Monday 3 August 2015

Oldhammer Weekend 2015: Bryan Ansell's Miniature Collection

A great picture to start with - from left to right: the lava dragon by the looks of it, the Marauder giant and, of course, the iconic Citadel giant. This version is missing an arm. According to Marcus Ansell its about somewhere, so hopefully we can see a complete version of this incredible casting at a future event. 
Welcome back to our Oldhammer Weekend coverage for another year. This post will cover the extensive collection of wargaming figures that legendary Bryan Ansell put on display at the Wargames Foundry. Of course, it was impossible to take a picture of everything - the collection is just so large - but I snapped away with the iPad trying to capture as much of the display as I could. 

If you can remember the first BOYL event, we were treated to a single cabinet display that was a dream come true for many. It's a strange experience to start within inches of figures that you have studied for many decades in ancient copies of White Dwarf or other early GW publications. I have been lucky enough to handle several of the figures too, which really is exciting I can tell you! This time, the display had spread across a very large main cabinet with three additional cases spread across the stable building. There were thousands of figures in each case but represents only a fraction of Bryan's complete collection! 

As before, I shall lead you through some of the pics I took and point out any miniatures of interest. 

Bryan's famous Chaos army was on display as usual - you can see it in the chaos entry inside Warhammer armies. A weird and wonderful thing indeed that you can look at for many hours and still find new things. 
A collection of old Citadel and Marauder trolls and ogres. 
I was very pleased to have the chance to study Bryan's undead army in greater detail and I wish I had taken moe photographs now. Gorgeous - in a creaking, rotting way...
Of course, the collection is vast and contains a great number of beautifully painted historical miniatures. These warriors caught my eye as I was browsing that section of the cabinet. 
A great number of different historical periods are represented. To the familiar to the very obscure. 
The large collection of early eldar was a treat for the eyes - including that fantastic harlequin in the centre. It was fun to hear Tim Prow talking about the examples he had painted many years previously too. 
More eldar in this rather dark photograph - can you spot the original harlequin miniatures from the 1980s boxset?
More of Bryan's extensive chaos collection. I snapped these figures as I couldn't recall seeing them before. 
Slaves to Darkness era Bloodletters. Very, very nice to see these. Beautiful reds don't you think?
Of course, much of the Realm of Chaos era collection was on view including this breathtaking unit of Slaanesh champions Many of the figures here appeared in Slaves to Darkness and the supporting White Dwarf material. How many can you spot?
The original Orc War Wyvern in all its glory alongside the Dragon Master's Dragon. 
Rogue Trader was also well represented with lots of pieces that I hadn't seen before. A heavily converted Nurgle Land Raider and Rhino share shelf space with the remains of a Reaver Titan. The titan leg is a scenery piece that I have not see before and I am not sure if a shot of it was every published in the Golden Age - anyone know?
Much of Bryan's Orc and Goblin army was in the display case. Here you can see the original Marauder siege weapons as well as several Citadel models that I don't recall seeing published. I love the shield designs on the stone thrower. 
More of the Orc and Goblin army. There were loads and loads of great figures in this part of the collection. Note the brilliant 'ogre face' shield to the right of the photograph. 
The 1980s Dr Who miniatures were presented once again as were copious amounts of very well painted Judge Dredd stuff. 
Smaller scale miniatures, many of which were part of the Laserburn or Imperial Commander games in the early '80s, were on show. Can you see the amusing sphincter beasts?
Science fiction vehicles, epic scenery and Adeptus Titanicus titans. 
There is quite a bit in this cabinet display. Along the back you can see the RT scenery statues that inspired the later plastic release. The bridge model appeared in several White Dwarf photographs while the ruined columns were part of one of the well remember scenery making articles Phil Lewis did. In the foreground you can lots of the Fighters Range knights, as well as a few Advanced Heroquest plastic figures. Marauder skeletons guard the bridge itself. 
A close up of some more of the Fighters Range knights. The warrior with the horns on his helmet, sword raised aloft and painted with a blue surcoat is one of my all-time favourite Citadel miniatures. 
The original greater daemons of chaos were lurking around in various places - including this Keeper of Secrets from Slaves to Darkness.
A greater daemon of Khorne stood guard over Ivan Bartlett's Chaos War Altar.
One of the larger pieces I had never seen before was this Ork books era piece of Ork scenery. The attention to detail was very obvious and there were lots of amusing little ideas at play here and there. 
Space Zoats rank up quite nicely near a Rogue Trader beastman (when they fought FOR the Emperor) and a few of those unreleased multi-part orc models Marcus painted. 
And finally, great blocks of Realm of Chaos era thugs and marauders. 

22 comments:

  1. Wow, fantastic stuff. Many, many thanks for posting these pictures up Orlygg. You're a credit to the hobby.

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    1. No problem, I know how popular these posts are and that people keep coming back to them. I am glad you enjoyed the pictures.

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  2. Yes mate; I'm sure the titan leg did feature in WD at around the time of first edition space marine! At the time it had some RTB01 ultramarine beakies climbing it with a load of epic models in the background to give the illusion of 'scale'.

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    1. I felt like I've seen it before as well. Although I'm pretty sure there is a drawing of a leg just like this that I could be conflating it (I suspect in the adeptus titanicus rulebook).

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    2. Found the picture (it was Ultramarines climbing all over it) but I don't think I can post pictures in replies. I'm trying to post it over on your Facebook post!

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    3. Thanks for the research guys. I am a fantasy man and my Rogue Trader knowledge is patchy at best. I saw the picture put on FB too, I loved the marine climbing/dangling from the leg.

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  3. Wow! Models and minituras and their colors are fantastic!

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    1. Luciano - Tim Prow told me this effect was achieved my mixing ink into your paint mix. Its something I hope to attempt soon.

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  4. Great photos! I think the Perry broo and Trish Morrison beastmen have never been bettered; they look great here.

    One very minor point of pedantry: that's not the *original* orc war wyvern - there were at least two iterations beforehand: a Perry one (with variants, I think - or maybe just varied riders) and Tony Ackland's magisterial version.

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    1. You are quite correct there JC, but by original I meant the model photographed and put on the box cover for the Machinaries of Destruction range. I should have been clearer in my meaning. Apologies.

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    2. Ah - right enough! I only recently became aware of the very first orc wyverns myself, so was primed to read it the other way. Cheers!

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  5. Always neat to see the classics. Zoats rock!

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    1. I agree, and I am still after the single piece fantasy casting with the staff if anyone has got a spare.

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  6. The highlight for me was looking up stats for Orcs and Goblins in the Warhammer Armies book and then noticing Kev Adams' Orc and Goblin army in the cabinet to my right!

    The Trolls you have pictured are from that army as is the Orc hero with back banner stood next to the stone thrower. I was able to spot Spiker Buboe in amongst a unit of Orc boar riders and the Kev's wolf riders were lurking in there as well!

    The only slight shame was that I couldn't see his amazing army standard bearer and the standard bearer from the orc regiment was missing his banner - not too bad mind considering how many years they've been knocking about!

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    1. Bryan said that what he displayed was only a fraction of his army. He told us that its just too big to show it all at once!

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  7. Thank you for posting these photos!!!! What a joy to see Bryan's collection! I know I'll be back again and again to stare at these pics!

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    1. I am glad you get so much out of my blurry iPad snaps. Check out Steve Casey's Eldritch Epistles blog for plenty more images of Bryan's collection.

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  8. Thanks for posting these, James - I missed this year but one of the highlights for me of BOYL '14 was Bryan talking me through the cabinets and I hope I'll get to BOYL '16 to repeat that pleasure.

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  9. The statues look like monolith productions, by Steve mussered

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  10. Great to see my giant again, even without it's arm... It was the last model I entered (and cleaned up with) at Salute in the painting comp.

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