Eager to hear the rattle of brushes in water after the excitement of Lead of Winter last Saturday, I got back to work early Sunday morning and managed to get this figure finished off. He has been one of those 'unfinishables' for a while if I am being honest and has lurked reprovingly at the back of my bureau for some months.
I have had this miniature for quite a few years and have no idea if he was an eBay purchase or the relic of some long forgotten exchange. He has always struck me as unusal as he doesn't seem to crop up very often. Once, in the early days of our flirtations with using Facebook to trade miniatures, some punter popped up specifically searching for him, citing him as the 'chaos judge' and to be fair he does have the whiff of the bar about him. I think it has something to do with the shape of his helmet (careful, Chico!) as from the front it does resemble the ornate whigs that lawyers seem happy to wear when defending the world's nefarious rich.
But after about thirty-seconds research on-line, I sourced the figure to a 1985 flyer you can see below. It turns out that he is a C35 Guardsman, though clearly of the corpulant variety.
The model clearly suffered some damage in my care and the tip of his staff had pretty much snapped away. I filed down the break and pinned it back on fairly easily and undercoated him in white. As he looked rather sickly I opted for a Nurglesque colour scheme though looking at the model now he could probably pass muster in any Slaanesh force too.
I didn't beat about the bush either with the painting, using a variety of simple layered highlights and washes to complete everything from the rusting armour to his long padded jacket. All in all, the perfect model to get my eye back in before moving on to more challenging pieces.
I hope you all like him. Next up, the Talisman Philosopher that I just swapped with Stuart and I am quite keen to get finished. I love wizardy type miniatures you see!
Orlygg.
You are always name dropping me... Psssh like I would laugh at him being purple with a odd shape helmet ;)
ReplyDeleteLooks great! Although I think chaos judge is a better name than guardsman 😂
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Perhaps I should have given him a read jacket instead so he could become a chaosy M'Lud.
Deleteive never seen those figures before from C35 and they have an unusual style.. more reminiscent of the later hero hammer models in style to my eye. i wonder who sculpted them?
ReplyDeleteThey are from '85, so the sculpting team was fairly small. I would suspect they are the product of many hands. Anyone out there know more?
DeleteFantastic miniature and, as always, a beautiful paintwork.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ismael! (:
DeleteGreat paint job, Love the colors! Thanks for posting the add, was not familiar with this range. I have seen the Vixen before but did not realize she was Citadel. I recently acquired the "henchman" in a lot. The early chaos figures have so much character!
ReplyDeleteI am not sure what to make of this unusual range. I have a couple more of the figures somewhere and they are eclective to say the least! They are certianly interesting in regards of understanding where Citadel were going with chaos before work began on Realm of Chaos.
DeleteLooking through the range on SOL it is interesting to see the transition from sculpted shields to plastic. While separate plastic shields allows for more dynamic poses the sculpted shield could be very creative! A round flat disc is not very chaotic and we are not all gifted enough with putty to sculpt our own whacky faces on them.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that back in the day you could buy a vast array of metal shields from Citadel, as well as the plastic ones. I remember Bryan talking about how the invention of the slotta-base allowed for greater freedom in pose, and that the addition of plastic shields provided the sculptors with a little more room for creativity.
DeleteStill, nothing quite strikes me as more '80s Citadel as those plastic shields with a ghoulish face painted on them. (:
i do love the Marauder shields! i have all of the except for some of the dark elf ones. I traveled to England and Scotland in I think 1990. On my literary was the Orcs Nest in London, because they had adds in Dragon magazine. I also happened upon the GW store in Edinburgh. At the time I did not collect GW figs or play any GW games. The only things i bought were Marauder shield sprues and one chaos dwarf. The dwarf cam out of a big bits box in the Edinburgh store, everything in it was 50p. The guy next to me assembled an entire Khorn jugger with rider and paid 50p for it! I have never seen a loose metal shield except on the internet.
DeleteI love his skin tone, Orlygg. In fact, I love the entire colour scheme -- it makes a model that might otherwise sink into the table really pop.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see how you treat the Philosopher.
Total serendipity if I am being honest. I just went with whatever colours came to mind, with a vague notion he'd be part of some Nurgle warband somewhere. He certainly looks unhealthy enough for such a role. Thanks for the positive words as always Matthew.
DeleteNice job. One of the few of that range that I actually painted back in the day. Bob Naismith sculpt I think?
ReplyDeleteI have no idea I am afraid. He is a great model though, and there are some questionable sculpts in that series if I am being honest. That doesn't make them any less interesting though, does it!? (:
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