Collecting John Pickford: BOYL 2017 and a mystery solved

For the last five years (or so) the Oldhammer community have met up at an annual "Bring Out Your Lead (BOYL)" event in Newark. The event is hosted by the wonderful people at Wargames Foundry.

Apart of being a day of friendship, fun and gaming with old lead it's also a gathering of great knowledge and history. Though, the focal point of the event is around the Citadel Miniatures' golden ages (the eighties and early nineties) the hosts (the Ansell Family) also have time and energy to talk and share information about their historical ranges  but also their "New-Age" fantasy ranges including the John Pickford-years. As an example the beautiful Pig-Faced Sci-Fi Orks (Sporks) was shown off at the 2015 - as blogged about here.

As much as I would like to go myself my weak health simply don't allow me a weekend in Newark, unfortunately. So, when the optimal ain't possible, what's the second best thing to do? Well, sending a friend to town for you, I guess.
Luckily, I have such a friend, a dear friend who is also passionate about collecting and painting miniatures, Mr. David Wood of the "Dear Tony Blair"-blog - and Dave volunteered being my eyes and ears (and later wallet) in Newark. Thank you, David. I'm very grateful and I'm very happy that you'd allow me using the information and documentation provided on the day. Thank you very much.

So, the next few updates here on the blog will be about what came out of this year's BOYL - including the huge pile of new Pickford pieces I've succeeded finding with the help of David and a few other friends at the event.

But first thing, first - as it's no real event without an event-only miniature, right? So this is Olivia:

BOYL 2017: Olivia

She's a commemorative figure made for the event. The miniature picture a female imperial guard and is based on original 40K Rogue Trader artwork (seen down here below)

She is sculpted by John Pickford and was cast by Foundry for the attendees at BOYL 2017. Luckily, a kind person gave up their copy so I could have her. Ain't she cute?


But that's not the only event-only Pickford gem I've been given. At BOYL Axiom (@Magpie and Old Lead) ran a little Grox herding game. A Grox is an alien creature out of the 40K Rogue Trader lore. It's described as a large reptilian creature, but like any larger reptiles, it start out small. So, as a little participation-token, Axiom have had John making this wonderful little Grox coming out of it's egg - and a friendly soul have kindly donated an unclaimed copy to my cause.

Unofficial BOYL 2017 Game Token: Baby-Grox

With that out of the way - back to the history part and lets talk about the Pickford/Foundry years because a mystery got solved - and finally, the 3 variant heads for the (yet unreleased) greater demon have been found and have now been showed off.

Back in 2007/2008 John did a small range of Demons for the Wargames Foundry Fantasy range. For a long time they where unreleased and the only proof of their existences where a painted picture of Aquizalor Slayer of Souls in Kevin Dallimore's Painting and Modelling Guide Master Class from 2010. However, in 2012 Foundry finally released them - and they where announced in a newsletter with holded this ad:

The trained eye will here see that the "Demons of Death and Destruction Collection" where listed as 8 packs DM005-DM012 - but this screen shot might help:

I immediately ordered a set but to my surprise it came with just the codes DM006-DM012. When approaching Foundry they started looking for the DM005 - Golztariusbous The Ever Turning, but came back with a rather surprising message, that there was no record of a Golztariusbous and no miniature with such a code (DM005) had been made nor mastered - and the demon disappeared from the store again.

I was a bit disappointed, as the price of $20 were indicating a rather larger demon, as it was almost double of the price of each of the other 7 packs.

But Golztariusbous The Ever Turning has now been found, I think - both Marcus Ansell and John has confirmed that the guy you see down here (in this recently made mould) is very well my missing code. Although, John have aslo replied that he has a suspicion that a medium sized Demon where made, too. Mystery solved? or am I on to another mystery.

©Dear Tony Blair

And the wonderful people at Foundry have kindly sent me the miniature that was missing from my original order back in 2012 - and here he is. The long-lost brother

Wargames Foundry: DM005 - Golztariusbous The Ever Turning

Not as big as price might have indicate, but how do you price a miniature you haven't seen :) And very happy finally getting this little creature.

You can find the Foundry Demon range (made by Kev Adams and John Pickford) here: https://www.castingroomminiatures.com/collections/demons

For this range of Demons a huge beast was also made - probably 6" tall and an as huge wingspan. Marcus and Brian Ansell have kindly shade photos of a finished and painted version of it (one of a very few successful master casts, I've been told) previously but at BOYL 2017 it was even out of the cabinet. Again, David proved a true friend and captured this "moment in time" with his camera.

