Okay, so only one of this pair is actually dog-faced, and both seem kind of generic in the sense that one of them looks very Werewolf – though human sized rather than the Ogre-sized Werewolf that seems to have taken off in the past few years of Miniature Gaming. That figure in fact is the brother figure to Wilhelm Chaney, the original 2nd Edition Bloodbowl Werewolf (bottom of the linked page). As such, the model could easily be used as a Werewolf if needed for something, albeit one armed with sword and board.
The second one of this pair of early Khorngor could just as easily be used as a Slaangor, at least for us Oldhammerers, due to the bovine head that could tie nicely in with the original Keeper of Secrets.
The reason I went with Khorngor for this pair – at least for the title of this blog post is because when I looked them up in Slaves to Darkness, they’re both pictured in the “Khorne” section as Khorngor. I’ve kept the paint suggestive but generic, so they can easily fit in with a “proper” Khorne unit, but also just as easily be used as unaligned Beastmen. Similarly, I’ve used Chaos Marauder shields on them, both because I think they work with the models and poses of this pair, and because I didn’t intend to freehand any rules of Khorne et al onto them.
Like the others I’ve completed recently, these are Jes Goodwin sculpts, and the quality shows through even today. Such a shame he’s no longer sculpting…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great renditions of these two classic beastmen, when they released these Runequest had been a major part of Citadel miniatures figure production (also known as Broo) which had a lot with different animal heads, so it seemed they carried this into their own beastmen collection.
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Thanks! And yep, I’ve discussed the Broo and their (very direct) links to the GW Beastmen a few times on the blog here. I believe that more than a few of the old Broo were rolled into the first waves of C27 Beastmen as well, as was usual for those days – similarly to Kev’s LotR Orcs and Uruks being rolled into the Orc range once that licence had safely expired a few years later.
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Nice work! I like the sculpting for both models, it’s amazing how sculpting has evolved over the decades from hand to CAD.
When did Jes Goodwin retire/ left sculpting? I’m out of the loop on who’s in or out of the sculpting team at GW, so I’m surprised to hear that he’s no longer sculpting.
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Last I heard was quite a few years ago now, but as I recall, Jes has been the manager/head of the sculpting department for quite a few years now – basically going from a directly creative role to a management one in a similar way to John Blanche.
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I see, it makes sense since he’s been sculpting miniatures for decades now. At least he’s still working at GW, I couldn’t imagine what it would be like if he left.
Thank you for answering my question. 🙂
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I don’t know for sure, but as I understand it, it was partly to do with the shift from physically sculpting and building the models to designing them in CAD. He hates working with computers any more than absolutely necessary, and couldn’t get into sculpting on them.
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That’s interesting to know, I wouldn’t have known about this since I don’t know much about the inside stuff. Then again, Jes’s sculpting is really iconic and it’s a craft that he’s a master at.
It kind of reminds me of an old man I met a few week ago at an autumn festival, he makes traditional fish net bags by hand as shopping bags, fashion bags and so on. He was saying how the art of traditional net crafting was dying out since factories introduced a faster way of producing fish nets using different materials in the 40’s/ 50’s. The thought crossed my mind that it reminds me of Jes as someone who sculpts by hand, but then again traditional sculpting isn’t dying yet I don’t think.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge on the subject. 🙂
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Very nice mate. Hope you’re enjoying your break! 😊
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I’ve been flat out so far, but crashed out both days of the weekend, so it doesn’t feel like I’ve started a break yet – too much to do unfortunately.
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These are lovely! Your paintjobs are Diego-level vibrant. The brown fur with the red-brow pants works really well – I really like how you handle those colours.
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Thank you. I am still practicing and trying to get better at painting figures using only one side of the colour spectrum and without an obvious spot colour.
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Very cool. The marauder shields work well
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Cheers mate. I’ve always been partial to spiked shields since childhood, and I think they work nicely with both these sculpts.
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Nice work, I love old school beastmen with new paint jobs. The colour scheme on the wolf/hound works well, I like the white eyeballs and red tongue.
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Thanks! There was something in Slaves to Darkness about followers of Khorne having milky white, pupiless eyes, so I like to carry that through when I do dog faced beastmen in particular.
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Great treatment of these classics mate, and the shields work really well! Nicely done sir 🙂
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Thanks Alex I’ve got another trio almost done and then I’m going to have to get on to some champions and Warriors that I never finished back in the day. Then, perhaps, some fresh lead!
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Great work there- never understood that when you cross a man with a dog (which is smaller than a man) you end up with something 8 foot tall….
Cheers,
Pete.
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Well, clearly, they’re not crossing a man with a dog, they’re adding together a man and a dog. So the result is as big as the two of them were separately 😉
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Ah got you now 😉
Cheers,
Pete.
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Ah, the crossing aspect discussion has a Deliverance quality…but, the figures are very cool. Nice job Azazel!
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Awoo! More good stuff. It’s amazing how well some of that old stuff still holds up, given how much looks like crap these days. Really shows who the genuinely great sculptors were.
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To be fair, I think most of the stuff today is far better than the time from the early to mid 90s when everything got a bit weird as they were redoing all the classic models.
Only not as well.
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Oh, I wasn’t clear enough there. I was referring to how much of the stuff from back then looks like crap today, i.e. has aged badly. The current era feels like some sort of golden age for minis.
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Nice painting. I also have a soft spot for these minis. As Alexis points out, many of those sculpted in this era have not aged well but some of the Realms of Chaos stuff is still very evocative (or perhaps I’m just wearing rose-tinted spectacles).
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Overall I think the Realm of Chaos stuff still holds up pretty bloody well. The major failing with a lot of the stuff from that time is that it was sculpted with needing to rank up in mind, and also a lot of those models were very flat and 2D for ease of mould making.
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Yeah, most of the issues with older Models are due technical or gameplay restrictions. I see two major categories of old Minis that have aged really well: Those where the concept is strong enough that it’s still cool despite those technical limitations (lots of GW Chaos stuff), and those that were sculpted by people who were good at working within or overcoming those restrictions (Jes, Kev, etc.).
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Great work. Total agree with your comments about Goodwin. Nothing getting produced today by GW matches his flair and style, and given how fewer technical limitations there are now compared to 10 or 20 years ago it is truly astonishing that no one has bettered his output from the 80s and 90s (including him too though I guess!!).
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Well there are still a lot of amazingly talented sculptors around today that use the traditional methods and you know there’s an argument for quite a few of them to say that they are as good or better than Jes was but it’s such a tight thing at that level and a lot of it comes down to stylistic choice.
Certainly when it comes to traditional sculpts of similar models coming out of GW, Juan Diaz needs a mention, and while I do think the new digitally sculpted Space Marines are just as good as the ones that Jes put out and the Eldar aren’t far off, what we have there are talented digital sculptors following the exact design cues and elements that Jes created in the first place.
I think it stands out much more with regard to modern figures like skaven and chaos Warriors and khorne bloodbound and all of that stuff which also follows Jes’ and others of the old school’s design cues and while they are amazing models in their own right there’s just something that’s seems lacking to me. I don’t want to say soul but perhaps it’s the small imperfections in a hand sculpted model compared to a digital one. Or perhaps it’s something about metal models when compared to plastic ones. To me it feels right for space marine armour and Eldar armour to be hard and in personal and soulless, but when it comes to fleshy models and chaotic models…
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It just popped into my head that there might be something there to do with the difference between someone who got into the field by doing stuff directly with their hands vs. someone who got into it by messing around with computers. Sort of an analog vs. digital thing. IDK. Like I said, it just occurred to me, still a half-formed idea.
I do actually prefer Jes’s 90s Aspect Warriors to the current ones, tho. Especially the Striking Scorpions.
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There is also a generational element. I’ve seen this mentioned in comics quite a bit. The first people to work in comics, were cartoon artists, and to them it was very much a job. Most had some sort of art schooling. Later on you get fans entering the business, and not all of them had proper schooling. Some of them would learn the wrong things and add their own mistakes, resulting in a poor end product.
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Good points. I think you’re right about the fleshy furry stuff. For me it’s the faces. Jes had a way with creating expression and life into faces, which for me to this day only the Perry twins come close to. Whether it’s Skaven, humans, or eldar, or weird half goat-half man dog beasts Jes just got the faces right. Not to say there aren’t others doing great work but they will always be my favourite.
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Ha, so I’m initially looking at the models and thinking “That one looks so familiar…!”. Yep, Wilhelm Cheney, Star Player for Blood Bowl. If you wouldn’t have mentioned that, I’d probably still be wondering. It also looks like his feet come from the Skaven models at the time (or vice versa). Those tails, I found to be a pain to paint. Really easy to end up looking like just a big blob at the end of the mini.
Nice paints, really like the shield on the one with horns. Reminds me of striated muscle, which is kind of eery. The black outfit on the other one is nice too. Yea, probably nothing special, but it looks really good.
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