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People say that not everything he sculpts is utter gak, but what's the proof if this claim?

I can think of a number horribly-sculpted minis (e.g. DE Grotesques), but has he made anything of passable to good quality?

Something that you bought purely based on how it looked?

Help?

If I'm not mistaken he did a lot of high elf stuff. It isn't epic but it isn't horrible. I mean, for their time the sword masters and white lions are on even ground with anything else GW did at that time.

Granted they aren't the best things but lets be fair here.

His undead were nice I liked Vlad, Isabella and Kell. Didn't he do The Lichemaster?

Gary Morley's website

Well im surprised he sculpted Orion .

But other than that , the rest are awfully and statically posed. The usual GW's "point at something with a sword !"pose.

Either way its time to celebrate GW breaking that habit, with new SKAVEN! ( now who sculpted those? )

Well skaven are originally Jes' and I'd be surprised if they didn't have him do at least half the new range.

His models all seem to have the same face. I do like his white lions, and orion, but that's about it.

Thanks, George!

According to his website, Gary sculpted for GW starting in 1992. Fortunately, I have an old 1998 Catalog, so:

the complete Undead range, (The old Carstin, era).
- Oh, that's NOT good. Everything is static or 2-D flat and pointing their sword in the air. It's like he only knows how to pose things with their legs apart, fists raised at head-height, and staring straight ahead... The Carsteins were horrible, even back then. The Necromancer on Manticore? *shudder* And then, capping it all of is Nagash...

complete Blood Bowl range (The 3rd edition)
- I'm not familiar with these, but if they've not been redone since Gary did the 3rd edition, then no help here, either.

The entire Warhammer Quest models,
- there are pictures of the painted Orc & barbarian. Not horrible, but not impressive, either.

2nd release High Elf range,
- As hinted with Undead, Gary loves his straight-legged skirted / robed models! It's almost like he can't sculpt knees... The Maiden Guard are ghastly - if only Juan Diaz could be given a crack at giving them new models...

All-in-all, the elites (White Lions & Phoenix Guard) aren't dire, while Imrik on Dragon and Eltharion on Griffon are both par for time of sculpting.

But nothing here stands the test of time.

Wood elf range (most of the old metals)
These are MUCH better than the HE or Undead - many models actually turn their heads and heels a bit.

The Waywatchers are decent, and the Wood Elf Dragon is pretty good. The non-humans (Dryads, Treemen, Orion, & Ariel) are horrible.

Necromunda gangs: Van Saar, Goliath's, Redemptionists, and a number of the Characters
Redemptionists are more of the robe guys, and I don't recall any of them.

Van Saar are OK in their David Lynch Dune stillsuits, tho suffer from the 2-D posing.


Warmaster and also made some of the Armies.
- no impression for the 10mm stuff

Inquisitor project; Tyrus, Duke Van Castellan, Delphan Gruss.
- I didn't like any of these models, and own none of them. I've got an Artemis, along with some other stuff, tho.

Dark Elves
- not sure which version, but I don't like these much at all. I have some of the old metal Crossbows, and they're like the HE, so probably his. Not as bad as the current plastics, but flat and static.

lot of the Dark Eldar imagery.


I was project leader on the last plastic high Elves, and, all the Bretonians (plastic and metal).
- I can't think of anything here that jumps out here.

Lord of the Rings: Gandalf, Mouth of Sauron, Sauruman, some Orcs, Haradrim, first film Elves, Elrond, Haldir, Arwen, Ringwraiths,
- I got Saruman in a trade, along with some Ringwraiths, and these are just robes with heads & hands. Not impressed.


So on net, he can do some OK work (WE Dragon), but he's not great.

With the information given, can others come up with gems I've overlooked?

Leave Gary Morley alone!

I will come out and say I always liked the VanSaar sculpts - I thought that was a pretty well done gang.

The Goliaths he did though are darn near the worst items in the entire Necromunda line (defeated only by the plastic Goliaths).

JohnHwangDD wrote:People say that not everything he sculpts is utter gak, but what's the proof if this claim?

I can think of a number horribly-sculpted minis (e.g. DE Grotesques), but has he made anything of passable to good quality?

Something that you bought purely based on how it looked?

Help?

He has never sculpted a "good" model.

Nagash = case closed

Cheers

Now I quite like Nagash, so case back open

Yeah, he sculpted Krell and Kemmler aka The Lichmaster, two of my favourite undead back in the day. Also the wood elf dragon was revolutionary and highly original.

I most certainly bought both those undead for their looks alone, along with the necromancer with the whispy beard.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There was another wight with a bat winged helm and a skele standard bearer with a bell on the standard that also were bought by me because I liked them.

John, your criticism of pose is entirely without merit. ALL GW figures lacked dynamic poses back then, even the Sainted JG's skaven were to be found in that awful 'legs apart, both arms straight up' pose that every champion model had.

The Original grey knight terminators with the halberd nemesis weapons had an over/under hand pose that sucked ass, the daemonhunter Ordo Malleus terminator had his feet cast so far forward he wouldn't stand up.

MeanGreenStompa wrote:John, your criticism of pose is entirely without merit. ALL GW figures lacked dynamic poses back then, even the Sainted JG's skaven were to be found in that awful 'legs apart, both arms straight up' pose that every champion model had.

The Original grey knight terminators with the halberd nemesis weapons had an over/under hand pose that sucked ass,

the daemonhunter Ordo Malleus terminator had his feet cast so far forward he wouldn't stand up.

OK, I've got my '98 Catalog out, and if those are Jes' Skaven, they're far superior to Gary's Undead. Jes' Skaven, while flat, at least have some lateral motion because the models are turned somewhat sideways, rather than straight ahead. The legs are bent and angled, rather than stick-straight, and the heads are nearly always looking to the side. Where the model is looking straight ahead, at least Jes isn't placing the 2nd hand as a fist at head level...

I own a full set of the original GK Termies that you reference, and they're quite posable, aside from the one model with the "rough" armor. The Zweihander model is awesome. And these models are still far better than their current incarnations.

I own the Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter, and yeah, he leans bit too far forward to balance well, but is still well-detailed.

Anyhow, of your examples, I only like the Wood Elf Dragon.

I do not think he is terrible either, to say that the ring wraiths have robes is just silly you obviously haven't seen the movies they were based upon

If you are good at it, you are good at it, nothing wrong with robes. To be honest looking back at that time his stuff is great. its certainly better then von carsteins now that are what chaos warriors that like to open their mouths alot.

to me it has to be the wood elf range it blew everything away when it came out. also the black dragon was very good also.

The LOTR Arwen that he did was probably the ugliest model that Games Workshop has ever produced. I think they stopped making it, thankfully.

The chaos hero ltd edition model lifting the elf by his neck is a pretty good model. As is the Wood Elf BSB.
The HE shadow warriors and WE waywatchers are decent. Tyrion is pretty good.

I still like the old 80s-hair Wardancers, though they're kind of cheesy, and have been blown away completely by the current sculpts.

Yeah, overall some decent, nothing outstanding, and a fair amount of real junk (like most of those old undead). I'm surprised at the volume of really poor poses shown on his gallery ("photo page") page:

http://www.iklectica.co.uk/

The Inquisitor, Bounty Huntress, and Sheriff, in particular, are terrible.

The Bounty Huntress could be in a much better pose and would still dramatically fail to be a good sculpt.

Well yeah, she's kind of an epic fail all around.

Looking again at Isabella and the Lichmaster I still like both of them. They're very cartoony and 'Hammer horror' which isn't popular right now but I like them. The Empire Noble was a good Warhammer Quest figure as were the Witchhunter and Wardancer. The Van Saar are good models as are the Redemptionists, both are much better than the Specialist games sculpts that replaced them (Did Specialist Games release any good 28mm sculpts?).

Lol,

Morley is an old GW standard that you need to have just for the flavor.

I liked his Necromunda stuff and had lots of fun with them.

His Undead were pretty good, as well.

He's not the greatest they ever had, but he's not the worst that they've ever had, either.


I'd rate him at 3 and a half skulls out of 5. middle of the road, bound to eventually be hit.

I really like the Krell model as well as the original Manfred. His Waywatchers are still some of my favorite GW models.

Ok, looking at the Photos page...

The Assassin isn't bad, but does he need cartoon boobs on all his females?

Arwen is pure fail.

If he sculpted the Wood Elf Dragon, why isn't that displayed?!?

I thought Trish Morrison did all the Warhammer monsters. He may have done the rider.

Oh, well, that would explain why I like the Wood Elf Dragon far more than the Wood Elf rider.

Did she also do the CD Manticore? Yuck.

Flashman wrote:Now I quite like Nagash, so case back open

I knew someone in this world liked that mini and I have found him! I can now cross that off my to do list..

Please tell me how you like the smiling death clown of DOOM!

Cheers

Just going from his own page.

that ltd ed blood bowl player is excellent. One of the best BB figs imho (althugh frankly, BB is a great game with some bloody horrible models)

Khorne Lord on horse is good as is the khorne hero on the pile of skulls. In fact that's one of my favourite chaos models. The chaos hero choking the wood elf is pretty good too. I think the key to these three figs is that they aren't flat which is usually morley's problem.

His =][=　minis were not the best but tyrus was fine.

Tyrion and Teclis are sculpts that still hold up in my opinion. Especially Tyrion.

The Wood Eld BB is astonishing.

The sword masters are rubbish but the white lions are great.

Those way watchers kick ass, and again nice poses that aren't flat.

Manfred is half a decent model and half a crap one. Great face, great clothes, lovely design, horrible pose, terrible horse and wha on earth is that thing he's holding in his hand?

In summary I'd say unusually good faces for GW and okay sculpts as far as detail, balance, etc is concerned just marred by some really atrocious poses.

bravelybravesirrobin wrote:that ltd ed blood bowl player is excellent. One of the best BB figs imho (althugh frankly, BB is a great game with some bloody horrible models)

That is actually a large scale model. Its a one off he sculpted. I think it is larger than 54mm. Maybe 72?

So it isn't a playable model.

Most people playing BB now convert plastic WFB regiment models for use. Its a hell of a lot easier than getting the metals from GW.

A friend had to wait over a month for a blister for his BB team. He placed the order through the local shop.

I think Tyrion is about the best he's done.

There was a story floating around a while back on various forums that Nagash was actually more the fault of the 'powers that be' at GW than Morley himself. He had supposedly sculpted an entirely different and altogether more sinister head for it (which, while still being relatively static, would have made a heck of a difference, even by 90's standards) but it was knocked back as too scary, and told to sculpt something more cartoony. In a fit of pique, he (again, allegedly) whipped up a crude skull head in an attempt to show 'them' how silly that idea was... and it was accepted as the production model.

May of course not be at all true.

That Arwen looks like the lead singer from Kings of Leon.

I love the fantasy Khorne Lord