Salute 2015........finally!

Due to serious PC issues please see the post above!!!!

Apologies for the hiatus......

As the title says......an enforced break due to divorce, storage, lawyers, night shifts and living in a hotel...... There is light on the horizon and normal service should be resumed within a few weeks.... Salute 2015 is at the end of the month which always features as a highlight of my hobby year.

Tom Loback has passed away.

It is with great sadness that I post that Tom Loback passed away on the 5th March, in the arms of his wife, Susan. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer only a few weeks ago. To quote Susan;

'My darling Tom Passed peacefully in his sleep from my arms into the Arms of God. At 7:35 this morning.
Love
Susan'

I am sure you will all join me in prayers for the man who brought us so much joy through his work. I regret that I never met him personally although I know a few of you did. I got to know him a little through Facebook and my correspondence regarding miniatures. I know there are a lot of people whom he touched with his artistry, compassion and friendship. May he rest in peace and his memory live on in our thoughts.

David

Dragontooth Giant's Club - 1981

One of my favorite of the old school companies is 'Tom Loback General Artwork' or 'Dragontooth' Miniatures. Wonderful selection of craziness that embedded itself in Tom's work and that of the sculptors he had working with him. In 1981 he did a marketing ploy of a monthly special offer....buy 3 Giant Sets and get a discount...

The later (1982) catalogue shows colour pictures of which I do have a postcard original somewhere...I just can't find it! The eBay picture is below instead.....

'Marvellous Beasties' MB10 Winged Cat. I believe (although could be proved wrong as I've only ever seen this picture which I suspect is the one...). If you have a copy and don't think you love it any more I will help give it a new home...

The man himself at the 152 W. 26th address. Tom's earliest New York address was E. 99th St. 150 which was his 1st loft 1800 sq ft & casting was done by a white-metal caster on 23rd St.; later he was at 152 W. 26th before moving on to W. 39th St.

I do run a quiet Yahoo Group - edit 25/02/2022, now gone along with all Yahoo Groups. Most of the ranges are pictured on the Lost Minis WIKI here.

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

The Works of Russell Gammage - Rose Miniatures

Russell Gammage was the force behind Rose Miniatures, whose advertisements enticed me in my youth. They only had a handful of fantasy subjects and never, to my knowledge, released anything relating to Sci Fi. One of the greats of the larger scale old school. The article is from an old Campaigns magazine, I will add the date when I find it. I meant to post this some while back!

An old German catalogue, many miniatures I have never seen before. The only ones I have are from a short lived range of females that was advertised in Military Modelling back in the day. They appear in the pics below as part of the German ranges....

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Northern Militaire, Hinchliffe, Minifigs and Helmet......those were the days....

1976 is the earliest Northern Militaire programme I have however I believe I was here the year before.....anyway, a few pics down memory lane.....

A few other Northern Militaire posts here.

Earliest full adverts I can find (so far) for Minifigs Fantasy and Sci Fi....

Also this, plastic 54mm by Helmet Products...I wonder what happened to them?

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Citadel Slann...new year, new project.....

Happy New Year to everyone. Hopefully you have all had as much fun and festivity as I have....I lasted 6 weeks without alcohol before the festive season kicked in and have one more night to go after tonight before work kicks in and teetotalism comes back with a vengeance, so to speak.

Anyway, in the early 80s Citadel bought out a new race called the Slann. Frog-like bipedal creatures that inhabited the swamps of the Warhammer region known as Lustria. The Warhammer skirmish rules came with a scenario entitled 'Kremlo the Slann'. I was hooked immediately on the figures and have been collecting them on and off for the last 30 or so years. My Xmas painting involved 4 finished pieces (barring varnishing on 3) and a plethora of WIPs......the Cold One mounts I have discovered are quite open to repositioning of the limbs.....the first attempt immediately cracked in areas due to the poor lead alloy used in the past - super glue has hopefully sealed that for eternity but it does mean I have only worked on one.....maestro, the pics please....

One of each to do first before I go ahead with the skirmish bands.....below is missing a Eunuch with axe...I know he is around somewhere....Kremlo will not be joining this project for now.....

The 4 below were conversions for a trio of plastic triceratops. I shamelessly stole the idea from Tom Loback's wonderful Dragontooth Saurians.....

Most of my mounted troop....

First attempted play....super glue to the rescue....

Now available in black....

Took a while to decide how to proceed with this guy onto a round base....

and just waiting for everything to dry before repositioning the horn....

I have only used the original 2 ranges sculpted by the Perry twins as I wasn't a fan of the later version by Trish Morrison.....although I have many hobby friends who are hopelessly hooked on them...the poor fools......

All the released miniatures are pictured on the wonderful Collecting Citadel Miniatures WIKI here.

Various scans from the catalogues of the time......

   

The character cards supplied with the second boxed version of Warhammer...around 1986 I think?

I have borrowed the 2 pics below from a wonderful French site purely for this article. They look like Paul Bonner drawings but my French is too poor to translate......any probs having the pics here please someone let me know and I will remove them immediately. All cudos to whoever owns them! My aim is to do a conversion for these.....watch this space!

http://verrahrubicon.free.fr/slann.htm

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this taster....depending on how my upcoming separation goes I hope to have this as my pet project for 2015. Time and finances will tell!

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk