Ivan Bartleet's Honour Guard of Chaos: Mike McVey's Greater Demon of Nurgle found

Back in April I blogged about finding Ivan Bartleet's War Altar of Chaos in Bryan Ansell's collection. I pondered on the whereabouts of the remainder of this chaos warband, which can be seen gathered together on the back of White Dwarf 128:

Well, the Greater Demon of Nurgle, bottom left of the above pic has been located in Bryan's collection, and is presented below in all his pustulent glory. The figure is actually painted by Mike McVey (thanks Stuart for alerting me to that!):

What a wonderful and sickly contrast between the dark green and pink!

Bryan Ansell's Genestealer cult

On 15th December 2012 Foundry Miniatures in Nottingham played host to an old school Rogue Trader participation day. It was a fun day with some gorgeous old school figures and game boards on display. Bryan Ansell had brought along some of his old Citadel figures, including his fantastic Genestealer cult. I took a bunch of pictures of the cult, and decided to get blogging...(6 months later!).

Many of the figures below featured in Bryan's Khornate Genestealer Cult that was described in a series of articles in White Dwarf issues 114 - 116. These issues featured a background to Genestealers in Warhammer 40k written by Paul Murphy, some fabulous artwork, and a number of figures painted by the 'Eavy Metal team (together with "how to" painting guides). Not all of the figures below were strictly speaking part of the particular cult featured, and sadly not all members of the cult were present on the day.

My blog post starts with the pictures of the figures from the day, followed by some of the 'Eavy Metal figures and painting guides.

Apologies that some of these are out of focus - I was so wrapped up in the figures that I didn't check the pictures as I went along! It was only after I arrived home that I realised my mistake.

Genestealer hybrids

War Altar of Nurgle by Ivan Bartleet

My posting of images of Ivan Bartleet's Chalice of Doom has provoked a number of comments, largely centred on the relief people feel at the thought it is safe and sound, residing in Bryan's collection. Well, another old classic is alive and well at Bryan's....

White Dwarf issues 125 and 128 featured the War Altar of Nurgle, another one of Ivan's, and something I remember clearly and very fondly from my youth. You can imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered it residing at Bryan's. I really do apologise for the quality of the next pic, suffice to say it was taken in haste and without any preparation:

Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age: 1987 revisited using Scribd

Orlygg over at Realm of Chaos 80s has just reposted his feature on the three Fantasy Miniatures books, and they are very handily presented in Scribd format. I haven't tried this approach before so if you will indulge me I'm going to repost the Golden Demon Awards 1987 feature from White Dwarf 93 using Scribd. If this works then I will probably present a number of similar future posts using Scribd - it will save on all that clicking...please let me know if this format isn't working for you. If you are new to Scribd then clicking on the expand screen icon at the bottom right of the Scribd box below (to the right of the + and - zoom buttons) gives you a full screen view.

Golden Demon 1987 by bridgend_steve

Golden Demon awards in the Golden Age: part 1 (1987)

Games Workshop's National Figure Painting Championships - The Golden Demon Awards - began in 1987. Between 1988 and 1990 Games Workshop produced a series of three books (Fantasy Miniatures) which showcased the Golden Demon awards of 1988, 1989 and 1990 (the first book also illustrated some of the 1987 finalists). Unfortunately GW did not produce any further such books until 2002. White Dwarf magazines did, however, continue to feature photographs of Golden Demon finalists' figures, and I thought it might be fun to share with you images of such figures from 1991 and 1992. During these two years most of the figures illustrated were still of 1980's vintage (my favourite period) - after 1992 such figures tend to tail off.

I'll begin this retrospective series of blog posts, however, with the Golden Demon Awards of 1987. As I mentioned, Fantasy Miniatures (1988) illustrated some of the entries for the 1987 Awards, but there is better narrative and illustrative coverage of these Awards in White Dwarf 93. Actually, it's a very entertaining read and I'd recommend you make yourself a cuppa and spend a few moments basking in nostalgia...be warned however - there is 1980's fashion on display...

(PLEASE NOTE: if you simply click on the images you will see a slide show - if you want to see any image in close-up then right-click on it and select "Open link in new tab." Then click to zoom).

 If you are wondering where these wonderful figures are today then I can tell you that Bryan Ansell now has the "Chalice of Doom":

 ...and I own Nick Sewell's Zombie Dragon.

So, were you there? What are your memories of the day? Did you win anything? Who was Azaroth?

Bryan's cabinets of chaos 2

So the good news is that I've got loads more pics of Bryan Ansell's figures, enough material to keep this blog going for a good few months!

Today's post will be taking a closer look at some of the figures from Bryan's now famous chaos army that appeared in the Warhammer Armies (1988) book. Bryan is currently homing the majority of these figures in his display cabinets, but there are remnants scattered in his figure drawers that have yet to make it to display. By the way, he's hoping to bring this army to the Oldhammer Weekend.

The exact figures from Bryan's army are scattered among other chaos and non-chaos figures from the period. If you are feeling particularly beardy why not get out your copy of Warhammer Armies and see how many figures you can spot?

In this post I'll be showing some pics of the main bulk of the army, the Broo (plus some preslotta beastmen), plus some of the army characters. I've taken pics from slightly different angles: my photography skills aren't great but I hope these pics are good enough for you to get a feel for the oldschool charm of the figures. The Broo figures are derived from the following Citadel ranges: C38 Beastmen; Runequest Broo (loose/blistered figures); Runequest Broo Box 3 (v2) Attack of the Broo; Runequest Broo Box 4 (v1) with separate heads and weapons (a great set for conversion possibilities); and Runequest Broo Box 4 (v2) with fixed heads and weapons.

Bryan's cabinets of chaos

In my last post, private wierd (check out his blog if you want to see some truly inspiring Oldhammer battle scenes) asked if I could post some more pics of Bryan's chaos army from the Warhammer Armies book. I couldn't find any more images from the Armies book on my PC, but I did find pics of some of the chaos units currently on display in Bryan's cabinets, which I'd like to share with you. Bryan's display cabinets - as I'm sure you can imagine - are seriously impressive.

(Incidentally, if you're planning on getting married then you could do a lot worse than hire Stoke Hall as a venue. If you're now wondering, "Where the hell did that comment come from?!" - Stoke Hall is Bryan's home and its where these cabinets are on display, which wedding guests are able to view.)

A couple of shots, mainly of beastmen, to start with. Not all of the figures on display here are Citadel but most are: