Tuesday 1 March 2016

#JusticeforGary

Hello again you lucky bastards! Ive been mulling this post over in my head for a long while now, and I think it's time to put thumb to keypad and get it out there. 

Gary Morleys Nagash isn't that bad a sculpt.

Finished laughing/crying/shouting? Good. Let's continue. Recently, I was one of the multitudes that absolutely hated the original Nagash model. I'd owned it as a kid, and loved it, but as time went by and my "taste" developed, I was more than happy to go along with the piss taking of the clown headed bastard and the poor chap that made him. My own model was chucked in a box, unloved and ignored until Inquisitor was released and I hacked the poor fucker up to make a chaos magus. Fast forward ten years or so and a very good mate of mine handed me a big bag of undead miniatures, the result of a clear out he was having, probably to make room for more dwarfs (that fucker loves his dwarfs). In that bag was another Nagash, in very good nick too. But, as I was still blinkered, off he went into a box again.
Then the new Nagash came out. People were going mental for it, how impressive and big it was etc, etc. From minute one I thought it was fucking shite. Overpriced, overdone shite. With a tiny head. I kept thinking about Morleys sculpt, it couldn't be that bad could it? So I dug him out and started to think about thinking about doing something with him.
And then I did. And here he is
(The zombies are from a commission I was working on, but they look the part)

He's genuinely not that bad at all. A bit of repositioning gave him a better pose, and upon having a good look at his face, the major problem is the teeth run too far around the jaw, I imagine if he still had all his skin he's have a head like a South Park Canadian, so with a bit of fudging, he got some flesh on his cheeks. Also, whoever painted it for GW back in the day mustn't have been paying proper attention, his head isn't really a skull at all, given that it has eyebrows!  
Anyway, the upshot is, he's actually not as bad as everyone makes him out to be (in my opinion anyway), a little bit of thought and a less mental colour scheme goes a long way to sorting him out.
"So, you handsome bastard, besides you now championing a model you used to hate, what the fuck is the point of this post?" I hear you ask. Well, working on this big fucker has made me revise my opinion on Mr Morleys sculpting quite a bit, so I'm now actively seeking more of his stuff, in particular his undead sculpts (they can go in my army then, so there's method to the madness), to see what they're like to work on 20 years later when I have a much better idea of what I'm doing. I'm sure there's some gems to be found, and to that end the first part of the project landed on the doormat this morning:

It's a slow burn project, but something I'm quite looking forward to, so watch this space! And next time you're holding a Gary Morley sculpt in your hands, don't just sneer at how "shite" it is, give it a go and see if your mind can be changed too- or better yet, send the fucker to me! 😉

Thanks for reading folks!




14 comments:

  1. Agree, both on Nagash not being such a bad sculpt and Gary Morley not being such a bad sculptor as well.
    I still have my Nagash from back in the day (OK, painted purple and skeleton with veins) and always liked it. At the time, i compensated the silly hat by painting it dark metal almost black.

    Gary's zombies are pretty acceptable, the undead special characters that matter to me (Dieter, Arkhan and Kemmler) are excellent and the necromancers are pretty good as well (remove the head knot from the foot one though!). Wights are functional and some of the wights, and all of the mummies, pass the test of time. The skeleton commands, riders and ghouls are crap but, overall his undead are not bad for a line of miniatures sculpted by a single person in record time...

    Also, check out his upgraded not-Nagash liche lord on Avatars of War if you haven't done so.

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  2. Yeah you got Nagash to work, so maybe you can get the ghouls to work, too. But why you'd bother when there's Paul Muller ghouls to be had I just don't know.... ;P

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  3. Yeah you got Nagash to work, so maybe you can get the ghouls to work, too. But why you'd bother when there's Paul Muller ghouls to be had I just don't know.... ;P

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  4. They rock my socks off mate !
    I've just let Kemmler go to Captain Crooks but I'm pretty sure I still have Necormunda Morley goodness around here.
    #Justiceforgary

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  5. Ive got the full range of Muller ghouls from GW, Heresy and Otherworld mate, nobody comes close to his ghouls sculpts, but that's not the point of this project ;-)

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    1. Fair cop. Have you posted about the Mullers already, or is that for the future? :)

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    2. Not posted yet mate, they're buried in a figure case somewhere, but I will dig them out and some point!

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  6. Cheers frenchie! I've actually got a Kemmler done, and a Krell almost finished too, so keep your eyes peeled for more championing of Mr Morley!!

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  7. Your have turned public opinion once again with your beautiful style and wit! You gorgeous fellow!

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  8. Ace work on Nagash!
    I've never considered it as bad sculpt as internet says, waiting now for my piece to give it proper paintjob.

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  9. I completely agree with you on the subject of the new Nagash model. But IMO that seems to be the general tendency of current GW models: Bigger, more Animé-ish and very unnecessaryly complicated. Frankly, it looks like shit! But you've done a great job of the old model! So pure thumbs up to you!

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  10. The proof is out there, you really can polish a turd! ;)

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  11. Came here via your most recent post, and couldn't agree more.

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