The Iron Fist - Block House #5

Illustrations of Imperial architecture are pretty rare in the Rogue Trader rulebook. Yes, there's the fantastic spread of Helsreach illustrations as well as the Emporer's Palace, but for the rest of the book we only see glimpes of background shapes, walls, ruins or ductwork.

I was delighted to see Tony Ackland's brilliant unpublished* Rogue Trader townscape when he put it up on Facebook a little while ago. The image shows a backwater frontier town complete with rickety shacks, landing pad and an imposing block house festooned with gibbet, observation cameras and spikes.

*correct me if I'm wrong.

Illustration by Tony Ackland.

Necromundan Shadow Hound

The folk tales of Necromunda are full of references to terrifying shadowy dog-like creatures. There's the Black Chuck of the Ostpost Angles of Trazior Hive, and the Bargust which purportedly ravages the settlers of Spoil Heap Island in Palatine itself, to mention just two. Of course the dark spaces of Necromunda are infested by innumerable dangerous creatures, but a sighting of a Shadow Hound is almost universally considered by Necromundans to be an omen of impending death. Often within seconds! 

Earlier this year I was planning to take part in the "Here Kitty, Kitty" competition on Yaktribe (make and create a creature for Necromunda). I instantly thought back to Tony Ackland's creepy alien-esque hound that he drew for Confrontation:

Confrontation illustration by Tony Ackland

The Tony Ackland Acquisition - Update

Earlier today I posted about the Tony Ackland originals I bought last week. Tony has been kind enough to send me a couple of messages helping to ID the pieces, for which I'm very grateful.

While all of my other pieces of original GW art have been purchased directly from the artists or artist's family, this has not been the case for the Tony Ackland pieces.

It transpires that this selection of artwork was due to be returned to Tony by GW, when they cleared out the archives 10 or so years back. Sadly, this never happened (you know the story from my earlier post). While I'm not sure I'll be arrested for dealing in stolen goods, it's added a bit of a sour note to the acquisition, and I'm happy to say I'll be returning a couple of pieces to Tony to fill a hole or two in his personal archive and (hopefully) make amends for the original loss.

Original Art - Part 4: The Tony Ackland Acquisition

I always like it when big special delivery boxes arrive at my door!

 

But what's inside?

One or two of you might have seen seven pieces of original GW artwork on ebay last week. Not too many of you though, as after nearly a week of being up for sale, only one had a bid. All seven pieces appeared to be by Tony Ackland, as one auction showed Tony's name on the protective cover, and all the others had reference codes e.g. 'TAxxxx'

I was quite keen on picking up one or two of the pieces, and decided to contact the seller to see if he would sell direct (I know, not entirely the most ethical way of ebay buying). Not only was the seller happy to do this, but it turned out he had 23 Tony Ackland originals he also wanted to sell. After a little bit of negotiation, I purchased all 23, and here are the contents of the box:

23 pieces of GW history