Oldhammer Weekend 2017: Bryan's all new cabinets of chaos and other painted miniatures

Many famous Realm of Chaos era models rank up here. The vivid colours never really translated into 1980s publications and these models need to be seen with the naked eye to appreciate fully.

Since my last visit to the Wargames Foundry, Bryan Ansell's incredible collection of painted miniatures has had somewhat of a refurbishment. Additionally cabinets have been installed and a plethora of new models have been extracted from deep storage and placed lovingly upon rows and rows of shelving. Having restricted time this year, I took a number of hurried snaps of as much as I could before leaving and many of the photographs have a bit of glass flare. Hopefully, on my next visit I can take a more sedate approach, and get the glass doors unscrewed, to ensure that everything is covered in detail for those who cannot yet make the trip to Newark. 

Still, as you will have seen in with the opening photograph there is still a great deal to see. Too much to see, really, and these cabinets reward repeated study. I have provided a caption it each image to bring to attention some of the models in the frame but this collection of images is but a fraction of the total collection on display. 

Enjoy the journey - what can you spot?

Three Marauder mercenary ogres. These all appeared in multiple issues of White Dwarf back in the day. 

Gnarly trolls of unsure vintage. These are earlier '80s.

Marauder Miniatures flagellants painted in outstanding detail, with the Reiksguard (also Marauder) ranking up behind.

Marauder troll/giant slayers and a dwarf wizard.

Epic scale Imperial Knights. Love the old school green bases.

Rogue Trader era space marines and renegades. Notice the slightly blurry appearence of the Advanced Space Crusade plastic figures in the background.

Bryan's collection contains many of the scenry buildings built as part of Phil Lewis' famous series of articles, and many that were never published. One day I would like to take a closer look at these models. Three beautiful Slaves to Darkness era mounted chaos knights parade before them.

More of the wonderfully constructed Warhammer buildings.

Rogue Trader era marines, chaos champions and other renegades. The original Space Zoats can be seen on the back left. Can you spot two of the original titans amongst the other walkers on these two shelves? 

More Rogue Trader marines and titans. Beautiful models.

More Realms of Chaos models including some of the famous Jes Goodwin champions.

More of the Realm of Chaos champions.

And yet more of the Realm of Chaos champions, amny of which are very famous models from many editions of classic White Dwarf. How many can you spot?

The Citadel halfling/hobbit range in full. Gotta love that red dragon too - a Mike McVey paint job if memory serves.

Night Horrors and Dwarf Villagers.

The famous Marauder Dwarfs and the two sets of Dwarf Regiments of Renown: Bugman's and Prince Ulther's.

The original Blood Bowl range, complete with Gouged Eye and some of the Dwarf Chaos team. Can you spot the pogo goblins and the BB ogres?

The halfling team, a myriad of elves and Star Players - oh, and the original Death-Roller. These were all new on the shalves and I hadn't seen them 'in the lead' so to speak before. 

A mix of Marauder and Citadel Elves. 

Preslotta slann, painted by Kev Adams way back when, again these were on display for the first time. 

Citadel crossbows and an assortment of other feudals and vikings.

Gloriously painted Marauder fighters and...

...the original Travelling Players, out of retirement and supporting your favourite village fayre in the near future!

Masses of chaos stuff, early sci-fi figures used to develop Rogue Trader - can you spot the Moon Duke?

Metal prototype skeleton horses. Sorry, but I failed to get the Advanced Heroquest Henchmen into frame!

Underneath Kev's old slann models are a number of John Blanche originals. 

I have always loved the pink horror conversion model since it first appeared in White Dwarf, and thankfully it has survived the decades and now lives on display inside the Foundry Shop. This is a model I will return to again and again! 

Blandford Warriors, Realm of Chaos era beastmen and Space Crusade models.

Yes, Bryan has found the original Mike McVey Heroquest models. These are exquisitely painted and bought many a tear to the eye of a jaded grognard! You can see a better shot of the wonderful Advanced Heroquest Henchmen below.

