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| Dale Hurst's Goff battlewagon. Full of old school GW craziness! |
I am in the mood to delve and dive into the world of Old School Warhammer research at the moment, having pulled out a pile of magazines and books from storage. Now, I know that the object of these ongoing articles is to chronicle every release, supplement and article for WFB3 but from time to time I do come across something that doesn't quite fit the remit.
And I always relent from doing a post for them.
But today the resolve broke, largely because we are talking about a classic plastic kit from the very early 1990s. The ORIGINAL ork battle wagon. How I loved (and still love) this model. I never owned one, I must admit, but my late childhood friend, Tim Gilbride, did and I remember him bringing the boxset around my house. We had a wonderful time cutting out the components and trying to fit them together the best we could with Blu-tak, until we were rescued by my dad and his legendary liquid cement glue. Eventually, we constructed the kit (quite the biggest we had ever worked on) and Tim agreed to leave it with me and my father to paint up. Sadly, he was never able to return to claim it.
The remains of the model are long gone, thrown out I suspect my my mother when all the Warhammer stuff was chucked in about 1998 (along with my Amiga and game collection - including a mint copy of Moonstone!) but I'd love to get my hands on another one in the future.
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| Ivan Bartlett's work has really grown on me in recent years, each time I re-evaluate on of his models I am impressed by the colour tones he achieves not to mention the great bustling detail he chucked into the pot. This is my favourite battle wagon. |
The models published in WD were of course very inventive, but considering who was working in the 'Eavy Metal department at the time this shouldn't comes as much of a surprise. The ork books are lavish and full of great ideas, much like the model range, and I have since learnt that it was the last project that Bryan Ansell worked on before selling GW. Since beginning this journey to chronicle WFB3 (and GW) there is a distinct relationship between the quality of the release and the involvement of GW's former managing director!
If memory serves, much like the Marauder giant, the battlewagon became a firm favourite at Golden Demon awards in the following few years. And the possibilities for converting the kit were endless, as the Yellow Sunz wagon above testifies.
A classic kit from the Golden Age if ever there was one.
So what are your thoughts about this first foray into orky plastic vehicles? Did you own a kit back in the day? Do you still own one? Please share your memories!
Orlygg
Always loved this kit but then I am a bit of a treadhead when it comes to vehicle kits generally. I find they offer me more possibilities for using my imagination than individual foot soldiers.
ReplyDeleteI still got mine. It's basecoated black because I never dared to finish it... all those details were quite daunting back in the day. Marvellous kit. It got funny rules too, it could carry as many orks as you could fit on the model. Any that fell off when you moved it got a hit and if they survived had to run after trying to catch up.
ReplyDeleteSome day I will paint it.
One of the first models I ever bought. I converted it several times over the years and i've still got parts of it in my bits box. I keep thinking of resurrecting it but then pull away in case I think of a better use for the parts.
ReplyDeleteI have had mine since I found it in the first second-hand box of AHQ I bought. No longer have that box but do still have the wagon, and it's all ready to go for my Orktober Bad Moons, though it may be a November offering!
ReplyDeleteStill have mine, built but completely unpainted - it was the centrepiece of my Ork army (slightly amusing when you look at today's vehicle heavy 40k armies).
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, omg! Moonstone! Totally forgot about that game. I should still have that as well, still have all my Amiga games stashed at my parents.
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DeleteDamn it looks great bursting with/draped in Orks and Gretchin.
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky enough to have one ( as you know, Orlygg), painted in Goff colours- really makes a great centrepiece for the warband.
I live in hope that one day Forge World will resurrect the old wagon, like they did the land raider.