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

What has the FF2 Lord of Darkness and Lae'zel from Baldur's Gate 3 got in common?

Necrotic nerves... that is what was holding me back all this time. So you can imagine how eager I am to crack on a get some miniatures painted. And games played. On my PC not over a spectacular gaming table, though that will come, I promise. 

Oh, and I'll need a couple of armies to actually fight over the thing. I'm settling on Orcs and Goblins and Undead at the moment. As both seem easy to get hold of without comedy prices and in my old age I'm finding them the more characterful and interesting of models to paint.

Though I must admit to having enjoyed a few hours of Baldur's Gate 3 again. I feel I can enjoy the game now I don't have to worry about flare ups and toothache all the time. Though I wasn't a fan of D&D back in the day, we had WFRP for goodness sake, I was always partial to their computer games. Eye of the Beholder on the Amiga was INCREDIBLE and I have played it through numerous times, even killing the beholder once. I was rather bemused back in my youth to just get a screen stating... well done... especially after that classic opening sequence and sombre music. 

My favourite of all the characters is Lae'zel. And I could never have guessed there would be a link between her and the first model I have painted up in a while. But there is... so read on a find out just how tenuous Orlygg is going to be. 

Let's slip back a few hours. It is evening. MFM wants to watch some telly and tells me that it won't be something I'd like. This means that I'll need to go elsewhere so to my little portable painting set up I go. The workshop still looks like a clan of goblins have squatted in it.  Which one shall I choose, I thought. Something poignant yet simple. Something that can easily be completed in a single sitting while I weep at the thought of how many figures I could have bought with the £1000 dental bill... oooh, errr... a single chaos champion on eBay prices eh, resellers?

Thankfully, recent purchases I have made discreetly online have started to arrive. And the first package to plonk on my doormat for many, many years was this classic Fiend Factory figure. How I enjoyed the thrill of tearing off the postage material! How I lamented that model inside didn't reek of THE DETTOL. That means I'm going to have to clean it up myself. And the figure itself was in a poor state. Clearly mis-cast back in the early '80s he had quite a few blobs of lead and other grot about him. I cut away as much as I could be found the going tough. It was pretty much solids lead. Filing some of it down worked for a while but I was still left with lumpen masses around his crown and a jumble of something hanging down from his cloak near his mace. In the end I just incorporated the flaws into the model the best I could. 

Is it noticeable?

This model saw his first release in 1982 as part of the Fiend Factory range. You may recall me painting up both the Winged Demon with Sword and Whip and the White Wizard in recent times which are also part of this series. In truth, I don't know much about these models are they were well before my era of GW. I was only three years old when they were initially released and they certainly didn't appear in any issues of WD that I read as a child. So discovering many of these models now has been fantastic especially considering that link to everyone's favourite CRPG with a 3 in the title. 

Fiend Factory models were produced from around 1979 to about 1983. Many of them being designed by readers of White Dwarf as well as many well known enthusiasts of the time. Ian Livingstone created fiends for the range, as did British writer Charles Stross. Among many achievements, Stross created a creature or fiend he named the Githyanki. I for one had no idea that this now famous fantasy race saw their debut on the pages of the embryonic White Dwarf! I wonder if that is a fact known by the modern 'managers' of the magazine? 

At that time, GW held the license to publish Dungeons and Dragons products in the UK. The editor of much of this range was Don Turnbull and it was planned to publish the famous Fiend Folio in the later half of 1979 as the Second Monster Manual. Many of the monsters in this book were based on submissions from White Dwarf. Though Turnbull completed the manuscript with plenty of time to spare, legal wrangles and business squabbles kept the publication of the supplement on hold for nearly two years. The Fiend Folio was eventually released in August 1981 by TSR themselves. In fact, this helped them launch their own division here in the UK.

As I said earlier, Much of the material in this book, numbering 128 pages, was drawn from submissions from White Dwarf. The Assassin Bug, Grell, Giant Bloodworm as well as drow, kuo-toa and firbolg were all included along with many others. An unforeseen consequence of the legal wranglings was that Citadel Miniatures, who possessed the contract to produce gaming miniatures based on White Dwarf articles, had to pass the copyright for the Fiend Factory models back to TSR, who themselves had a contract with Grenadier models. So the 'Factory' style models disappeared from the Citadel shelves. 

With slotta-bases only a few years away, these old solid based classics were soon to be replaced with their more dynamic cousins. The earlier ranges fell away as Citadel grew larger and larger and started working on its own internal written material and background. It is interesting to note that the First Edition of Warhammer was released around this time too. 

Still, The FF2 Lord of Darkness remains a classic of the 1980s fantasy scene. He was clearly a very popular figure judging by the number of copies of him turning up for sale today. If you like preslotta miniatures, and even if you don't, it is well worth the time tracking down one of these wonderful figures. I don't know about you but I think he'd back a great statue for a scenery piece somewhere?

I plan on including him in my undead army somewhere once those skellies are finished. I had three on the painting table right now but can't stop myself being drawn away by other more intriguing models. Apologies!!

Speak soon,

Orlygg

Using AI to illustrate miniatures: Slop or Not?

                                       

                                                   

This little scene was the final attempt I made. By this point I'd worked out how precise you had to be to get the results I wanted.

Over the last week I have undergone one hundred a sixty minutes of dental surgery, over two occasions, and spent some miserable days recovering. The treatment appears to have been successful and despite the cost I am hopeful that my long standing problems are now over. During my short period of convalescence (today) I discovered a strange app that offers the miniature enthusiast, or indeed toy affectionardo in general, the opportunity to animate their painted figures or toys with ease, all from a single photograph. The app is called Nauk Nauk if you are interested. Google it.

With little to do but fiddle around on a screen, I wiled away a few hours exploring what could be achieved with a little AI. Now I know the stuff gets a bad press and jolly right too. It has changed the internet forever and smeared its slop over nearly everything, most notably the morass that is Facebook. Misinformation is widespread and some of it so ridiculous you'd doubt the stuff even believable... but some people obviously (and against their better judgement, it seems) do. At the time of writing, the UK is experiencing all the drama and deceit of a political election which is making things worse. Our longstanding political parties are in freefall, after years of bungling, and we now have two equally extreme parties eager for our attention. Reform. And the Greens. Sadly, both are lead by some pretty unsavory characters... hang on! Surely this is material for a Warhmmer Scenario pack in the style of Orc's Drift or McDeath!?

I digress. 

So after a few hours of fiddling around I had managed to animate some of the photographs I've taken over the last few months and shared here. To be honest, I was quite amused by my efforts though many of them were hopelessly senseless and contaminated with the dreaded 'slop'. I'm sure you've clicked on a few of my efforts by now if the technology works here on Blogger.

The trouble is, AI is here to stay. It isn't going anywhere and it makes me wonder what it has in store not only for the hobby of miniature wargames but in our Citadel Miniatures/Games Workshop in the '80s and early '90s hobby in general.

Appallingly bad text seems to be a big part of it. Something you won't be seeing here. Yes, those spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are all mine. And they have been for all these years too. Though, I am not responsible for the walls of spam that clog up media like blogger. 

This was my first attempt. Not bad to start with but then the slop took over and confused the sword and whip. Slop indeed. 

Now I am all for the human element. As many of you dear readers have said, freeform writing is something that needs to be celebrated and cherished. None of us want to see (or read) more of that awful text guff that filters down to us all. Why are there so many lists? Endless adjectives and semi-coherent links. But photographs of enthusiasts' work?

Is that different? 

Is AI used to illustrate the models we are buying helpful or unhelpful if it makes it easier for companies to upload their products, especially with so many one-man-bands and small companies around our field of enjoyment? And, does it give us a different way of presenting and enjoying our own lovely old lumps of lead? 

It is interesting to note the GW has gone on the record to state that they are banning AI in their design process. Something that I whole heartedly agree on. Artificial intelligence is no replacement for a keen, artistic eye or voice. But as a tool to present something, very much like a photograph or video. Is that different? Can it be excused if the rest of the elements are all honest work? 

I don't doubt that the AI bubble will burst. The more you look into it, the less it appears it can actually do reliably. I had a right old hoot today asking AI who I was. I typed in 'Who is Orlygg?' and got some wonderfully incorrect responses with some saying I had died and others stating I was an alias of a completely different person. Of course, working in education we have had a few AI companies in showing off their technology. Including a woeful 'teacher' on a screen. The company had completely missed the point that 90% of learning is the relationship between the pupil, his or her peers and the teacher and the kids made fun of her by asking what the AI would do if they got out of their seats and messed around or fell over and needed a plaster. Or if their dog had died that morning. Or they had no lunch. The nice-lady-from-the-AI-company piped up at said that of course there would need to be an adult in the room too. 'What, the teacher then?' Chirriped a seven year old quite innocently. 

But I digress, again. 

Sorry. 

This Night Horror werebear came out alright. I think using tools like this are viable if they are used appropriately to bring out the character of a model or key event in a narrative wargame.

Is it wrong to combine AI with our beloved '80s fantasy-fare? Is it blasphemous? Will the long-dead grognards that went before us stir unsoundly in their tombs if we paint up a dwarf warrior and use AI to animate him for presentation or fun, even? Facebook certainly did. While working out how to upload these videos with my computer I shared my work on various platforms to see if I could get it working. One of those places was the Oldhammer Community FB page that I created all those years ago. Now, I don't have much to do with it these days. I was always happy to let others make it what they wanted it to be. But the repugnancy my video received there was quite surprising. No discussion allowed. Just deletion. I can remember a different time. A time when we talked about stuff that was new and intriguing rather than just reacting to it. But fear of change is real. And its hurts those of us whole are nostalgic for a time that no longer exists perhaps?

I saw my little videos as being tastefully done, as best as could be presented using the technology available. Was I being naive trying to capture the spirit of the models and the era they belong to using modern technology? Are the animations produced of my own models, paintjobs and scenery less worthy due to the form of media I choose to use? If I had painstakingly animated by Skeleton Horde models using lots of Blu-Tak and stop motion animation would I have been criticised just the same?

Well, I guess we are all going to find out soon! This technology is very much on the rise and more applications will be no doubt found for the clueless luddite at home to either tinker with or enrage themselves by. It is not going anywhere guys. I'm sure working in the classroom is going to put me in the forefront of it all. Kids love this stuff and they see the creative possibilities in it all. MFM's two boys loved seeing my models come to life and it made them all the more real. One of them even asked to paint up a figure and do the same. Is AI a possible new gateway into our ever changing hobby?

Am I wrong to toy with it? Maybe.

Did it make me feel better while I recovered from surgery? Definitely.

Is it something I'd use again on Realm of Chaos 80s? Probably not. 

I'm intrigued where this is going to go, especially with apps like Nauk Nauk out there. I know it is a tool for action figure fans and lego nuts but there is plenty of Warhammer on there, though mostly modern stuff. I very much doubt someone will go through the trouble of producing something specifically for tabletop miniatures but anything is possible I suppose. With us all spending huge amounts of cash on little lead men we aren't going to be stumping up the cash and investing in a start-up!

Anyway, I'm off to take my medicine and rest easy. I've got a stack of unfinished models to paint, research to continue and another interview to type up. See you all soon! Old Orlygg will be back to normal services soon enough.

What will the world be like when I do?

It is changing that fast!

And please don't be shy with your opinions about AI and wargaming in general. I'll be interested in hearing your thoughts no matter where you sit on the subject. 

I tried for ages to animal my beloved skeletons from the Horde. This was the best I could do. Jason and the Argonauts this is not.