Thursday 27 February 2014

Superior Models Nativity Scene


I have this set hopefully winging its way over to me as we speak. I was aware of the 3 individual Kings in the Superior Wizards & Lizards 25mm line (starting later on in the scheme of things at Wl-131 Oriental Wizard) however have never seen this set piece before. Superior went on to become Perth Pewter who have most of the old pieces by those sculpting greats Ray Lamb, Ron Spicer and Steve Tofano (there is also a set of initials in a listing that I don't recognise; LC - it may be James Lane Casey - please let me know if you know!). The Superior lines are listed and (mostly) illustrated on the Lost Minis WIKI here. An interesting (and growing) pdf early history of the military side Superior is worth a read over at Alnavco here.








Note - just found this set with added sheep & shepherd at Perth Pewter here.



Tuesday 25 February 2014

Nautical Nonsense by HLBS... plus old / new Minifigs D&D type 3 demon...


As they state, not strictly nautical.....Seabrook armored car in '28mm' scale with or without crew...they have some wonderful pieces in that range...I partly hope they won't be at Salute this year.....




Linky here...

and God bless Dave at Caliver for sneaking another old minifigs fantasy figure back into production...


Pic c/o Lost Minis WIKI - check out the Minifigs section here.

Anything you want to add? Email me at enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Monday 24 February 2014

Salute 1977, Peter Gilder 1978, Perry Twins 1989.....


A few more pics from various old mags. From the article it seems this was the first Salute for the Warlords. I have another Peter Gilder article somewhere and will post it once I find it. His combover reminds me so much of my old Dad, God bless him. And yes, I have inherited the same.....


Peter Gilder of course was the sculpting machine for Hinchliffe Models. Check the tags/labels for more articles.



A 1989 shot of some Foundry people including a young pair of Perry twins. Top blokes and exceptional sculpting machines both.


Also scanned this Minot ad for the Lost Minis WIKI so thought I'd post it here. 1977 was a good year for minis....


Also found this in an old Military Modelling classified section.....prices you could almost afford...


enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk


Sunday 16 February 2014

Northern Militaire 1977..I was just about to turn 16..


Just found some old Battle magazines that I had stored at my mum's. I remember buying these at the time....more to follow at some point. Northern Militaire was the highlight of my year...I didn't know about anything local to Manchester and certainly didn't think about travelling around the country on my own back then....I led a very sheltered life unless it involved camping out somewhere for Motorhead tickets..
Files should be large enough to save and then peruse at your leisure if you can't read them here.....
Nice little review..



November 6th 1977 - next day was my 17th birthday 'Happy Birthday to me....'


Also found a later advert (Military Modelling March 1988) for a 'Dragon Miniatures' Dwarf Chariot - now me and my pal Boki Gromdal over at Stunties can't work out if this is a different 'Dragon Miniatures' to the one we've already posted pics of (Stunties and Lost Minis) - addresses are different parts of the island for sure - if anyone has any ideas please let me know as we haven't got a clue.....


As usual email me at; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Monday 3 February 2014

Citadel FF49 Giant Spider - Spacefarers variant?


Back in January 2007 I added a new page to the Collecting Citadel Miniatures WIKI - 'Fantasy Adventurers remodelled for SF'. As Stunties is to Dwarves, the CCM WIKI is to Citadel miniatures. This page is a record of Citadel FA adventurers converted to, we believe, Sci Fi versions in order to playtest early versions of Rogue Trader or, as it was to become, Warhammer 40K. In the 80s I passed up the chance to pick up a bag of these miniatures on a Bring & Buy stall at Sheffield Triples....I thought they were someone's own conversions and, as such, of little interest to myself. How wrong was I! On the page above there are 16 versions of various sculpts - most from Bryan Ansell's own collection courtesy of that lead God Steve Casey.....jealousy at his access to the legend's collection is still being held back by my psychiatrist.... I recently picked up this unknown spider sculpt that I wanted to identify (that being a large aspect of my love of the hobby) and I am now wondering if it was from this period / range.....pics below....comments appreciated.

Until I got it I was unsure of the actual size which matches pretty darned well...


It is the underside that makes me think it may be one....looking at the leg areas in the centre just below the head....







And a quick pic of my current 'active' WIPs. A mix of Minifigs, that legend Tony Yates, Citadel (including 2 fishmen from the above discussed range), Heritage, Warploque and my own blog minis. Some of these have been WIPs since the 70s.....insert embarrassed grin.



Further thoughts or musings give me a shout on enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Saturday 1 February 2014

Asgard Tookers...a blast from the 70s.


I believe these were sculpted by the wonderful Tony Ackland however have yet to get confirmation. Tony sculpted a heck of a lot of the early Asgard minis many of which live in my hall of fame, so to speak. I am desperate for the mounted versions of which there were 2 (spear and standard)...I have never seen pics but there much be a number of them lying around somewhere?

AFT1 Tooker with Sword


AFT2 Tooker with Axe


AFT3 Tooker with Spear


AFT4 Tooker Archer


Images courtesy of Boki Grombal at Stunties.

Any thoughts please email me at enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk