When I was with Forgeworld back in '99, it was not quite at the start of it all, but it was the start of the second "version". Previously FW had had one or two small bust models and not a lot else had been done and things were effectively going nowhere. This was when Tony Cottrell was given the reins and the catalogue of available models really took off. Most of the new range was made up of Tony's conversion parts of Imperial guard tank turrets and other bits and pieces. All of these were hand made masters from base plastic parts with additional funky bits made from tubes and plastic card, etc. The biggest problem that we had with any of these was small bubbles in the casting process. Sometimes we would get a really bad cast back due to humidity during casting (water in the resin makes it foam), but this is why we had QC at the casters as well as QC at the receiving warehouse (that is, the broom closet that I ran.... seriously, it was tiny - the entire FW staff was 4 and that included our accountant). The first big model that came along (aside from the large scale marine figures) was the Baneblade and that was cast from a hand built master too, it took a lot of back and forth to get that one right. That arrived towards the latter part of '99 as it was being advertised at Games Day that year. There had always been plans to make more and more large scale things as people really wanted to get the Thunderhawk back up and running now that the metal kits (which was never designed to be sold as a kit) had pretty much dried up. Titans were very much on the list too, but the tech for producing them wasn't really up to scratch yet, they would have been made in a lot more smaller parts which would just mean more drilling, pinning and general weakness of the final result.
Don't you remember the commemorative Marine Sergeant they named after him? Is interesting to get the insight from someone who was actually there, for sure. So you might be the person to ask this of - I might be missing something (as usual) but years ago I thought the point of FW was to make larger or non-standard bits (custom, not main product line, kit-bashed stuff for example. Maybe stuff that might not be game-legal or was so niche that it didn't warrant a full SKU run), whereas now it seems like it produces lots of the main kit and even some of the rulebooks. So why is it still kept as a separate entity? Black Library makes sense, but it seems FW increasingly less so with all the crossover. Surely can't just be "because of resin"?
Yeah, a brief stint during 1999 starting in the store at what is now Warhammer World. Most of what I did there was doing things like the tours of the old "museum" before that got redone as the exhibition so it housed things like the historical layouts of GW's progress over time, the large Games Days displays and so on. It was during that time that the whole Ultramarines chapter was there which if course led to the metal Thunderhawk kits. I also extensively worked on the Games Day display for that year: The Vengeance of the Vampire: https://web.archive.org/web/20210408125418/http://www.sodemons.com/gwmuseum/vengeance/index.htm FW was intended as just as you said, larger, non-standard, commemorative (busts and display models etc). The general aim was to supplement the hobby in general. Then it seems that the remit changed to hand the lighter sales end of things such as the 30k HH stuff and the sorts of models that would be very rarely chosen for most games over to FW. This change was after my time, I wasn't there for long.
My author friend informs me that pre-orders for the 20th Anniversary hardcover reprint of his first WH40K tie-in novel "Deus Encarmine" have already sold out. https://jswallow.com/angels-two-zero/
Yeah, about that. https://spikeybits.com/2023/12/forge-world-dies-quietly-as-games-workshop-rebrands-them.html
Unrelated, the guy behind Spikey Bits is kind of an asshat On topic, sort of, I finished off the Kruleboyz Killaboss and Stab-Grot. What a mouthfull that is. Although 'stab grot' is my favourite name for a model. And with the 'to sell' backlog out of the way, it's onto the Templars again, since I haven't successfully tricked the backlog fairy. I've decided to work top down, in batches of kinda sorta ten. These chucklefucks are the only ones missing in that picture - Sternguard go in the large empty space on the second layer, and the four behind go into the two Intercessor squads on the third layer; It does not look like I'll be done any time soon.. About 30 models on the fourth layer, and another 26 on the fifth layer. Plus the Inq28 retinue. Another seven. Maybe then I'll finish the shelf itself. Haha. Who am I kidding, I'll be painting my revisit to Catachan.
Stab Grot is best grot. I am generally not a fan of the new Kruleboyz line, they are going the route that all the others have gone with the super serious "all war all the time", but that little grot is awesome with his little stabba
I kept having to google this sodding model I was perusing an ebay seller that sells used models and it looked like it might be interesting to paint, at least get me painting a bit more green anyway, and just threw it in the cart. Then forgot about it long enough that even eBay won't tell me what it was called Tbh, I feel like there's not so much room for 'comedy' in GW products the last ten years or so. Everything feels like it was designed with 'super srs bsns' in mind, and is only incidentally funny after the fact. Like the Primaris marines carrying old IG Hunter-Killer missiles, whatever that unit is called.
Exactly, that has been one of my major gripes with GW for a few years now. Back when RT was published you could tell that it was written by a bunch of punks with a sideways eye on the UK culture of the time. The oppressive Imperium, the orks being based on football hooligans, Ghazkull being a parody of Margaret Thatcher, the eldar being a what-if of poncy Tolkien elves dropped into a high tech universe, the hells angels squats on bikes that were so big to them that they could not touch the floor with their little legs, and so on. Then there were the models that were brought out purely for fun, the Thrud range, the chaos toilet, etc Now everything has to have rules, even things like the Goff Rocker model, I was seeing posts in the ork groups about "where are the rules for this? If there are no rules then what is the point of the model?" and the rules did indeed follow on. All we have now for the humorous side of things in 40k are the Orks and to some extent, Nurgle, but there is so much more that could be done. The whole satirical take on the aim of absolute and unwavering control and intolerance that is the Imperium is all but lost and ignored with the feeling of the human factions being pushed as the "good" guys. Even Necromunda which was always as close to the original RT feel with the punk gangs and their fight against the ruling powers has lost that feel. And fantasy has gone the same way, gone are the little guys, the background characters, the non-fighters. Now it is again all war all the time, got to be super serious about this. Sure we still have Blood Bowl, but that is still set in the old world before the change to the Age of Sigmar so they don't really count. A lot of the fun has gone now, sure a lot of the models and kits are amazing and there are some fantastic models to paint in the various ranges, but the fun in the games has gone. Ok, so there is nothing stopping any of us cracking open the old RT book and setting up an overly complicated skirmish game, but the feel of fun from the official channels and new ranges is just not there. Now, if you will forgive me, I shall go put on my slippers, sit in the old rocking chair and shout at the kids on my lawn again.
ive often said that 40k is almost a living entity, it started out life FULL of colour and Child like wacky fun then grew into a Moody emo-teen where everything is GRIM DARK ALL OF THE TIME!!, ITS NOT A PHASE MOM!! and now its grown into a young adult competitive gamer who takes itself WAY to seriously and needs to remember to chill out and re-introduce fun
Yup, that's pretty much it. I do hope that the levity and fun comes back at some point. Not that I want everything to be silly, but rather things like we have seen with the nurglings. There is lots of scope for the little bits that knock the edge of everything. For example, they could do so much with Snotlings, servitors, tiny demons, and so on. The other thing that I would love is for the true nastiness of the Imperium to be made more obvious, make it blunt that this is not the future that you want to live in - rights? you want rights? what are those? never heard of them.
It's deeply concerning how many people I see on Twatter expressing their adoration of the Imperium. It's not very surprising how many of those melts also post nazi/bigotted garbage at every opportunity. I kinda miss when the Space Marines were 'angels of death' that people didn't really want answering their distress call. There's room for heroic characters, but the overall vibe seems to have shifted to 'all IoM are heroes' rather than 'IoM is a bunch of galactic Nazi pricks with a few people that are slightly less ****' Speaking of galactic pricks, I've been working on some wet blending and whatnot;
