Arcane Armorials: Tiger Face Shield Tutorial

A few posts back I suggested a tutorial about my tiger faced shield, inspired by the old 1970s and 1980s symbol used by the publisher, Paper Tiger. Feedback was positive so here it is. As with previous tutorials, I opted for a large, plastic Citadel shield. I have just bought quite a few new sprues from ebay so I am keen to try out a fair few new designs, including an owl face. They are fairly easy to get hold of if you are patient, but don't even think about forking on some of the more ridiculous prices you will see. Pay no more than a pound or so for a sprue, and less is much better!

I always keep a part of the sprue attached to the shield as it makes handling the surface much easier in the long run. The hole in the centre is quickly filled with greenstuff and smoothed down. Once dry, give the shield a couple of thin coats of white undercoat.

Step One: I mixed Hobgoblin Orange with an orange ink to get a more vibrant colour. This mix was fairly watery, so I gave the shield a couple of good base coats until things were looking pretty even. I made use of a hairdryer to speed up this drying process. 

Step Two: Mix up a watery white and splodge on the two shapes shown above. There is really no need to be particularly accurate at this stage.

Step Three: Add a mid yellow to your orange mix, and use this to highlight up the shape of the tiger's face. Try and suggest the brows and the muzzle as well as the cheeks. You can use this as an opportunity to tidy up your white. Leave the basecoat orange where the eye holes are going to be. 

Step Four: Add a further blob of yellow to you orange and continue to work up the highlights. You may want to also include more white on the brow and around the tiger's mouth here, as it is a good opportunity to tidy things up a little. Ensure that the basecolour still shows in the the sockets. 

Step Five: Start adding the black detailing. I use black ink, though you need to be aware that the mix is far more fluid than paint. Make good use of test strokes with your brush before working on the shield, this will reduce the risk of pooling the ink and spoiling your work. Fill in the eyes in a suitably feline shape and define the nostrils and mouth. 

Step Six: Add the black detailing to the eyes and nose. Good reference material is vital here (such as a picture of a real tiger or the Paper Tiger design shown above) and make sure that whatever you do on one side of the face is mirrored on the other. These lines need to be added quickly. Be confident and move your brush with speed. You may want to practice this on paper first.  

Step Seven: Tidy up the brows and then continue to add the detail on the animal's forehead. Once you are happy with the way things are looking, block in the shield with black. 

Step Eight: Using the black in once more, create little dots around the tiger's mouth and add two white dots for the eyes. Be careful here. Practice making dots with your brush if you haven't done this before as too much ink will cause pooling and too little with produce nasty marks that are not circular enough. 

Step Nine: Dot the centre of your white eyes with a smaller black dot. Once this is dry add a smaller white dot on top of the black one. This should cause your eyes to 'pop' and the design to suddenly become alive. I added a few dots of silver to the nail details on the shield rim too!

Job done!

Happy painting!

Orlygg.

A Warhammer Bestiary: Centaur

Despite a bit of a eye infection, I managed a few hours this weekend at the painting station and have completed the second miniature in my new Warhammer Bestiary painting project. This week, I was working on a centaur. I was feeling rather eager to get this model started and in my enthusiasm I forgot to take a 'before' picture. So sorry, I only have the completed model to show off! Not that I doubt you will mind much. So off to the Stuff of Legends for a catalogue breakdown. 

A quick peruse of the catalogue page tells us that the model was sculpted by the Perrys with help from Aly Morrison at some point back in the 1980s. Now, I have written about centaurs before as part of my infrequent 'Acceptable in the '80s' series of articles that tells the story of Warhammer Third Edition. A quick click here will take you there, where you can see these models in their mid '80s painted glory. 

I used the components Body 1 and Two Handed Axe to complete my model, and I realised the potential these models have for conversions. Cut an old thug in half, stick a centaur top on and you are away. Or vice versa. After a quick clean up with a file, I built up the base with green stuff and used the left over pieces to make three little toadstools. A different type of fungus for this creature and a new little feature that I can make with the putty. 

Here's the finished model. I chose this particular example because I wanted to work of three areas that I felt I was weak in. Painting horses, painting flesh and painting hair. In truth, I have only ever painted a couple of horses for my chaos chariot and they were grey with flaming manes. Hardly realistic. One thing I wanted to explore was the way you can create naturalistic animal patterns with paint, so I downloaded a fair few images from Google as reference and got painting.

