My proud little piece of GW history

[vintagephreak]

Back in the day I remember leafing through the pages of White Dwarf, gawking at the lovely models and wishing two things. One- that I could paint that well and two- that I could have those figures on my shelf to gawk at first hand. A decade ago I was fortunate enough to get hold of one of my all-time favourite models at the sadly defunct website The Virtual Alchemist, which was really a terrific webshop for OOP models. The model in question was the Marauder ogre handgunner, painted by 'Eavy Metal blending guru Mike McVey, and which featured in the Marauder ogre ad from White Dwarf 122 (http://solegends.com/marauder/mm41ogres.htm):



I ended up with the winning bid at one of TVA's fabled Xmas auctions, where James the proprietor would offer up true gems of Citadel/Marauder history to be won by the highest bidder. I remember being outbid on a couple of Pete Taylor's demons from both WD and the RoC books, but luckily ended up winning the one I wanted the most. The base has since had its sides painted black (not by me!) but that is easily undone should I so desire, and the base is a lot more bright green in real life.
I know from Bridgend Steve's blog and other sources that most of those old models which featured in the GW publications reside with Bryan Ansell and a handful of others, but out of general interest I'd also like to know if other members have similar pieces of historical GW models in their possession? I'd love to know where they ended up, to combat my nightmares of these classics being discarded, lost or paint stripped *shudder*...

Cheers,
Martin

PS! Old pages from Virtual Alchemist can still be viewed online at this address. Man, was that a great site as an option to evilBay:
http://web.archive.org/web/200302230700 ... enu.cgi?38

 

[majorsmith]

superb sculpt, and what a paint job! fantastic! lucky you!

 

[Harry]

Thats very cool. Love those Marauder Ogres.
I have a similar little bit of GW history.
I have the life elemental , painted by Nick Beard, that was in WD 117 (?)
I'll get a picture of it when I get home.
Picked it up on e-bay ... recognised it instantly as I still remembered it from the pages of WD and stayed up late to snag it. (How sad is that?)

 

[Orlygg]

Mick Beard wasn't?

Steve Casey is THE MAN when it comes to collecting originals. We should ask him what he has got. Pretty sure that someone on these boards bought a John Blanche original too.

Sadly I have nothing.

 

[Thantsants]

Very nice indeed!

I have nothing personally although I remember being rather envious of Dave King (Skulldred and Bederken Miniatures) when I saw this on his excellent blog.

 

[vintagephreak]

My ultimate dream would be to own John Blanche's two-headed minotaur conversion with the Mona Lisa banner. Simply amazing. Failing that, I'd settle for Fraser Gray's samurai Chaos Dwarf with its back banner. I believe both of those are pictured in the GD 1988 (Fantasy Miniatures) book.

 

[Harry]

Mick Beard wasn't?

Thats the chap.

The N is next to the M on the keyboard ... it's not my fault!

'Ere you go:

... and next to its WD picture:

 

[Blue in VT]

Very cool...painting that much white that well is truely impressive....

...of course the flesh ain't bad either...

Cheers,

Blue

 

[vintagephreak]

Lovely! Which issue of WD is that btw?

 

[stone cold lead]

Nice bit of nostalgia there. Always rather liked that elemental ever since seeing that pic in WD. Must get one. I'm sure I could find a reason to add it to my Bretonnians.

 

[Citadel Collector]

I've got a fair few originals in my collection, buried somewhere in the dark recesses of the man cave. The only ones I've started cataloguing in earnest are my Blanche figures (http://thecitadelcollector.co.uk/zen/in ... hn-blanche) including the flying wolf conversion that Dave King bought off me. I know I've got some Pete Taylor bits to hand (some of which I got from you I think Martin?) and I'll try to take some pics of them over the next few days (might be worth a blog post too).

 

[vintagephreak]

Hmm yes I did have a few Taylor ogres, still have a couple I believe. They didn't figure in any publications as far as I know but Taylor managed to keep a high standard of painting despite his prolific output. I have an ogre standard bearer of his with some lovely freehand work. Still need an original Blanche model though

Some years ago I offered Fraser Grey a decent sum for one of his lovely chaos dwarfs, but regrettably he declined the offer. Guess I should give Mike McVey a call next...

 

[ardyer]

Hmmm...the best I've got is a model of my own that was shown in the US white dwarf 5 or so years ago as a runner up at the golden demons. And they misspelled my name. So I guess it doesn't really count as GW history

 

[Harry]

That exact same thing happened to me ... they mis-spelt my name 'Martin Footitt'
Picture or it didn't happen.

Lovely! Which issue of WD is that btw?

117 Good issue. Well worth a read.

 

[ardyer]

That exact same thing happened to me ... they mis-spelt my name 'Martin Footitt'
Picture or it didn't happen.

Here you go, from US white dwarf 317

And here she is currently, after a few modifications:

 

[Harry]

Thats very cool. Entered Golden Demon a couple of times ... I got some little badges for making it into the final handful of stuff in the center cabinet ... no photos in WD however.

So when you say 'runner up' were you second? did you get a silver statue? Or were you 'runner up ... just outsid ethe top 3' ?

 

[ardyer]

Thats very cool. Entered Golden Demon a couple of times ... I got some little badges for making it into the final handful of stuff in the center cabinet ... no photos in WD however.

So when you say 'runner up' were you second? did you get a silver statue? Or were you 'runner up ... just outsid ethe top 3' ?

Thanks! It means outside the top three. US golden demons being much smaller usually only give runner up to about the next three or four, although I've seen runner ups given for as many as 10 or so and as few as none. I've never been to the UK golden demons, but from what I understand, there are just so many entries that they can't recognize much other than first cuts and gold, silver, bronze. And I've also been told that the UK first cuts is a larger group than the all the entries in the US, per category!

But, ever since I first started painting, I've wanted to have something featured in White Dwarf, and when I finally got it, I was deflated that they misspelled my name! Especially considering I was having an Email conversation with the US editor at the time the issue went to press. But, hey, I'll take what I can get.