'Eavy Metal Special from White Dwarf 115

In the last few posts we have been exploring the releases and articles from White Dwarf 115. As we have learnt, this was to be a very important issue in terms of the Warhammer Mythos as it contained the release materials for Heroquest, as well as a taster of Advanced Heroquest. 

I doubt that no other game has ever allowed so many young gamers to cut their teeth on a miniature fantasy game, and I seriously doubt that another one ever will. Heroquest transcended Games Workshop, Warhammer and the Fighting Fantasy crowd to become a game that all the other kids seem to play too. 

In that issue, just like every other at that time, were the fabulous 'Eavy Metal pages. These were always my first port of call when I bought the magazine each month, largely because it was one of the few ways of actually seeing the miniatures that Citadel have produced in the past with a catalogue and, of course, due to the fact that they were all expertly painted. 

As a youth, I would spend hours gazing over the paint jobs wondering why I couldn't get my goblin to look like the one Darren Matthews painted. In fact, I still do, especially over Ivan Bartlett's Nurgle Beastman. Hey, there is a funny concept isn't it? Actually being able to recognise a particular painter's work just by looking at it - no generic techniques or colour schemes here. Such was the amount of time I spent gazing at these painted models I began to recognise each of the 'Eavy Metal painter's hand in the models. Could something like that be said for today's models?

Some nice examples of late '80s Citadel reside on this first page. The two plaguebearers on the bottom row were at the Oldhammer Weekend at the Foundry last summer. Incidentily, the green one was painted by Oldhammer's own Andy Craig! The colours used are bright and brash and certainly don't have any of the dirty brown monotony of many a more recent plagebearer paint job. The treeman to their left also follows this rather bright approach with a lovely green tone over much of the body. The blue and yellow really offset this and make for an attractive figure. Bartlett's Nurgle beastmen, complete with excellent shields, reside centre stage and just go to show that decent finishes can be made of Olley's sculpts for this period - something that I must admit I have struggled with in the past. The we have two dwarfs, an old classic with the shield and axe and a more modern (well, then anyway) Squat Adventurer, which I am not sure ever saw a release. Anyone know? The chaos warrior on the bottom row is a bit of an enigma too, and I a pretty certain that this model never saw release either, though I have long suspected that it may be a conversion. Mike Mcvey's hand can be seen in the brilliantly blended Bloodbowl minotaur too. 

More from Andy Craig here, with Lewdwhip the Bloodbowl star player, which can be found in a later issue as a stage by stage, similar to the terminator captain on the previous page. More of Ivan's chaos beastmen appear here too and make you wonder why they were all included on the same page! What strikes me here is the huge variation in painting ability. The intricate painting of Bartlett can be found alongside some pretty basic stuff (like the bottom row Ogryn) but all were deemed 'good enough' for White Dwarf! This always encouraged me, as my wild daubings didn't seem so bad when compared so some of these models. 

Andy Craig's diorama at the top of this article is now very well known and would have been his entry into the next Golden Demon competition had he not become employed by GW before it could be entered. There is some truly inspiring chaos work here; particularly the two tone Horrors of Tzeenth that are just begging to have their colour schemes stolen by one of us in the near future. Keen eyed basing fans will notice that my own classic basing style was inspired by many of the models you see here, notably the chaos champions and daemons above. Yet the dark green bases are published alongside the more traditional goblin green jobs and a rather modern looking base on that Bloodthirster. 

The final page of Studio staff stuff from this issue has a rather eclectic selection. Bloodbowl, chaos, elves (including those remarkable Skarlocs) with the addition of a random villager (very nicely painted, mind) as well as a mark one terminator and a beautifully designed Eldar titan. And to think, all this creativity was less than five years old! Yet more was to come!

So, do you have a favourite piece here?

Orlygg.

Acceptable in the '80s: Marauder Dwarf War Machines, Marauder Wood Elves and Bretonnian Knights

Last time we spoke about the history of Warhammer Fantasy Battle Third Edition we took a little sidestep to have a look at the way Heroquest was launched. Over the coming months, there were several articles published for the game and more complex scenarios were provided for Advanced Heroquest. The astonishing success of the game helped encourage the company's future owners to concentrate on the younger market.

'Our Warhammer' still had a number of years to exist though, before 3rd edition made way for the radical change that was 4th, though it is worth remembering that The Lost and the Damned remained as a major supplement still in development. As I have said before, true Warhammer III articles were very much in decline though the later part of '89 and into the 1990s. Even the miniature releases slowed. However, Marauder Miniatures began to produce more and more Warhammer Third Edition army sets and started publishing them as army deals. I am sure that many readers of this blog who purchased White Dwarf during this period will remember the full colour adverts for these.

By issue 115, Marauder had been going strong for quite some time (around two years) and subsequently had a lot of models to release. I know, from Andy Craig, that the models that Marauder produced were painted by the 'Eavy Metal team as a favour to Aly and Trish Morrison. However, not all the models that Marauder produced were photographed in these adverts. The stalwart of 1980s advertising, the line drawn image, was used to illustrate some ranges, while photographs were used for others.

The releases from 115 concerned Dwarf War Machines and Wood Elves. So without any more waffle, let's have a look at them.  

At the time I loved the Marauder dwarf range. In later years, I began to loathe the models as they represented, to me anyway, the awful 'big hands oversized weapons' era of Citadel Miniatures. A lot of the blame was put on the step of Marauder, but after years of study and discussions with interested and involved parties I have come to really appreciate this range once more. The late-Medieval look was a great choice for the tone of the models and moved away from the Viking style stunties we had seen in the past. The faces were packed with character, vital for a dwarf in my opinion, and some of the better models tell their own little tales in 28mm. This page reveals to the world some of the siege engines that the dwarfs could field, namely the Organ, Siege and Swivel Guns, listed here with nostalgic prices when compared to today's collectors market. 

These models are well worth owning of you are a fan of Citadel or Marauder or indeed both. Especially if you have the spearmen as well. One day I have promised myself I'd work on a dwarf army of considerable size, and these models will be some of the first I will be chasing. 

The Wood Elves did not get so lucky. They were lumbered with this month's line drawn adverts. I actually own a few of the Marauder wood elves but I cannot recognise mine among these, so perhaps there were other releases. Not much can really be drawn from the images as its hard to appraise miniatures through drawings alone. I pick up a faint 'native American' vibe going on here, don't you? Something about some of the hairstyles and clothing reminds me of the really bad westerns that used to play on Sunday afternoons during the late '80s. 

The final miniature release relating to Warhammer Third Edition in WD 115 are these wonderful Bretonnian knights, designed to make use of the new Citadel plastic horse. These models are really much larger than many miniatures Citadel released during 1988 and are in some cases twice the size of the old 'Baron's War' range that served as the Sons of Breton for so many years. I think this size increase may have more to do with the limits of plastic casting technology at the time rather than any conscious effort to make things larger, but that is just my opinion. 

Having a glance over the models, you can see that the Perry's have produced another solid set of models here. What else would you expect? They have always produced solid sets of models. This are far more 'historical' looking that what would come later in 4th edition and I have always wondered if the historical market was in mind when these were originally produced. I have a number of these models kicking about and they are lovely to paint. I expect that a great number of these models still see service in historical armies to this day, explaining why some of them reach very high prices on eBay. 

What are your thoughts on the models discussed today?

Orlygg

Acceptable in the '80s: The Launch of Heroquest

In the summer of 2012 I set about chronicling the history of Warhammer Third Edition through its releases, supplements and published material in White Dwarf. Thanks to the wonders of the labelling system on Blogger, collecting all of the posts in the series is rather easy, just a case of clicking on the 'Acceptable in the '80s' label on the right hand side and you are away.

I was brought to my attention recently that I missed several small bits and pieces of material from WD. Sure, most of us are aware that I am not commenting on the sneak peek that would be later printed in RoC Slaves to Darkness and the Lost and the Damned but I have missed a few nuggets. Due to this, I have decided to go back to issue 115 and relaunch the series and pick up those little nuggets that I have missed and get this series back on track. 

Today's piece concerns the release of Heroquest, dealt with in issue 115. Now, if Helen of Troy was the face that launched a thousand ships, then this particular game must be the game that launched a thousand (if not many more) wargamers. I am sure that a great number of people who read this blog had the first taste of the fantasy game business playing this immortal game. 

So how were things done back in 1989? Page after page of images of the same few models? A shed load of thinly disguised adverts posing as articles? No, just a White Dwarf cover and a four page launch. 

Have a look!

Heroquest Launch by orlygg

Reading through the article with fresh eyes uncovers some interesting facts. The four player characters are given names and these I had been previously been unaware of. The barbarian, always the favourite of mine, was called Toran. The dwarf was called Gorlin. Eldoral was the name of the elf archer while the strangely clad wizard was known to his friends as Gelmick.

The whole package screams 'production values' to me. The first class art by Gary Chalk, the miniature design (and the great painting by Mike McVey), the components and, of course, the fantastic board. What makes it all much more impressive is how all this was achieved with a smidgen of the technology we have now. There are plenty of box games released in the last couple of years that lack the 'quality' look that Heroquest has.

Still has. As I am sure that the game is still played widely around the world. I bought a battered copy at a carboot sale one year and took it into school. The Year 5 and Year 6 children adored the game and all the parts that came with it and the set was literally played to death.

Looking back over the advert now, so many memories are catapulted into my mind. I can picture my bedroom table, its surface spread with newspaper, a water jar full of brushes and the Citadel Colour paint set open before it. I can remember my first efforts with painting miniatures. Undercoat in white (brushed on) base colours and then wash with black paint. The models looked great to me, until the wash dried and I was left wondering in awe about how the Citadel painters achieved the finishes they did. I can recall inventing my own dungeons on graph paper to test out against my sister, generating my own epic stories. I can recall the hours I spent oggling every detail on the models themselves. Above all, I can remember the advert on TV and how everyone in my class own a copy of the game. Or seemed to, at least!

One day I shall buy another copy myself. When my boy is old enough to play a longer winded board game. I shall paint up all of the models too, based on the McVey originals, and we will share many happy hours together battling in the dungeons of Morcar.

I am sure that there will be similar hours spent in your homes too!

Before you leave, please share with us your Heroquest memories. Do you recall this ad or the TV one? Did you own a copy? Were you first steps into the worlds of fantasy wargaming resplendent with fimir, orcs and mummies?

Please share!

Orlygg