You get a nice piece of fluff concerning the mountain ranges of the Od World. There there is the 'ski charge'! How cinematic would that be, eh? If you could get your hands on enough of the models! Imagine the painted models, in Swedish knitted style, hurtling down the mountain side into the flank of some lost goblins or orks! 

Then you could let loose with perhaps the greatest special rule of Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition (or indeed any edition before or since) the Yodel of Doom! 

Brilliance!

And if anyone has a spare Dwarf Mountaineer for me just drop me a line and contact me at realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk 

Cheers!

Orlygg

NEW! Antiquis Malleum Greens by Tim Prow

Good morning Oldhammers!

Mick Leach has released some more greens from the Antiquis Malleum project so I thought I would share them with you here. These are two further models sculpted by Tim Prow and represent Gregor Sinblister and Oskar the Writhing. As you will know, your comments are extremely valuable to Mick, Tim and Drew, so don't hesitate to share your opinion below!

Additionally, if you want to know more about the background to these warriors of Malign just follow the link here.

Oh, and there are loads of comparison pictures of the whole range and their relative size to old school miniatures on the Oldhammer Blog, so don't forget to visit there when your done. 

Gregor Sinlister: I love Tim's shield design, I suggested something similar to an old Anthony Ackland illustration and there were mumbles of 'it can't be done' about the image - well, Tim has pulled it off! Mick hopes to produce more shields in this style as a possible stretch goal on the kickstarter. 

I have heard of eyes in the back of your head, but a skull on your back? Creepy!

Oskar the Writhing. Lovely detail on this one, especially those gribbly tentacles. This would make a good Nurgle alternative champion model too!

I like the allusion of the rib cage in this rear shot. 

The Oldhammer Blog Needs Your Support!

Today has had some surprising news. The old Oldhammer Blog that was set up as a precursor to the Internet Forum and the Facebook Group trends second when you search the term 'oldhammer' itself. This posed an issue or two for those of us interested in promoting the ethos and broadening the scene. What would a newbie (to borrow an awful internet term) make of us all if the second thing they saw was a sparsely updated list of links? In truth, not a lot probably.

To remedy this, I have volunteered my services towards producing a weekly overview post detailing the 'best of' the painting and modelling efforts we have published in our community. It was actually a really rewarding experience going through all of the posts on the blogosphere, on the Internet Forum and in the Facebook Group to collect the material, though it was a bit difficult to narrow things down to about 8 entries a week. Please do check out my efforts below, here's the link. 

http://old-hammer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/orlyggs-oldhammer-picture-post-retro.html

Actually, before you pop over there and check out some inspirational work from a diverse bunch of enthusiasts there are a few things you could do to help us promote the Oldhammer Community and support the blog. 

They are:

1) If you have a Google account, please follow the goings on of the blog formally. There are over 330 of you following this blog at the moment and it would be wonderful to see some of you doing the same over on the Oldhammer Blog. 

2) Contribute an article! Have you always wanted to have a go at producing an article but don't have a blog? Well, just email me your text and I'll do the rest. Hey presto, you are published! If your manic scribblings are worth reading of course! 

Thank you all in advance!

Now get into action!

Owl and Weasel: Silver Lodge Interview with Ian Livingstone

Owl and Weasel: Silver Lodge Interview from Paul Maclean on Vimeo.

I thought this worth a share on Realm of Chaos 80s. It was posted on the Oldhammer Facebook group and is well worth a watch. Without giving too much away, its an interview with Ian Livingstone detailing the Owl and Weasel fanzine and its eventual development into White Dwarf. 

Enjoy.

Orlygg