A Second Summer of Citadel: A Box of Delights, Great Spined Dragon slain, Lord and Lady McDeath and a Zoat

So the summer has finally arrived for those of us classroom dwellers, only to disappear quite promptly. Gone are the blazing hot days of misery where we sweated half to death in Victorian built classrooms and here are the endless days over grey, overcast skies. Ah, the British summer. Still, things have suddenly changed here at Realm of Chaos 80s as my long lost collection of painted figures has made it back to me at last!

Now this blog isn't going to go into the hows and whys. All I am going to say is that I am delighted that they are all back in my collection. Nearly twenty-five years worth of painted models that were last seen in the display cabinet in my former home. However, the years have not been kind as we shall see. I intend to restore, repair, repaint all of these models in the coming months and photograph them properly here. I've also created an instagram companion to this blog after much nagging from Stuart where I will be sharing the photos too. I have models from the classic '80s era, the Silver Age and quite recent by the looks of things (recent being about 2019, lol).

Here's the link if you are interested in Instagram. 

Right, I have begun this post with a lovely picture of a beautiful model. The Limited Edition Fantasy Zoat from 1987. I am sure those of you who love your WFRP will recognise the shape of this figure as being very similar to the famous illustration from the rulebook. The model appears briefly in White Dwarf 89 and was sculpted by Bob Naismith. It is a lovely single piece casting full of character. Simple but highly effective. Citadel put out a number of zoats over the early years, both for Warhammer and Rogue Trader. But this is by far the best of the bunch. Opinions can vary about these models, with some enthusiasts calling them rather ugly but for me they are one of Warhammer's more intriguing and bizarre creations. 

It was also the first model I plucked out of my 'box of delights' as I am calling in. More a pile of despair in reality considering the damage done, but I am confident most of it can be repaired and restored. This Zoat model survived untouched which was probably because he was right on the top. He needed nothing more than a quick dusting off and he was off to the workshop for his photoshoot. 

Here is the reverse shot. I was rather struck by how good I was at painting by this stage of my career. I've used drybrushing and layering to get the best out of him and stuck to naturalistic colours too. I'm rather past it now but it is interesting to look back and try and remember the skills I once had! I'm also very pleased with the colour choices. A bright, scaley green, a yellow belly and the reddish hew of the staff is a bright, eye catching scheme I'd definitely use if I have the chance to paint any further draconid type creatures. 

The McDeath's have arrived everybody. I have the full set of these as far as I can tell, save Sandra Prangle, though I use a rarer figure than her as a proxy. Many have fallen it disrepair through neglect but these two figures were unscathed thankfully. Out of the two figures, Lady McDeath is the better sculpt in my opinion. She has a wonderful colour scheme which I took directly from the late, great John Blanche's masterful painting. Female characters are rare in this era of Warhammer and those that we have are a joy to paint and field. In time, and if I can restore all of the figures from this range, I wouldn't mind playing through the scenarios again. They are great fun. McDeath was more of a pain to paint. Gold armour! My nemesis!! But I think I have done a good job here. The free hand stuff on the shield still holds up now and I can remember not wanting to cut off the shield boss when working on him, something I had been prone to do in the early Oldhammer years when old figures were much more easy to source. Now everyone thinks a standard dwarf or gobbo is just as rare as these two figures.  

I'm not quite sure exactly what Lady McDeath is supposed to be wearing. There is a Tudor feel to her clothing, especially around the bodice which would make sense considering the link to Shakespeare. Her shoes though strike me to resemble '80s Reeboks or even Brothel Creepers from the '70s. Very odd but great fun to work on. Her crown perhaps foreshadows the grimdark of the future with the spikes but they are nicely understated here. In many ways, McDeath is just a standard fighter figure save for his helmet which as a War of the Roses crown-helm feeling to me. A nice nod to history there and as I have said over the years, the more seeped in history a fantasy figure is the more believable and relatable it becomes. 

 

By now, I am sure you have been wondering about the package my collection came in. A battered old Amazon box that was falling apart at the seams. No support, no wrapping, just dumped in a box and crushed by goodness knows what. My standard bearers have all be badly damaged as have many of my plastics and larger, multi-part models. The Great Spined Dragon's wings are badly broken and detached. Yet, incredibly so many have survived with little more than a few scratches and dents. Lots of weapons are bent and arms missing. The bottom of the box (which I haven't got to yet in my careful, archaeological excavation of it all) is littered with snapped of shields and bits of skeleton horse figures. 

Here are some of the first models I removed from the initial layers this morning. All of these will be checked and repaired in the coming days, starting with the simplest jobs and then working up to the spined dragon itself. Not that I'm not painting up new stuff as well mind you. In the workshop I have selected a series of excellent figures from my growing collection that make interesting painting projects. I will, of course, try and continue on those skellies too. 

A miserable dragon. Slain by Amazon of all things! Not that you can see it in this picture but both wings are badly damaged. When I got the model this was the case and I built up a plasticard and greenstuff skin to support the wings. All of this will need repairing and repinning. The paintwork itself looks untouched though. More on this project in future posts.

Right I'm off. I've got a few simple pieces to get painted today to get the creative juices (now mostly dried up) flowing. I'm hoping to be more ambitious with my painting after last year's Summer of Citadel was rather uninspiring. I know I was learning to do everything again but I feel I've made sufficient progress to do more. 

Speak soon,

Orlygg

More for the Horde, 1989 Witch Elf and Foundry Fighter

After an incredibly prolific May, June ended up being a ghost town here at Realm of Chaos 80s. What with the two heatwaves (one of which I remained in school as we closed), landscaping the back garden (trying to keep newly laid turf alive in said heatwaves) and the normal end of year at school nonsense I've hardly had the time to pick up a paintbrush. 

Of course, I have dabbled. The workshop is now well organised and set out for serious miniature painting. I've managed to pick up a few random pieces of old lead too, though I will be staying well clear of the new ogre re-release by Games Workshop. I thought it rather cynical of them to separate the Jes Goodwin classics and merge them with the Marauder sculpts. In odd moments, I've slinked off to the workshop and finished off these three skeletons for my long delayed Skeleton Horde project. 

They were completed in much the same way as my other skeletons. Exact same colour recipe of Orc Brown and Bleached Bone over a chestnut wash. Of course, I took the opportunity to create some more freehand shield designs. You can see my efforts below.

The centre example is my favourite ever painted skull shield. After eighteen months of dabbling, I am getting the hang of the shape and character of a good skull. Having a large shield with plenty of painting space also helps as painting smaller skulls is much more of a challenge, as you can see from the yellow background and green background examples here. Still, they are in keeping with the era I love and am inspired by. Hope you think so too. 

Here are the new skellies ranked up with their comrades. I've still go a fair few skeleton infantry to crack on with. Perhaps inspiration will call over the summer which is mere two weeks away?

I also finished off this Bob Naismith Witch Elf. She was one of my dreaded 'unfinishables' and has been sitting gathering dust for many, many years. I have a large cache of unwanted figures from the glory days of Oldhammer. Unwanted by me I should point out. All started and never finished for whatever reason. Some of them I dread to even look at but they sit now in my workshop in my eye line and I will slowly work through them which inspiration strikes. 

The colour scheme remained exactly as I have envisioned all those years ago. I just completed the highlighting on the hair, armour and books. The sculpting on this model has a chunky feels, especially around the arms and the knives she carried and that makes her feel quite different from the Goodwin style elves. Even so, I am glad she is finally free to face the tabletop. I've got other dark elves kicking about and I think I'll stick with this colour scheme if I ever get around to painting them. 

Of course, she appears in White Dwarf 109 (my first ever issue) and I can remember the article well from my youth. It explored the background of the evil side of the Elf family and I can recall enjoying peering at these models with the hope of young, that perhaps they would all somehow fall into my possession for free. I ended up with the clampack of Mengil Manhide's Dark Elves and I still have a few of the models kicking about today, unearthed in a packed of photographs in my mother's loft not that long ago. Bizarrely, the photographs were not even mine! 

Finally, we have this rather lovely fighter. He is not Citadel but I am sure he was part of the Fighters range and some point. He comes from Foundry and was in one of their ranges. I expect I was given him years back and made an attempt to paint him up all Landsknecht style. My concentration or skill level was clearly lacking that day as I gave up on him at the shading stage. I was lovely to work him back up over the last few weeks, dabbling and taking my time. I found an old plastic Citadel shield and restored that up for him, keeping the hole and the socket on his arm sound. I usually file them off and fill in the gap but didn't worry about it this time. 

As I said, the end of the school year is fast approaching and I am hoping for another 'Summer of Citadel' though I am going to be more focussed on painting up interesting figures rather than trying to relearn my painting skills. Looking back, last year's figures weren't really the most interesting or inspiring pieces. But that was due to how limited my collection was at that time. I also hope to carry out a couple more of my scenery hopes. I have the ruined temple and hedges, fences and walls to complete as well as my new gaming table too. 

Just got to get through another heatwave first! 

Orlygg

The Hero's Quest: An Interview With Stuart Thomas

 

I have been interviewing people involved with the early days of Games Workshop for many years. Some folk consider me a bit of a pioneer in the field. These days, there are plenty of ways to learn about Citadel's past and how Games Workshop developed as a business or how the Warhammer Mythos grew into what it is today. Of course, this blog by its very nature pre-dates the You-tube interviews of today and there is plenty of material out there from the Citadel bigwigs who haven't departed to Valhalla. The focus of this publication is deliberately low-fi. It apes the era of which it concerns. Photographs of miniatures, historical documentation of the era and of course lots of rambling, free-form writing devoid of AI slop. 

But having held discussions about our era with numerous people at the strangest times (I remember receiving emails from Bryan Ansell whilst at Disneyland Paris with the kids, for example) I find myself surprised that I am still doing it. And that the method remains the same. A simple series of questions presented with associated hobby paraphernalia and apocrypha. Over the years, I've found that readers of this blog always enjoyed the interviews with the 'Eavy Metal team; Andy Craig, Darren Matthews, Mike McVey and of course, the master of the goblin, Kev Adams the most. 

Why was this? I always got different answers but for me I think its because we as enthusiasts shared a common journey with the painters. Fans who picked up a brush and some pots of paint and set about emulating our printed contemporaries. That was the job we wanted. They were the rock stars. They were the heroes to be talked about and inspired by. If you were anything like me, back in the '80s and '90s the 'Eavy Metal page was the first one you turned too - pouring over the latest releases months before you saw them in the shops on in a friend's collection. 

Rules were always last, weren't they? Ha!

Today's interviewee holds an intriguing position in these interviews. He was present in the hobby during the Ansell period, an active painter and frequenter of the very early '90s GW stores. A winner of a Golden Demon award too. He went on to achieve what so many of us coveted at the time. A seat on the premier painting table at GW at a time the company was transitioning away from Bryan's genius and vision into the behemoth it is today. 

I think the stories of those not involved in management or those making the big decisions are just as important, if not more important, in understanding our era. Which is why I've been proud to put out this interview with Stuart Thomas and Wayne 'The Duke' recently. It was also rewarding to celebrate the life of Pete Knifton back in October last year.  

I've headed the page with Stuart's famous full page spread of work from White Dwarf. The keen eyed among you may notice some ancient photographs of some of these figures later on in this post. So keep those eyes peeled. 

Boil the kettle, make a tea and sit down and enjoy Stuart's story. He was a great subject to interview and I must thank him here. He writes beautifully and it was very easy to edit down our conversations into an engaging, fascinating narrative. All the models you see presented were either published during Stuart's time with the company or are part of his private collection. A big thank you again for letting old Orlygg share these here. 

I salute you... Stuart! 

RoC80s: So how did the hobby begin for you Stuart? What were the influences that shaped your interest in fantasy and sci-fi models?

ST: Like many others, I'd been into Airfix kits and particularly Matchbox tank kits (the ones with the little built-in dioramas) as a kid. Of course, I was into Star Wars, Transformers, comics and such like so when I saw issue 93 of White Dwarf with John Sibbick's Space Marine cover in my local newsagent my curiosity was piqued. I discovered a whole new world of stuff. The next time I went to my local model shop, instead of buying another tank kit, I came away with a Skeleton Horde box. There were twenty-four plastic skeleton models inside which I immediately assembled and painted with the enamel paints I used for my tanks. And that was it! I was hooked. I very quickly developed a deep love for the painted miniatures in White Dwarf and would try and copy them as best I could. I made my own version of Rick Priestley's deodorant tank and zoid thing. I also cannibalised sci-fi and Action Force (GI Joe) toys, converted Rhino kits into Whirlwinds, made dioramas... the whole thing. Eventually, it was Mike McVey's page of miniatures for Heroquest in, I think, White Dwarf 113 that made me think "I want to get as good as that" and it inspired me to really push my abilities as far as they could go. I used to get my figures from my nearest store, I think it was called Model Corner In Horsham, but that's long gone now. Two hours on the rain would take me to the Brighton GW store which I would occasionally visit too. 

RoC80s: Were you an avid player of Games Workshop's game systems at the time or were you more miniatures focused?

ST: I was always more into painting than gaming but in the days before I joined the Design Studio I played the occasional game of Dark Future, Rogue Trader, Heroquest and Spacehulk. At the studio you couldn't NOT play the games as we all got involved with playtesting things like Warhammer Quest, Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Gorkamorka, Mordheim and so on. Anyway, after the Skeleton Horde box set I moved on to two boxes of the RTB01 beakies and then I gradually moved on into metals. I guess it was mostly 40k models. I had a small Eldar force, some Dark Angels and Heroquest and Space Crusade too. Generally, I painted whatever I found interesting. 

I guess I was always a hobby butterfly!

               

Roc80s: How did you passion for painting contribute to becoming more involved in the early '90s Games Workshop scene ?

ST: Easy, Persistence, pestering and Golden Demon. I got to know the manager of the Brighton GW store. Sadly, I cannot remember his name and he encouraged me to enter the Golden Demon competition. I first entered in 1990 but didn't get anywhere with a model I named 'Motorsquat'. This was a Motorhead inspired diorama made out of the old Squat bikers. The second year in 1991 I got through to the finals. Remember, these were the days of heats being held in the gaming stores. I entered with my converted Rhino Flyer (with wings and engine pods off a Harrier Airfix kit - which I am still convinced was the inspiration of the "flying tank" style 40k vehicles! But I didn't get anything into the finals. By 1992, I won first place in the Mounted Miniature category. Sadly, I don't have any of the entries any more. Motorsquat was destroyed when the Brighton shop was broken into and the display cabinets trashed. I can't remember what happened to my flying tank and the chaos centaur model disappeared. I think it was on display at the Portsmouth GW store for a while (where the Brighton Manager had moved too) and after that, I don't know where it ended up. 

RoC80s: What are your memories of those early Golden Demon days?

ST: I was at the '91 and '92 events which were held at the Derby Assembly Rooms. I remember having to get up hellishly early for my dad to drive me to Brighton to get the coach (organised by the shop) to Derby; queuing for ages to register my entries and just looking at stuff. I was a shy kid at events like that and tend to just lurk and hang around on my own - I'm still like that now when people at Warhammer Fest come up to me and I'm like a rabbit in headlights. My main memory is of my heart jumping out of my chest when my name was called for the win. Back then, there was no sticker system so it came as a complete shock. It was the first and only time I came first in anything and I was stunned. The first thing I did was go to one of the phone boxes and call my dad. 

One of the proudest moments of my life, that was.

RoC80s: How did things develop from winning the Mounted Miniature category?

ST: In the intervening years, I'd been sending pictures of my miniatures to Mike McVey, and had received positive feedback from him and we'd had a chat at Games Day about my work. When I won that award GW became more interested in me. Bryan had just left the company taking the painted miniatures collection with him and the new management were desperate for more painters to replace the in house figures. Many of the long standing painters were moving on to other things and with the release of WHFB4 I was offered a job! I joined the 'Eavy Metal team in 1992. I had just turned nineteen. I'd tried other avenues to work there, sending in some really bad drawings to Mark Gibbons to try and get a job as an artist. He sent me back a polite letter saying 'you've got a long way to go'... we had a chuckle about that much later at the studio.

RoC80s: What can you remember about your job interview and those early, transformative days after Bryan left the company?

ST: My interview was at the Design Studio. I got the train up to Nottingham with a case full of my latest figures and I was interviewed by Mike McVey and Rick Priestley. They gave me a tour of the studio afterwards. I wasn't offered the job straight away, I got a letter a few days later with the formal offer. My first day was, frankly, quite bonkers. My dad drove me to Nottingham and dropped me off, which was a very emotional thing for me. I was very green. It was my first proper job. My first time away from home. And only about 18 months since my mum had died in an accident so it was a big step for me. There was a lot of paperwork to do. I'd been given a couple of weeks to stay and the company-owned house in Eastwood, so that had to be organised (it turned out that it had been overbooked so I ended up sleeping on the sofa.) I had to set up my desk, meet all the other painters... at one point a call went out that there was food in the kitchen and there was something of a stampede for free sandwiches and cakes. 

I had no idea what was going on. It turned out that there had been a meeting of the bigwigs in the conference room and all the leftover food had been taken to the kitchen for a free-for-all. At lunch time, Mike showed me how to get to the city centre and took me on a tour of all the cool shops. At the end of the day Kev White said he'd give me a lift to the Eastwood house, but he wanted to stop off at Toys R Us first. Mark Gibbons and Jay Tanner tagged along too. Can you imagine where my head was at? Nineteen years old and a total GW fanboy, utterly over his head, sat in the back of a car with two members of the 'Eavy Metal team and Mark Bloody Gibbons. On a jolly to Toys R Us! 

And I'd never even been to a Toys R Us before!

RoC80s: What was the house at Eastwood like?

ST: I don't remember an awful lot about it to be honest. It was just a bog standard modern semi on a housing estate near the Eastwood Factory. It was usually used by retail bods who came to the factory for meetings or training. While I was there it was all factory trainees. I only recall one fellow in particular: a goth lad called Aaron. There was a fish and chip shop around the corner and we used to play games of Mighty Empires with the other residents . I stayed there for a few weeks only, then crashed at Kev White and Jay Tanner's for a while until I found my own place. 

  

   

RoC80s: Describe how the 'Eavy Metal team operated during this period. Who was on the team? What were the priorities and responsibilities you held?

ST: The team consisted of Mike McVey, Tim Prow, Kev White, Jay Tanner and Neil Hodgeson. Adrian Wilde sat next to us, who was the terrain maker. The main part of the Design Studio on Castle Boulevard was a big, open plan office, which had once been a couple of warehouses that were knocked together to make one big building. We were back of the main room, with a separate storage area for our paints and a spray room. Also in this area was the White Dwarf publication production area, and few other members of staff, like production manager Alan Merrett. 

My first ever job was a set of one east of the old Fantasy Regiments plastics which were being re-boxed for the new edition. They were awful. Then I moved on to the Warhammer Armies Orcs and Goblins and Undead books. These days painters are involved in whole projects but back then it was much more like everyone just pitched in on everything. The painter who got a particular job was the one who was free when miniatures arrived on Alan Merrett's desk. Again, these days painters are more than a year ahead of released schedule but back then we often had Robin Dews, the White Dwarf Editor, standing behind us ready to snatch the miniatures away from us to photograph them while the varnish was still warm. Other work could vary, sometime Mike would write a text article as a painting guide but, for the most part, were just showcased painted versions of the latest miniatures in White Dwarf.

As I said, Bryan was gone by the time I started working and never really experience things the way they had been before, What was interesting was seeing how it developed over the rest of the decade. When I joined GW was still a small company with some big ideas, with a lot of experimentation and seat-of-the-pants stuff going on. By the time I left, they were well on the way along the path to becoming the massive company they are now, complete with corporate headquarters and massive expansion. 

When I started we were very much finding our feet after Bryan's departure. There was a great deal of freedom in the way we painted things too, with certain constraints handed to us through Alan. So we could really build the look of things as there was no house style. Of course, we were working in what is now called the 'Red Period' (a phrase I hate) where were were working very much with primary colours. Towards the end of my time at GW and more subdued colour tone was creeping in and they were heading very much towards the grimdark style. If you look at the painting and the miniatures around the year 2000 you'll see that the painting got much darker and the figures more generic. An obvious change of style again, around the end of my time. Plastics was another big shift.

RoC80s: You mentioned plastics. You are talking about an era that saw a real move away from traditional metal cast models to an increasing complexity of kit. Any recollections? 

ST: The plastics thing is interesting. I became a bit of an expert in painting plastics because I was quite good at bringing the best out of flat, blocky models... a throwback to my first 'Eavy Metal job.. So I ended up doing all of the plastic characters for the Warhammer Quest and Talisman range as well as the plastic wizards  - which remains one the the best series of models I have ever painted. At that time I argued that, one day, all miniatures would be made out of plastic and many at the Studio disagreed with me. Although it was accepted that most regiments would become plastic (a process that obviously began in the mid '90s) many thought that it would never be economically viable to make the characters in plastic. 

It is not often I get proven correct! 

RoC80s: You mention some proud moments there about your 'Evey Metal days. What do you feel you greatest achievement to Warhammer mythos and culture would be?

ST: Hmmm, in terms of my favourite work, its a toss up between entire Talisman range in plastics or the set of wizards I mentioned from White Dwarf 186. My greatest achievement is actually the ongoing legacy of my work. It never ceases to amaze me when people on social media (and even in real life) tell me the positive influence my work has had on their hobby. "That page is what really made me start collecting a goblin army" and such like. I've even had comments from some really top-level modern painters who said my work was an influence of them getting started. Much in the same way that Mike McVey's Heroquest figures was the primary influence on me. It is such an honour when someone does that, and the highest compliment someone can receive. 

That is was I am most proud of. 

      

RoC80s: Before you go, you recently shared some intriguing images about how an 'Eavy Metal article was put together in the old analogue world. I suspect many enthusiasts would have missed it. Care to explain what we are seeing here?

ST: For each colour printed page, White Dwarf or the production department would receive a set of four transparencies, one for each colour )cyan, Magenta, yellow and black) and these would be used to create the four layers of printing screens or drums or whatever are used (sorry, I don't know). I guess the paper was run through four times to create the finished page. Honestly, I am guessing here. It wasn't my field of expertise. The Studio would then receive sheets of printers proofs, which were on the finished page on large sheets of high-quality photo paper, so they could be inspected and approved. The last stage would be the large sheets of 16 pages on one big sheet, showing how it would look on the production paper. Each stage would be inspected so it was quite a process. 

It was always a super-stressful time around the White Dwarf desks when it got close to deadline time!    

           

     

           

And so ends the interview.

I am sure you will join me in thanking Stuart again here on the blog. It is a big commitment to share your story with someone you don't know, who appears out of the internet with about three teeth left, half-blind and resembling Henry the Eighth on a bad day. 

But his story was a great, inspiring read as I am sure you will all agree. I loved seeing the old acetates above that chronicled the production of Eavy Metal articles back in the 'desktop publishing free' days. I named the interview 'The Hero's Quest' as it linked so closely with Stuart's own personal journey to hobby triumph and his (our) love for the original Heroquest miniatures and game. If a moral can be gleamed from Stuart's story it is that of persistence and resilience will always win over adversity. 

Orlygg

C 18 Night Horrors Vampire Casting Spell

 

Its been a tough week for old Orlygg. My surgical wounds were tough to manage and sadly declined a little mid week. I've had to have some further treatment but its had a good result. I'm now nearly pain free. Frustrated by not being able to enjoy anything for many days I was determined to crack on with some of the new figures I've got my hands on. 

On the table was this Night Horrors vampire figure. It wasn't a sculpt I was really aware of until I noticed the listing. The phot was grainy and the paint job unsympathetic but he was easy enough to identify. If you look below you can see the medusa figures I was talking about last week circled in red. Our focus today is just to the left of the fantastic 'Spectre' model that has always been my personal favourite night horror. Released in 1985 as I am sure many of you will know.  

Struggling to sit and lean over a model for any lengthy period of time meant that work was sporadic but I enjoyed the process. As I said, he was previously painted and took a long time to clean up. He required multiple baths of the old Dettol to clear out the detail. This was primarily some kind of thick, white primer that stuck to the metal. The figure was in good condition underneath though, which was pleasing to discover. 

In terms of colour, I went for bright red. I wanted something that would contrast with the bloodless blue I chose for his flesh. I have an unidentified Citadel dark blue pot sitting on my shelf and I decided to make this my base for the flesh. As usual, Bleached Bone and Skull White were used for highlights. The same tones used for the finger nails. The cloak was Blood Red darkened by adding the same blue to the mix to create the shades. My highlighting wasn't as good as I'd normally accept for myself but I am happy with it considering what my body is going through at the moment. To create contrast with the red I picked out the edges with Sunburst Yellow. I found the skull in his raised fist to be simply sculpted so did my normal bone routine there.

It was pleasing to finish a figure that could be part of my future undead legion. As I was painting him and waiting for stages to dry I was tinkering with some more Skeleton Horde figures. It was great to start work on them again. But I'm intrigued with that strange blue pot of paint. I enjoyed working with it's depth and tone and fancy having another crack with it. This week saw the arrival of another cheap as chips figure in needs of restoration and I reckon that mysterious blue will be perfect for it.

Speak soon,

Orlygg

Night Horrors: Medusa

Hello there to all you old lead enthusiasts. I've just painted up this lovely old Night Horror Medusa figure after picking it up for £10 a few weeks ago. I spotted it unloved on a well known online sales site (MFM loves the app) and snapped it up as a reward. 

I've had to have all my dental work removed rather brutally this week. It seems that my body was rejecting the repairs somehow causing me great pain, pressure and swelling. All gone now and I'm on the second day of recovery... dealing with huge, empty sockets is a real killjoy though I'm able to potter about a bit more now. 

I've got loads of little projects and various stages of completion and everything has had to stop so its pleasing to get back in the saddle. I've been snapping up any bargains I can spot and these have been rather eclectic to say the least. Thankfully, I've another Night Horror close to completion too. Look out for that in the next few days I hope. 

Unusually for me, this figure didn't need any restoration. It was in mint condition when it arrived. So it was a simple case of cleaning it up (it still had flash after all these years) and basing it. I brushed on a white undercoat and set to work. I wanted to keep things simple and provide a nod to the Ancient World in my colour scheme so stuck to fairly natural hues.

I used colour harmony for everything save the base. A little dot of Woodland Green found its way into everything, or indeed a lot more in regards to the snake-like hair. The skin is Orc Brown, Woodland Green with Bleached Bone and Skull White added to create the highlights. I added Sunburst Yellow and then Skull White to the Woodland Green while highlighting the snakes. I added a little reddy pink glaze to the lips, hands and toes after finishing the eyes. Painting those was fairly easy. Dark red as a base (Blood Red with Woodland Green), then highlighting with Hobgoblin Orange and Sunburst Yellow. 

Her robe was Orc Brown with a tiny dot of Woodland Green highlighted up with Bleached Bone and Skull White. The base my classic method. 

What do you reckon of the toothless invalid? 

Of course, she isn't the only medusa inspired figure GW put out back in the '80s. Any fan of teh Night Horrors Range will know that there are two more figures, though in my mind this one is the best. Graeme Davis did a lovely, short article about the other figures and even devised some homebrew rules for them in WFB3 some years ago. Here's the link if you are interested. 

The other two Gorgon style figures can be spotted above... with the bow.... and below in armour.

Right I'm off. My face feels twice its normal size (thankfully, it doesn't look it) and I'm hoping that when I return to the Chaos Wastes of the 1980s things have improved somewhat. Until then, enjoy the sun if you are in the UK this next week. 

Orlygg

Orlygg Goes Podcasting (again) and More Man Mangler Crew

"Waaaagh da ladz... were'z da man mangla?"

I've got my characterful orc artillery crew all finished and based and the boyz are just waiting for the war machine itself. It is pretty much on the way and I hope to finish it off over the weekend. Quite the achievement for me, as I'd owned a man mangler as a kid and always felt far too intimidated to complete it. Sure, I managed a few crew members over the years but never the whole unit. 

I am sure you agree they look great altogether. Just need some stunties to aim at!  

I stuck to my Goblin Green and Sunburst Yellow formula. I think it gives these models a suitably '80s vibe like 'propa boyz' should look. In time, I hope to amass more orcs as they are the typical baddie type of our era, before that chaos lot came and stole the crown from them. 

I'm also still using that small group of paints as I haven't found the time to get back in the workshop and sort everything out. I like how the simple selection makes you challenge yourself and be more resourceful when painting. Perhaps I'll stick with them all in the long term.

For reasons I cannot fathom, the last podcast I did for Bedroom Battlefields proved popular. So I was invited back to do a second one. Matthew was a great bloke as before and this time I fielded questions from the community. If you are interested in listen to me waffle on about this blog, my hobby life and so on here's the link.

Adeptus Titanicus, Blister Pack Walls, & The Chalice of Doom: Orlygg Returns!

Oldhammer stalwart and all-round creative enigma Geoff Oakbound Games has also completed a podcast for Matthew. It is much more interesting and eloquent than mine so check that out too! 

Chicker Robot Hunters, Tricorne Reavers, & Those Bloody Jacobeans

Speak soon, 

Orlygg

How the humble zombie may have helped build the Citadel

 

Last post I was waxing lyrical about getting figures painted. And these two were a real joy to work on during my short recovery 'break'. They are old solid based C19 zombies from 1982 and until a few days ago I had no idea that they even existed. They were another gift to this grateful enthusiast from an online seller. He was the chap, or indeed chapess, I bought the Lord of Darkness from online. Considering I only paid a few pounds for the Lord of Darkness (see the bottom of this post for him) the seller was generous enough to throw these two figures in with the package. 

Initially, I wasn't even sure if they were even Citadel. There were some Ral Partha elves in there too, but the keen eyed glare of Stuart confirmed their provenance with certainty. As with nearly all the models I get my mits on they were in terrible condition. Clogged with enamel paints that were decades old. Hours of Dettol, Nitro Moors and nail varnish baths later and I was able to remove much of the residue. Curiously, the red paint proved impossible to shift. It stained the metal too. I managed to scratch a lot of that off using a wire suede brush and a gentle hand. I then used a spray can to undercoat them in the hope the thin layer of detail wouldn't be lost. 

