Alisdair 'The Devastator' Mac Colla

[joroas]

News

Warlord Games In an effort to cheer up those of us England footy fans who have, yet again, had our hopes dashed by the national side here's a preview of the sculpt for Alisdair 'The Devastator' Mac Colla...

[Mad Doc Morris]

Nicely detailed and dynamic sculpting - albeit one of the silliest positions when fencing with a greatsword. We wargamers are such an aestheticistic bunch...

[mweaver]

An interesting sculpt.  I like him.

[canes]

very nice!!

[Sangennaru]

Cute!

but i want Jack Churchill, he is even better!



Jack Churchill

Who Was He?

An allied commander in WWII, and an avid fan of surfing, Captain Jack Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill aka "Fighting Jack Churchill" aka "Mad Jack" was basically the craziest M*** in the whole damn war.

He volunteered for commando duty, not actually knowing what it entailed, but knowing that it sounded dangerous, and therefore fun. He is best known for saying that "any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed" and, in following with this, for carrying a sword into battle. In WWII. And not one of those sissy ceremonial things the Marines have. No, Jack carried a fucking claymore. And he used it, too. He is credited with capturing a total of 42 Germans and a mortar squad in the middle of the night, using only his sword.


Churchill and his team were tasked with capturing a German fortification creatively called "Point 622." Churchill took the lead, charging ahead of the group into the dark through the barbed wire and mines, pitching grenades as he went. Although his unit did their best to catch up, all but six of them were lost to silly things like death. Of those six, half were wounded and all any of them had left were pistols. Then a mortar shell swung in and killed/mortally wounded everyone who wasn't Jack Churchill.

When the Germans found him, he was playing "Will Ye No Come Back Again?" on his bagpipes. Oh, we didn't mention that? He carried them right next to his big fucking sword.

After being sent to a concentration camp, he got bored and left. Just walked out. They caught him again, and sent him to a new camp. So he left again. After walking 150 miles with only a rusty can of onions for food, he was picked up by the Americans and sent back to Britain, where he demanded to be sent back into the field, only to find out (with great disappointment) the war had ended while he was on his way there. As he later said to his friends, "If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!"

[Argonor]

- albeit one of the silliest positions when fencing with a greatsword.

Theoretically, he COULD have just been parrying over head and now doing the 'riposte'.... but kind of a weird choice for a pose, anyway...

[Mad Doc Morris]

Okay, let's go anal.

The model is lifting its right foot, obviously in order to step forward. This indicates an attack movement. If it was a backward move, the upper body would be in another position.
So Allsdair is swinging his sword around for a righthand strike - which is a powerful, but very slow one, easily evaded by an opponent. In most fencing books such attacks are described as a desperate measure, chosen only by those enraged or untrained.

Certainly, the sculptor did his lessons on dynamics. But if he wanted to portray a man rushing forward with a big blade, he would have done better by copying from the older GW Imperial Greatswords: Some of them had their weapons lifted above their head or shoulder, both well-documented positions for charging into melee with a two-handed sword.

If anyone's interested, take a look at this video. The guy uses a shorter blade, but basically he's performing some greatsword techniques. There are better performances on the web for sure, but that's all I had at hand.

I stop now.

[Blackwolf]

I'm unhappy about the sculpt,would have preferred a less 'action pose',and the idea he used a two handed sword can as far as I can see be found only in the Warhammer ECW rules. They probably got the translation wrong (or not)......and wanted him to be more exciting.The idea that his guard can be armed with the things is just silly.Give him a broadsword,dirk and targe, much better.

[Gluteus Maximus]

I'm unhappy about the sculpt,would have preferred a less 'action pose',and the idea he used a two handed sword can as far as I can see be found only in the Warhammer ECW rules. They probably got the translation wrong (or not)......and wanted him to be more exciting.The idea that his guard can be armed with the things is just silly.Give him a broadsword,dirk and targe, much better.

Yes, a much more sensible idea. I suppose he's depicted with that sword for the same reason that Charles and Essex are in full cuirassier armour, rather than standard harquebusier kit. Romanticized and "cool" rather than strictly factual and slightly boring. It could have been that way, but almost certainly not 

[huevans]

Looks like he's batting cleanup for the local highland baseball team and he's about to unload on some high heat.

[Helen]

Now that's a nice design miniature. Plently of action in the pose.

Helen

[carlos marighela]

Actually I quite like that sculpt. You could always poke the sword through an appropriately cut piece of balsa and simply explain he had got the damned thing stuck  in a door whilst chopping the firewood and is now trying to remove it.

I invite one of our more skilfull LAFers to produce a vignette entitled 'Alisdair cocks up chopping the kindling for supper'.

For those who prefer a somewhat more restrained pose there's always this one:

http://eurekamin.com.au/product_info.php?cPath=87_126_731&products_id=9913