Monday 21 January 2013

A Stormtrooper Solution! Marcus Ansell Explains it all...


Spam.
The popular chant and foodstuff of the Monty Python team and a contemporary pest. 
As some of you may know, my inbox has been plagued recently, not by spam itself, but by Hotmail assuming that anyone not in my contacts must be a vile piece of malware and should subsequently be condemned to the trash can! So, from time to time I check my trash can and occasionally I find an email from a new follower of Oldhammer that has failed to run the gauntlet of my anti-virus software and go astray. Imagine my surprise when I see the name 'Ansell' appear among the peculiar names who are begging me to send them my banking details so they can transfer millions of dollars into my account from overseas...
Marcus, the son of the great Bryan Ansell, had contacted us at Realm of Chaos 80s with an invitation and a answer to a mystery that we have been discussing in recent months. Here is what Marcus emailed...

Marcus Ansell: Greetings from Wargames Foundry. 
We've been enjoying your blog for some months now: and we thought that we would get in touch to say that if you want to use the Foundry as a venue for any events that you might plan for Da Golden Gobbos (or anything else miniatures/gaming orientated); then we'd be very glad to have you here. We are in central Nottingham and we have plenty of space (also tables). We would be able to sort out basic refreshments.
 I'm sure that my father would be happy to bring along stuff from the late 70s and the 80s.
How incredible would that be, eh? With esteemed members of the community such as Gaj and Thantsants trying to gather momentum for an 'Oldhammer Day', how wonderful would it be to meet at the Foundry? Third Edition rules, 80s models massing under the multi-coloured gaze of rank on rank of Bryan Ansell's collection, would be a dream come true for many, no, all of us. 
Well its now a real possibility...

Now such a gathering needs discussion among other interested parties, both here on the blogosphere as well as on the many forums that include retro review and comment. But my 'two pence' into the discussion would be thus:

A summer/late autumn event at the Foundry in celebration of Slaves to Darkness' 25th Anniversary/Third Edition 
Encouragement of interested parties to build characterful warbands linked to RoC
A third edition bring and battle 
Old School Painting Competition.
Swap Shop - bring in your unwanted lead and, well, swap it for stuff you do want...

Embryonic I know, but its a starting point! What do other Oldhammerers think?

Citadel Stormtrooper Mystery 

This miniature was also a bit of a mystery to us. Familiar to many, either from the collection of Billy Bunter or from the Collecting Citadel Miniatures archive, little was actually known about this sculpt. Thankfully, Marcus has been able to shed some light on this model, including its sculptor. 
Marcus Ansell: Apparently, Citadel/GW were approached to do a licensed range of Star Wars models in the late 80s or possibly early 90s. My father said that as he was only interested in making models with Citadel's customary pleasantly inaccurate physique and proportions, he knew that it was unlikely that they would really want Citadel to have the licence, but he didn't want to seem rude so he asked Jes Goodwin to sculpt a prototype in the Citadel style. Back then, my grandfather was running Foundry, and Foundry was doing a lot of the master moulding for Citadel. Foundry made the mould for the Stormtrooper. We still have it here (the mould, that is), it never left Foundry. Only a handful of the castings from the mould can have gone out: almost all the models out there must have been pirated from that small group of original castings. There only was that one sculpt during my father's time, so the various variant types out there are just fakes. 
"Aren't you a little heroically proportioned for a stormtrooper?" 
Many thanks to Marcus for clearing up that little mystery for us. 
Orlygg. 

23 comments:

  1. I never need much of an excuse for a visit to Foundry so you can definitely count me in for that. Consider this a vote for a late-summer/eary-autumn date.


    Ben

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    1. "Encouragement of interested parties to build characterful warbands linked to RoC."


      And if I can get hold of the minis in time then I'd defintely be up for that.

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    2. Its very easy... Just roll off on the charts (or pick a characterful force) and off to eBay you go...

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    3. It's the money for ebay part that is the problem lol.

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  2. Good stuff. I know Marcus seems to be attempting to win back hearts and minds to Foundry as the company had lost a lot of goodwill over the past few years. I hope it works out for him.

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  3. Personally I would have much rather seen Stormtroopers in that chunky RT01 style than the more-realistically proportioned, and accordingly as dull as dishwater, stuff we got from the Stars Wars Miniatures Game.

    (Which is actually one of my favourite games, it's just that the figures are boring).

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    1. I didn't even know there HAD been a Star Wars Miniature game... Trouble is, Lucas thrashed his creation half to death with years of sub-par tosh that little of the magic remains for me... hmmm... remind you of anyone else?

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    2. Yeah, Wizards of the Coast did a collectible, blind booster game based upon D&D 3E. It's actually very good, runs entirely off a d20. I put together a Sith force based upon eBay single purchases on the grounds that nobody wanted them and they were cheap.

      It's now OOP which is a shame (license expired) but locally we have enough of it to keep playing for years.

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  4. I might even be tempted to venture forth for that one, should circumstances allow!! Do you think a small obscure illustrator with a fat folder full of 80s Warhammer and 40K art would be welcome?

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    1. I think you'd be very welcome their Tony... Do you still have any 80s Citadel lead you could bring and push around a table?

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  5. What swell fellows those Ansells must be. I wish I could make it to an event like that but England is sort of far away from me. Congratulations, Orlygg, on the great success of these blogs.

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  6. That would be totally awesome!

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  7. Foundry is a BRILLIANT venue for events. Very cool of them to offer.

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  8. Foundry would be a great place for a meet, I've been to a few of the WAB weekends they used to do and there's lots of room and I can top up on my Norman army at the same time!

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    1. I'll be running a WAB game there one Saturday in July so stay tuned :)

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  9. I think an Oldhammer day would be a great follow on to the Rogue Trader event the Ansells ran - I was a bit gutted to have missed that so this one (albeit embryonic) aint gettind away!

    Best dig out some beastmen and thugs...

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    1. I was at the RT day and had a great time. The Ansells were excellent hosts and the game loads of fun.

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  10. Ah, that would all be too good to be true! If I could make it, I'd certainly be there!

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    1. Well there we go then, Oldhammer Contact (yes I know I keep pushing the name but I love puns), Autumn please, RoC War band mini campaign, or bring and battle 3rd ed. Live on the day golden gobbo, those who can't make it could send in virtual entries, even have the man himself to help judge it, how awesome would that be.
      Following on from Tony's reply we could have an old school art exhibition.

      Get Zhu to design some Oldhammer contact 2013 T-shirts!

      Make it a real celebration.

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  12. Sigh...and double sigh...I may have to send a life size cardboard cut out of myself just so I can say I attended....triple sigh....stupid ocean!

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  13. Orlygg, That is just awesome. Wish I didn't have half a continent and an ocean in my way! I also wondered if Citadel ever destroyed their Star Trek moulds, or if they just locked them away with other moulds. The unreleased moulds were always one of the coolest spots to me when I worked for them (In US). Maybe we can get together something for the US someday. An Oldhammer event at a convention like Adepticon could be totally awesome! Other than that, maybe Blue in VT and I can bulk ship our cut-outs!
    Totally love your blog, can't wait to read more!

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