Saturday 12 March 2016

'Tribute' to Greg - 40K Scribe/Archivist


This 'Tribute' figure is for my great friend Greg - our hockey-loving, plastic-hating, crayon-snapping though highly entertaining Friday adjudicator.

To be honest, I'm usually okay with plastics, and not so wild about hockey (that is actually a Stanley Cup sized understatement), but Greg and I do share a deep affection of the original 40K 'Rogue Trader' universe of the late 80s and early 90s. To us (and I imagine many like us, who were teenagers at that time), there was something deeply compelling about the creepily dystopian vision created by Rick Priestly and backed-up by the wonderfully disturbing art of John Blanche. 

At this time 40K was still a fresh and largely undiscovered genre. Games Workshop was basically led by hippies, and had not yet become the Kafkaesque corporate nightmare which now weirdly mimics the fictional dark Imperium it created. In those early days very little of the 40K universe was explained; so much being shrouded in shadow, mystery and completely open to conjecture. This, in turn, created a fevered playground of creativity, which allowed players to fill in the blanks with our own imaginations, where we were actually encouraged to use surrogate figures, bodged vehicles and sometimes devising our own rules. Of course, the reviled point-driven tournament system killed all this, but for a brief time there was an amazingly fun, dark universe called 40K... 

Anyway, I blather. Suffice it to say that many of us have grown perversely nostalgic and guardedly paternalistic about the 'early' Imperium of Man and its host of foes. 


With this in mind I am happy to present this figure of an Imperial Scribe to Greg. Some may know that I work in the archival profession and so I thought It apropos that Greg receive from me a phlegmatic, self-important civil servant to add to his impressive 40K collection. I figure that somebody has to keep these rivet-headed, gene-tweaked Space Marines in conformity with the infallible Imperial creed and its catechism of organizational perfection - so he's the man to do it.


Being an archivist I am ashamed to say I have absolutely no provenance backing up this figure other than knowing it's a GW figure and it's at least 12 years old. Nonetheless, it's a great model and think it's as iconic to the 40K universe at the Space Marines themselves.  


Greg likes to portray himself as a meat-and-potatoes painter (which many will smile at when you look at his amazing brushwork), and so he often smirks at 'fancy' paint techniques like non-metallic metals, zenithal highlighting, and modulated shading. Accordingly, I broke from my regular trope of 'kabuki style' painting and tried my hand at gradated blending, multi-hued glazes and I even went so far as painting the freakin' eyes! Well, I'm happy to report that I've been cured of any of further pretensions of artisanal skills and skip gleefully back to Greg's camp of curmudgeonly brush Luddites! :)
 

I hope you like him Greg! Again, thanks so much for helping out this year - I couldn't have done it without you.

Curt


27 comments:

  1. Nice tribute figure Curt - he reminds me a bit of the librarian, Berengar, in the film version of "The Name of the Rose" :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is a great film, thanks for reminding me of it Tamsin - now I need to watch it.

      Delete
  2. Wow, that paint job is superb, and I too have stashed away fond memories of rouge trader. Lucky chap that Greg.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A very fitting and superbly painted tribute for Greg. You both paint far better than a large score of hobbyists I know, yours truly included, so quit the false humility and accept our appreciation of your great work! ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for the comment Sander. I think you misunderstand me as I did not mean it as false humility. I realize I can pull out the stops to do this kind of work, it's just that I find it too time consuming and fiddly. My comfort zone is with my usual block painting method which teeters between non-glacial speed and results that satisfy me.

      Delete
    2. A case of me not being fluent enough in English to get the nuances over is more likely. My humour is rather sarcastic mostly and I meant it a bit to tease you, I now realise I used the wrong term, anyway my comment was seriously meant as a compliment to both your and Greg's skills as I do honestly consider your painting skills to be superior to mine as you will notice when the Curtgeld turns up on your doorstep ;-)

      Delete
    3. Thanks very much Sander :-)

      Delete
    4. No harm, no foul, no worries, Sander. :)

      Delete
  4. Great figure, he feels like a resident of Discworld. I understand the painting comment. I paint a lot of figs because the difference between my best work and my production line work is often not great. However I plan to change that next year and get better

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have this figure somewhere, a real classic and well painted too Curt!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great figure and smashing paint job. Pretty sure he was part of an inquisitors retinue originally, keeping a tally of the chief weapons of his master (fear and surprise, etc.) he'll grace whatever table he is put upon.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Classic figure with a classic look!

    ReplyDelete
  8. A fine tribute ..nicely done

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wonderful tribute and a lovely paint job Curt.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great job Curt, love it!

    Don't like hockey? Sure you're Canadian? :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Lovely tribute figure Curt. I am sure I've encountered this guy in local beauraucarcy!
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  12. While I have NO wish to be a minion, if I was to be given a figure like that I would have a smile as wide as the Atlantic!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Very nice Curt! Great job on the skin color.

    Christopher

    ReplyDelete
  14. Dude - this is profoundly awesome. I just love it - thanks very much. He will do well noting any deviance from accepted form on our 40k gaming tables...

    ReplyDelete
  15. Magnificient painting Curt! His skin tone is suitably creepy and great work on his robe.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Great tribute Curt! Classic miniature as well! The bureaucracy of the 40k world is definitely something I'd never like to face.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nice painting. Yeah. Non metallic metals....no thanks. Not for me but I can enjoy and appreciate when others do it well.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Brilliant and evocative, and nice commentary.

    ReplyDelete
  19. superb painting! the purple effect is fabulous!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Love the ridiculous quill!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Great job on that pasty, soft clerk, Curt! I like the skin tones you used on him...he really looks like he needs some exercise! ; )

    ReplyDelete