'Old Citadel Nostalgia' - an ongoing project.

[thebinmann]

The first orc is one of the best ever made, and you made it better.

[Cubs]

Another tiny removal from the lead mountain, the old Citadel Orlanth adventurer from the Runequest 'Adventurers 2' boxed set.

[beefcake]

Very nice. Love the metal!
Can't believe I haven't commented on this thread.

[Revfan]

Dude... you are awesome....

But after seeing your work, I want to chuck my paints & brushes in the bin.

[Shaved Dwarf]

Wow, this one is surely nice!

[Blackwolf]

Fantastic! A fave miniature of mine,still have him in his original Humrol

[FramFramson]

Shit, I had to Google it! Posh word for light-dark shading innit?

Thanks, I've been really trying to concentrate on getting a good depth of shade onto models lately and putting the colours into the areas I think the light would hit. It sounds obvious, but I think we (and by that, I mean I) all too easily will simply apply the colour layers by rote onto the more raised edges - the more raised the edge, the lighter the highlight it gets. But light doesn't always work like that. Sometimes a part will catch the light much more than another part which is higher up. There's a lot of guesswork and rubbing of chin really.

Italian. 

[Anselm van Helsing]

Reminds me very much of the John Blanche painting of this era. Very characterful without too shiny highlights. I'm a fan of this painting style.

[marrony]

Brilliant! Simply brilliant.

[Elk101]

That's brilliant, really like it.

[Nordic1980s]

Your ability to get photorealistic finish on the orc skins is supernatural. When I take a glance at my best painted orcs on the cabinet shelf, they look like children's toys compared to these art works.

Have you Cubs considered making a photo book of these works of your, like the ones one can make with print houses? Your work surpasses easily the ones shown in the classic Golden Demon winner entry photo books. Or alternatively having an article with some modelling magazine, dedicated to your brush work?

[Cubs]

Thanks guys, all very kind.

I like painting my old toys every now and then and enjoy trying to get the best out of the vintage sculpts, who all have so much great character, but are very raw quality-wise. I particularly enjoy repairing the broken bits of old models, trying to recreate the snapped weapons with wire, putty or metal pieces to recreate a facsimile of the original. Once in while I'll try to add a different weapon in a sympathetic style to the original. The idea of breathing new life into miniatures that might otherwise just end up being used for scrap metal appeals to me.

[Spooktalker]

Thanks guys, all very kind.

I like painting my old toys every now and then and enjoy trying to get the best out of the vintage sculpts, who all have so much great character, but are very raw quality-wise. I particularly enjoy repairing the broken bits of old models, trying to recreate the snapped weapons with wire, putty or metal pieces to recreate a facsimile of the original. Once in while I'll try to add a different weapon in a sympathetic style to the original. The idea of breathing new life into miniatures that might otherwise just end up being used for scrap metal appeals to me.

Love your work and the new addition.  It strikes me as unexpected that you consider figures you paint to be "very raw quality-wise." You seem to be suggesting they are the sculpts, rather than your aged castings, that are raw. Is that the case or do you mean the latter? I also love painting old figures but my experience with old figures has imbued in me a strong belief that while styles, trends and technology changes, there have been figures equally beautiful on the one hand and equally crude on the other made all throughout the past forty years, and sculpting and casting "progress" are myths. IMO, the McLuhanism that goes something is always lost on one side for something gained on the other is nowhere more true (and I googled and found a reference summarizing the idea here for those interested: https://books.google.com/books?id=0P3sDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT84&lpg=PT84&dq=%22mcluhan%22+something+lost+something+gained&source=bl&ots=mMuMNsyYKp&sig=ACfU3U2gm1BT6GaMLLQ2O246T88JONX0Kg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiolaD7hLLgAhVCS60KHZKLARQQ6AEwEnoECAoQAQ) . When I acquire and hold up a beautifully sculpted, pristine casting to my eye I literally feel a wave of lead-head thrill. Whereas a beat-up casting that was once great and is my only copy gives me a sad feeling, as I know full well I should trade or toss it and it's not worth my time to fix it, but sometimes I will go for fixing it anyway, and that feeling of going against my better judgment isn't such a good one.  At any rate, I respect your experience and point of view and in the end, it's cool that we can pursue similar ends for perhaps different reasons and with different experiences.  Next rare figure in need of TLC I come agree I might offer to sent it to you. 

[Cubs]

Is that the case or do you mean the latter?

I mean the casting and quality control were raw. What we simply accepted back in the 80's - horrible mould lines, lumps of extraneous metal, miscast blobs - would be chucked back into the melting pot today. The aesthetics of the poses, proportions and sculpting I loved and still do.

[Spooktalker]

I mean the casting and quality control were raw. What we simply accepted back in the 80's - horrible mould lines, lumps of extraneous metal, miscast blobs - would be chucked back into the melting pot today. The aesthetics of the poses, proportions and sculpting I loved and still do.

Ah, nice, we're not so different, perhaps. Though I think casting quality hit it's high water mark circa 1988, with Grenadier leading and Ral Partha right there. Cracking open a blister pack from a Grenadier range like the Guthrie range gives me a rush as there is an unrivaled fullness in the figure's cheek and definition in the details, and angles that were sculpted to be 90 degrees are actually exactly 90 degrees, and don't need to be filed to make them so. On the other side of the peak you have a degenerate dark age in the age of pewter, when it seems all notions of quality went by the wayside. After years of trial and error we wound up with the main trend being squashed castings due to too much pressure in the molds. Today it's about one in five companies or fewer I find have good or better castings. Of course, today you do have great castings, but these are the exceptions by folks carrying on the casting art like Griffin, not so much the big name companies.