Wargames Foundry: Unreleased Greater Demon

©Dear Tony Blair

Nothing here we haven't really seen before, but still a magnificent beast - but the Maria Ansell brought out these:

©Dear Tony Blair

©Dear Tony Blair

©Dear Tony Blair

All three variant heads the demon was sculpted with. Hopefully this means, that the demon can get an actual release. I'd do anything retaining a copy of this beauty (almost).


This ends my first post about BOYL 2017 and my BOYL-haul - but over the next couple of updates I'll make a coverage of most of these items here:

BOYL-haul 2017

So you can be looking forward seeing updates about Pig-faced Orcs, Architectural detailing, Alpine dwarfs and more. Till then, take care

- Clam

A doctor's appointment

Sorry for the quietness, but I have had a doctor's appointment - an appointment with the FU UK! Faceless Stalker/Asylum Doctor - another gem from my Pickford collection.

The Doctor was an entry for the 2006 FU UK! Sculpting Contest: "Asylum" (@the Frothers Unite-forum).

The miniature didn't win anything but was picked up by White Knight and moulded, but unfortunately never released. Luckily I have been given a copy of the initial master run of this wonderful piece (though I wish it would have been commercially available so I could have had two, as it was very hard to decide which head/hands to use) - but I went for the Asylum doctor's look - but instead of using the knifes hand I converted him slightly and gave him a pen.

WK Minis: Asylum Doctor/Faceless Stalker

Collecting John Pickford: Otherworld's Giant Stag Beetle

Otherworld Miniatures have just released their latest Pickford sculpt. This time it's the Giant Stag Beetle added to their Wilderness Encounters range. It's a multi-part model of 6 part and approximately 6½-7cm long.

WE30a – Giant Stag Beetle

©Otherworld Miniatures

You'll find the beetle here: http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/shop/wilderness-encounters/we30a-giant-stag-beetle/


And you can even buy a convertion kit for it and have it turned it into a huge flying beetle :)

Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf Skiers from the OS Miniatures Company

After a successful Kickstarter for Alpine Gnomes (sculpted by Byron Harmon) the OS Miniatures Company is now planing their next Kickstarter - and an exciting one it is.

Their next Kickstarter will be about Skiing Dwarfs - a set of multi-parted dwarf skiers - all sculpted by John Pickford.

Here's a pre-view (taken from Facebook, courtesy Jamie Loft) of what we can expect seeing, later this year:

I can't wait - can you?

If you want to learn more you should keep an eye on their Facebook-page - here: https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolMinis1985

Maggie, Leader of the Miner's Guild

As I've been afraid of being accused of interfering with the election process in a sovereign state, vote manipulations, misinforming the people, hacking campaigns, planting fake news or what-ever seems popular these days, I've waited posting this till after the Brit's have had their General Election. It's done and dusted. Can't comment on the result, but I'm glad to see that 69% actually cared voting

I've waited with this cause I'm sitting on some news. The braking news is, Maggie is back :) Yes, I've heard that "the Bitch is dead" but I can present you with some alternative facts. She is most certainly alive. She might not be running for Parliament, no - but she has now taking the role of Leader of the Miners Guild at Mount Doom. If not in the real world, then in my alternative miniatures world. Cause my DTB-Mags has now been painted

Dear Tony Blair: DTB2 Mags

The miniature is beautifully sculpted by Bob Olley and is available from awesome Dave Woods @Dear Tony Blair-blog

Ask not what your Hold can do for you, but ....

When going through the lead pile I found this Dwarf Wizard - but judged on the pose he seems more like a missionary, town speaker or even an agitator.

So in these times of great fear, mistrust and isolation I found it most appropriated doing him as an agitator call the world to order.

You can almost hear him say: "My fellow Dwarves, ask not what your Hold can do for you, ask what you can do for our mountains, our sea, our air and the inhabitants of our world".

Unknown: Dwarf Agitator/Wizard

And yes, this agitator bears great resemblance to another unknown dwarf I did back in 2011, but this one is slightly different, though - but his origin as mysterious :)

Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf knights of the Great Bear on foot on Kickstarter

Just a quick message to let you all know that the previously unreleased - but most awaited - Dwarf Knights of the Great Bear by John Pickford and made for White Knight Miniatures Imperium is now on Kickstarter.

The Assault Group (TAG) is running a short 4 day kickstarter campaign to found the final moulding and casting.

So pledge now to help TAG add these two new additional packs (8 miniatures) to the Dwarf Empire range.

You'll find the campaign here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/584137481/tag-28mm-dwarf-empire-bear-knight-miniatures/description