52nd Regiment of Foot colour test

Just a quickie before I sign off for Christmas. I've picked up a copy of Osprey's"The Indian Mutiny" and as per usual with Osprey books there are some cracking colour plates. One of the figures illustrated in this particular volume is a private from the 52nd Regiment of Foot (Oxfordshire Light Infantry). This regiment was involved in the siege of Delhi, and the figure is a good match for a group I picked up of Foundry's British Infantry in Flannel Shirt Advancing:

Have a good Christmas, and catch you on the other side!

Indian Mutiny project: mutineers and warrior cavalry horses

This is the start of something big! I'm embarking on a project to paint and wargame the various forces involved in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, an event that sent shockwaves through the British Empire. I'll be documenting my progress in the hope that it will keep my momentum going - I have a lot of figures to get through!

So to kick off I've been basing some mutineers, and some horses for warrior cavalry:

Happy Halloween from Wargames Foundry!

The sculpting genius that is Kev Adams has turned an inspirational piece of design by Maria Ansell into this little "beauty" in time for Halloween:

This fantastic chap – dubbed Ozzy the Bateater – will be sent out FREE with online orders placed with the Wargames Foundry, Warmonger Miniatures and Casting Room Miniatures websites for the rest of October. Foundry request that you put a note in the comments box when you place your order to let them know that you would like him included.

They will also be giving him away free to any visitors to their shop in the village of East Stoke until Saturday 31st October. They are open 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday and 10am to 4pm on Saturdays. There's free tea and coffee as well!

Ozzy is also available free with orders placed via the Casting Room Miniatures website. If you haven’t had a chance to look at this site yet it’s well worth it – there’s a lot of figures on there that can be used in an Oldhammer setting.

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.

I'm going to Salute! With Warmonger Miniatures!

I've never been to Salute, and sometimes it feels like I'm the only person in this game who hasn't! Well I'm going this year, and I'll be manning the Warmonger Miniatures stand, together with Kev Adams and Marcus Ansell.

For the past few months, Kevin Adams and Bryan Ansell have been working on their range of new and remarkably strange fantasy miniatures…orcs, trolls, goblins, beastmen…all manner of weird and wonderful creations are starting to see the light of day.

I’ve blogged about some of the incredible works-in-progress previously, and it’s just been announced that some of these figures may be available for sale at Salute; here’s what Warmonger had to say earlier today:

Warmonger will have a stand at Salute, Excel on 25th April. Our stand number is TB13. Look out for our banner.

Kevin Adams will be with us and happy to talk about what he’s working on at the moment. Steve Casey, of The Citadel Collector, will also be helping out on our stand.

We will have loads of Kev’s old Orcs with us and we are working very hard to try to have a selection of his new stuff on display, and perhaps even available for sale! As I type, Bryan and Steve Turton are cleaning up the master castings and attempting to organise pressing a couple of moulds of the new Greenskins. It will be touch and go to see if we can actually get them cast up.

So please some along to say hi. I’ll be the one with receding hairline, a slight paunch, and a dodgy Welsh accent. Well, at least one of those three characteristics should mark me out…

Foundry's forthcoming Kev Adams Beastmen...and some orcs

These have not yet been cast! I wanted to put this disclaimer in right at the start so (hopefully) nobody gets confused and calls Foundry to order a bunch because these have not yet been cast!

I called in on Wargames Foundry yesterday and took the opportunity to see the line of chaos beastmen that Kev Adams is starting to sculpt for Bryan. These will probably be released under the Warmonger Miniatures banner once the time is right, but I'm afraid I don't have information as to when this might be. Bryan is still pondering how to approach the release, and he may go the Kickstarter route; he hasn't decided yet. I don't think the name of the figures themselves is set in stone either: although they are clearly "beast men" they may yet end up with a different title.

Kev has sculpted a bunch of heads, and is now starting with some bodies. As you might expect from Kev the quality of the work is stunning, with bags of character and a "proper chaos" feel. Currently the heads are mainly of the "goat man" type (which he has executed brilliantly I'm sure you'll agree) but he assures me he will also be sculpting mutated beastmen, so there's a right mix to come - exciting stuff!

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.

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).

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.

Citadel vs Foundry ex-Citadel mercenaries: comparison pictures

In response to a number of requests I decided to take a comparison shot of some of the Citadel slotta base mercenaries versus the Foundry ex-Citadel mercenaries (Foundry on the right in each pair):

Hopefully you can see from the picture above that there has been no shrinkage, and quality has been unaffected. In fact, in response to Marcus's message in yesterday's post that due to advances in casting techniques the figures should be chunkier and crisper, I can vouch that this is indeed the case, which is quite remarkable really! It's probably quite difficult to discern this from the above pic, but if you look at a comparison pic of the sack that one of the figures is carrying it should be obvious (and in case you are wondering, the Citadel figures came out of a blister pack, and are not recasts):

Citadel figure on the left, Foundry on the right.

Updated: Foundry ex-Citadel Mercenaries now on website

I've had a message from Marcus at Foundry to indicate that they've been having trouble setting up a proper section for the mercenaries on the Foundry website, so there will be a little while before the page is part of the navigation bar. But in the meantime it is possible to order the figures via the website if you go directly to this link:

http://wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/excitadel/mercenaries

I've also had some information from Marcus in response to queries as to whether or not the Foundry castings would be smaller than the original Citadel, and if Foundry are using production castings as masters. Marcus writes:

As far as I'm aware the moulds we would cast masters from are the very same moulds that the original greens were pressed in, so we should be able to make models at least as chunky. However, we should still have the original set of master castings and I would hope that nothing has happened to any of these over the years that would make us need to cast more. Theoretically, since production moulding and casting techniques should have advanced in the decades since the models were originally released, we should be making them both chunkier and crisper!

Updated: Foundry release Citadel Mercenaries and Blandford Warriors...also Barbarians

I've got some more information and pics of Foundry's latest old Citadel releases. I also neglected to mention that they have unearthed some old Barbarians (or Norse/Vikings...however you want to label them), which I've detailed below.

The first thing to say is that I spoke with Marcus at Foundry about the release of these figures and he told me that the reason they aren't on the website at the moment is that they are waiting for sets of them to be painted up, which makes sense. Some, but not all, have been painted. If you want them in the meantime its best if you call them.

Mercenaries

Here are the figures I picked up at the weekend:

Foundry release Citadel Mercenaries and Blandford Warriors

Foundry have found the moulds for these old Citadel figures and they have gone on sale today at Oldhammer and are now on general sale (images of the original Citadel figures from Stuff of Legends):

They would make great Empire figures!

Wargames Foundry's first ever mail order flyer?

In addition to being a big collector of Citadel Miniatures and associated paraphernalia, I'm also interested more broadly in the history of the fantasy, scifi and historical figures and games etc that developed in connection with Citadel and Games Workshop. So it was with great interest that I recently picked up an early flyer for Wargames Foundry. What I found even more interesting when I read it is that the letter from Bryan Ansell that is inscribed in the flyer seems to suggest that this may well be Foundry's first mail order flyer. Very handily, the flyer is dated - April 15th 1985.

I've included a close-up of the letter from Bryan below, then the two sides of the flyer in their entirety below that.

Incidentally, isn't the design very reminiscent of the early Citadel flyers? hardly surprising I suppose!

Putting brush to lead: completed, and an apology

Before getting into the meat of this post I'd like to post an apology to those of you who follow this blog and have left comments recently. In the past I have been alerted to them when they appear in my Gmail inbox. I hadn't received any notifications for a while, and given that I usually receive some comments I eventually started to get a bit suspicious, and so revisited some recent posts. What did I find, but sure enough comments had been left, so I was perplexed as to how I had missed these in Gmail. I eventually realised it was because of some new feature that Gmail had introduced whereby messages were being categorised into different sections of the inbox, and I had completely failed to recognise this. Now, I love to read your comments and the words of support, so please don't feel I've been neglecting them. I've sorted out this inbox issue and normal service has now been resumed. As for Google Gmail - I'm sure there was a good reason for the changes - but hey, if it ain't broke why try to fix it?

OK, so back in June I posted on how I had entered the painting challenge over on the BLOOD forum, with my entry being a unit of 5 classic minotaurs. Well, with the clock fast approaching the deadline I have managed to finish, and here are the results:

Time for a spot of reflection. Firstly, I'm really glad I entered this challenge. As I indicated before I have dabbled in painting the odd figure or two, but have never actually finished a figure. So a victory point for me, and a huge sense of satisfaction for actually getting these finished. Is it just me or do other people hit the "painting wall"? A bit like what runners face, but possibly slightly less exhausting? For me it comes around halfway through painting a figure (hence why I've never really got beyond that point before) when I've added most of the base coats and start with the detailing. I seem to get an urge to put the figures to one side and start on something else. So having a painting challenge as an incentive was really useful in getting through the wall.

Now onto the thorny subject of the quality of the paint jobs. Overall I'm quite pleased with how they turned out, but there are of course things I would want to improve on, and at least I'm more-or-less aware of what these are. As someone who is new to painting I keep reading advice on how important it is to be neat with your painting; I couldn't agree more! I failed to do this in many areas on my minotaurs, but at least I recognise where these are, and why I failed. Lack of skill, certainly, but also an important factor was impatience. My goal is to paint figures to a reasonable tabletop standard quickly. Give that goal I will inevitably compromise quality for speed initially until I (hopefully) get better. I didnt actually manage to paint these very quickly, but again, I think I could speed up without a decrease in quality if I was to try them again.

I'm reasonably happy with the colours I chose, and I particularly like the skin tones on 3 of the 5 minotaurs - the less orangey ones. For the skin I used Foundry's Flesh 5A/5B/5C. Man I love those paints! So easy to apply (I didn't bother with thinning) and in my opinion lovely shades. For the 3 minotaurs I prefer I started with 5A and worked up with additions of 5C to almost pure 5C. For the 2 other minotaurs I started with 5B and my desire to experiment kicked in when I then liberally washed them with GW's Reikland Flesh wash. I think I applied the wash too heavily and left the skin looking patchy. It doesnt actually look too bad in the pic above but in the hand it's not great. Back to the drawing board there then.

There's a good chance I'll be bringing these minotaurs to the Oldhammer weekend, so you'll have a chance to ridicule constructively criticise them in the flesh.

The August paint challenge has already started on the BLOOD forum - stay tuned for my next foray into the crazy world of painting lead.

Who shall stem the tide of chaos?

I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! For all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!

 (Quote attributed to some bloke in shiny armour on a horse)

The forces of chaos are gathering for the march on Nottingham this Summer, and if reports are to be believed in their wake come all manner of foulness; Dark Elf, Orc and Goblin. So who will stem this tide of evil...

The time of the Elves is over, my people are leaving these shores. Who will you look to when we've gone? The Dwarves? They toil away in caverns, seeking riches. They care nothing for the troubles of others.

It is in Men that we must place our hope.

But where are the men? The real men? OK, perhaps not the real men, but at least they're 25/28mm equivalent? Remember those great table battle scenes of old, when it was the forces of men that held back the tide of chaos? In today's game we have the forces of Khorne allied to those of Slaanesh and I've even heard it said that elves can bind chaos demons to their will. What has the world come to? Let us dispense with this blasphemy and return to a golden age when it was clear where battle lines were drawn, and it was men that drew them! Some of my favourite battle scenes from old issues of White Dwarf and the early editions of Warhammer featured humans vs chaos: