Whiate Dwarf 124: 'Eavy Metal Special

This week we are having a look at the models that appear in White Dwarf 124 and many of them will be familiar to readers of the Lost and the Damned. Within that eldritch tome, two warbands are described in quite a bit of detail (in fact the same article is also present in this issue of WD) and a spread of miniatures are shown off. These models are from that same set of warbands only within the pages of White Dwarf we get to see them in a little bit more detail. 

The first of the warbands to appear is that of Lothar Bubonicus and doesn't it look beautiful - in a Nurgely way I suppose! Some of the models here are obviously part of the previous Studio collection, such as the Mike McVey converted chaos warrior on chaos steed and Skrag the Slaugheter, but the rest seem new to this force. And a lovely varied bunch they are. Stand out pieces for me are probably the most obvious, namely the fantastic standard bearer and the brilliant Palanquin itself. The definitive Nurgle warband published during the Golden Age. 

The arch rival of the Plague Lord is of course Tzeentch and he is well represented by Thunderfist, his champion. As you would expect from a god seeped in mutating magic, there is a little more conversion work to be seen among these warriors of chaos, with the most striking being the quite disturbing chaos spawn. Its worth pointing out here once more that your warbands don't need to be totally preoccupied with 'traditional' chaos units... This one makes great use of orcs! 

If one Tzeentch warband is not enough, here is a second one! This time we have a page chronicling the forces of one Warwing. One glance at him is all that is required to see that we have here one the greatest RoC era conversions ever built, yet alone painted. It really is a triumph! The rest of the band is pretty good too, especially that Tzeentch symbol covered minotaur!  

Genestealer Cults remain very popular to this day. Looking at this page of material it is very easy to see why. You can really get creative with the brood brother units and the limos. I am lucky enough to have seen many of the models arrayed in the photograph at the bottom of the page with my own eyes

Steve Mussared will be a name very familiar to readers of this series and his work is always well worth careful studio. here we are treated to many of his Khorne models, pretty all of which are converted in some way. I love the two fleshounds with the dragon heads and reptile tails and like all truly great conversion these seem to be very simple in execution but the standout piece here would have to be scratchbuilt chariot! I am assuming that the chariot itself was built up with putty and the wheels look to be custom jobs. The charioteer is a converted '80s bloodletter with a bloodthister whip. The draught animals, if animals is the right noun, look to be centaur bodies topped with bloodletter torsos! 

Don't they look properly twisted and macabre? 

Our final page throws up more work from another familiar name to this series - Mick Beard! He makes good work of the Marauder ogres we discussed recently and the unique alpine dwarf. But it is the Advanced Heroquest diorama that really impresses. 

Orlygg

'Eavy Metal Special: White Dwarf 122

Welcome to another journey through the pages of old school 'Eavy Metal. This time we will be pondering the models shown off in issue 122 of White Dwarf. The first page gives us another one of those step by step paint jobs that were a familiar site in the magazine during this period. A truly garish example it is too with some rather sickly colour choices. Not a scheme I would use myself the the quality of the painting of the actual horse cannot be denied. 

Bob Olley's orcs really have the moment to shine here with a really great paint job and a rather interesting green tone for the flesh. I love my goblins with a tint of yellow, but these brutes look superb. I must confess, these models are not one that I am overly aware of and its a real pleasure to discover something new in these old pages. Its unusual to see dragons in WD at this point, so its a pleasure to see the mini rock dragon and the looks nothing like Nick Bibby's masterpiece Spined Dragon. This is a real shame, as a smaller version (perhaps a baby?) would have been fantastic. Rather unsurprisingly, a couple of the Marauder Witch Elves that we discussed recently make an appearance too. 

A fantastic gallery of models awaits us on this page. The terminators catch the eye immediately and they are quite frankly superbly painted. There is plenty of iconography here but with such things still in development there is plenty of room for artists interpretation. Random genestealer hybrids appear (again) and its makes you wonder of the 'Eavy metal team were obsessed with them during the later '80s as they appear so often. I am really impressed with the subtle pastel shades employed on the daemonettes and I feel that this kind of look its much better than the 'liquorice allsort' colour schemes that you see elsewhere. The orks are okay I suppose and the ogres are interesting but its the painting on the pre-slotta elementals that really impresses me. The colours are very natural in their tone, and I can practically smell the salt on the water daemon! 

Now, Steve Mussared is a name we have covered before, but Rob Baker is a new name to me. Both share a similar style and its hard to say who's miniatures are who's really. One of the jobs of the Oldhammer scene is the varied interpretations of models when it comes to painting. The same model often looks strikingly different depending on who painted it. I always found the differing styles used in 'Eavy Metal and inspiration. I love the samurai warlord and the ogryn conversion on this page but note must be made of the unreleased plaguebearer in the centre of the page too. 

A gorgeous range of classic chaos models here and these images will no doubt inspire me further when I begin my Tzeentch and Nurgle chaos armies in a couple of years time. The colours are really very chaotic here and just go to show how bright colours can be used for quite dramatic effect. The conversions really stand out for me here, especially the Honour guard and the Nurgle Necromancer. Beautiful constructed and painted models.

Orlygg.