I didn't really know where to start with the colour scheme. I sought out advice from other, more reliable painters online and flicked through a few old WDs for inspiration. I toyed with the idea of being traditional and basing the skin on Rotting Flesh but in the end went for a cold and clammy blue tone. I felt it looked more 'dead' and dirty. I kept to the earthy brown colours I've been limited myself with recently and tried to keep things naturalistic. To my eye, these zombies are far more 'Night of the Living Dead' than 'GrImDaRk'TM Warhammer style. I enjoyed the detailing on the innards too, hanging out and dangling down. 

Once they were based and ready I knew that I'd like to paint up some more in the future. That is when things got really rather interesting. My era is roughly 1985 to 1992. If it says that on the slotta then I'd buy and use those models. It was the era I loved, and still love to this day. Initially I was rather boorish and dismissive of the preslotta years, foolishly deriding them as 'crap' many years ago. Anyone can learn the error of their ways and I certainly have. In many ways, I find the preslotta stuff more exciting to collect and restore these days as the models lead me down the unfamiliar corridors of Citadel's past.

The more research I did the more intriguing things got. My two models were from the Fantasy Tribes range. A selection of models that I knew nothing about. As I said before, they were well before my era and area of interest for collecting. These models were first introduced (as far as I could fathom) in issue 23 of White Dwarf and a quick search through internet archives located the original advertisement for the Fantasy Tribes range.

Here it is...

The first thing that strikes are the glorious '80s prices. Thirty pence for a model sounds like the things that dreams are made from but in the early part of that decade I'd image that this was not particularly cheap. I like how the gnoll figures advertised here are described as personalised figures. What did this mean? Knowing the practices of early Citadel from late night conversations with the players involved, I suspect this meant sitting around head or weapon swapping master miniatures to create a wide variety of variant models. When a mould wore out, they probably spun a new one, again further tweaking the model designs. This was rather revolutionary at the time and would have resulted a wide range of different looking figures. 

You can see in the bottom part of the paragraph the claim being made that the dwarf models were the first truly definitive of the short, stout fellows ever produced. Now I am no expert in dwarf fantasy figures in the early part of the 1980s, but I know well the skill and drive behind the Citadel furnaces so don't doubt the claim. 

Bryan went on to discuss this new approach to producing miniatures in 1983's Dragon Catalogue as you can in my snip above. With the fantasy tribes approach of mass production of variants within a range there was clearly an awful lot of choice for a still roleplay-minded enthusiast. Remember the Warhammer mass battle system was still very much in it's infancy here. Still, much like today, I expect punters loved buying a ton of models even if they did little more than plonk them down in the old leadpile... we are still guilty of that now!

Bryan goes on to say that they were making "at least six variations of costume, head, shield, weapon or equipment for each of (the fighter models)" and this seems very true of the two zombies I restored and painted up. Trying to find their exact match proved harder than I expected. 

Here is one of the fliers promoting the range. By now, our zombies are been merged into the C ranges and are officially known as C19s. Top row far right looks vaguely like one of my models and bottom row third from the right the second example. Spot them? It turns out that there were at least eight different zombie bodies sculpted with twenty-seven possible head variants for each body. Phew! I wouldn't fancy being the completist who is trying to track those all down but I doubt anyone but Orclord would have the ability to do so these days. 

On top of the wide range of possible zombie figures, there were also additional head packs that you could pick up to complete your own homebrew conversions if you wanted a little more rot for your money. The Collecting Citadel Miniatures website has a wonderful article which really goes into detail about this fascinating range and how complicated cataloguing them all is. Check it out here. As you will see, much of the range is still undocumented so if you have any further zombie chaps in you collection you might want to contribute. 

What strikes me here is the scale of Bryan's ambition to create the greatest range of fantasy figures possible and he, and his colleagues, were prepared to experiment with the production process to do so. We now know that the slotta tab was only a few years away from proper development and the impact of that technological advance is still being felt today. I did ask him why he never considered patenting the slottta tab and he just shrugged and said there was so much else to be doing, it wasn't that important at the time. 

Producing and selling metal models on the scale he was achieving and with such variation had never been done before, even in historical settings. I wonder if these humble zombie figures were a vital step on the way towards the slotta base and Warhammer 2nd Edition. That moment in 1985 would define how Games Workshop would operate for the decades to come and would move the company away from being a retailer and producer of roleplaying games into the major manufacturer of fantasy and science fiction tabletop games, a position it still holds today.

This is why this hobby fascinates and delights me. The generosity of a fellow enthusiast has lead an aging grognard on a merry little journey of discovery he may very well have missed otherwise. I'd certainly like to get my hands on some more of these lovely zombie figures one day, and knowing the key part of their history in the Warhammer story makes them even more special. 

Orlygg