I used a creamy white as a base for the horse part of the body. This I shaded with a darker grey mix, focusing underneath the body and the hoof area. Once dry I flicked a darker mixture of this over the body using a stippling brush. I then proceeded to highlight the body up to white once more (starting with my cream base) using a dappling effect. I covered most of the blobs of flicked paint but kept just enough to give the impression of a mottled coat. 

I painted the leather and armour in my usual way. I wanted the miniature to fit in with my Khorne army somewhere and needed a connection to it. I imagine in the feature, unless more centaurs are built, that this model will serve as a future character - even a champion himself now that Ulthur Deathfist's whereabouts are unknown since his defeat by Mum-Ho-Trep! 

For the hair, I started with a black undercoat over which I very quickly painted streaks of dark grey. One thing that I have learnt about painting many things in the wargaming world is the need to be quick with your brushstrokes. A fluid hand creates far more accomplished results I feel. Then I simply layered up the streaks of grey until I reached white. Initially, I wanted the white beard and hairdo to match with the body of the miniature but in hindsight I wish I had opted for a different colour, yellow perhaps, as now that the model is completed I feel it looks a little too washed out with all the white. 

The skin was a flesh and red base mix with a little added chestnut ink. This is highlighted up by adding more flesh and later white. I made subtle use of purple inks for the face and eyes and this seemed to give the model a more rabid, chaotic look without him being too extreme. Once the main model was dry, I painted up the mushrooms to resemble the toadstools of fairy tales, complete with little white spots. I toyed with the idea of adding a shield and having a go at at Zhu's recent suggestion for an 'Owl Face' shield but I felt that such an addition wouldn't fit with the model. Why, afterall, would this centaur need a shield when he is armed with that fearsome looking daneaxe?

So what do you guys think? Honest opinions and fair criticism please!

Nest, the fabled Coatl!

Orlygg.

OLDHAMMER WEEKEND 2014 CONFIRMED!

Realm of Chaos 80s is very proud to announce that the Foundry have agreed to a second 'Oldhammer Weekend' next summer on the 9th and 10th of August!

With a date on the calendar, the next challenge is to decide what to actually do at the event. I am absolutely certain that I want to design, produce the scenery and figures for, play test and present a narrative scenario for players. I would imagine that this would be a one day battle, that may or may not be possible to run twice on a single day. I have a few ideas knocking around in my mind but we will just have to see. 

Marcus Ansell was very keen to repeat the painting competition. Last time, it was something that got mentioned early on and then kind of trailed off into nothing. Despite this, we had a few fantastic entries (and it was wonderful to see them in their own cabinet)! This time, I feel we should make much more of the competition. I see no need of reams and reams of restrictions and rules about what can, or cannot, be entered. I think applicants can judge for themselves what is appropriate. We are, after all, after a miniature that reflects the old school vibes that Oldhammer is all about. 

As for a prize, I seriously feel that I can create, or commission someone else to create, an Oldhammer Sword to present to the victor. It will be a real sword, hopefully engraved, but I will not make the investment in such a prize if only a handful of people are interested in entering the event. 

So, what next? Well I hope this post will start off a discussion about a number of points. 1) Do you think a painting competition is a good idea/are you interested in entering? 2) If you are able to come what would you like to see going on? 3)Have you got anything in mind that you would personally like to do during the weekend?

I await your comments and ideas with trepidation!

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: Beastman

Those of you with short memories, or coming to this post at a much later date, will need reminding about my current project. I intend to paint one miniature for every entry in the Warhammer Third Edition's Bestiary. For more information about the 'whys' and the 'what fors', have a look at this entry. What follows is the first painted example in the sequence, the humble BEASTMAN. Or BEESTMAN as this one is tagged.

As discussed previously, this is the miniature I selected to paint first. I am sure that many of you will recognise this model from the 1987 (?) range of beastmen, as published in the famous 1988 catalogue. At this time, the nature of what a 'beastman' was not really defined and all kinds of wacky combinations left the studio over the later part of the '80s. Hence the rhino head in this example. However, I am not sure who sculpted this particular example, so if you know, please drop me a line in the comment box below. 

