A few weeks back I wrote about Provisionally Prepared, a Warhammer Commemorative Series miniature, or limited edition as we use to call them. When it sells out, they won’t make any more. It’s a lovely little diorama and it features two halflings, sorry abhuman Ratlings, hiding behind some ruins. One is a sniper and preparing to shoot, the other is preparing lunch.
I liked it, so pre-ordered it from my FLGS. What I had forgotten about, or more likely I hadn’t pre-ordered anything in a while, is that Games Workshop have moved to a two week pre-order window. I thought it was a week, so I went to my FLGS last week to pick it up. Of course they didn’t have it, so I picked something else up instead.
This week I went back and picked up Provisionally Prepared. It’s a little box with a single sprue. When (and if) I paint this up, I will be painting the two Ratlings separately to the scenic base.
Last month I wrote a post about the Citadel Limited Editions that I had seen at Warhammer World. I remember thinking that it was a pity that Games Workshop stopped producing miniatures like this.
Of course the reality is that now and again they do release similar models. We have seen the Red Gobbo festive release and today a lovely little diorama, Provisionally Prepared has gone on pre-order. It features two halflings, sorry abhuman Ratlings, hiding behind some ruins. One is a sniper and preparing to shoot, the other is preparing lunch.
Diminutive, keen-eyed and instinctively stealthy, the abhuman Ratlings serve the Astra Militarum primarily as outstanding snipers – they can take the head off a heretic with their rifles from over a mile away.
Get ready to celebrate with this incredibly detailed diorama showing two Ratling sniper specialists right in the middle of their two most important jobs – fighting and eating.
Thoroughly dug in behind a sturdy barricade, the sniper is shown taking cover and getting ready to shoot. Their colleague, meanwhile, prepares to reload both their bellies and their weaponry, equipped as they are with tasty sausages, a turkey, fresh drinks, grenades, and more, all within easy reach.
This is not a regular army model, this is an amusing scene that captures the essence of halflings in space. It so reminds me of the types of limited editions that we would see in the 1980s.
I really like this model, so I have pre-ordered it from my FLGS.
In the 1980s Citadel released a range of limited edition models. These were quirky models that did not always fit the archetype fantasy model. These were often the earliest examples of 40K models. In addition many of the models were juvenile, the dwarf on the toilet comes to mind.
This Space Orc (note Orc not Ork) was on display at Warhammer World.
Interesting that they have based it on a cavalry base.
I have one of these in in my collection, I also have one of the Space Skeletons that was on display at Warhammer World.
There never was an Undead army for 40K, in the same way that orcs became orks, elves became eldar. The closest equivalent was the Necrons. This model though reminds me of the Vashta Nerada from Doctor Who, who were in the episode Silence in the Library.
This was the Zoat. It was first mentioned in the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay rulebook.
I have one of these, which I had painted purple.
LE Fantasy Zoat
These were fun models, some were excellent, others were not.
When Gorzag Gitstompa and Nikkit appeared on the Games Workshop webstore back in January I was tempted, and then remembered that these kinds of things sell out so I ordered it.
Dey say it’z da time of givin’ – well it’z da time of takin’ too, and dat’s just what Nikkit does best! Da Ammo Runt goes round makin’ sure dat ‘is boss, Gorzag Gitstompa, has everything he needs to break heads.
Grab these commemorative seasonal miniatures. Gorzag is based on a model that was available for Games Day 1998 that was itself based on the old box art for the classic game Gorkamorka. This glorious update reimagines the model in plastic and brings along a Grot Ammo Runt, Nikkit. These can be added to any Ork army as an Ork Nob and Ammo Runt, adding some individualisation to your collection.
This 8-piece plastic kit makes one Gorzag Gitstompa and one Nikkit. It is supplied with a 32mm Citadel round base and a 25mm Citadel round base.
It said it would take up to 120 days for delivery, so knew it would take some time to arrive and it arrived last week.
You get a nice box, which (probably) contains a single plastic sprue.
I haven’t actually opened it yet, still sealed.
Yes £21 for a model is quite expensive in my thinking, I still remember when I thought £1.95 for a single metal model was extortionate. However I have to remember it is 2021, I am no longer a teenager and the value of this shouldn’t be about how much (or how little) plastic is contained in the box. I was buying a modelling experience, not just a piece of plastic. Well that’s how I justify it to myself these days.
At some point I expect this to appear on the Ork workbench.
These Citadel Limited Editions and these first Space Marine models were on display at Warhammer World.
I did have most of these at one time, some I still have, others I sold on eBay. However I do have photographs of my collection in the Citadel Limited Editions Miniatures Gallery.
As with my Ork Warbuggy photographs, I recently found the original photograph of LE24 Sleazy Rider, so I decided to rescan them as I had only low-res ones on the site.
Sleazy Rider was a Citadel Limited Edition released in July 1987. At the time it was £1.95, which though appears cheap today, wasn’t then!
This is Sleazy Rider the original Orc biker (at that time there were no Orks just Orcs).
Despite the bike, the hemet and the shotgun this was a fantasy model, Sleazy was an Orc not an Ork!
This is Sleazy Rider the original Orc biker (at that time there were no Orks just Orcs).
The advert from White Dwarf #91 has text talking about a fantasy ‘car’ race involving vehicles with steam boilers and Snotling Pump Wagons.
‘Dad was hero,’ gasped Mad Sid, ‘he died out on the track…’ A silence fell upon the tribe as their leader wiped a tear from a piggy little eye. ‘Dad was a real orc, an orc with a dream! All he ever wanted was to win the Undun Appoluz. It was neck and neck coming up to Death Pit Corner. Dad was on the inside with the Stunty Evulcan Evul on the outside. As they went into the bend, Dad opened up and went into the lead. For just one second he was in Evulcan’s sights…’ A lump came to Mad Sid’s throat, ‘the bolt hit the steam boiler. They never found Dad. It took three weeks to fill in the crater.
As Mad Sid bowed his head in memory of his sire, a tall, made-eyed and rather oily orc wheeled the new machine forwards. ‘She’s faster than the Borgheim Bersekers super-charged steam dragster. She’ll leave the Drastic Dik and the Snotling Pump Wagon on the grid. She’ll go like a Stunty rat-catcher with a red-hot poker up its…’
‘What are we waiting for!’ Bellowed Mad Sid. ‘Undun Apollouz Allcomers here we come!’
The bike rear was based on a Judge Dredd bike, but the front had a wooden wheel and an Evil Sunz glyph.
In the advert, the Citadel painted model had a US flag painted on the fuel tank, so when I painted mine I did the opposite and painted the Soviet flay on my model.
As I was writing this blog post I got thinking that maybe there was something here about a new game, a fantasy racing car game. Well Bloodbowl is fantasy football!
I have distant memories of playing a chariot race using the Warhammer rules, and we didn’t just have chariots either, there was probably a Snoting Pump Wagon in the midst as well.
Yes that title is correct this is the original limited edition Space Orc (not Ork) that was released in the 1980s (think it was 1985) on display at Warhammer World. This was the first limited edition (hence LE1) and arrived before the Space Marine LE2.
Here is a photograph of my model, which I bought and painted in the 1980s.
