One of the great things about working in the wargames industry in Nottingham is that occasionally you get to see some really cool and rare stuff. In this case, today's was a collection of miniatures painted by the late and dearly missed John Blanche, some of which were actually featured in the Ratspike book. I was asked to bring in my copy so we could work out which ones were in there!
More photos after the cut!
The miniatures themselves are part of the Wargames Illustrated collection, and were originally purchased directly from John by the late Duncan MacFarlane.
Looking at them, they're mostly heavily converted Ral Partha sculpts, and so probably date to the early 1980s. Some have been rebased over the years as they were actually used in games, but the sheer quality and detail of the paintwork is just stunning.
Anyway, on to the photos. This first one is absolutely my favourite, that shield is just mindblowing.
Next up an Elf Noble on foot:
And another, this time mounted:
And a couple of standard bearers:
An ogre, maybe. Look at the shield, let alone the chequer pattern on the cape!
An Orc with another stunning shield.
And a few little weirdy things:
Incredible detail and a bit of gaming history. Nice,
ReplyDeleteBrilliant - very cool!
ReplyDeleteJohn Blanche certainly was an very influential figure who has defined the visual look of early fantasy wargames.
ReplyDeleteWonderful. Great to see good pics of them. He was such a consumate artist and is very much missed.
ReplyDeleteI think I recognize 2 or 3 of them. So crazy that you can see and handle the actual minis from magazines/books printed so long ago.
ReplyDeleteThese are amazing! It's such a shame that there's no book with really good, high-quality close-ups of John Blanche's miniatures (from all the angles). They deserve it!
ReplyDeleteBoth the one with the "carnage" shield and the one with the chequered cloak are converted Asgard orcs, by Jes Goodwin; Alternative Armies produce them now.
I’m hoping that with the renewed interest in John’s work (however sad the reason may be) will lead to something like that. Unfortunately a lot of his painted models are dispersed all over the world amongst collectors.
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