A here is the finished result. What do you think? The miniature didn't take me long as I was highly motivated and, as with other things, work seems to fly by when you feel this way. I opted for a grey skin, which related to the rhino head, and a brown loin cloth dangling around his beastly bits. I used gold to pick out the metallic objects scattered about his body, as it had a distinct 'African' feel to the model. Perhaps this beastman lurks in some steamy jungle somewhere, scavenging among the ruins of ancient civilizations? It was fairly obvious to use a bone shade on the horns and claws and a nice pink for the unpleasant tail that sprouts from the model's back. Finally, the cleaver was treated to a new rusty metal painting I am trialing, and seemed fairly successful I am pleased to say. 

The base was handled my usual way, only this time I add a few 'chaos fungi' with a colour scheme inspired by that Realm of Chaos scenery Jamie Sims made and Evo has safe in his collection. These were made very simply for greenstuff and are one of the first things I have actually 'sculpted' if such a word could be used to describe them. nice time, I will try and be a little more creative and make proper 'chaos toadstools' for the base. But for now, I felt that this was enough to keep the model consistent with the others I have painted for my Retro-Collection. 

I always paint the inside of the shield black (as do I the rims) to match with the black bases. I took this from the Arcane Armorials packaging as it suggested this was the best way to showcase a freehand design on a small shield. 

For the shield, I opted to continue the 'Jungle' theme. Inspired by an old Dave Andrews miniature in White Dwarf, I took the 'Paper Tiger' symbol from inside 'Heroes for Wargames' and developed it into a painted freehand design. I borrowed heavily from the source material and learnt a huge deal about painting different freehand designs with inks and acrylic paints. Small silver dots were added to the studs to compliment the back shield rim. 

The shield didn't take that long to paint, perhaps thirty minutes, and most of that was faffing around with the orange background. I used Old School Hobgoblin Orange as a base, and blended in yellow around the tiger's forehead, nose and mouth. Once I was happy, which took a while, I blended in a little white to create the 'eyebrows' and 'lips' - I am sorry, I do not know the terms to describe these parts of a big cat's face, can anyone help me out?

The rest of the detailing of the tiger's face was carried out with black ink straight from the pot. I learnt quickly to avoid pooling the ink by brushing the tip of my brush across the back of my hand before placing the tip on the shield. This gave me a great deal more control about where the ink went and stopped the stuff spreading across the shield. I played very close attention to my source material and tried to capture every line that I saw on the 'Paper Tiger' design. I was extremely impressed by the realism this promoted and I shall be using source material a lot more in the future. 

All in all, I have got my first miniature completed and I am keen to start the next. In fact, as I type that model is already sitting on my desk ready to be cleaned up and based. As I have already said, I am going to play around with the greenstuff as I am prepping this model to see if I cannot make some little toadstools or something similar. In case you are wondering what the next model is, its going to be a Chaos Centaur.

I'll post it up as soon as I complete it!

Orlygg

A Warhammer Bestiary: One Man's Painting Challenge

I have been inspired by the comments made by many of you on my previous post. There I was, with my tongue squarely in my cheek of course, making fun of the fact that, sometimes, we spend a little too much time on eBay buying lovely lead models that perhaps we don't really need.

Still, there is noting quite like the buzz of getting something cheap. Or waiting for the victorious purchase to arrive in the post. Or even the quiet satisfaction of restoring the miniature to its virgin glory with a mixture of antiseptic solution and washing up liquid. 

So an outright ban would be unproductive and, probably, unenforcible anyway. So what to do? I have been feeling somewhat dissatisfied of late with my painting. This is most likely due to painting up rank and file miniatures to a time limit. For me, I love to have no restrictions on how long it takes a miniature. They should take as long as they take. But going at a perfectionist's snail pace is unlikely got get many models finished. I wanted the chance to paint lots of varied Citadel Old School models and practice my skills a little in the process. Forget army building or unit construction.

Just paint. Oh, and explore a little of Third Edition's background. 

So I had the idea of painting a model for each entry in the Warhammer Fantasy battle Third Edition Bestiary. This would allow me to explore my collection a little, inject variety into the painting schedule and allow a little choice eBaying all at the same time! But like all challenges, there need to be a few rules to keep things on track and interesting.

After a little bit of thought, I decided on a few guidelines to get myself going. Here is what I am suggesting. If you can think of anything that I have forgotten or have improvements and suggestions, please do make them!

1) Models need to follow the alphabetically published Bestiary as seen in WFB3. 

2) Entries with variants need a separate model for each variant e.g. dwarfs or elves. 

3) Miniatures chosen need to be Old School Citadel, or from an appropriate manufacturer if a model is unobtainable through rarity, expense or the fact that none were made. 

