Gary Morley Sighting

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**Le Grognard**

And you all thought he had slipped away into LotR obscurity:

Wargames Illustrated Issue 268

Insider Interview: Gary Morley
Not only is he the sculptor behind the new ‘Moments in History’ figure range from WI, Gary has had an illustrious
sculpting career in the historical and fantasy hobby. We thrust a microphone in front of him and asked him to tell us
about some of the highs and lows of sculpting toy soldiers.

Great concept with the figs, but not so sure about the sculpts. http://www.wargamesillustrated.net/Default.aspx?tabid=279

Haven't read the article, mag isn't out yet.

Discuss.

**Lorek**

Those are the nicest 15mm miniatures that I've ever seen!

**Alpharius**

Le Grognard wrote:And you all thought he had slipped away into LotR obscurity:

Wargames Illustrated Issue 268

Insider Interview: Gary Morley
Not only is he the sculptor behind the new ‘Moments in History’ figure range from WI, Gary has had an illustrious
sculpting career in the historical and fantasy hobby. We thrust a microphone in front of him and asked him to tell us
about some of the highs and lows of sculpting toy soldiers.

Just curious - does he talk about Nagash at all?

I spent a bit of time chatting with him at Gamesday Atlanta back in 2006 (maybe 2005?) - he's a really nice guy!

**chaplaingrabthar**

I loved the King Charles one. Morley has improved since the days of Blood Bowl and the undead Abomination Who Shall Not Be Named.

**George Spiggott**

I like the Rommel and Monty one, not sure about the uniform colours though.

**Robert Facepalmer**

chaplaingrabthar wrote:I loved the King Charles one. Morley has improved since the days of Blood Bowl and the undead Abomination Who Shall Not Be Named.

To be fair, I think he is a solid sculptor, but his heyday unfortunately coincided with an era when casting technology and gaming economics were not conducive to elaborate, multi-part poses. Also, Nagash is an excellent cautionary tale on revisions and how people have horrible taste.

**Grot 6**

Is he sculpting the guys for the 15 mm vietnam game?

**Rargh**

Grot 6 wrote:Is he sculpting the guys for the 15 mm vietnam game?

The stuff that they have already put out was done by the ex sculptor from Flashpoint Miniatures, not Gary Morley.

R

**JohnHwangDD**

chaplaingrabthar wrote:Morley has improved since the days of Blood Bowl and the undead Abomination Who Shall Not Be Named.

It's not bad work, but nothing that I'd by. I wonder how Pegaso, Andrea, or any talented scupltor would have fared in 54mm.

And it'd be hard for him *NOT* to have improved since...

**chaplaingrabthar**

Curse you, Hwang!

I knew it was coming. Let's see what else was a Morley piece from the Blood Bowl era:

**reds8n**

http://www.iklectica.co.uk/ is his own, somewhat neglected, website. His khorne stuff is great.

as to Nagash...

.... the story on the Nagash, model... is this;

It was my first big Multi-part mini I had ever attempted. and it certainly
went through many versions in sculpting. (In those days concept drawing
were very sketchy and I had very little input.) But only one version ever made it to the
moulds. However, there are two head versions the original head was based
on the design that i was given, a more Zombie looking type. And that was the one
that my design manager and I (at the time) prefered. But at that time all miniatures
had to be approved not only by the design studio, but also by the sales management.

This is where it came un-stuck! They did'nt like it, and prefered to have a Skull,...?
Much to my dislike. Now because of release dates and schedules I had one day to put it 'right'. So preffering the original I went ahead and made the alternative. Now, I never thought for one moment thought that they would approve the (laughing clown) skull and would revert back to the original.
The Joke back-fired. And to my horror it was approved and they released it!

Throughout my time at GW I know i made some sculpts that I was not that happy with.
But, Nagash has been the one model that Haunted me all through my time there.
(AND IT STILL DOES!)
And vowed that I would re-make before I left. However, that was never to be.

I am working on my own version but will prolly not see the light of day until next year. Stands approx 70mm tall and will be cast in around 20 parts.

Blood Bowl was my favorite game at GW. Shame they never wanted to push it further. I would have love to have seen a Necromunder version.

from the thread here http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161113&page=2

**Alpharius**

I don't think the face is the only thing wrong with that model.

Still, I can see his point.

The Razorgor is probably proof that this still happens today...

**JohnHwangDD**

Yeah, riight... Gary "meant" for Nagash to be like that as a joke, sure.

**RiTides**

Those two blood bowl models posted above (after Nagash, of course...) are pretty good... imho!

**Hellfury**

Well, at least I know what models NOT to buy in the future.

**JohnHwangDD**

Hellfury wrote:Well, at least I know what models NOT to buy in the future.

As a general rule, "sculpted by Gary Morley" isn't a bad start.

**RiTides**

You know, he's a real dude... sometimes nerd rage like this can really discourage an artist.

You don't think this is good work (apparently from the same era as the other disastrous figure):

That's got an awesome retro BB feel to it. I'd be proud to own that mini!

**chaplaingrabthar**

RiTides wrote:You know, he's a real dude... sometimes nerd rage like this can really discourage an artist.

Well, yeah. But in this hobby, everyone gets nerd raged at. I believe my first sentence in this thread was "I loved the King Charles one," which is clearly a glimmering white hot fury of nerdy rageness. I then mentioned how Mr.
Morley's sculpting skills have improved since some of the bad old days at GW, which JohnHwangDD and I proceeded to illustrate.

RiTides wrote:You don't think this is good work (apparently from the same era as the other disastrous figure):

That's got an awesome retro BB feel to it. I'd be proud to own that mini!

No, I think it's a fairly hideous figure, particularly the man boobs and slack-jawed facial expression. I'm not keen on Retro for retro's sake when the reason many of the retro figures were redone was due to what were poor sculpts.

**JohnHwangDD**

BB is about huge aureolae on men? or the buffest and smallest-boobed women? What?

**Da Boss**

JohnHwangDD wrote:BB is about huge aureolae on men? or the buffest and smallest-boobed women? What?

Obviously, Morley was making a point about steroid use in professional sports. GW has continued their anti steroid message with the minotaurs. Really, they are a caring corporation.

**RiTides**

chaplaingrabthar wrote:
RiTides wrote:You know, he's a real dude... sometimes nerd rage like this can really discourage an artist.

Well, yeah. But in this hobby, everyone gets nerd raged at. I believe my first sentence in this thread was "I loved the King Charles one," which is clearly a glimmering white hot fury of nerdy rageness. I then mentioned how Mr.
Morley's sculpting skills have improved since some of the bad old days at GW, which JohnHwangDD and I proceeded to illustrate.

My comment wasn't directed to you, chaplaingrabthar... but still, just because "everyone gets nerd raged at" doesn't make it OK to pile on. I personally really like the blood bowl figures above... just my $0.02

**jullevi**

Morley also did metal High Elf cavalry for Mantic Games.