Night of the Living Lead 2017

Ever wondered how to get around the problems of flying dragons? An upside down glass does wonders!

Hello once more and welcome to Realm of Chaos 80s. It has been sometime again, hasn't it? Truth be told there are no exciting and dramatic reasons while I haven't updated recently, it has been a simple case of having too much work to do during the week and the dreaded 'other commitments' during the weekend. Though, I can confess here to being a little distracted by Fallout 4 again, which I chose to start playing again at the end of the Summer Hols, and my meagre hobby time has been squandered on that.

Due to my poor showing on the blogosphere, I had been looking forwards to making the trip back up to the Wargames Foundry again for some time, and rather helpfully my friend Stuart Klatcheff was willing to drive the distance this time - giving me slightly longer at the event and less grief from the non-leadhead!

So thanks for that Stuart!

Journeys such as these, and the events that lay sandwiched in between them, have a funny old way of enlivening an interest in the participant. I suspected that a few hours with the Oldhammer Boyz would ensure plenty of inspiration for the coming winter months and the first half-term of the year (which is just around the corner).

As you would expect, I snapped a load of random photographs of the battle though I must confess to not really taking part in the event. I was far to busy socialising, but I do have an amusing little anecdote about Steve Casey's lovely 'alternative giants' and how I managed to encourage the GM's xenophobia for all things gigantic to pull off an amusing attack or two.

More about that later. As has become traditional, what follows is a long, long list of photographs that I took of Paul's little event with a little snippet of commentary from me. Hopefully, you discover something of interest within them and are inspired to do a little be of hobby of your own.

The battlefield after the first move of the game. You can see my rather old collection of Khorne and Nurgle Realm of Chaos stuff down the bottom left of the frame. If I am being honest, I don't think they moved far from there all day. As you will have noticed we had A LOT of figures on the table (mostly elves from Chris' incredible collection) and WFB3 is a very long game when dealing with a game of this size. Needless to say... we never finished the game!

One thing that I always enjoy about the bigger battles are the massed ranks of troops arrayed in their martial glory. There was plenty to see on the table with loads of classic and not so classic models painted up. As you will have already no doubt noted, there was a large contingent of dragons fielded. Beautiful models all of them and they brought a certain elegance to our wargames table.

Matthew Street explains how best to hold a tinfoil wrapped sandwich to an awed fellow enthusiast. Note the neat little glowing lights inside the model chapel. I thought that this effect had been created by some electrical wire malarkey but upon further investigation I found out the illumination was provided by a couple of those cheap battery powered tea-lights you can buy in Lidl. It works though!

Never having been a chap satisfied by following the rules, we homebrewed some unlikely stats for a dramatic attack on Steve Casey's wonderfully painted 'alternative' giants. I invented some implausible missle assault and Paul, the GM, decreed that on a roll of a six my bazooka armed chaos dwarf would be able to hit one of Steve's giants in the face. Amusingly, I suceeded and the poor lanky soul was slain outright! Never be afraid to homebrew unlikely rules with comedy potential if you have access to an unbiased GM.

Having sadly lost his sandwich in a tragic liquid-poly accident, Warlord Paul attempts to find sustenance by consuming his own hand while 'Elfy Chris' tries his hardest to ignore him. The glorious host of '80s elves belonged to Chris and you may remember our discussion about them during the BOYL17 coverage.

Real life Aragorn (though in certain quarters he is known as Cider) Thantsants mulls over how hard life is as a modern day ranger. Note the small bridge he couldn't help constructing (force of habit) to the far right. Only one guard rail? What would the health and safety boys say?

My big McDeath giant strikes a pose surrounded by girly elves.

As you would expect, the sight of so many old school models in close proximity was a glorious sight, if a little unwieldy to play with in such a short space of time.

Steve Casey looks serious as he launches his giants into an all out attack against my dwarfs.

Stuart Klatcheff, John Ratcliffe and Warlord Paul investiagate some of the weird and wonderful odds and sods from Bryan's collection. The small cardboard box contained castings of many of the original Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, Space Pirates and Adventurers sets.

Bryan took me into the depths of Stoke Hall to explore some of his wargaming treasures, and despite the looming threat of an over excited (and rather large) dog, I escaped unscathed. Think ultimate 'wargaming man cave' and you have some idea what this room is like.

Stuffed with all manner of toy soldier paraphernalia, walking around this room was like being plunged into an ocean of Citadel history. It would be impossible to describe the innumerable treasures to be beheld here; everything from original pieces of GW artwork, to early '80s castings and thousands and thousands of greens.

There were trays of greens in various states of tinkering. Bryan spoke of his idea to do a Kickstarter project with some of these unproduced models at some time in the future.

John Blanche originals and some curious masks from the Ansell family's many travels.

Bryan was keen to show off his vast library of inspirational publications. I was struck by the depth of research and the varying influences that go into his designs. If the 1980s Design Studio was this rich with creativity (which I suspect it was) then it is no wonder that the range of figures produced back then were so special. Not a skull or spike in sight!

The influence of 2000AD on '80s Citadel is well known, and Bryan still reads the graphic novels to this day.

The room was full of half-finshed projects and various tinkerings.

Marcus Ansell talked us through many of the model buildings in the collection. It appears that there was once an entire scenic board which many of the buildings slotted into. Underneath the houses are labels that indicate who constructed the model, with Phil Lewis and Dave Andrew's name frequenting often. His recent 'mega-battle' post I shared a while back was an attempt to work out how these buildings fitted together. We discussed the famous 'Modelling Workship' articles in White Dwarf and it transpires that a huge amount of scenic material was built that never saw the light of day.

Unlike at BOYL, I had ample time to explore the new displays of painted models in Foundry's cabinets. These early '90s space marines caught my eye almost immediately. Gorgeous painting by Mike McVey, the colours still so vibrant after all of this time.

Original Heroquest models. The master castings of these are lurking around the Foundry I have been lead to believe. I have always coveted that barbarian figure.

Huzzah! My painted Were-Ansell preslotta figure shares shelf-space with vintage Citadel classics. My hobby life is complete!

I am always interested in anything Realm of Chaos and this wonderful old figure caught my eye.

As did these memorable figures... These appeared in the Lost and the Damned and the two figures on the right are converted. Love the rust effect on that sword!

The original Advanced Heroquest figures. I have always admired the shield designs on these figures and will one day finish my own versions of them.

Could there be a more iconic Heroquest paintjob?

I had never seen these epic scale models painted up before. These had beautiful hues and looked resplendent alongside the older Rogue Trader orks.

Lords of Battle and a hodgepodge of Rogue Trader pieces.

I was glad to find these converted chaos figures. White Dwarf published a lovely 'Eavy Metal article about how to best convert chaos figures just after the publication of Slaves to Darkness. I was pleased to see that they had survived.