4) Where ever possible, the selected model needs to have a shield, banner or opportunity for freehand painting as this is a skill I am keen to develop. 

5) Each model needs a distinctive base, with a theme linked to the race depicted, that will still fit in with my style of basing.

Once the guidelines were clear in my mind, I pulled my copy of WFB3 down off the shelf and flicked through the sections until I reached the Bestiary. I cast my eyes down the entries to soak in the first handful of models that I would need to source, prep and pant: beastmen, centaurs, coatl, dwarfs (Imperial, Norse and Chaos) Elves (Wood, High, Sea and Dark) and Fimir. So the first batch would amount to eleven models, from which I own examples for all but two; the Fimir and the Coatl. 

So I am 'officially' allowed to keep my eyes open for Fimir and Coatl models! So if you spot anything likely, please do let me know in the comments section of this article!

I had a look at the entry for beastmen in WFB3 and it was illustrated with the neat little pencil sketch seen above. I have painted loads of models in the vein of this picture before as the beastman has become associated with the goat headed half man for some years. Though, there was a time when the beastmen where a lot less defined and Citadel produced some truly wacky models for the range. I decided to select a model between the two extremes, and chose the Rhino headed model below. I have always felt that there has been a group missing from RoC and WFB - and that group are mutants. They exist in WFRP and there are plenty of mutant models out there but they are not true beastmen. Rhinoman reminded me of this gap and brought fond memories of Steve Jackson's Citadel of Chaos back as well. 

Here is the model pre-clean up. Something that struck me when I was sorting through my models were the amusing tag names. BEEFMAN, BAESTMAN and (as was on my model) BEESTMAN being just three of the different spellings I uncovered. 

The model was different to the beastmen that I had painted before. Shorter and squatter with a real animal connection. He looks like he is snorting and ready to charge forwards with that meat cleaver brandished above his head! Crucially, the miniature also had a shield tag so attaching one should be simple. I will just need a little thought to consider what design I would paint on this chap's shield. 

Anyway, I am off to clean and prime this little rhinoman. He needs gluing to a base, the base sanding and a good dry undercoat before I can begin the process of painting him. The night is fairly young, and I hope to get him finished as soon as possible. 

Speak to you all when he is done.

Orlygg.

The Sins of a Citadel Collector: Dettol Jars!

I have a guilty secret.

Something the wife knows nothing about.

I wonder if you have such a secret too?

I am a Citadel Collector and I have gone three days since I last went on eBay. 

Despite putting myself on an online bidding ban, I still seem to be receiving packages in the post. How could such a thing be possible? I am finding myself having to intercept the postman with a 'anything for Number 10?' on the way to work to avoid the Power That Be finding out about my guilty lead based secrets. Truth be told, I now have a huge amount of lead and I am beginning to become confused about what exactly I have. This tells me I need to stop collecting and start sorting and painting. 

Starting now!

Secondly, I have another shameful secret tucked away in the kitchen well away from the Wife's eyes. Three Chinese Takeaway plastic containers full of Dettol soaking miniatures. Well, there were three, now there are two, as I set about cleaning the contents of one of these this morning. After an hour of frantic washing up liquid lubricated toothbrush scrubbing, I was left with this collection drying on the kitchen work top. 

What can you make out observant reader? What surprised me was the stuff I had forgotten I had. Including a dragon ogre and an early 80s Balrog or Balgorg as they were known in the Warhammer Mythos.Some of these models have been in the mix for over a year, and a number of these models have a sticky feel to them. fresh Dettol will have to be the order of the day here, or the fabled Fairy Power Spray which I have never found on the shelves of my local supermarket.

But cleaning woes beside, finding this lot amongst the brown sludge makes me wonder what treasures I have forgotten in the other two containers!

Anyone else guilty of such shameful secrets I wonder?

Orlygg

Life in Miniature by Peter Brown: A history of Citadel Miniatures by a bloke who was there!

I have stumbled upon another fantastic blog out there on the internet. This one details, among other things, the wargaming/miniatures 'life' of one Peter Brown. I haven't read much of his blog in any depth or conversed with him online yet, but he seems to have worked in and around Nottingham during the 1980s are bore witness to the growth of Citadel. He presents a fascinating story that a great many readers of this blog would find extremely interesting. I have quoted several of his blog posts below that are relevant to what we explore here, though there are plenty of others that may be of interest, including one on Laserburn, an early precursor of Rogue Trader. 

