Kev Adams Pirate Goblins finally arrived!

Wonderful sculpts, nicely molded with a set of dice and bases....I have emailed Bruno (trading as Treps Games) who ran the Indiegogo campaign to finance them regarding picking them up separately however I haven't heard from him as yet........the Facebook page is here. Feast your eyes on these little babies.................

Lovely artwork for a potential new release.....

The babies back from the mouldmaker.....

and a sneak peek of a newer sculpt.......looks like a Ratnik sculpt?

Jim Bowen, sculptor and figure painter, has died.

It is with a sad voice that I have to state that Jim died a few days ago. Complained of headaches, went to the doctors and was prescribed paracetamol. He was later found dead in his flat, 9th April. He leaves behind a partner and young son.

I met Jim on a number of occasions at shows. He really enjoyed painting miniatures, red being a favourite colour for some reason however, found sculpting something of a labour... too much pressure to get things completed he told me once. He painted an enormous amount of miniatures for the Perry twins, both for personal and business display and also for Dave Thomas

(many of you will be familiar with Dave's display stand and travelling emporium at various shows across Europe). His main sculpting time was spent with Steve Mussared of Monolith Designs for whom he designed (and painted) the 'Graven Images' range mainly in a '40mm' scale - I am not sure how available these ranges currently are as, although the website seems active, I am not sure if it is being looked at due to personal issues. A fantastic range of sculpts and paint jobs. The Yahoo Group's (edit; now of course gone) intro sums them up;

A group for 40mm gamers! Everything herein is all scaled to 40mm! If you are new here - have a look on the Photos pages - look in the Folders of your favourite ranges to see what is new and forthcoming.

The Official site for all things related to the gaming setting of Disturbia and its sister titles Gotterdammerung and Cliff-Hanger. Find out what's new and read the latest background, all from the mouths of Jim Bowen & Steve Mussared - the men who dreamed it all up.
Disturbia a dark twisted never land home to Bogeymen, Evil Toys and the sour nightmares of childhood.
Gotterdammerung an Alternative WWII - what if the Occult had been real? Brave allies fight it out with depraved nazis and their hellish creations.
Gotterrustug an Alternative WWII where dwindling manpower leads to the development of body armour, and armoured fighting machines are inspired by H G Wells.
Also - new for 2006 - 2 new ranges - Prehistoric Europe and England Invaded (From Arthur to the Normans). What's next? Stick around and you'll find out!

He also sculpted quite a few miniatures for East Riding Miniatures in 28mm scale. 

Postscript; Steve Mussared has just posted on the Jim Bowen's Disturbia Yahoo Group, set up for his and Jim's figure range discussion;

Truly heart-breaking news - all the more upsetting, because it was so unexpected - he was only 40! Jim and I had been friends since 1987.

Since the birth of his son, I had seen in him a new sense of contentment, which makes his passing all the more sad, because he won't now have the pleasure of seeing little Aaron grow up.
As some of you might remember, we paused sales of Graven Images when my son Xander was diagnosed with Autism, but the design work continued, and we amassed a couple of hundred new figures - we had hoped to make a return this year - once again unleashing Jim's work on an unsuspecting world.
Jim would have been very touched, and surprised by all the fond remembrances on various fora. I hope all of you that knew him will toast him, next time you have an alcoholic beverage in your hand - he would appreciate that - he loved going to the pub for a chat - whether it was about history, conspiracy, or music - or our own imaginings.
Rest in Peace Jim!

I leave you with a bunch of various pics of his sculpts and paint jobs...

He also sculpted a fantastic range for Monolith that were to be officially licensed figures for Hellboy although it was around this time that I believe Jim lost his sculpting mojo. The licence was very nearly granted, just more sculpts being needed... I was lucky enough to pick up some test castings as these were never offered for sale.

RIP Jim, you will be missed by many and the world is a poorer place without you.

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Kev Adams update 30th April

This time via Frothers.

"Hi All

Just really wanted to thank everybody again for their kind and generous support .
The donations are really helping us to get through this difficult period and i'm very impressed by the generosity of all the people that have made these wonderful inventive sculpts .I hope i get a set of them
this message is a short one as my eyesight makes it hard for me to type for too long due to the glare of the screen hurting my eye and my vision is not up to its usual sharpness .
My bad eye is slowly mending but is still wonky and i feel disorientated a lot of the time I get white flashes and can sometimes have double vision , my right eye is still lower than left eye due to the surgery that was to repair the damaged eye socket but because of the injuries that were inflicted the surgery has not stopped my eye from dropping as there was no bones in my face left unbroken to support my eye .
Ive tried looking at models but right now its not good and frustrating for me because i can only see them clearly if my left eye is closed .
I am back at the hospital and seeing an eye specialist on wednesday and hope for the good news that my vision will return to normal and my current wonkyness is due to the healing process ,so we are keeping our fingers crossed that I will heal as fully as I can be expected to given time and rest .Once again thank you for all the support , just knowing that so many people care and want to help is a huge morale booster for my family and myself at this moment in time .
kev"

Previously via Goblinaid.

