Wednesday 22 October 2014

The Warfactory: A Fantastic Gallery of Old School Painted Miniatures

Chaos beastmen, made up from a Slaangor, a Chaos Champion of Nurgle and standard late '80s beastman. 
One of the most rewarding aspects of writing a blog that is visited more that 50,000 times a month is getting to share other people's work. I think that as the Oldhammer Community is very much 'a community' of similar thinkers rather than just a load of people who play old versions of Warhammer. Many of my readers haven't even picked up a copy of a GW game in years, let alone painted a miniature, but still feel part of the community as a whole. I believe that this is largely due to the commitment and passion of the many hundreds of painters, collectors and gamers that make Oldhammer was it is and that the fact that we are, largely, non-judgemental and supportive. Sure, there are one or two snakes in the grass, but we all know enough to ignore them.

The work I am presenting today is by a painter only known as Aidan who ran a website called The Warfactory from the mid 1990s to about 2005. Reading through his webpage reveals that he was a regular competitor at the earlier Golden Demons and even had GW losing (or damaging) some of his models over the years. If you know a little more about the author of the work you will see presented her, please do give us a little more biographical information in the comments section of this overview. There are loads of other great pictures on the site which can be visited here, including a really useful article about creating shield designs. 

Anyway, on with the models. This post is the first of two, and contains all of the best pieces from his 1980s Citadel collection. The sister post, which can be found here, covers the more intricate shields and banner designs. I have limited myself to a few words per image as I believe that the work of another painter is best left to speak for itself, but I am sure that you will agree with me that this is a very fine collection indeed. 

More beastmen in the same style as before, with a Beastman Champion, Slaangor and standard beastman model.
Bob Olley Nurgle Beastman, standard beastman and a Slaangor.
Nicely painted Chainsaw Warrior figures from 1987.
Three Citadel Lords of Battle and a Feudal warrior.
Models from the Citadel Fighters Range.
Yet more Citadel Fighters.
Old Citadel Normans - these are now available from Wargames Foundry once more.
Old Citadel Norse - these are back in production from the Wargames Foundry
Chaos Warriors with sculpted shields - very old school!
Chaos Warriors.
Fraser Gray tributes.
A great 'lightening' shield on that Chaos Warrior.
Two more classic Chaos Warriors.
Beautifully painted Wood Elves.
That green shading is right out of White Dwarf circa 1987.
Celtic designs have been used to compliment these Wood Elves.
Simple but effective metallics here.

7 comments:

  1. Great stuff as usual. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. A great, inspirational find. I'm intrigued by these "snakes in the grass" though; who are they and how have they become so?

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    1. The Oldhammer Nazis.

      http://oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-oldhammer-nazi.html

      Beware them, and their strange ideas!

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  3. Hey, Mr O. Aidan goes by the name of Scalene on the oldhammer forum, if you wanted to contact him. I don't remember, but I can't help thinking he was the father in the father and son combo that was at BOYL this year? They had that amazing judge dredd game with Chico and team? I'm not sure, but I think that was him. Apologies to that chap if it wasn't him!

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    1. I do hope so... As I would love to see more of this incredible collection - especially with new digital photographs and many of the images shared here and on the website are poor quality. Fingers crossed!

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  4. Good news - the site was back in action just before Christmas. I've set up a Wordpress framework at http://www.warfactory.co.uk/wp and I am now posting on that (there is a link from the old site) - there have been 30 posts since then - all previously unseen material. Also some great scenery examples from my friend Alan (who did the biblical and Darkest Africa stuff on the old site).

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