Remember these conversions from 'Eavy Metal? Though I think the slug spawn appeared in The Lost and the Danmed too. 

Some of the independent daemons created for The Lost and the Damned can be seen here along with the unreleased cleric figure with a frog in his hand. 

As I said earlier, I didn't have the same amount of time this year to make much of an inroad to the models on show on the tables, but I still managed to get a few interesting snaps which you can see here. There are loads of much better images out there and I'll do a little mini post laster this week and organise all of the blog links that cover the event into a single handy location. 

I was very pleased to see these old Dark Future bikers. I have one of these models somewhere and have been inspired to locate it and get it painted. 

Lovely converted Dark Future cars including 'Pervy the Death Beetle' on the right. 

One of the original interceptors from the Dark Future box set, alongside a police vehicle. 

I mentioned that there were some lovely squats on Richard Legg's table, and here are some of them complete with paperback edition of Rogue Trader. These are such characterful models.

Whiskey Priest and Airborngrove's table had some classic chaos warriors on show, these two Nurglesque models caught my eye. Beautiful bluish armour on the model on the right, don't you think?

More figures from the same table: I love the rock elemental paint job here, complete with the lichen growing all over his limbs. An evocative touch. 

Barbarians in combat with another elemental, this time the water version. Again, this figure was beautifully painted and based. The simple but effective shield designs in black and yellow are also worth a mention. 

One of the greatest warhammer figures ever sculpted, surely? 

Chris High King of the Elves amazed us all with his causal unloading of 'some' of his third edition elf army. Still, WIP mind but quite the most wonderful display of elves I think I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. If what you can see here impresses you then check out the next few images.

Only three more chariots!!?

Dragons!!!!?

And yet more dragons... and this is just part of his larger collection. Envious anyone?

And the man himself. You can see the foam containers with all of the infantry models residing within them on the table. Hopefully, Chris can get these figures based and finished for a big game in the autumn. 

As I mentioned last post, Nigel Stillman brought along his Bretonnian forces to much rejoicing. Many of these models had seen extensive conversion work while others were original sculpts. 

Behold the 'Laydees of the Baggayge Trayne' complete with (so Nigel told us) historically accurate busts! 

The baggage train in all it's glory - sorry that the corner is blurred!

A close up of the vehicle (can you work out where the wheels came from) and it is worth noting that Nigel has used actual material in the creation of the wagon top. This has given the model a nice texture don't you think?

Another, lower shot of Nigel's troops. Note the converted Green Knight figure and John of Arc to the far left. 

And finally, I cannot recall whose lovely Maurader dwarves these were but I am sure that you agree they are a worthy choice to end this little run down!! (:

Right, that is your lot for today. Next post will see me going through much of the artwork that was on display, mostly from the Grandmaster of Chaos Tony Ackland, but also some other pieces from Bryan's collection we have not talked about before.

Until then, 

Orlygg

Oldhammer Weekend 2017: Overview

Hello and welcome to my annual overview of this year's premium Oldhammer Event held (as always) at the excellent facilites of the Ansell family's Wargames Foundry! I was damn well lucky to attend at all after recent events but thanks to my wonderful wife, Lisa "I've never been so glad to see you painting miniatures again" Taylor, transport was well and truly sorted as she drove me to the venue for much of the Saturday. 

She decided to book us into a hostel in the centre of Nottingham City for the Friday night so we wouldn't have to endure a long journey on the day, and we spent much of the previous afternoon exploring Nottingham Castle with our children - who were very pleased to learn all about Robin Hood! It also gave them the opportunity to visit their first Oldhammer Event, which captivated my son in particular (thanks to Mr. Curtis Fell, who graciously included him in the enormous Hellsreach game) and fascinated my daughter. They were both very excited to meet the famous Kevin Adams as he had sculpted small models of them several years ago, and anyone named Goblinmaster will be a person of considerable interest if you are under seven !

As with previous years there was a wonderful event figure, exclusive to the weekend, thanks to the endeavours of Jon Boyce and sculpted by John Pickford. She is based on a well known illustration originally appearing in Rogue Trader in 1987 and answers to Olivia when she isn't busting chops and decapitating perps. Thanks to James Holloway (who's photograph I shamelessly stole) you can have a closer look at the finished product below. There have been a number of Oldhammer event models over the years, and this one has to be my personal favourite (so far...) so a big thumbs up from old Orlygg to all involved. 

As in previous years I will now present a selection of the photographs I took of the event to help give you a flavour of the Saturday. Even though I was only there for the day, I must say that the atmosphere was absolutely fantastic and was easily the most relaxed and friendly it has ever been, and as you'll know if you have attended in the past, that really is saying something! It was also very pleasing to see such a range of games on show, from small Rogue Trader skirmishes to full scale fantasy battles! 

Kevin Adams set to work early with his now annual charity-sculpt-a-face drive and we were able to locate those Oldhammerers who hadn't managed to get their models completed last year. Here you can see Kev and Nick Harding just before work commenced on Nick's Dwarf Flame cannon figure. I managed to get the lowdown from Kev about his most recent work too. 

Kev had some challenging missions to complete during the day (he is there on Sunday too, if you are reading this in time and fancy popping down) with a highlight being this chaotic face on an old renegade body. 

There was a wonderful Dark Future gaming being played in the stableyard organised by Kilgore-Trout from the Oldhammer Forum. There were some wonderfully painted models on the table (more from them in a subsequent post) and the boys involved in the game were very enthusiastic about this classic car racing game. We talked about how adaptable many of the kits are and what a pain getting hold of the original figures is online. The need to remove the packet of crisps was deemed un-necessary as this was an Oldhammer Event and such items are now mandatory. 

A wonderfully run and presented game. Thank you to all involved in this! 

The majestically bearded and photographically well-endowed Richard Legg and co were running a lovely Rogue Trader skirmish during the Saturday morning, including some wonderful old Imperial Squat models that are not often spied at Oldhammer events, complete with bikes and a ramshakle flyer. Old school plastic genestealers were fielded in suitable quantities to delight and terrify the Oldhammerer in equal measure. 

My old gentleman compatriots of yore, Steve, Ash and Warlord Paul were running a 40k second edition skirmish also involving genestealers, including many of the more recent plastic releases. Ash had fielded an interesting assortment of human figs from practically everywhere while Steve was already listing his models on eBay (such is their fate when they fail him in battle) while the rather dapper looking Warlord Paul (think Sean Connery as Bond, only with a beard) unleashed his license to kill over their forces. 

As in years gone by, Wargames Foundry delighted the old school Citadel fans in attendence with another series of re-releases from the glory days of the 1980s. This year saw the return of many of the ninja figures, including the super hard to find (or used to be) ninja casualty, as well as the 1987 siege/cannon crew models seen in the WFB3 rulebook. Hobbs, from the old F4 Men-at-Arms range, the the Teutonic Knight from the old Blandford Warriors range also being returned to us. 

Here, have a closer look! 

These ninja make the perfect accompliment to Aly Morrison's Samurai figures from the same era already available from the Foundry. Sadly, rushed for time and harried by excited children I failed to pick any of these up so will have to wait until I return to the Foundry in October to sate my Japanese martial needs. 

I did manage to pick up Hobbs and the Teutonic knight though, and will no doubt one day get some more of the more modern castings of the Feudal artillery crew (I have the originals in my collection already, many of which are painted.)  The affable Tony Yates' Blademaster and Blade Wife and his Chaos Lord had also been cast up, for fans of his unique models - my daughter took an instant delight to the Chaos Lord and insisted I bought it for her to paint. 

The near mythical Nigel Stillman was in attendence and brought in his incredible Bretonnian army, which turned out to include parts of the 'original' forces he used to create the famous armybook of years past. Here he can be seen chatting with Oldhammer original, airbornegrove, who made the trip from the US and was a pleasure to meet after so many years. Whiskey Priest and co were indulging in a skirmish game here with some beautifully painted miniatures - more of which in a later post!

