Nick Bibby's latest sculpt......almost a return to Oldhammer!

Edit 23rd August 2016 - link to a slide show of the finished piece......astounding......

https://www.facebook.com/nickbibby.sculpture/videos/1016386125126370/

Edit 15th August 2016 - Nick has just posted an 'almost finished video' of the Dragon so I thought I'd add it to the top of this post.......you should still read the rest though!



One of the greats of the old school 'hobby' sculptors, Nick Bibby started working for Asgard Miniatures in the later 70s before moving on to Citadel Miniatures, Games Workshop and Ral Partha. A number of his fantasy sculpts are in my collection, one of my firm favorites being a 25mm and 75mm Conan the Barbarian for Asgard.

An early giant also for Asgard....one I still need 'desperately'....

A favourite dragon.... along with rider and saddle....fortunately these are my own copies...

  

A later classic of the genre, his Spined Dragon, for Citadel (around 1988) is much sought after today and commands quite high prices on eBay....(photo c/o Stuff of Legends)

In the 90s he moved from fantasy subjects into sculpting real life.......and moving forward a millennium or so......well, about 25 years....Nick turned his mind back to dragons following his career in sculpting a multitude of subjects for bronze casting....his skills have been honed to a fine degree and, barring the potential 5 figure costing, I would certainly aim to own one of these which should, hopefully, be available sometime in the Summer of 2016. All the pictures below remain Nick's copyrite and are used with his permission here. His website and Facebook links are towards the bottom of the page. 

I've tried to put the images in some form of chronological order so you can get some appreciation of the skill and effort that Nick puts into his work....

Here is a video of the dragon armature and wing membranes....

  

  

  

  

'The clever folks at Pangolin Editions foundry laser scanning my Firedrake, dragon maquette, prior to casting it into bronze. I will use the scan data as part of the enlargement process, should I get asked to sculpt a "life size", monumental, version of this piece'....

A short video of the finished "Firedrake" (minus the tall rectangular column upon which the finished bronze sculpture will stand)

The sculpt being teased from the mold prior to casting in bronze.....

Once the bronze casting has been taken out of the mold there is a long, long job of finishing ....unlike pewter and lead, this process is very labor intensive.....

  

Later pieces......

Video of the completed Griffin.....

Video of the Midgard Serpent, Jörmungandr

One of Nick's Facebook pages is here. You don't need to 'do' Facebook to enjoy.

https://www.facebook.com/NickBibby.Sculpture.Bronze

A pictorial catalogue of some of his works courtesy of Pangolin Studios here.

Of course it's well worth popping along to his website to have a peruse of his genius and maybe commission a piece.....

http://nickbibby.com/

Nick just advised me that the dragon will be unveiled (alongside the Midgard Serpent and Griffin) at his next one man show, this October, at Sladmore Contemporary, Bruton Place, Mayfair, London.

As always, thoughts and q's to enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

The Fantastic Worlds of Grenadier - now on Kickstarter!

I'm not one to normally push a Kickstarter project......although heaven knows I back enough of them....however the wonderful Terence Gunn has come back out of his hobby retirement and worked on the second edition of his book. The original from back in 2004 is a great piece of Grenadier history that I'm so glad I picked up....this promises to be bigger and better. Terence sent me a few sample pages and they are well worth investing in.

Jump on this one if you love old school miniatures! The link below will take you straight through to the Kickstarter! Edit (27th June) the updates on the Kickstarter now include sample pages.

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Frank Frazetta - Death Dealer official sculpts!

David Sonderquist of Bronze Age Miniatures has finally been able to release pictures and details of his officially licenced range of Death Dealer miniatures. They are available through both David's site and also the Frazetta Art Museum. All pics are borrowed off David's site and remain his copyrite of course. The sculpts are due to be released around the 11th of July this year.

The miniatures are available as a pre-order through David here;

 http://bronzeagemin.com/frank-frazetta/ 

Also soon to be listed in the Pennnsylvania's Frazetta Art Museum here;

 http://frazettamuseum.com/

Frazetta painted the original artwork in 1973 (I was 11).......

Since 1985 The Death Dealer has been used as a mascot for the III Corps (United states). A wonderful full size statue sits outside their headquarters in Fort Hood, Texas.

Well worth a visit I'd say if you're in the area.

The Death Dealer has spawned many copycat sculpts within the hobby over the years.....those that I know of are below....if you know of any more please get in contact.

Minifigs (Sharadan Lords of Darkness from their Aureolo Rococo Range)

McEwan Miniatures (from their Heros & Wizards range)

Barry Minot (from his Age of the Barbarian range)

Ral Partha (from their Personalities and Things That Go Bump In The Night range)

Couple of nice examples c/o Joe Videki.

Valiant Enterprises (part of a larger scale 54mm range that included occasional fantasy) 

(this one is still available via their own site or eBay)

.......and a (ahem) slightly risque one, looks to be out of production by Kabuki Models (thanks to Ajsalium of Frothers)

As always, any comments below or email me on enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Thomas' Tin Soldiers; 54th Massachusetts Collection for sale (Tom Loback sculpts)

I was contacted recently about the sale of a small collection of Tom Loback's old American Civil War toy soldiers. This is a section of the hobby I have never dabbled in due to the general costs......come the lottery win I will jump in feet first of course......photographs of the collections are below and if anyone in interested please contact me via the normal email and I'll pass your details along. I have no connection to the sale, just want to see it passed along to a willing hobbyist. 14 pieces in total; soldiers, some fife and drummers and Colonel Gould on his horse. All are in their original boxes.

More Tomtins posts here and, whilst I'm at it, here is the fuller catalogue listing that Tom sent me some while back. Still missed and never forgotten.

Comments or contacts; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk