My birthday treat arrived today- a fantastic 24 peice Dwarf set from mega miniatures. These originally came from Metal Magic, and where sculpted by Bob Olley.
I am a late comer to appreciating Bobs style I must be honest. I violently disliked the look of iron claw minis- and still - even in my mellowing tastes- cannot quite appreciate his flower pot headed goblins and rather squishy looking black orcs. Maybe they too will grow on me eventually. I always liked open smooth surfaces with smooth shading (Fraser Gray was my god) and dynamic poses (Jes Goodwin checked all my boxes). Bobs stuff was... wibbly and covered in wrinkles and details, his poses constrained and lacking that excelsior kapow.
I gather his style polarises people- your either a fan or just dont get it. Me, I am transitioning. I think sculpting The Bederken Dwerg allowed me to understand a bit about the temptation to sculpt detail on everything. Its like stealing the painters choices away though... takes away options to blend and freehand.
I adore modern day Bobs work thoroughly. His brass bull for Reaper is breathtaking and whats not to like about his malevolent retro scifi blended mutant scrunts. Plus I now adore Iron Claw scifi pirates, and have gathered quite a posse of them lately.
Bob's inventiveness with dwarfs is a shining example of why the man is a real artist. His gothic dwarf head dresses, iconography, weapons and shields stand apart from everyone who ever put putty to stunty. Check out the scans from the metal magic catalogue below.
Sadly some minis in the pictures are not in the set- sold off to other companies. I may have to find the rest later this year. I hear impact minis has the standard bearer.
I could not resist basing up the lot and will be ramming them up my painting queue so I can play Skulldred with them! Hopefully tomorrow will be dry for a spray session.
The casts are great- really good value minis- Its tempting to get a second set to make a hott army too- those warmachines look great!
Its looking like I may not make it down for Cancon this year. Though if luck is with me I may squeeze in a day- I certainly wont be doing everthing I planned this year. :(
Hopr to see some of you there!
