The Bryan Ansell collection: Halflings (Citadel Miniatures)

The majority of these bad boys (and girl) were designed by the Perry twins and Trish Carden (Morrison) and appeared in an advert in White Dwarf 97 from 1988:

Adeptus Administratum: latest unreleased Rogue Trader Citadel Miniature (Bryan Ansell collection)

The good news about the latest "new old" unreleased Rogue Trader figure in Bryan Ansell's collection is that we are able to positively ID it from its base tag: "Administratum":

Heavy Metal - Mighty Fortress metal master

I can see I'll have little time for too many in-depth posts this week due to work commitments, but I'll try to post something each day even if it's brief. Today I bring you a metal master for the Mighty Fortress plastic set of the 1980's (from the Bryan Ansell collection):

Yes, it is as heavy as it looks. Can you imagine what the full set weighs...

The Dave Perry collection: Chaos Space Marines part 1

Some old classics here. I particularly like the Nurgle marines and in my opinion Dave has given them the colour scheme they deserve. I've never really clicked with the Night Lords: a bit too cartoon-y for my taste but I can't fault Dave's painting of the figure.

Unreleased Rogue Trader era adventurers and a mystery solved (Bryan Ansell collection)

There's a mystery that's been bugging me and fellow Citadel collectors and Rogue Trader enthusiasts for some time: who and what is the figure on the top left of the image on p. 11 of the Rogue Trader rulebook? Is it even a Citadel figure?

Wargames Foundry: unreleased orcs and some painted orcs and dwarfs

During a recent visit to Stoke Hall to see Bryan Ansell I took the opportunity to photograph some of his beautifully painted Foundry orcs and dwarfs, including a couple of orc greens that Bryan believes never went into production. A number of the dwarfs below are unlisted (thanks to Kev at www.stunties.com for confirming that). With regards to the orcs, I'm afraid I have no idea of their status - they could be unreleased, unlisted, or previously available! Whatever their status, it's a pleasure to see these very characterful figures brought to life with such vibrant painting.

Foundry don't currently list any of these figures on their website but it's my understanding that they will be on there at some point (not sure about the two orc greens).

Unreleased Citadel Rogue Trader era Adeptus Arbites in the Bryan Ansell collection

It's not unusual for images of previously unseen unreleased Games Workshop figures to appear on the internet, and probably the best overall source for these is the Collecting Citadel Miniatures wiki. What is unusual, however, is for new figures to appear in older ranges that might previously have been considered to be completely documented; I recently discovered two figures in Bryan Ansell's collection that fit this criteria.

The figures below are labelled "Arbites" on the front of the tab and "GW 1987" on the rear of the tab. So here I present two unreleased Adeptus Arbites from the Rogue Trader era:

The Dave Perry collection: Rogue Trader Eldar part 1

Dave has quite a few of Jes Goodwin's Eldar in his collection, harking back to the very first Rogue Trader releases. So many in fact that I've decided to divide his Eldar between two posts. Notice Dave has decided to keep the edges of his bases black. You may recall that Fraser Grey did the same thing - simple but very effective.

These particular Eldar are an absolute riot of yellow - Dave has done Eldar in colours other than yellow as you'll see from the next post! In my limited painting experience yellow is a particularly difficult colour to do well, and Dave's results are stunning.

The Bryan Ansell collection: Kev Adams' Slann and Banner

Some of the mounted Slann in Bryan's cabinet painted by Kev Adams in the early days of Citadel:

Wargames Foundry: the unseen master moulds

In September I blogged the response from Bryan Ansell to the question of what ex-Citadel figures may yet coming marching out of the Foundry factory. Bryan's response was:

"I'm afraid that the sad truth is that we don't really know. When we gathered up the various discontinued ranges that had become redundant at Citadel, we had no idea that anyone would ever attach any great significance to any of them. They were never properly catalogued. We do have over 5,000 old master moulds here at Stoke Hall, but they have never been fully catalogued either."

You may recall that this was prompted by Foundry's release of the old Citadel Mercenaries range.

Yesterday I visited Bryan at Stoke Hall and was delighted to be given a glimpse of these 5,000 moulds that have not been fully catalogued, which I would like to share with you:

Great, eh? I couldn't resist asking Bryan if I could take a peak into some of these moulds. The very first mould appeared to have the impression of something like a large ogre or minotaur (I think it had cloven hooves) but only the lower body and part of the torso was present on the mould. Bryan didn't recognise it and I didn't recognise it as something that had been put into production by Citadel, so chances are it's an unseen Foundry figure (or at least one that hasn't been in production for some time). A good start.

But...the next few moulds appeared to have various Darkest Africa, Saxon, and Seven Years War figures inside. If you're a Foundry historicals fan you may be jumping up and down at this point, but I was seeking more fantastical fare.

Some of the moulds were quite a bit larger than the others and Bryan suggested these may have ex-Citadel in them. So I grabbed at one and opened it up to find - a giraffe. Arrrgggh!

I guess at this point I'd opened around 10 moulds, and given that my my next port of call was to photograph some of Bryan's figures I decided to call it a day with the moulds. But I hope to return...

So, what did I see at Bryan's yesterday? Well, all will be revealed but suffice to say I'll be publishing pictures of unreleased Citadel figures that have never been see before. I also took photographs of what Bryan believes are unreleased Foundry figures; time allowing I'll be uploading these pics tomorrow.

Bryan Ansell's Rogue Trader Space Marines: part 2

Back in July I published the first pics of some of the Rogue Trader era Space Marines in Bryan Ansell's collection, and focussed on some of the earliest Space Marines that went into production. Today's post concerns some of the figures in Bryan's collection which made it into the Space Marines Painting Guide, which appeared in White Dwarf 119. I've added a link to the Guide at the bottom of the post.

Have a read of the "Medic's gesture of respect to his fallen Brothers" under the Salamanders' section of the painting guide; could someone please tell me what the following means: "he used his left arm to hold his carnifex". It makes no sense to me!

As per usual, if anyone can name the painters of these figures please leave a comment. Thanks!

The Dave Perry collection: Realm of Chaos Champions and Renegades

I am delighted that Dave Perry, former resident of Games Workshop's Design Studio/'Eavy Metal team, has allowed me to display photographs of his fantastic painted miniatures on my blog. If you dipped out of the hobby in the 1980s and have only recently returned to it you may have missed Dave's stint at GW, but he's provided a comprehensive and very amusing bio below. Please note these are not my words - I want to emphasise that because I certainly don't agree with the "Never truly great, Dave’s painting was, I suppose, sufficient" comment!

Over the coming weeks I'll be showcasing Dave's work, organised fairly roughly into categories. This week it's the turn of Realm of Chaos era Champions and Chaos Renegades.

Biography

Unreleased Foundry Victorian in Steam Powered Armour

Foundry have published pictures of a couple of unreleased Victorians in Steam Powered Armour over on their Facebook page. The last time I was at Stoke Hall I snapped a pic of one of these figures, and here he is in all his glory:

A wonderful figure blessed with a fantastic paint job! I'm not sure if these figures are on general release yet - best way to find out is to give Foundry a ring (0115 841 3000).

The Bryan Ansell collection: Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader Adventurers and Forces of the Imperium

These guys were produced in 1988 and made their appearance in painted form in White Dwarf 99. Sadly Bryan's collection does not appear to be complete; the remainder may yet to be found in his collection, or may have been scattered to the four corners of the galaxy.