Vintage Miniature - The Chainsaw Warrior

I've blogged before about my passion for collecting boardgames and in particular my mission to collect all of the bookcase format Games Workshop boardgames released in the 1980s.

Chainsaw Warrior is one of those games.

Chainsaw Warrior (1986)

Chainsaw Warrior (1987) is a solo game where the titular character climbs a New York skyscraper fighting off zombies and other evil minions in a race against time to find and destroy the ultimate evil Chaos.

It's peculiar in that the game is dominated by amazing artwork from 2000AD artbot Brett Ewins yet is not a miniatures game and in fact does not have a single pawn in the game.  

However, that didn't mean that Citadel wasted this opportunity and launched a series of Chainsaw Warrior minis for fans of the game which could be bought as a single blister pack - C100.  Exactly how you used them in game was not proscribed, I guess you could use them as a turn marker. 

They also released a Chainsaw Warrior as part of the Talisman Timescape miniature range to accompany the Talisman expansion of the same name.  A masterstroke in marketing to use a massively popular boardgame to shift a metric ton of lead.

Citadel also made 3 bad guy minis directly culled from the card art used in the game.  These were only available as a very limited release and command insane prices on the secondhand market.

Three Bad Guy / Zombie Cards

I've had this one mini kicking around since 1987, I must have the other two but only God knows where they are.  At the time I must have been going through a Blanchitsu phase as he was painted white with black checkerboarding all over him.  

You do stupid things when you are young, innocent and influenced by the 'Eavy Metal pages of White Dwarf.

The Myth The Mini

As I recently rescued my copy of Chainsaw Warrior it seemed only fitting to rescue this one mini.  Sadly time had not been kind and he had lost the blade of his Chainsaw.  

The mini has a weird "braced for action" pose which makes him look all hunched over.  

Cling Film to the Rescue!

I scratch built a new chainsaw out of a plastic cling film (saranwrap) cutter blade and some scraps of styrene plastic I recycled from ancient W3C Web Accessibility Initiative business cards.  I knew I would find a use for them one day.

The Chainsaw Warrior - a vintage Citadel miniature from 1987

I consulted the box art and some original painted examples for a muted military olive drab kind of colour scheme.  The chainsaw of course got the defacto hazard stripes and some oil washes to make it stand out as the most important thing in the room.

The only thing left to do now is actually play the game...

Vintage Vampire - Citadel C18 Night Horrors

I've had this mini hiding in an old tin in shame for years. 

Citadel C18 Night Horrors Vampire

The original paintjob was a horrible early experiment using artists inks.  I had given him a wash of blue ink over a white primer basecoat.  He was more Blue Man Group than Bela Lugosi and so it was time this scary dude got a spooky repaint.

Buy it on eBay

The repaint was an experiment in glazing over a zenithal highlight with a single colour.  In my case this was Vallejo Game Colour Dark Green and I reinforced the highlights by mixing in some Vallejo Game Colour Dead White.  I picked out his eyes in Vallejo Game Air Scarlett Red and stuck a pin in him, he's done.

Like all of my recently painted minis this one got a protective coat of Windsor & Newton Matte Varnish from the airbrush thinned down with Vallejo Airbrush Flow Improver.

The C18 Night Horrors range is a particularly interesting series of minis and no doubt was designed to accompany the Gothic Horror Floorplans and GW licensed edition of Call of Cthulhu which were released about the same time. 

They were excellent value as you got 5 "classic horror" minis in a blister pack for only £2.50 which if GW used the Bank of Englands inflation calculator would be under £10 in today's money.  Well I guess it's true what they say...

"There are only two certainties in life.  Death and Games Workshop price gouging!!"

Miniatures Monday Goes Old School Saturday

I normally leave my mini posts until Mondays to show off the latest update on my Reaper Bones Painting Marathon progress. 

Well, I thought I'd spice it up and share a few of my other projects which have recently been completed (thanks to a spot of spring cleaning during lockdown).  Normal service will resume next week.

Vintage Citadel "Fiend Factory" Balrog - FF5 C31

An iconic miniature from the Fiend Factory range, this imposing winged demon has been one of those bucket list minis that I've been holding onto for some time.  Finally he has a paintjob worthy of the sculpt and this just makes me want to find more of these vintage "pre slotta" base Citadel minis to paint.

Citadel Fiend Factory Balrog (FF5 C31) - Buy your own

Thrud The Barbarian (LE12)

Readers of vintage White Dwarf will recognise this pin headed barbarian.  Created by illustrator Carl Critchlow he was White Dwarf's long running comic strip from issue #45 to issue #105.

An obvious pastiche of Conan the Barbarian, Thrud was entirely played for laughs and Carl has continued to draw him outside of the pages of White Dwarf in his own Thrud The Barbarian comic.

This is my Thrud's 3rd paintjob only possible due to the chunkiness of the detail (I never bothered to strip him of his previous paintjobs).  I am half tempted to track down the other 4 Special Edition Thrud miniatures Citadel have made over the years.

Citadel Thrud The Barbarian (LE12) - Buy your own