Warmonger's forthcoming Kev Adams beastmen...and a bit of Blanche

First off, please note these haven't been released yet, so don't go calling Foundry/Warmonger asking if you can get some because they aren't at the production stage. But I couldn't resist sharing them with you.

While I was helping the Warmonger Miniatures crew pack for Salute just gone, I had the pleasure of seeing some of greens of the beastmen heads that Kev Adams is sculpting. There's some proper old skool chaos-y stuff going on here:

It's difficult to pick out a favourite but for sheer bonkers check out the two on the left of the middle row.

Another one I'd like to single out is the one on the top left, which you can see here in side profile:

Unfortunately I didn't quite manage to get it in focus, but there's something about the eye that gives a real look of melancholia, of a beast doomed to follow the path of chaos.

While I was wandering around Stoke Hall packing up various bits and pieces I happened to notice part of a painting sticking out from behind one of Bryan's sofas. Hang on I thought, I recognise that...

It's only the original cover art of the first Citadel Compendium, painted by John Blanche and one of my favourite pieces of art EVAAAAHH! Drool over it ye mortals and despair. If you're thinking that part of the painting in the centre has been erased (that white patch) then don't worry, it's just the light hitting the glass.

Bryan also produced a card that had been sent to him many years ago, that had another piece of original John Blanche art attached to the front!

Beautiful.

Unreleased 40k gang member sculpted by John Blanche

Here's something that you may not know ever existed, even if you are a fan of Old Skool Confrontation/Necromunda figures:

A 40k gang member that was sculpted by John Blanche. Yes that's right - sculpted. And cast! Here's some blurb from White Dwarf issue 121:

Now to find the actual version that was painted by John Blanche...

My latest John Blanche acquisition

I'll just leave this here...

As featured in "Ratspike"

Mystery Citadel/Ral Partha Troll or Ogre - can you help identify?

***EDIT***: interesting news from Tom Meier:

"Yes, that's one of mine. It was one of two pieces, there's a troll-child being dragged along by the hand that goes with it and  fits into her right hand.""

So, have you seen the troll child? Please get in touch if you have!

---

Previously I posted this:

I have a picture of a mystery troll (or ogre) marked "Ral Partha 1983" under the base. Its not in any of the catalogues of the time - Citadel or Ral Partha (Citadel were distributing Ral Partha back then). I'm guessing it's a Tom Meier sculpt. Do you recognise it?

It's a wonderful sculpt! I'd love to get a positive ID on it, and even better, if you have one going spare let me know!

The only other place I've seen it is an example painted by John Blanche in White Dwarf 116:

Bryan's cabinets of...Oldhammer!

Bryan Ansell provided a marvellous selection of figures to display at the Oldhammer Weekend at Foundry, all carefully arranged and displayed by his son Marcus. A took quite a few photographs, some of which have appeared previously on this blog, others have not. I'll let the pictures do the talking, but see if you can spot the Blanche-painted Runequest Troll...(hint: it's not in the "Blanche" section).

Undead

Latest editions to my John Blanche collection

Today I am a very happy man indeed. I have acquired some of the pit slaves and hive workers from John's gang that is illustrated in Blanchitsu in White Dwarf April 2013. Just stunning...

Discovering some hidden Blanche

So a couple of weeks back I met up with John Blanche at the Enter the Citadel event at Warhammer World, Nottingham. Long story short, but a few years back I had a massive haul on ebay that included stacks of figures painted by John. So massive in fact that I'm still sorting through it. On the off-chance I took along some figures that I suspected John had painted, and asked him to verify them.

They did indeed turn out to be John's work.

Including some of Citadel's Dwarf King's Court figures.

Which was nice...

John Blanche undead diorama at Warhammer World Nottingham

I visited the "Enter the Citadel" event at Warhammer World Nottingham last Saturday at took some pics of various figures including some wonderful conversions by John Blanche and others in the style of Blanche. More on those soon but in the meantime here's a quickie post of some pics of John's famous undead diorama.

Amazing John Blanche vintage artwork for sale

I was given the heads-up on this site recently: http://www.fantasyartoriginals.com/ The site has 24 - yes 24 - pieces of art by John Blanche for sale. Many of the paintings are from the 1970s, and there is original artwork from the Tolkien Bestiary, Ratspike, and The Prince and the Woodcutter for sale. The owner has given me permission to reproduce some of the images for sale here. There is a contact form on the site if you wish to purchase any, but it goes without saying: "serious offers please!"

Here is a small selection:

The Battle of Five Armies. Published in-Ratspike by GW Books and Tolkien Bestiary by Mitchell Beazley Publishers and The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien 

A visit to the Citadel Miniatures Hall, Games Workshop HQ Nottingham

As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently visited Warhammer World in Nottingham for a Forge World Open Day event, and took the opportunity to snap a few pics in The Citadel Miniatures Hall, which is well worth a visit if you are in the area. I'm writing a separate thread on the dioramas of Mike McVey which are on view in the Hall; in this thread I shall concentrate on some of the other figures I snapped, both vintage and contemporary (including works-in-progress).

The old stuff (mainly 1980's)

Xaxus Chaos-Thrall: a Bryan Ansell/John Blanche chaos conversion from the First Citadel Compendium

So yesterday I commented  that I have something special lined up for my next post. I've already revealed that Ivan Bartleet's Chalice of Doom and War Altar of Nurgle reside in Bryan Ansell's collection, and here's another treasure from that collection. I would like to present to you Xaxus Chaos-Thrall:

Bryan's cabinets of chaos 4

This week's glimpse into Bryan's cabinets focuses on some of the chaotic beasts on display. As usual, there's some well painted treasures together with cool conversions and rarities.

John Blanche's early fantasy/scifi conversions

I'm a huge fan of the miniature artwork of John Blanche, and his Blanchitsu column in White Dwarf has kept me entertained and informed for many years. I continue to buy White Dwarf, and I've noticed that much of the focus in recent Blanchitsu has been on converting fantasy figures (or parts thereof) to scifi, often with an inquisitorial slant. This trait of converting fantasy figures to scifi is by no means new, and is something that John has been taking great delight in for decades. I recently had the opportunity to take some photographs of such figures in Bryan Ansell's collection. Figures 1 - 9 below all started life as early 1980's preslotta Citadel fantasy (OK, with a couple of exceptions). See how many you can spot (what I believe to be the answers can be found by clicking on the figure captions).

Figure 1

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:

Paint your beastman

Over in the B.L.O.O.D. forum and across the bloggosphere, ascendent chaos captains are beginning to nail their colours to the mast for the forthcoming Oldhammer Weekend over at Wargames Foundry. Will it be Khorne? Will it be Slaanesh? Or will you - ahem - swing both ways? In true chaos style you may choose to rebel and align yourself to one of the other Great Powers - some putrescent Nurgle perhaps? Or if you really can't decide then Tzeentch may be the one for you... Whatever chaos god you choose to align with, a staple troop choice of many a chaos warband will be the humble beastman. There's a 30% chance you'll acquire some beastmen each time you roll on the retinue table, if that's the route you decide to take in generating your warband.

OK, let's assume you've decided to stick with convention in this Slaves To Darkness anniversary year and go for Khorne and/or Slaanesh. What will be your colour scheme? According to John Blanche (and let's face it, he's the man in the know):

"A livery mainly composed of the martial colours (red, black and brass) suits the followers of Khorne perfectly, whereas Slaanesh has pale skinned followers bedecked in pastel shades, offset by shiny black leather and studs."

If you decide against these colour schemes, then good for you - your place in the pantheon of chaos will be assured. If, however, you decide to follow tradition and John's suggestions you'll be following in the footsteps of the great and the good. Let's take a look at some of the colour schemes evident in Bryan Ansell's collection.

First up is Khorne:

Kill, kill, kill, kill...