Curtis Fell, of Ramshackle Games, was involved in the gigantic Hellsreach game inside the pavillion and was kind enough to hand out free resin models of the Mayor of this desolate place. Closer inspection of the model just goes to show how far his sculpting skills have come on since last year's Oldhammer Cleric. A big thank you to him for his generosity once again.  

The Hellsreach game was gigantic and very highly detailed. You could have easily spent the entire day attempting to capture the intricacies of the game as there was ust so much going on. Expect to see a great deal of coverage about this mammoth game across Oldhammer media in the future. 

This beautifully crafted table was, and I am guessing here so please correct me if I am wrong, used for the Snorcling Space Hopper game. Like Hellsreach is was an extremely imaginative piece of modelling with a great number of comdeic touches. The spiders (and their webs) were the highlight for me here. 

An excellent effort! 

Oldhammer heavyweights Erny and Geoff Sims can bee seen here looming large over the gigantic Heldenhofen game, complete with Bloodbowl Stadium! There were a great number of excellent scenery pieces on this table, including many inspired by the seminal Warhammer Townscape - can you spot the windmill in this shot?

With such a large table to play on, and in their traditional spot, the boys from GROG did sterling work putting on this sandbox game. 

A shot from the otherside of the Heldenhofen table, with BOYL impresario Garth James looking on.  

This game was enthusatically run and well resourced, complete with this Gazette display and a tonne of dice scattered across the gaming table. I believe that the famous 'Harry' from Warseer fame (and beyond) was behind much of the scenery here! 

Great fun!

Thantsants and Paul Golgfag rip the solar systems of the far future to shreds with Space Fleet, the precursor to what later became known as Battlefleet Gothic. 

Matthew Street, Steve Casey (who always seems to wear this blue fleece at Oldhammer events for reasons mysterious and arcane) and Chris High King of the Elves - you should see his collection of old school third edition faerie-folk! In fact, it is so an impressive assemblage that we hope to construct a game around his collection later on this year. And yes, there are three dragon riders on the table there!! 

Nigel Stillman brought in his vast Bretonnian army, packed full of classic models from the 1990s Stillmania era, with many of them of his own creation. The 'Laydees of ye olde baggayge trayne' need to be seen to be believed. But again, more from them in a later post. 

Tony Ackland broods in a wizardly manner behind them. He had brought his sketch book again and we made some further discoveries amongst his recently unearthed (he had forgotten he had them) work. I'll do an art post later on to cover the highlights in more detail. 

Nigel Stillman's Bretonnians ride forth- though he told us they were never allowed to appear in White Dwarf properly because they weren't painted to a high enough standard! They look mighty fine here though, I am sure you will agree!!

Inside the Foundry Shop there were plenty of games in the offing, including this lovely skirmish involving Erny and Snickit. 

Erny's skirmishing wood elves caused considerable problems for his opponents.

As in previous years, the painting competition was held and the standard of entries was higher than ever. As a two-time winner myself (blowing my own trumpet there!) I was honoured to judge the entries along with Tony Yates, Garth James and Maria Ansell. In the end we whittled the entries down to those you can see before you. Scalene's Nurgle Plague Doctor and Harlequins won the single figure, and unit prize while JB (the Asslessman) picked up a the 'Big Monster' gong, thanks to his magnificant elf dragon rider that caught my eye instantly when studying the entries. Honourable mention went to the big walker conversion -though I cannot recall who made this, so please can someone inform me so I can update this post! As did the Minotaur on the toilet, a play on the inconvenienced dwarf of limited edition fame, which reminded me of the humourous entries in the old Golden Demon books of the 1980s. Wonderfully, it turned out that the painter behind this little gem was none other than Steve Casey himself, a collector turned painter, who I am sure won't mind me pointing out to readers had been feeling a little anxious about his painting recently. 

The humbly controlled joy of winning was evident on his face as he stepped forth to recieve his well won prize, and seeing my friend win was the highlight of the day for me and example of what the Oldhammer Community is all about! 

