Category Archives: Rackham (old)

ANAKRON, Le Goelier de Cadwallon

Anakron recently shared this preview of his entry for a painting contest in France, “Le Gaelier of Cadwallon” (Jailer of Cadwallon).  This is a combination of stock Rackham models and some unique elements designed specifically for this piece (i.e. the tentacles).

Anakron’s work ceases to amaze me, and I wish him all the best at the contest.

CONFRONTATION, New Card Sets Coming

UPDATE: Unfortunately, something came up the day after I posted this, and I won’t have a chance to work on the new card downloads until the weekend of 15 September.  Details to follow.

A reader recently wrote to me about a couple missing cards and images in the Aarklash Archive (see right cuff), which is being phased out and replaced by the more robust and scalable Miniatures Archive.  He was kind enough to provide some of this missing content, including the cards featured here.  I was in the process of adding them to the zip file that is currently available for the Dwarves of Tir-Nâ-Bor when I discovered that I have more cards than I thought.

I’m going to prioritize creating these new card packs this weekend, and make them available for download from the Miniatures Archive after the holiday.  They may not be complete, but they’ll be closer than what is currently online here.

In the meantime, here are the cards for the Meteors of the Aegis, courtesy of a generous reader.

MINIATURES ARCHIVE, Familiars Page Finished

All of the content and metadata for the Rackham familiars have been uploaded to the Miniatures Archive.  There is a main page for the familiars as well as pages devoted to each blister.  I still need to add a link to download the cards, and will likely add more information to these pages.  For now, however, all images, concept art, and metadata are accounted for.

MINIATURES ARCHIVE, Concord of the Eagle Finished

Admittedly, the Concord of the Eagle was an easy series to complete for the new wiki, being that Rackham only ever made one model for the faction: Archon of Faathi.  The entry for Archon also includes some product and game information, and may represent the way I pursue other entries going forward.  If so, the Alchemists will need an update, but such are wikis: they’re never done.

I’ve started on Cadwallon, and will chip away at the Elemental, Familiar, and Mercenary pages at the same time to help break things up.  There’s more to come.

MINIATURES ARCHIVE, Alchemists of Dirz Complete

I just uploaded the final model profile for the Alchemists of Dirz page in the wiki.  I’m going to do some lower-hanging fruit next before starting the next big faction page, Cadwallon.  In the meantime, enjoy the Dirz profile pages.

MINIATURES ARCHIVE, Alchemists of Dirz Half Complete

I just uploaded the page for the Kassalis Vanin & Sidiamie blister in the new wiki archive.  With that the Alchemists of Dirz catalog is half complete.  I’m getting pretty fast at this, so the second half should not take as long.  That being said, this is a very manual process, and the old archive (see column on the right) is still there for now.

For what it’s worth, I’m also making a small dent in the companies entries.

RACKHAM, Wallpaper

I’ve uploaded a ZIP file (15.4 mg) containing most of my collection of Rackham wallpaper.  You can download the file here or from the subpage under Graphica.  Enjoy!

P.S.  I’ll post an update if I find more.

LEGACY MINIATURES, Isabeau

CoolMiniOrNot has updated the product page for the Legacy Miniatures Nobles of Cadwallon box set with a photo of the correct version of the included Isabeau.

CADWALLON, Isabeau, O, Isabeau

(from the left) Werner Klocke’s Isabeau, MIKH’s Isabeau, and the C:CoT Isabeau

A little over a week ago Legacy Miniatures, in conjunction with CoolMiniOrNot, released three more sets of models formally produced by Rackham: Nobles of Cadwallon, Bodyguards of Cadwallon, and Griffin Pack 1.  The pattern for this release followed that of the others: each set was comprised of models previously available from Rackham (and still ubiquitous in the aftermarket) and one or two rare or never-before-released models.  It’s the latter that usually makes the sale (it has been in my case, anyway).

I’ve been hesitant to buy any of these three sets.  My gut tells me I’ll eventually give in and buy the two Cadwallon sets, but I’m not quite there yet.

During some downtime, today, I checked the CMoN site to see if there were any reviews of the models, as some have no doubt been delivered by now.  In the announcement for this release, one customer wrote the following:

There is a problem with this release.
The Isabeau miniature that is provided is neither the original sculpt (thats shown) nor the WK…. Instead it appears to be a recast of the pre-paint figure thats available in the Cadwe FFG hero set.

Really?  I began in investigation immediately.  It didn’t take long, because as fortune would have it the customer who wrote that comment on CMoN posted a comment here when I was in the thick of my search.  After a brief exchange via email, he pointed me to his post on the UK:CORD forum, which included a photo of the model in Legacy’s Nobles of Cadwallon set.  Sure enough, it is indeed a resin cast from the same sculpt used to make the board game piece for Cadwallon: City of Thieves.

I’m not entirely surprised to learn this.  Sculpts and masters, especially if they’re resin, are prone to breakage unless they’re cared for properly.  The only reason I can think of for including this sculpt in the set, is that the others were lost or damaged beyond repair.

As to why they advertised the set with a photo of a different sculpt, I blame this either on human error, or because painted models lead to better sales and they had access to a great studio photo of Isabeau.  Why not just use a photo of the model in the set with an updated paint job?  Because Legacy Miniatures is a side project for Dust Studio/Games, and their resources are largely devoted to the game universe they’re currently developing (Dust) as opposed to one from their past.  And thank god for that.  Artists create, they don’t dwell.  Ever forward, boys–ever forward.

NOTE: MIKH’s version of Isabeau was released in 2006. Werner KLOCKE’s version (together with Rafal ZELAZO) was released in 2007 as a free promo for subscribers to the French edition of Cry Havoc!.

FIRE INDUSTRIES, Fire Industries

Speculate.

Remember these guys?  Fire Industries took over all resin production for Rackham for a time, but it didn’t last long and soon after R was filing for bankruptcy.  It was somewhat of a strange partnership from the start, but lasted long enough for FI to put out some great terrain pieces (reproduced from R originals) and interesting models for AT-43 (their warthog comes to mind).  Some of their models have actually been made available through other channels (large pixie, ninja goblin, and the warthog, for example), but from what I can recall not through any store or dedicated website.  It’s a pitty, as I always liked the resin terrain pieces.

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Dragon Titan of Aarklash

I just uploaded some new high-resolution photos of the titan dragon to the Cynwäll elves page in the Archive.  Included in this upload are the photo for the box art (above), the box art, and a much larger version of the studio photo.  Enjoy!

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Dwarves of Mid-Nor

This doesn’t count as one of the high-res images, but it’s close.  You can find it on the Mid-Nor page, too.

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Akkylanie and Tir-Nâ-Bor

I can tell from the page hits that you guys already found the Griffin.  Last two high-res images are up.

I hope you all enjoy these.

 

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Goblins of the Ûraken Clan

The third (of five) high-resolution Confrontation images is now available here.

MECHA, MC2 France / Tetraedge

Andrew May, one of the crafty miniatures sleuths that frequent Frothers, came upon some interesting information, today, on Pascal Blanche’s Deviant Art page.  Regarding the image above, Pascal wrote:

a design i made for a game company ( MC2 France / Tetraedge ) with Jean bey one year ago. Unfortunatly the project stopped, but we had great fun creating it.The model was designed to become a70mm figurine with removable/customisable parts. the prototype you see there has been printed by the talented guys @ moddler. The end result was pretty detailed considering the size .

This is a surprise.  I’ve known for about three years that Jean Bey was developing a new miniatures game of some sort, but assumed it fizzled and died and never dreamed anything like this would surface one day.  Now that I’ve seen this model, I think it’s a shame it will never go to production.  I’m not really interested in mechas, but this is a wonderful piece.

For those of you who don’t know, Jean Bey was the infamous creative director that many blame for Rackham’s demise.  I’ve heard lots of stories, but wasn’t there myself; I’m decidedly neutral on the subject, and there my opinions shall rest.

Say, Speaking of Andrew May, have you seen his cloud giant for Otherworld?