"I would like to thank everybody for their kind support and help , its really appreciated at a time when i cant work and feel under the weather .The models are very impressive from what ive seen and i'm touched by everybodys kindness.. I'm not a facebook member and have avoided joining for years so i'm not being unsociable .
My IMac was stolen so i'm struggling with an old pc that keeps crashing so even doing emails is frustrating for me .
I try and tell myself that i'm ok but family say i'm not my usual self so i reluctantly went to the doctors and found out that i have acute psychological damage as well as physical and the doctor has told me that i need councelling for quite some time as well as regular contact with victim support .
I'm angry that ive had my life messed with and am finding that difficult to deal with at times
Ive been told to rest and to not use the computer or be in too much contact so i will be quiet for a few more weeks while i heal .
I will bounce back and am determined to get making models soon but am signed off for a few more weeks .
Thanks again for all your support ,you have been great and i love you all .
kev"

I have updated the sculpts in the earlier post so please keep checking back with Goblinaid.

Kev Adams - update

Latest news, direct from Kev himself (via Goblinaid)

"Thanks , i really appreciate what you and everyone else is doing to help me , i feel bad as I've not communicated on facebook but I've never wanted to join and the best way for me to get over what happened is to get my head into something creative so I'm compiling lots of music as its a hobby and great fun as i love mixing and doing interesting things with synths and ambient sounds. It means i will be locked at desk when I get back to work as there’s lots of new sounds to keep me interested. I'm hoping to give it a bash next week as my eye is improving .I was on a roll and making my first female models and am itching to get back.  I'm lucky I didn’t lose my sight in right eye , socket was that badly smashed that my eye was lower than it should be and the operation was very complex they tell me. Still got a broken jaw and nose is broken in three places and I was shown x-rays yesterday of how my face was all caved in and why they used metal plates to rebuild cheekbones. I hope they catch these idiots before they kill somebody. I'm not happy because they got the wrong house as its my neighbour who they were trying to rob but we both have gravel drives. There’s been a spate of similar robberies and a girl was mugged the other night outside the local shop by three hooded thugs who sound like they could be the same lot. I'm on the mend and will bounce back, there’s a new picture attached and i don’t mind if you post it so people can see I'm ok .I'm healing very well due to the fact that I drink lots of wheatgrass and juice vegetables and eat a lot of fresh fruit. I'm totally into a healthy raw vegan diet these days so I will soon recover."

Goblinaid

Dreamforge Eisenkern Troopers....new stuff coming at some point..............

Pics from their blog, link at the bottom................some of the best plastics on the go in my own humble opinion.......

APC

A weird one...entitled Feral Shadokesh and Handler...........a new alien race forthcoming?

Heavy Support

Assault Troopers

http://dreamforge-games.blogspot.co.uk/

As always email me on enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

1981 was a good year for figures................

I was going through my 1981 Military Modelling magazines and took a few hurried pics of interesting adverts.....more lead to source! I have only posted the 'new to me' adverts here....those old tomes are a treasure chest of listings and pics.

Greenwood & Ball had varied larger scale ranges as well as the Garrison 25mm (most of which are now available again via Rob Young at Garrison Miniatures strangely enough!

A pic of the old Manchester Games Workshop just after the official opening. I was actually the first in on the morning, having spent the night sleeping on the street outside......got my name in White Dwarf as well as picking up a freebie copy of Traveller.

Tabletop Games featuring artwork by Tony Yates

Mike's Models - I have a few pieces of their fantasy range but there are so few illustrations available it is difficult to know what is what.

and they even announced a Sci Fi range.........from Cathedral Figurines????

Leviathan Models had a few nice pieces...

Oracle Miniatures resurrected.....missed this until now!

QT Models.....another pic I'd missed

I didn't even know Conquest had done Sci Fi..........they were a Bryan Ansell company and he was now busy with Citadel at this time so I will need to ask around......

I know very little about Tony Aldrich beyond that he has some figures over on the Historifigs website

I believe this is a Tony Ackland sculpt.....I did an interview with Tony a while back and he mentioned it. The interview is meant to be my contribution to the OSFMapa journal No.3 but it seems to have died on its feet.....more news as soon as I get it!

Games Workshop and Citadel were going from strength to strength...

Tradition are still going strong in the toy soldier market however were no help when trying to trace these guys.............

  

and Games Day way back then.... a far different beast than it is now

Also another update for Goblinaid below......

Goblinaid update below!