Pucks

Finished these two the other day - or is it four?

Back in 2007 the Frother’s Unite Community ran their 4th Pro-Am Sculpting Competition. The theme for this on was, as it always is, a very open theme trying not to limit the sculptor's creativity. The 2007 Competition theme was: "The Unseelie Suspects or the dark side of Faeryland" and sculptors where to do fantasy characters, spirits and creatures with inspiration taken from the classic folklore and fairy tale without going Disney.

A young sculptor named John Pickford entered this competition and was competing in the "Satyrs and woodland spirits" category.

For this category John did a entry called "Puck's Dance" - a diorama piece with roots in classic English folklore and Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" - but with the usually little twist of evilness and humour that is seen on many Pickford sculpts. Puck was inspired by Neil Gaiman's "the Sandman" - in here Puck aids the Norse God Loki in kidnapping Daniel, and am playing a small role in the death of the Sandman.

The main figure is Puck, dancing on a rock, his true nature is revealed from behind.

With him are Peaseblossom on lute and Mustard Seed on trumpet, who provide the music for Puck's Dance.

The three of them are dancing and playing on what appears to be a pile of rocks and don't pay notice of the true inhabitant of the rock, who has safely hidden himself inside.

Clam Minis: Puck's Dance

  

The diorama was mastered back in 2007, and the rights for it given to White Knight. Peaseblossom and Mustard Seed has already been released by White Knight Miniatures, but he never did the hole piece. However, in 2014 White Knight offered me the chance of releasing the hole piece - didn't hesitate a second. And can be found at The Old Bag, now.

With the one existing master cast I got from WK came a variant head for Puck. I've cast it, though Puck is a single-piece cast. On a spare cast, I gently did the head swap and I have also painted the variant.

Sci-fi Aenur and a Pig from Space

And to prove that I actually do paint .... if not often then occasionally  :)


Sci-Fi Aenur 
First, I took part in a little challenge in the awesome Emporium of Rogue Dreams Facebook group.

The Challenge was rather simple, as it appeared that so many people had an unloved Aenur laying around, that it was only natural that the participants tried to comes up with the best repurposing of this unloved miniature.

Unfortunately I gave up my piece many years ago, but a fellow member kindly donated a copy.

So all I had to then was start chopping up the Mordheim Elf Hired Sword, and convert it into a sci-fi miniature - rather simple :)

So right after receiving it i put clippers to the miniature, as I knew that the more I look at it, the more sorry I'd feel about doing it.

So took me just a few hours turning this:

into this:

Rather straight forward head and weapon swap. Only real challenge was the repositioning of the right arm.

And then I had like 10 weeks to paint it. But like everything else in my life it ended up being a last minute thing. But as always, I managed to finish, of course. So, here is my Wasteland Aenur:

I haven't painted anything Sci Fi in years but now feeling the Sci-Fi painting mojo again I recently grabbed another Sci-fi piece I have had sitting here for long.

A Pig in Space

The miniature is a custom made/private sculpt given to me as a present due my long recovery fase - and in return of this great gesture, I've actually painted it, now.

The miniature is as said a costume made sculpt and made in a kind of homage to an unreleased Foundry range of Sci-Fi Pig Faced Orcs, that John Pickford did some years ago. It's a terrific sculpt that's made in a lovely retro Sci-fi style but with a nice WW1 vibe to it.

Hopefully Foundry will soon release all his brothers, as this guy is getting lonely and could use some company.

Collecting John Pickford: I am the Law

Quite a surprise as I really hadn't seen this one coming, but what a nice surprise it was. The big news is that John Pickford has now officially become an Sci-Fi sculptor - and it's not just for anyone, no it's for one of the best Sci-Fi universe ever, the galaxy greatest Judge Dredd/2000AD,

Previously, John has done a few Sci-fi pieces as part of private commissions and also made an un-released range of Pig Faced Orcs in Space for Wargames Foundry - but non of these are really available to the common collectors. But that's all different now, as John has created 4 brand new superb sculpts for the Mongoose Publishing/Warlord Games Judge Dredd miniatures game.

