Beasts of War - from the Golden Age ... NOW WITH SCHAEDELBERG!

[Thantsants]

Oh and one man's nostalgia is another man's true appreciation of a certain style. If you love 80's minis you love 80's minis and that's just it.

Too true! 

[Admiral Benbow]

Sheer class, is it wrong to want to use it in a game?

No, of course not, but very difficult concerning appropriate rule writing ... 

Oh and one man's nostalgia is another man's true appreciation of a certain style. If you love 80's minis you love 80's minis and that's just it.

Thanks, that last sentence sums it up pretty nice!
 

[thebinmann]

Thanks, that last sentence sums it up pretty nice!
 

Agreed

[Admiral Benbow]

Alright, the rest of the gang.

Starting with my very first beast based on an Airfix Stegosaurus, built around 1984. I had seen a tiny black/white photo showing a fantasy siege in action in a Military Modelling issue reporting about a wargames show, and I was fascinated by a scratchbuilt warbeast clearly based on the Airfix Stego, and I wanted to copy it from that small picture immediately. If I recall it right, the siege was staged by the London Warlords and John Treadaway was involved, but I might be wrong here. Anyway, the model shows it's age now, I was too lazy at that time to fill the large gap around the front legs with putty obviously ...

But I remember it was a lot of fun building it ...













Next the Oger General's riding beast from 1987. A Lindberg Corythosaurus is a boring kit and a completely unimpressive dino, but with a little imagination and the fantastic Nick Bibby head of the Citadel Great Spined Dragon you could create something really different ...















The last one was built for the Metal Magic Calendar 1992 when I was employed by Hobby Products as sculptor. The last dino kit not already converted to a warbeast was the Airfix Ancylosaurus with that funny looking head. I had some hard thinking about converting that useless head, but in the end decided to sculpt a completely new one over it.












So, that's it, the beast show is over. This time ...

Thanks much for your interest and nice comments, and a special thanks to Hammers for not stealing my thread ...

[thebinmann]

  :oPlease stop you are making me cry! 

Or you could send me a few to play with, come on you've had them since the 1980s let someone else have a go!   

[Prof.Witchheimer]

The dreams come true... I was gazing at the pics in the WD100 at least hundred times and was hoping to see the close-ups of your marvellous stuff one day, Michael. Thank you. Just thank you

[Westfalia Chris]

Marvellous pieces, veritable works of art.

I'll agree that the 80s and early 90s were a "Golden Age" of stylistic and flavourful innovation, although I also think that figure manufacturing quality nowadays generally is much improved, especially with regard to smaller companies; unfortunately, more often than not it comes at the expense of character and verve of the actual sculpts, and don't get me started on formulaic painting styles.

[rob_alderman]

I have to agree with that. Much more flavour to things like this in the 80's. Dioramas now are stale and have to be perfect. I prefer things a little grittier, with some imagination. I don't care about a typical warhammer battle, I want something new, individual and original but nonetheless 'Right'.

Do you still make things like these? And if not, why not?  Honest question, no offense intended!

[Comsquare]

Hei Benbow,

I'm completly amazed

Great stuff

Rob is right, you have to do more stuff like that.
Marvelous!!!

[LeadAsbestos]

Why don't we make this our next contest? A plastic toy, ridden by a mini or minis from an actual miniatures company, with a fantasy theme. The rest is up to the imagination!

Any interest?

[Thantsants]

Nice idea - wonder if that old battered, three legged airfix triceratops I used to have survived my parents' redecorating...

Knew I should have rescued it! 

Anyways - there it is my favourite ogre on a dino with a dragon head - brilliant!!  But poor old chaos hound!

Again - thanks for all the close-ups and different angles - as good as the WD100 article was it didn't do justice to these amazing pieces! Also loved the diorama with the eagles that was featured...

Never seen the other dinos! Lovely stuff!

[Admiral Benbow]

Do you still make things like these? And if not, why not?  Honest question, no offense intended!

No offense taken, Rob. 

If you want to know what I'm doing theses days, please have a look at my gallery here at the LAF or at my website, which will get a complete overhaul sometime in the next future.

[Thantsants]

Great pics on your website - really like the Uruks! 

[twrchtrwyth]

Wow, I remember most of them first time round, and I still think they look as good now. You can almost feel the pain in that scorpion tailed hobhounds face. Fantastic, thank you for posting. Are you the same Michael who did the SF soldier with what looked like a paper clip used as a carry handle for the rifle?

Talking of zoids, they converted one into a tunneller, in the same issue as the deoderant grav tank and the grav-attack vehicle converted from a helicopter kit I think.

[Admiral Benbow]

Wow, I remember most of them first time round, and I still think they look as good now. You can almost feel the pain in that scorpion tailed hobhounds face. Fantastic, thank you for posting. Are you the same Michael who did the SF soldier with what looked like a paper clip used as a carry handle for the rifle?
Talking of zoids, they converted one into a tunneller, in the same issue as the deoderant grav tank and the grav-attack vehicle converted from a helicopter kit I think.

Yes, exactly, that was me too ... 

This SF soldier was the start of it all: when I met John Blanche at a convention in Hamburg those days he was impressed about my diorama work, and as I liked him and his art, I gave him that soldier as a present. He was obviously very happy, took me to his artwork exhibition and asked me to choose one of his GW box artwork originals as my present!  That was the start of our friendship, and shortly afterwards I was invited to Nottingham. Ahhh, the good old times ...
 

This artwork is still hanging on my wall: "The Awakening" by John Blanche