Orlygg’s Big Ones: Another Monstrous Interlude

My house is in turmoil as I type. The kitchen lies gutted, one of its walls lays as heap of shattered brick and the contents of the wife's cupboards now spill over the dining room table. Other rooms have been cleared for the builders to advance through, and my Old School collection has been moved, by the order of the non-leadhead, to the mantlepiece to protect them for harm. She's obviously been considerably inspired by her renovations and has even gone as far as to tell me that I am having a glass display cabinet to show off my collection of painted models.

Anyway here are a few pictures of what I have been up to recently. I have had a big eBay splurge over the last couple of weeks. This has been largely down to it being the end of the summer term at school and there being an, apparently endless, array of tasks to complete; school reports, Sports' Day, swimming galas, data transfer etc and by the time I return home I am too shattered to pick up a paint brush. Ebay is an easy 'hobby fix' and I have spent far, far to much and have subsequently deleted the apps from my tablets before the non-leadhead (wife) finds out!

What we have here (left to right) Marauder Giant, Marauder Lord of Change, Spined Dragon and, of course, the 1984 Thrud. All these models have been cleaned up and based. The giant and the daemon were multipart kits, and considering their age, fitted together really well and only needed the minimum of pining a green stuffing. Thrud is a one piece and just needed basing but the dragon! Once I started cleaning up the model I noticed just how weak the wings were in places and I doubted that they would hold much wait. So I used very thin plasticard to create a supportive membrane of wing and stuck it carefully underneath the parts of the model that needed it. This helped create a platform on which the metal could rest and I covered this plastic with greenstuff, using my fingerprints to add a little texture. While not perfect, this should at least support the wings and stop the model from disintergrating any further.

As I type, all of the models have been sprayed white with Army Painter undercoat. The Thrud model, being almost entirely lead, was a bit of a problem to cover. In the end I used bronze flesh mixed with a little PVA to seal the undercoat as the lead content created real problems with the paint adhering. As you can see from the pictures, I had had a little experiment with painting flesh on the giant, but have paused. I have decided to to try and improve my skin painting and shall try out some new techniques on Thrud first before moving on to the giant later on.

Before I go I have a request from a reader. As you may know, I am trying to track down the whereabouts of some of the old school art pieces that were used to illustrate many a '80s roleplaying and wargaming product. The collections of Jon Boyce and Tim Pollard have been fantastic to view and at least we now know where these pieces are now. I was contacted last week from a collector who has bought what he believes to be a John Blanche original painting.

Here is his message to save me paraphrasing.

Philip Schifano
Well, can any Realm of Chaos 80s readers help provide more information about this piece? If so, please leave us a comment below or email me at the usual address, realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk.

Orlygg.