Previously unreleased "Empirical Squads" now available from Wargames Foundry

The good folk at Wargames Foundry are now selling some of Bryan Ansell's science fiction miniatures that have been unreleased since 1987. Here's an image from their website:

If you want to order a squad of these you can give them a call or purchase them directly from the website. Details here.

If these figures are a complete mystery to you then you might want to look here, here, here and here.

They come with integral solid bases similar to the ones on all their other models.

Here's what the Foundry website has to say about these figures:

We believe that these newly discovered items are the almost mystically rare deathcasts of the elite

EMPIRICAL ABSOLUTION and LIQUIDATION SQUAD. We estimate their value as somewhere in the region of an ENTIRE GALACTIC EMPIRE, probably with a couple of lost mythical lands thrown in.

The Empirical Abs etc. demanded absolute and immediate unthinking obedience to the Empiricator [BLESS HIS NAME!] and not only from the inhabitants of Known Space, but also from the entire population of the Multiverse.

Indeed: after a boozy afternoon of high stake rune casting and seven episodes of the most sacred tapes of STARTREK, the EALS (as they liked to be known) took to speculating as to what their ultimate rewards would be for their lifetimes of ceaseless holy work:

At this point the Empiricator [BLESS HIS NAME!] got a whiff of what was going on. He sighed heavily, made a few passes in the air, clicked his heels together twice, shouted SHAZAM! And he had obliterated the foolish boozy EALS. All that was found was a neat pile of bleached skulls. Each bore the word HUBRIS and each had a tiny lead ceremonial Manikin perched there on its dome.

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).

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.

Foundry ex-Citadel and more: Bryan Ansell shares some thoughts

Bryan Ansell kindly left a comment on one of my recent posts regarding the content of the "Foundry archive"; given that some people may have missed it had they already read the post, I thought I would post it again:

I fear that there is very little fantasy stuff, as my father (Clifford Ansell: for who Foundry was originally set up as a retirement job) was never interested in having anything at all to do with fantasy.

The sad truth is that......

In the late(r) 80's my father did quite a lot of mould making, master casting and such for GW. I believe that odds and ends of residue from that period may survive.

Of course, Alan and Michael Perry went from their old C26 Citadel medievals to ranges of compatible models for Foundry: the Foundry models are just a touch bigger and more carefully sculpted.

The C26 range of men at arms was Citadels best selling Fantasy range for three years. (I just threw that in here for a bit of Oldhammer colour).

There will be a scattering of Perry models that never made it into a pack.

There will be loads of Human Manikins: with and without heads, faces, arms, genitals etc. Many of them will never have been used: you can't stop a sculptor making yet another manikin. Plenty of naked horses, other naked animals. Scabbards, swords, muskets, hats and weaponry of every kind. Shields: variants of every possible shape of shield. Strange things that sculptors or members of staff made for their own amusement. Nick, the caster who came with us from Guernsey made some interesting things. Tony Yates made a number of very fine items.

The seven sculptors that worked at Foundry for me a decade or so ago all worked from home, this generally results in the larger-than-usual-number-of-models-that-are-left-over-because-we-cannot-make-up-a-full-pack syndrome manifesting itself: so there will be a fair number of those.

There are a small number really old moulds from the period we were casting Asgard and Citadel (and Ral Partha) simultaneously. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything terribly rivetting on them. Simple conversions for playtesting Laserburn and suchlike. We have shown the laser-armed Fishmen to the world already. I suspect that these were converted by either me or Rick, and that I must have made the mould, but I have no memory at all of the event.

Now, all of this is fascinating of course, but there's a couple of points I'd like to highlight. The first is Bryan's comment about:

The C26 range of men at arms was Citadels best selling Fantasy range for three years.

Notice the word "fantasy" in there - not the best-selling historical range for three years, but fantasy. Given that Citadel were churning out orcs, dwarfs etc at that time this seems quite remarkable. But if you've ever seen those fabulous old massed-battle pics from back in the day, it's invariably a human force versus a force of "bad guys." So I guess it's hardly surprising that the C26s were in such demand as a proxy human fantasy force.

For my second point I'm going to have to disagree with Bryan's opinion when he says:

There are a small number really old moulds from the period we were casting Asgard and Citadel (and Ral Partha) simultaneously. Unfortunately, I don't think there is anything terribly rivetting on them. Simple conversions for playtesting Laserburn and suchlike.

Nothing rivetting! Laserburn playtest pieces - wow, now that would be fantastic! What do you think about this prospect?

Actually I had been musing about doing a post on these Laserburn playtest pieces - Bryan has lots in his collection. It looks like I'm going to have to write that post sooner rather than later.

Foundry ex-Citadel and more: what lies beneath?

If you read my posts on the ex-Citadel Mercenaries that have recently been found at Foundry and are now for sale on their website, you might be wondering what else from the distant past they have stored away, ready to unleash? A similar question was recently raised on the Foundry Arena Venue Facebook page, and Bryan Ansell himself has given the following response (I added the links to the Foundry's ebay sites mentioned in Bryan's response):

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.

There will be ten or more items on each master mould, so it is likely that more interesting and/or strange stuff will eventually appear. I know that we have old Rick Priestley odds and ends including some rather worrying sphincter beasts that date back to the Asgard days. Also some tremendously characterful models from Tony Yates.

We will be in a better position to sort through the really old and characterful stuff when all the ranges that were sculpted and cast, but not released during the last decade by the Pinfold/Fletcher team have seen the light of day. There are also SF models by Terrifically Tim Prow that deserve casting up. We have been casting the more obscure models up and putting them on ebay either on Flyte of Fantasy or Casting Room Miniatures.

I'm pretty sure I have one of those sphincter beasts (seriously). So, 5,000 master moulds that haven't been fully catalogued? Very intriguing!

If any more ex-Citadel emerges you can be sure I'll post it here as soon as I hear the news.