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| Dale Hurst's Goff battlewagon. Full of old school GW craziness! |
I am in the mood to delve and dive into the world of Old School Warhammer research at the moment, having pulled out a pile of magazines and books from storage. Now, I know that the object of these ongoing articles is to chronicle every release, supplement and article for WFB3 but from time to time I do come across something that doesn't quite fit the remit.
And I always relent from doing a post for them.
But today the resolve broke, largely because we are talking about a classic plastic kit from the very early 1990s. The ORIGINAL ork battle wagon. How I loved (and still love) this model. I never owned one, I must admit, but my late childhood friend, Tim Gilbride, did and I remember him bringing the boxset around my house. We had a wonderful time cutting out the components and trying to fit them together the best we could with Blu-tak, until we were rescued by my dad and his legendary liquid cement glue. Eventually, we constructed the kit (quite the biggest we had ever worked on) and Tim agreed to leave it with me and my father to paint up. Sadly, he was never able to return to claim it.
The remains of the model are long gone, thrown out I suspect my my mother when all the Warhammer stuff was chucked in about 1998 (along with my Amiga and game collection - including a mint copy of Moonstone!) but I'd love to get my hands on another one in the future.
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| Ivan Bartlett's work has really grown on me in recent years, each time I re-evaluate on of his models I am impressed by the colour tones he achieves not to mention the great bustling detail he chucked into the pot. This is my favourite battle wagon. |
The models published in WD were of course very inventive, but considering who was working in the 'Eavy Metal department at the time this shouldn't comes as much of a surprise. The ork books are lavish and full of great ideas, much like the model range, and I have since learnt that it was the last project that Bryan Ansell worked on before selling GW. Since beginning this journey to chronicle WFB3 (and GW) there is a distinct relationship between the quality of the release and the involvement of GW's former managing director!
If memory serves, much like the Marauder giant, the battlewagon became a firm favourite at Golden Demon awards in the following few years. And the possibilities for converting the kit were endless, as the Yellow Sunz wagon above testifies.
A classic kit from the Golden Age if ever there was one.
So what are your thoughts about this first foray into orky plastic vehicles? Did you own a kit back in the day? Do you still own one? Please share your memories!
Orlygg