Peter Brown's blog can be found here. 

"It's hard to look back now at Citadel Miniatures and not see them as the all conquering behemoth of the miniature gaming world they were to become, but in the early 80's that one particular outcome was not certain by any means, other companies could have come to the fore or the company might not have developed in the way that it did.

So what happened between the formation of the company in early '79 and my formative year of '83 to turn the casting arm of a small games company into a dominant market leader?

Citadel's early miniatures show their roots, all those early minis are designed almost exclusively for use alongside Dungeons & Dragons. 

Character types are copied slavishly from the AD&D books, creatures from the Monster Manual, very little is original, and where it was, as was the case of the few monsters that travelled from the range over into new D&D books, we all knew what we were being sold, and for what we were supposed to be using them... D&D.

Which is a bit odd really, because it wasn't until  much later that Citadel had a full AD&D license...  

Grenadier Models had that license in the in the late 70's and early 80's in the US, but made little impact in the UK in spite of the tie-in.

Even the range that Citadel were set up to produce over here, Ral Partha, could (should) have gone on to become the dominant player here, as it was in the US, but again, even with a long standing history of being associated with D&D, it slipped into the position of also-ran.

It's possible to go a look at what Citadel produced in the first couple of years and pick out virtually every monster and character from the D&D pantheon or it's  rough equivalent, but after making everything that the D&Der needed there was a natural break on what the company might possible make next.

Obviously they looked for other markets, historical miniatures were (are) a short step away, as are minis for other game systems, and Citadel go away and try to expand all these other revenue streams as the 80's dawn... Gangsters, sci-fi, larger scale models and movie tie-ins (Star Trek) are all explored, but with little success... 

It's hard to look back now at Citadel Miniatures and not see them as the all conquering behemoth of the miniature gaming world they were to become, but in the early 80's that one particular outcome was not certain by any means, other companies could have come to the fore or the company might not have developed in the way that it did.

So what happened between the formation of the company in early '79 and my formative year of '83 to turn the casting arm of a small games company into a dominant market leader?

Citadel's early miniatures show their roots, all those early minis are designed almost exclusively for use alongside Dungeons & Dragons. 

Character types are copied slavishly from the AD&D books, creatures from the Monster Manual, very little is original, and where it was, as was the case of the few monsters that travelled from the range over into new D&D books, we all knew what we were being sold, and for what we were supposed to be using them... D&D.

Which is a bit odd really, because it wasn't until  much later that Citadel had a full AD&D license...  

Grenadier Models had that license in the in the late 70's and early 80's in the US, but made little impact in the UK in spite of the tie-in.

Even the range that Citadel were set up to produce over here, Ral Partha, could (should) have gone on to become the dominant player here, as it was in the US, but again, even with a long standing history of being associated with D&D, it slipped into the position of also-ran.

It's possible to go a look at what Citadel produced in the first couple of years and pick out virtually every monster and character from the D&D pantheon or it's  rough equivalent, but after making everything that the D&Der needed there was a natural break on what the company might possible make next.

Obviously they looked for other markets, historical miniatures were (are) a short step away, as are minis for other game systems, and Citadel go away and try to expand all these other revenue streams as the 80's dawn... Gangsters, sci-fi, larger scale models and movie tie-ins (Star Trek) are all explored, but with little success... 

The only thing that does start to sell more miniatures, and I mean sell more than the one of each or the few that you needed for the D&D campaigns, were the Fantasy Tribes.

Fantasy Tribes, I feel, have all the hallmarks of what made Citadel great in the 80's, and would show the pattern which Bryan would try to repeat whenever he started a new project.

Firstly they were wholly original, other manufacturers may have had a dwarf or two in their range, only Citadel had 60 different models in a Tribe, secondly they were collectible, where other ranges had fixed models to buy, Tribes were, it seamed, constantly changing so that just when you thought you had them all, new variants would turn up to keep you buying, thirdly, and this was true of all the models that Bryan commissioned, they were full of character, no bland Orc with Sword in this range, these Orcs are attacking, swinging, charging, and finally, they were great models, in a way that lots of early Citadel or American imported minis weren't.

But even these stand out collections weren't for very much more than extra variety on the D&D table and I doubt that the company could have gone on from strength to strength in the way it did with just these...

Which is where a little bit of luck comes in handy...

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston, Bryan's partners in Citadel and owners of the parent company, Game Workshop, had hit on the smart idea of coping the unique feature of also ran fantasy role play game Tunnels & Trolls, it's solo play option, and repackaging it for a younger market as Fighting Fantasy game books... They were hugely successful  creating a publishing phenomena and launching a whole line of best selling books which made their authors at least properly famous, if not quite house-hold names.

Which must have taken the pressure off Citadel/GW to perform financially, Bryan had made another halfhearted effort to start again with his Bryan Ansell Miniatures, but by late '82 with Steve and Ian moving into new spheres and Bryan looking for new directions, a deal is struck that gives Bryan control of Citadel AND Games Workshop and allows him to take both companies forward with his direction and control.

Now, the deal that I heard that was struck was that Bryan would take immediate control and pay Steve and Ian £1,000,000 in 12 months. Bryan told me at a much later date, that he didn't have the money when he took control, and had to make £1M in that first year to for-fill his part of the agreement, but fore-fill it he did, so we can assume that 1983 was a very good year for miniatures...

The only thing that does start to sell more miniatures, and I mean sell more than the one of each or the few that you needed for the D&D campaigns, were the Fantasy Tribes.

Fantasy Tribes, I feel, have all the hallmarks of what made Citadel great in the 80's, and would show the pattern which Bryan would try to repeat whenever he started a new project.

Firstly they were wholly original, other manufacturers may have had a dwarf or two in their range, only Citadel had 60 different models in a Tribe, secondly they were collectible, where other ranges had fixed models to buy, Tribes were, it seamed, constantly changing so that just when you thought you had them all, new variants would turn up to keep you buying, thirdly, and this was true of all the models that Bryan commissioned, they were full of character, no bland Orc with Sword in this range, these Orcs are attacking, swinging, charging, and finally, they were great models, in a way that lots of early Citadel or American imported minis weren't.

But even these stand out collections weren't for very much more than extra variety on the D&D table and I doubt that the company could have gone on from strength to strength in the way it did with just these...

Which is where a little bit of luck comes in handy...

Steve Jackson and Ian Livingston, Bryan's partners in Citadel and owners of the parent company, Game Workshop, had hit on the smart idea of coping the unique feature of also ran fantasy role play game Tunnels & Trolls, it's solo play option, and repackaging it for a younger market as Fighting Fantasy game books... They were hugely successful  creating a publishing phenomena and launching a whole line of best selling books which made their authors at least properly famous, if not quite house-hold names.

Which must have taken the pressure off Citadel/GW to perform financially, Bryan had made another halfhearted effort to start again with his Bryan Ansell Miniatures, but by late '82 with Steve and Ian moving into new spheres and Bryan looking for new directions, a deal is struck that gives Bryan control of Citadel AND Games Workshop and allows him to take both companies forward with his direction and control.

Now, the deal that I heard that was struck was that Bryan would take immediate control and pay Steve and Ian £1,000,000 in 12 months. Bryan told me at a much later date, that he didn't have the money when he took control, and had to make £1M in that first year to for-fill his part of the agreement, but fore-fill it he did, so we can assume that 1983 was a very good year for miniatures..."

The quotes were taken from these two articles. And with more promised in the future, this could become a really popular blog for those of us interested in the early history of Citadel and Games Workshop. 

http://life-in-miniature.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/the-rise.html

http://life-in-miniature.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/and-rise.html

Big thanks must go to Peter Brown. Please write more soon!

Orlygg

Old School Interviews with Bob Naismith and David Soper

Bob in his studio circa 1985

One thing I have always been keen to do here at Realm of Chaos 80s is collect good quality old school Citadel coverage and present it to you readers. As the Oldhammer Community has grown, its has become rather scattered and spread out. There is no central point, though the Facebook Group and the Forum act as hubs of sorts. Due to this, I feel it is important to share and support the sterling work done by other old school fans that doesn't, perhaps, get the coverage that it should. When I find a good article, I share it! Simple as that! I also like to promote the blogs of other enthusiasts world wide. 

Well today I have had the pleasure of reading two excellent interviews from two different blogs. I present extracts from those interviews here, with links to the blogs so you can continue your reading pleasure if you so wish. As I would imagine you will want to. Or, indeed, you could just cease to read my waffle and scroll down to reach the handy links as read the articles as they were intended. 

Either way, its win win for me. Of course, if you have an article or blog that you would like promoting then just drop me an email and I will see what I can do. 

Just make sure that you click on the 'followers' options so that the two author's readership grows as they deserve! I WILL be checking too! (:

Anyway, over to axiom and his interview with Citadel sculptor, Bob Naismith. 

axiom: It's probably fair to say that you’ve had a fairly decent innings in the sculpting game! How did you start off sculpting figures and begin in the industry?

BN: Well I did conversions and painted figs (airfix etc) as a teenager (who didn’t?) and started painting wargames figs when I was about 17. This was through an outfit in Glasgow called Wargames Publications Scotland. They asked me to try my hand at making masters. A samurai I recall. They liked it and I liked getting paid so…

 

axiom: It is your work for Citadel in the 1980s that probably most people are aware of. Could you tell us how you came to work for Citadel?

BN: So I made figures for WPS for a very short period then disappeared off to art school. When I finished I started a company (Naismith Design) with a couple of friends from WPS – we made quite a lot of 28 and 15mm historical ranges and I also made hundreds of naval models for Navwar – who were also in on the Naismith Design enterprise. After I think about three or four years I ended up chatting to Bryan Ansell and the result was that I started work for Citadel in 1981 I think.

axiom: You contributed to a significant number of Citadel fantasy ranges; Fighter, the licensed Advanced Dungeons & Dragons range (I counted over 50 figures in that range alone) and the iconic Fantasy Dark Elves. Could you tell us a little bit about your contributions to these ranges and how you got a reputation for sculpting evil Elves?

BN: Well in those days making model soldiers was a very fast and furious game. Citadel would publish several codes of miniatures per month – sometimes 150+ masters. Even with a team of sculptors that was quite hard to achieve. The main codes like fighters, wizards etc was a staple and we would usually end up specialising. I had a dabble at most of them. Every now and then one sculptors style would ‘fit’ with a specific code – the dark elves seemed to do that for me and I made quite a few. I still have an army of them if anyone wants to make me an offer!

The dark elf look was derived from art by John Blanche and Tony Ackland for the most part but once the look was set it was easy to go forward without it.

On the other ranges – I was for a time in charge of the other sculptors (apologies guys!) and during this time I was responsible for making sure that Bryan Ansell had as many of the codes that he needed each month to satisfy the sales teams. The upshot of this was that I had to generate extra models from existing used masters (conversions) and the codes show that – ie same body/different head etc etc.

Whoah! Hold your horses... If you want to hear more from Bob then I am afraid you are going to have to visit axiom's blog, Magpie and Old Lead. There you can discover all about Bob's views on Rogue Trader, the plastic technologies pioneered by Citadel and what Bob did after he left Citadel. 

Oh, and while you are there, don't forget to follow axiom's blog as it deserves a much wider readership. I have just joined his site so I do hope you follow my example.

Continue the interview here.

The second of the interviews I have uncovered deals with the double Slayer Sword winning mega-painter, David Soper. David was interviewed by Kaleb Hordes, author of Oldhammer in the New World. I have written about this blog before as Kaleb hopes his site to become a focal point for the Oldhammer Movement in the USA. Back when I first wrote about his blog, he had no follower's gadget but thankfully kaleb has seen the error of his ways and included one, so you to can follow his output in the future.

Anyway, here is a taster of what you will get on his blog. 

 

[OITNW]: From reading your blog, you left the hobby for a while and rediscovered your passion. Your Nurgle Predator tank was the highlight of the last of the old school Fantasy Miniatures books. How did you get into miniatures originally? What was the timeline, and how long were you out of the hobby? And what allowed you to rediscover that passion?

[DS]: I became aware of miniature painting through playing fantasy role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons. It must have been some time around 1980 after a group of my school friends came back from a trip to London where they’d visited the (one and only) Games Workshop store in Dalling Road. Amidst all the goodies they bought back was a small collection of metal miniatures, a mix of Citadel and Ral Partha as best I can recall. From the moment I clapped eyes on those tiny dull grey figures I was hooked! I absolutely knew that this hobby was for me.

          I’d already developed a strong aptitude for art but my work had a tendency to get bogged down in lots of tiny tight detail. I sensed that here was a hobby where I could direct all that obsessiveness to good effect. It would also have the unexpected benefit helping to free up my painting and drawing style enough so that I could progress with my studies and work towards a place at art college.

I sent off for a Citadel miniatures catalogue and in due course received my first ever minis. A mixture of fantasy tribe orcs and trolls. Over the following years, as I left school and went to art college, I would spent my spare time painting minis, and I began to develop and refine my technique. At first there was no guidance out there at all, and I learned by trial and error. I can still remember the day when I quite accidentally discovered dry brushing – that was a revelation! It was through the pages of White Dwarf magazine that I gained exposure to a wider world of miniature painting, and an awareness of just how much there was to learn.                                 Then we come to 1987 and the first Golden Demon Competition. I thought I was quite good; but I had no contact with any other painter or their work, so I had no objective way of gauging the standard of my minis. That year I didn’t get past the regional heats! It gave me a kick in the pants and fired up the drive to prove that I too could make it to the finals.                                  By GD 1988 Southampton had it’s own Games Workshop store and I was getting to connect with other painters. I made it through to the finals, held at the Victoria Leisure Centre in Nottingham, and I really could not have been happier. I didn’t expect anything more so when I won gold in two categories I was genuinely shocked. This made me reappraise myself as a figure painter. From this point on I focused my efforts on improving my painting with success at the Golden Demons my goal.                                                                                                                            I managed to repeat my success in 1989 and it was during the award ceremony that I decided to see of I could take it further and win the sword. All my painting and sculpting efforts over the next year were focused on that goal. The Nurgle Predator was the result of six months of intensive work, it was by far the biggest and most ambitious project I had attempted to date.             At the 1990 finals I was a mess of nerves, I’d put everything I had into this one model. I’ve little clear memory of the awards ceremony itself. When my Predator won the Sword the world seemed to explode around me. I found myself standing on the stage with the sword held up over my head and no memory of how I got up there!                                                                                    Winning the Sword in 1990 was a huge deal for me and remains one of my proudest achievements. But now I’d done that I had to consider my next move. I came to realize that I really wanted was to simply get back to painting minis for my own pleasure. Over the following years that’s exactly what I did. I’ve never been a fast painter and as I focused my efforts on refining my technique and finish, my output slowed. As time passed, and other interests developed, that pattern continued until it wasn’t unusual for me to have only one mini finished in a year. Looking back I can also see that, although my technique developed, my painting style remained pretty much the same.                                                                                                                       The period where I dropped right out of the hobby is probably no longer than three or four years. I remember quite clearly that, by 2002, I no longer considered myself a mini painter. I tried to paint some of the new Fellowship of the Rings minis and failed abysmally.  Through lack of practice I had lost my technique and confidence. I was surprised by how much of a sense of loss that gave me.                                                                                                                                                Although I was no longer painting I kept an eye on the hobby through the occasional copy of White Dwarf and increasingly through the Internet. It was around this time I discovered cool mini or not. The hobby had evolved and I was blown away by the realism and sophistication of technique now being employed by many painters. It was inspiring but very daunting.                                 What followed was a process of being drawn gently back into the hobby through some of my other interests. Around 2006 I started painting minis with an Egyptian theme and then in 2011 I painted some Dr Who minis that I made into a diorama. I found that I was hooked all over again.                                                                                                                                                            My technique didn’t return overnight and I really had to work very hard at regaining it. Knowing that I could once do this was a double-edged sword feeding both my frustration and my drive to do it again! As I regained lost experience my confidence grew and I finally got to the point where I felt my skill was back to where it had been. It was a great feeling and served as a jumping off point for a new era. I was back up to speed but I was not up to date!                                        Through blogs and forums the online painting community has been the thing that has really made the difference. I’m able to see other painter’s work and get my work seen by them. There is a sharing of ideas and experience, and an exposure to other ways of working that’s had a wholly positive affect on my work.                                                                                                          I struggled for a while with the feeling that I was that guy basking in the glory of a twenty three year old success. I really wanted my painting to be up to date and relevant to the modern scene.Unfortunately I’ve often (but not always) had the term ‘old school’ used as a negative criticism of my work. That’s a shame and, I think, rather narrow-minded.                                                    The big thing that enabled me to develop my ‘modern’ style as a painter was acknowledging and embracing my old school roots. This came together for me when I painted the Hellion that won the 40k single mini gold. To me that mini feels like a fusion of old and new, and it sparked off a period of experimentation that resulted in the Dark Eldar diorama. 

Again, I am afraid you are going to have to hold your horses here. If you want to read more about David Soper's career and see more incredible examples of his painting, then you are going to have to follow the link here

Feeder links to both blogs can be found below too!

http://magpieandoldlead.blogspot.co.uk/

http://oldhammerinthenewworld.blogspot.co.uk/

Orlygg