Wednesday, July 11, 2012

It came from the Closet of Doom - Ambull and Damsel in Distress

I've been doing some much needed clean-up of the hobby loft recently, organizing the hundreds of miscellaneous models covering nearly every horizontal surface into their respective armies. Well, into loosely affiliated piles is probably a bit more accurate. Naturally, there are quite a few models that defy categorization that ended up in a "miscellaneous" pile. A pair of them caught my eye and I couldn't help but spend an hour or so painting them up. Beauty, and the Beast!


The "beauty" is a model I got from Ramshackle Games along with my order of motorbikes used for my Rough Riders. A bit of a rough sculpt, but perfect for an objective marker for the... less savory armies out there. I think I need to go in and touch up the face a bit - this particular model is somewhat lacking definition in the sculpt, so I'll need to do some false highlighting to give it a bit more zest. This model is one of the oldest in the series Curtis has done, and his newer sculpts are really well done. I heartily recommend Ramshackle games - he's always adding not only new models, but also has an extensive "bits and bobs" section chock full of cool conversion potential!


The beast is an old, out of print Ambull - a critter from the Rogue Trader days, that burrows around underground and is a general nuisance creature. Well, a nuisance that stands about 9 feet tall, weighs a quarter ton and has claws capable of digging through solid rock! A colony of Ambulls showed up in one of Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novels more recently, which definitely got a smile out of me. I'm tempted to add this to my guard army as a "regimental pet" - perhaps as a proxy Nork Deddog... "Who's a good boy?"

8 comments:

  1. Very very cool models. I was going to say that the "lady" on the rock would make a fantastic objective marker but you had the same idea already. Would be great for a Dark Eldar or Daemons army, as a sacrifice to try and appease them.

    Cool to see the Ambull, I'd forgotten about them till now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh wow!
    I love the Ambull.
    Wish they would bring them back some how....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Agree with Kevin, always loved Ambulls. What else you got in that closet!?

    I found a handful of old 1st Ed Talisman figs recently that I had forgotten I owned - Gypsy, Magician, Zulu and a few others. Random as heck.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I actually just found an old plastic box set from way back when that contains a wizard representing every Lore of Magic! I love finding old stuff, especially old Chaos Space Marines.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks folks!

    @Andy - bG: Indeed! I think I need to come up with some scenario wherein the damsel must be rescued before she's consumed by some fell beastie, while the opposing side needs to fend off the rescuers so the beast is properly appeased...

    @Dai: The Closet of Doom is full of all sorts of old blister packs and sprues and boxes of things I probably should have thrown out years ago... Nice find with the old Talisman figs!

    @Kevin: Nice find! That's one nice thing about a years-deep closet full of bits and boxes, occasionally the spelunking will uncover some blast from the past. Heck, the Ambull was still in a blister when I found it, with a price tag from a game store that closed over 15 years ago. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I never knew they made an Ambul. Great model. Well painted, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That Ambull is one sweet mini.

    I can only second your praise for Ramshackle - lots of interesting bits there.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love Ramshackle games. They're a great line with some really fine vehicle parts for Ork conversions and the like. Love the Ambull too -that's one heck of a good find.

    ReplyDelete