Sunday 28 April 2013

Where are they now? Old School Cover Paintings




I found myself re-reading the Wargames Illustrated interview with Bryan Ansell recently, and dwelling on Steve Casey's photographs of the great man's miniature collection. The general consensus online is pleasant relief that so many of the 80s models that we know and love still exist. And that many of us are very excited about actually seeing them at some point in the future.

In doing so, I was reminded that the cover of the first edition of Warhammer, the actual painting that is, resides in a toilet in Stoke Hall - Bryan's home. This got me wondering about the cover paintings from other notable publications of the 80s and early 90s. Where are they now?

There are some obvious answers to some of these questions. I can infer that the covers to the two Realm of Chaos books are still at GW Lenton, as the art is still used on their products, the cover to The Lost and the Damned being used for The Palace of the Plague Lord for example.

But what of others?


Where is the cover to WFB3 itself?


Or Warhammer Armies for that matter?


Or Ian Miller's cover to Warhammer Siege?

Unlike the covers to the Chaos books, I have not seen these covers used for anything else.  So where are they? Destroyed? Back with the artists? Sold to collectors? And what of other covers? Heroquest? Bloodbowl? Skeleton Army?

Now I know that this blog has a large lurking readership. Nearly 80,000 page views in the last few months is a lot of mouseclicks, or tablet taps... I also know that many Veterans of Citadel/GW also mooch around here. Some of you must know something about the locations, or indeed fates, of famous cover paintings from this era.

So come on, spill the beans..!

Orlygg.

12 comments:

  1. I've got the third ed rulebook painting on my bedroom wall... no, wait, I WISH I had it on my bedroom wall! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do have a original 1987 Rogue trader poster that hung on my wall for 10+ years rolled up in the loft, it's massive, I see they reissued it during the recent 40k anniversary... what a sin. I wonder who owns the Realm of Chaos original art, would you make a raise and buy it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Have to sell the house first I'd imagine. To be honest, I have no idea how much these would sell for, but I would imagine at least a four figure number.

      Delete
  3. That Warhammer Siege cover is beyond cool. I wish I had that as a poster.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right there. No one painted chaos landscapes like Miller... Much like no one painted orcs better than Bonner... Or spaceships like Hough... The list goes on. The quality of the art back then puts modern stuff to shame.

      Delete
  4. You could always ask Ian Miller about the Siege cover via his website:
    http://www.ian-miller.org/
    He would surely have got it back from GW after their famous falling-out...
    I love his work so much!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the tip Tony, speak of the devil eh? Did you know Miller well? I didn't realise that there was a famous fall out. Care to spill the beans?

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've got a few of Tony Ackland's pieces from the ROC books, I'll try to bring some to the Oldhammer weekend

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ohhh! What pieces have you got? Stuff from RoC? Tony told me that some of his work went astray and was available for sale as far away as the USA.

      Delete
    2. I can't remember - I'll have to dig it out.

      Delete
  7. The best place to check first is the Archive at Lenton, it was recently moved to a new building on the site because it had grown so big and now takes up an entire floor. It has been likened to the warehouse from Raiders of the Lost Ark and reputedly holds 'one of everything'. A polite enquiry might yield one or two nuggets of gold?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have the WFRP from John Sibbick.

    https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153028284705500&set=a.10151246734660500.799425.893120499&type=3&theater

    ReplyDelete