First one is a new Street Judge with a Stub Gun for the Justice Department and can be found in the JD133 - Street Judges with Lazooka and Stub Gun - pack:

The other 3 sculpts can be found in the JD015 - Bri-Cit Judges box set:

In this set of 8 miniatures John Pickford did three - the Beat Judge with Bumf Gun, the crouching female Beat Judge aiming and the Para Squad Judge, fully trained to use the powers of her mind.

These are all beautifully detailed and excellent proportioned sculpts (as in straight out of a comic book, that is) and they do the fantastic Judge Dredd miniature range great justice (actually, quite a step up in quality from recent releases, if you ask me). I really, really like these and I'm very curious seeing what this new partnership might leads to, as this is way to good to be a one-off.

The new miniatures can be found at the Warlord and Mongoose web-stores - links down here:

Street Judge with a Stub Gun :

• Mongoose Publishing
• Warlord Games

Brit-Cit Justice Department:

• Mongoose Publishing
• Warlord Games

At Mongoose you will also find the Brit-Cit Judges available separately.

Collecting John Pickford: Otherworldly Hydra

Since the beginning of my friendship with John I've heard him speak about how much he would love doing a Hydra, and especially how much he would love doing it for Richard Scott (of Otherworld Miniatures), as Otherworld is well known for letting their sculptor play with classic fantasy/original D&D concepts - and would definitely be an opportunity to do this mythological monster great justice.

A Hydra from the 2nd edt. Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1

Over the years, John Pickford has done so many wonderful dungeon monsters and wilderness encounters for Otherworld, but he has never been let loose on bigger reptilian monsters. And when Otherworld actually started doing their big serpentine and reptilian creatures they decided doing dragons? Not, that the dragons - done by talented Andrew May - ain't great, but hydras are cooler. Much more vicious, nasty and cruel. So all hope might seem lost - just till this showed up in Facebook-land and soon after on various miniature-news-sites.

A beautiful 5 headed-Hydra measuring almost 7 inches and sculpted by ... John Pickford, of course. Looks like he persuaded Richard after all :-)

And ain't she a beauty? Looks like she has just jumped out of an old monster manual, ready for action.

Now, why write about this old piece of news (as the story was revealed in August 2015)? Well, first for a documentary reason. Secondly, health and time hasn't allow me much time for doing so - and third and foremost ... because mine has just arrived, and is too good not to be shared :-)

Otherworld Miniatures: WE24 – Hydra

It is cast in resin and comes in 6 parts and it is supplied with a laser-cut acrylic base as shown in some of the photos above.

Its a super-detail sculpt. And the level of details put into all the individually sculpted scales is magnificent and very accurate. You must be rather a mad-man requiring such a project. But that's John, in a nutshell, making the impossible possible - and that is why I admire this guy so much.

You can find the Hydra here at the Otherworld Miniature store. Including the wonderful display piece painted by Mr. Andrew Taylor.

Collecting John Pickford: Casting Room Miniatures

A few weeks ago Foundry made the announcement of setting up a new website called Casting Room Miniatures.

At Casting Room Miniatures you can get all the alternate versions of many of the models from the original Wargames Foundry range alongside with various others and interesting odds and ends.

The alternate versions were made between 2006 and 2012, where Foundry was run by "other hands".
During this period many of the original models were discontinued and replaced with more "modern" sculpts - and also expanded on their fantasy line including the many excellent sculpts made by John Pickford - like the Demons, Goblins, Undead, Halflings and Hill Trolls,

©Wargames Foundry

In the Summer 2012, when the Ansell's returned, all the original models (mostly models sculpted by Michael and Alan Perry) re-entered the main Foundry web-site, replacing most of the newer lines. Some of the alternative miniatures moved to a temporary home on the eBay store "Flyte of Fantasy" - others simply "disappeared".

Seems like the many John Pickford fantasy sculpts have finally found a "home".

There are still a few ranges missing (like the Evil Barbarians, the Christmas specials and the rest of the pig faced Orcs) - and who knows, perhaps we'll even see the huge Greater Demon and the mysterious Pig faced Space Orcs: I really hope the will get added, eventually. Fingers crossed.

Check it all out, here at: http://www.castingroomminiatures.com/