Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: nicknorthstar on July 16, 2021, 10:14:31 PM
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Check out this RalPartha Balrog from the early 80s. I don't know who painted it, but it hasn't been seen since '83.
I found it in the Wargames Illustrated figure collection. It was used in a photo in Miniature Wargames issue 3 & caused such an anti-fantasy furor that the then editor Duncan Macfarlane didn't put another in during his editorship. (The picture is also shown below).
Why did I remember it?
I remembered it because the photo had a seminal role in my Historical Wargaming hobby. I came across MW#3 on the counter of GW Nottingham in 1983, flicked open the cover and thought 'Oo, painted fantasy figures, a colour photo (not sure if the modern reader realises how rare that was in '83)'. I bought the mag, and started a subscription. Although there was never a fantasy photo in it again, and Citadel were about to start doing Compendiums, Journals, Table-top heroes/ Eavy metal in WD, I kept reading MW and was soon schooled in WRG 6th edition, Sassanid Persians, battle of Leipzig etc etc.
I'm sure I'd have come to historical wargaming anyway, but as it was, this Balrog pointed the way lol
(No, I'm not giving it back 8))
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Lol. Remember it well... the figure ended up with a few different versions (the Perry twins remodelled the face a few times) and the 'main weapon' ended up clothed and/or differently posed :D
Earlier and some of the later versions here;
http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Personalities_and_Things_that_go_Bump_in_the_Night#01-003 (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Personalities_and_Things_that_go_Bump_in_the_Night#01-003)
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Isn’t that a John Blanche paintjob? The black base looks very much like some of his from that period, as do the wing patterns.
It - actually, clearly a he - looks fantastic in any case.
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Pretty sure it’s Blanche: the orcs and half-troll in the photo certainly are!
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Interesting,and intriguing. Ral Parthia did two Balrogs early on,I have the other which is in a more static pose,I’ll try and post a photo :)
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The Eldritch Epistles gallery of Blanche miniatures has a close-up of the Asgard half-troll here (http://thecitadelcollector.co.uk/zen/index.php?album=john-blanche/asgard&image=image-004.jpg) and the RP orc here (http://thecitadelcollector.co.uk/zen/index.php?album=john-blanche/ral-partha&image=Image-046.jpg).
I bought a version of the same Balrog in Florence a few years ago - still in the original RP packaging. Sadly, it was one of the later, underpanted versions.
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I remember the issue well! That photo brings back memories of flicking thru my dads issues of the magazine, really was a great magazine at that time love the model too
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I have a vague memory of this. I also remember a debate in the letters section about whether balrogs had wings so I wondered if this picture triggered it?
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Ah yes, I remember that summer job I had posing as a sculpting model.
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He makes an appearance in the 3rd edition WHFB rulebook, in pictorial form, although with one noticeable omission!
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He makes an appearance in the 3rd edition WHFB rulebook, in pictorial form, although with one noticeable omission!
Aha! I know the illustration and the miniature well, but I'd never made that connection. It's glaringly obvious when you see it - and highly probably that Nick's miniature was the precise model for the JB drawing (sorry, Cubs!).
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I'm just relieved that Tolkein's Balrog used his whip to lasso Gandalf!
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I'm not sure it was painted by Mr Blanche. If you look at the links to the two goblins that are in the picture, there's all those little clues that John painted them, the extra detail, bit of conversion etc. The Balrog is the straight model, and the little details are a bit cruder than John does.
I'd ask John, but I've been nagging him over some other 'old timey' stuff recently, I'll leave him alone for a bit. lol
PS Yes! The winged balrog debate was caused by this photo. At least in MW, it was a wider debate of course.
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I seem to remember the winged balrog debate was mainly pushed by a reviewers point of view, ie, there are no wings on a balrog. No wish to reignite it, but the reviewer had simply not read the original source book. I have a friend who is a Tolkien nut and he quickly found the page where T describes the balrog’s wings filling the cavern from side to side. Me, I’d just paint what I was given…..the original figure is great by the way, nice animation!
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I have a friend who is a Tolkien nut and he quickly found the page where T describes the balrog’s wings filling the cavern from side to side.
It’s a bit ambiguous really. The reference before this one refers to “the shadow about it reached out like two vast wings”. The balrog references in the Silmarillion don’t refer to them having wings that I recall but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have them. The wings look cool though it does make them especially powerful if they can fly around the battlefield!
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Tolkein's Balrogs don't have wings. The quote 'like two vast wings' uses a simile to illustrate how the shadow is spread behind the Balrog. At no point in any of Tolkein's writing is there any reference to Balrogs having wings or flying in the air (there is one reference to Balrog's flying, but that refers to them moving swiftly) and they do sometimes get thrown down from heights to their doom ... not something you'd expect in a winged beastie. Tolkein doesn't say that Dwarves don't have tails or that Orcs don't have neon flashing nipples, but it's safe to assume that it would have been mentioned.
Having said that, they do look much cooler in pictures and models with wings, so I'm more than happy to embrace that as a post-Tolkein evolution.
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I'm not sure it was painted by Mr Blanche. If you look at the links to the two goblins that are in the picture, there's all those little clues that John painted them, the extra detail, bit of conversion etc. The Balrog is the straight model, and the little details are a bit cruder than John does.
It could just be "in the style of", of course, but it's the black base with odd protrusions and the markings on the skin that make me think it is. This one (http://thecitadelcollector.co.uk/zen/index.php?album=john-blanche/ral-partha&image=image-011.jpg) is quite similar in many ways - though it does have all the typical conversions - and it has the same sort of spotting technique on the nether regions.
Either way, it's an absolutely glorious old-school figure. What a find!
I have a friend who is a Tolkien nut and he quickly found the page where T describes the balrog’s wings filling the cavern from side to side.
The usual counter to this is that the description goes "shadow", "shadow like two vast wings", "wings were spread from wall to wall" and then, when it falls into the chasm, back to shadow again: "and its shadow plunged down and vanished". That very strongly suggests that the "wings" were just the shadow stretched out on either side of it as it menaced Gandalf - especially as the chamber they're in is huge: so big that a 50' chasm running through it isn't initially visible. So if the balrog does have wings like a bat, it would be dragging them far behind it as it approached the bridge - and would have been trapped by the double row of pillars if it had spread them too early!
I do think Tolkien's description of a nimble, leaping creature (like leaping flame?) shrouded in shadow is more interesting than the "big, horned, bat-winged demon" that so many illustrators (and film-makers!) have gone with. But that said, some of the best miniatures ever made are winged balrogs - and this one, along with the Perry classic from the early days of Citadel, is right up there!
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Just remember that not everything with wings can fly….my chickens can’t, for example. Doesn’t stop them flexing their wings to look bigger and scarier if they want to spook my cats though….
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This photo prompted a letter in issue 4, from Nell Clipsom, that argued against winged Balrogs. Duncan put an editors note after the letter saying 'Balrogs were Maiar, they could appear in whatever form they wanted'. Nuff said.
Hobgoblin. Oh yeah, it is very similar isn't it? The green one has that JB signature of a little conversion, and the mushrooms on the base whereas mine has neither. Hmmm.
I came across the Orc model in the background. That is also very Blanche-esque, but again there's no little 'clues' to say it definitely is.
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Just remember that not everything with wings can fly….my chickens can’t, for example. Doesn’t stop them flexing their wings to look bigger and scarier if they want to spook my cats though….
Yeah, I'm a fan of "gliding balrogs" myself. But as said above, as Miar they're effectively angels and can appear however they wish.
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Does anyone make decent wingless balrogs?