Right, that is enough for now. Expect plenty more coverage over the coming days as I take you through some of the wonderful miniatures on show (including Bryan Ansell's extensively refurbished collection), Tony Ackland's sketch book (and other arty bits) and a wonderful discovery (at least to me, so don't raise your hopes too high) from the Ansell collection. 

More soon,

Orlygg

A Historical Interlude: Egtved Girl by Michael Perry

A Bronze Age girl - standing rather defiantly if you ask me! I tried to suggest that she was quite a fearsome character in her facial expression, trying to convey one of those 'looks' nearly all teenage girls seem to throw about.

Last time we spoke I promised something a little historical, but still vaguely in the Oldhammer vibe - and here it is! A lovely Bronze Age figure by Michael Perry and produced by the Wargames Foundry. This range has been a dirty little secret of mine for some years now and I have been slowly collecting the different packs, but like so many of us neglected to even pop open the blister pack and get cracking. 

Well, that has all changed with the addition of this sultry girl to my collection. For the last two weeks I have gone cold turkey (almost, I wasn't that brave) on all of the prescription medicine I was on and I am now thankfully off the stuff. One of the drugs I was given has recently cropped up in the media (in typical sensational and ill-reported fashion) though they only thing I murdered on the stuff were the weeds in my garden. It seems my seizures and illness were simply side effects of these powerful medicines rather than the urology problems that I was originally suffering from. 

Now that WHS (wobbly-hand-syndrome) has passed, I am back at work on my cluttered workstation and hope to be able to post more regularly. But enough of my woes... on to the model itself. Despite having a degree in archaeology I knew very little about clothing in the Bronze Age and was keen to get the look of the figure correct. Little did I know that Michael Perry hadn't simply conjured up a random prehsitoric person in this tiny figure but actually based her of a very significant find that has become known as the 'Egtved Girl'.

                          

She was a Nordic Bronze Age girl whose well preserved remains were discovered outside Egtved (archaeological custom often names finds after their modern location) in Denmark in 1921. Forensic examination of her remains suggested that she was around 18 years old when she died and was a slim, five foot three in height with short, blonde hair and well groomed nails. She was excavated (if such a verb can be applied to the techniques of the 1920s) alongside the cremated remains of a 5 year old child in a barrow thirty metres wide and about four metres in hight. Sadly, only her hair, brain, teeth, nails and a small sample of her skin has survived. 

The original 1921 photograph of the Egtved Girl's remains. Note the large, bronze disk at her waist.

Her inhumation was interred inside a east/west aligned treetrunk coffin and was discovererd fully dressed lying on a cowhide blanket. Dendrochronological investigation of the treetrunk coffin dated the burial to around 1370 BC - and that is almost certainly the year the tree was felled. She wore a loose bodice type garment, which exposed her midriff, with sleeves that reached to her elbows and a short, string skirt. On her arms were found bronze bracelets and around her waist (secured by a woollen belt) was a large disc ornament decorated with spiral designs and a protruding spike. Dangling within easy reach from this same belt, was a fine horn comb suggesting that preening and postering with a hairbrush was a vital part of a woman's life even then! I am of course being facetious here, as combs are a very common find archaeologically as they were essential for removing the insects that like to set up home in our hair, as well as maintaining the latest styles! 

A slender, subtle golden ring adorned one of her ears indicating that piercing was just in vogue then as it is now, even amongst the more extreme grognards I have met (such as Chico.) A small, birchwood box containing an awl, bronze pins and a hair net was found alongside of her head, presumably her personal possessions most suited to the next life, though intriguingly some smaller bones from the younger child were also found inside. Why? Interpreting the past is always a tricky business, and it is hard not to let your own social and national bias effect theory. It could be suggested that the younger child pre-deceased the Egtved girl (especially considering they bear the unmistakable signs of being burnt) if their bones were part of her possessions, though we cannot be sure if they were not indeed added by those who buried her for reasons lost to us. The more romatically inclined may seek to relate the two burials to close family, with the child perhaps being a sibling or child of the Egtved Girl, but such associations are always going to be risky and hard to prove without further analysis. The child may have been totally unrelated to her and could have been a slave, presumably killed to accompany her mistress into the afterlife. Evidence for human scarifice, that most 'Hollywood' of historical subjects, is prevalent in the region in which the Egtved girl lived and there is plenty of scope to suggest that both the child, and Egtved herself, could have befallen this fate. 

We will never know. 

Modern, colour photograph of her clothing after preservation showing the position of her gravegoods in relation to her body. Note the footwraps alongside the bark bowl, these are missing from Michael Perry's intrepretation but appear on other figures in the range. 

Analysis of the grave goods yielded further information. Before the coffin was originally sealed, she was covered with a blanket and the cowhide and wrapped carefully in them. Flowering yarrow (a plant which to this day can symbolise protection) was then placed above her body, strongly suggesting a summer burial. Much like 16 year old European girls of today, booze (in this case a beer brewed from wheat, honey, bog-myrtle and cowberries) was clearly part of her life and was deposited on top of her in a bark bucket - which can be clearly seen on the modern miniature, nestled protectively under her arm. Whether or not drinking the stuff in the copious quanities teenagers do today was part of her life, or if indeed the alcoholic drink was some part of the funeral custom of the time, is impossible to say. Though, some modern imbiber has produced a modern version of the beverage for the curious, based on analysis of the recipe and can be purchased here. 

Museum snap showing the treetrunk coffin.

Her clothing caused a sensation in the press when unearthed in the 1920s and was seen as incredibly daring in the days of the flapper girl. The outfit, which remains the best preserved example of a fashion style now understood to be common across Northern Europe during the Bronze Age. If you are wondering why the preservation of the textiles was so remarkable, yet the physical, fleshy remains were so poor then let me explain. The highly acidic bog like conditions in which she was buried are often highly anaerobic and the resulting lack of oxygen prevents bacteria from surviving, and therefore decomposing the body. The preservational qualities of bogs are myriad, complex and varied and are far beyond the scope and remit of this blog, but the science is really rather interesting and well worth further pursuit.  

The Victorian myth that prehsitoric people's lives were 'nasty, brutish and short' is very unfair but still very much part of the public's perception of the past. Pretty much like the modern powergamer's misconception that any other form of miniature wargaming that doesn't involve army lists and rules loopholes is somehow an affront to the hobby. The isotopes extracted from the Egtved Girl's remains indicate that it is likely she was born and brought up in what we now call the Black Forest region, in southwestern Germany but later moved to Denmark (presumably, but not definitely, due to the marraige customs of the time) with the evidence suggesting that she travelled back and forth between these two locations during her lifetime. How can we know this, you may ask? Well, the answer is actually quite simple: strontium-87 and 86 are isotopes found in the water we drink and can be matched to locations to this day. These isotopes can be stored in our teeth as we grow and can be read much like a tree-ring under extensive analysis in the modern laboratory. 

The conditions that help preserve textile remains also destroy their original colours. Long centuries of immersion in bogs can tan flesh and clothing a chestnut brown and it is important to remember that what we see now may not have been the garment's original colour. 

If we can return to her clothing once again and discuss the significance of her outfit a little closer. Were these everyday clothes for people living in the European Bronze Age? Or should we interpret them to be religious vestments worn to celebrate some type of religious observations. Many archaeologists certainly debate this, suggesting that the bronze disk represents some kind of sun worship and the Egtved Girl's outfit could have been worn as part of a religious dance with the shining, reflective bronze surface mimicking the sun's light. There are a number of bronze statues excavated from the Bronze Age that appear to show females dressed in similar clothes, but it is all interpretation.  Of course, anything that archaeologists do not understand is always pegged as having a 'ritual' purpose, so much so as it has become a bit of an in-joke to students of the subject, albeit a painful one for some. On the other hand, we could just be looking at the 'high-street' fashion of circa 1370 BC and if that is the case, things haven't really changed much have they? 

"My favourite range has to be the Tzeentch horrors, their blue shades match my new skirt wonderfully."

As I have already said, we cannot always be sure what colour textiles from the European Bronze Age actually were, though we can have a jolly good guess. After studying numerous replica outfits from Denmark I stuck the the brown look you can see on the figure, though to create a bit of variation between the string skirt and the bodice I opted for a paler tone for her upper half. Unusually for me, I undercoated this figure in dark brown and washed her over with a dark brown ink before beginning work. Each colour was then worked up using my usual method of adding increasing amounts of Boneyard to the base until I was happy with the final highlight. As with the blue horror I painted recently, colour harmony played a part in all the tones save the bronze of her waist disc and her eyes. 

I chose the classic pdf base for my historical models just as a change really, and they not being part of my 'Oldhammer-look' I also felt free to add some static grass. 

To conclude, this historical miniature experience has been a really enjoyable journey. What started out as just another figure from a blister pack turned into a fascinating research project and a challenging paint scheme. Thankfully, I have the remaining figures in the range to finish (including a dancing version of the Egtved Girl) and all are under various states of completion. If you are interested in learning more about the European Bronze Age there are loads of resources out there that a simple Google search will make available. In my researches I did stumble across a rather atmospheric and illuminating video on Youtube that is well worth a watch to help better understand the world of the Egtved Girl and our European ancestors. 

There and back again... with a blue horror!

Well met once more brave grognards of the lead! It is a good feeling to be speaking to you once more here on the blogosphere and sharing this charming (if such an adjective can be applied to daemonic entities) Kev Adams blue horror from 1989. 

My health declined from March onwards as I needed a nasty operation. To cut a long story short, after the surgery I developed complications and was prescribed a series of medicines: sadly, these caused me to suffer a massive siezure which sent me to hospital. Though well enough afterwards to return home, I continued to suffer further seizures, hallucinations and other general unpleasantness until I was diagnosed with a severe allergic reaction to amitriptyline.

I am now recovering, thankfully, and should be back to my normal self in a few weeks time. Having spent the past three or four weeks largely in bed, I was keen to get back on the battlefield and take on a miniature or two. Obviously, I was concerned that my illness would have had an impact on my painting ability, but apart from loosing my alarity with paint I was able to knock out this grining horror in three or four leisurely hours. 

I so enjoyed working on him that I have fished out the other blue horrors in my collection and will be setting forth painting them up over the next week or so. If you are interested in my recipe for this model it was really quite simple. I used Foundry's Sky Blue A as a base coat (over a white undercoat) and washed over with the old 1980s blue Citadel ink, undiluted. Once this was dry, I repainted the skin of the horror with Sky Blue A and added pure white gradually to blend up the highlights until I was satisfied that the model 'popped' to quote Warlord Paul.  

I used colour harmony on the teeth and horns, adding a tiny amount of Sky Blue A to the Boneyard triad and simply highlighted up, using far more white on the final coat for the needle like teeth. Using the classic '80s purple ink (I know they are not the best quality-wise, but the colours they produce so envisage the classic era that they are well worth tracking down) I prepared a watery glaze and washed over the teeth to give them a slight contrast to the flesh. 

The eye was achieved in a slightly different way. I first picked it out in pure white before painting the orb of the eye in orange. Two yellow highlights were then added (again by adding pure white) and the eye was finished off with the same purple glaze used on the teeth. 

Very simple, easy and effective for my first model in many months. Here is a rear shot, worthy or the Ole Dirty Boye himself, Chico (it is even slightly out of focus!) I actually painted this long after the front half of the model, so it doesn't quite match the paleness of the front view, but no matter. I have also been working on a number of historical miniatures from the Perry's. They are very similar in style to Citadel that they feel quite familiar under the brush. I only tinker with them, a guilty pleasure really, but I hope you don't mind me posting these here in the future, as I have no where else to show 'em off! 

Orlygg