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Theres been something thats annoyed me lately, and it's this-why do many of GW's models look so different to the art?

Now, for some *Cough cough striking scorpions cough cough*, this is a good thing, but lets look at the Doombull-The artwork shows it as armoured, demonic, bestial monstrosity, its two axes held ready to cleave more foe things apart. In short, it look very cool:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=8200014a
Thats the model I want to field as the Doombull for my beastmen. I want to take that out of the image and actually ravage the puny civilised realms with it. But we didn't get that model. No what we GOT was the warhammer worlds very own version of Manbearpig:


Ugh. And it's not the first time they've done this-look at the Skaven Vermin lords art compared to its model and you'll see what I mean. Am I the only one who gets thier blood boiled about this, or do others agree with me? Should Games workshop try to make thier models look more like their art?

/Discuss.

Its quite common in anything recreated from different mediums.

Some artist have trouble capturing the essence of an art work.

The actual model doesn't look hugely different from the artwork, it's just the way it has been painted. Painting it in those wierd human/pig skin tones has made it a lot less evil looking. If you compare the art to a better painted mino you see the similarities.

With any model the colours really create the tone and this is very important if you want to copy artwork.

I still don't get it, what was wrong with sculpting awesome-looking generic minotaurs, like the ones in the artwork for the book?

It's the same with the Lizardmen Terradons, Salamanders and Chameleon Skinks. All have pretty book art, but the models capture them poorly.

Sometimes it isn't possible to convert the freehand 2D art into a feasible 3D sculpture which can be moulded.

Granted that's true, but with the Terradons, it looks like they are giving you a half-brained smile. It wouldn't hurt to try and improve them.

i think your completely wrong in using a doombull as you example. the artwork for the doombull is of a doombull with 2 hand weapons (which i believe is an option) the doombull we got is a doombull with a great weapon, thats pretty much the only difference other that the right arm having no 'shoulder pad'(which may have been swapped sides, the artwork doesnt show us if they have the shoulder pads on both sides or not) and the lack of a second set of horns, thats about it.

personally i like the doombull sculpt, if the rest of the new stuff wasnt so terrible i would have got some beastmen.

There are a few different potential reasons for the sculpt to not match the artwork.
- the artwork is used simply as a guide for a basic look, and the sculptor interprets it differently
- The sculptor assigned to the project isn't capable of reproducing the artwork exactly
- the design as pictured isn't suitable for casting
- the design as pictured in the artwork is deemed inappropriate (pick a reason) and so the miniature design is altered to be more suitable for the target audience
- the artwork is only one of several different pieces used for inspiration, and the sculptor draws from a range of them rather than just one.
- the artwork used by GW in their publications is recycled pretty much indefinitely, and doesn't always match anything being currently produced stylistically.

There are probably a whole swag more.

Just another reason for me on why Jes is awesome.

Unless the artwork is set-up to actually be a guide for the sculpter, there's no reason to expect the art and the model to look alike. My guess is the two departments (art and sculpting) work independent of one another and probably use some rough sketches of what is needed. The sketches are probably done by one of the art department heads and then delegated to others for finished work. The finished artwork may even be from a freelance artist who works by commission. This is purely speculation but it seems reasonable from what I know of an art dept.

Also keep scale in mind. The B&W drawing has some decent-sized sharp teeth. But they would be too small to be visible on a 28mm model. So the model has 2 coke cans projecting from his lips instead of small fangs.

It's still a crappy model but keep in mind not every detail words in a tiny scale.

There is a disconnect, but it can be hard to capture. Battletech had had some sculptors produce abominations because the guy making the art felt like putting something in an odd pose.

Of course, the biggest disconnect is the Doombull's pricing as a model and reality...

The worst part of the new minotaurs are the legs. They don't look like proper hooves, and they don't look like proper feet. They just look like someone ripped off a man's toes, and replaced them with hoove-like, clawish appendages.

That Razorgor is horrible. I remember when a lot of models were wonky looking, or just really garbagy, but after such a long line of "wins" they come out with that. The Beastman range is a total disappointment.

As for other models not looking like their artwork, te Warriors of Chaos are a good example. And as Kid Kyoto pointed out, you can't reproduce that kind of detail on a 28mm model. However, the new WoC stuff didn't look so terrible when it came out. I don't know anyone who said " Oh man! That's awesome!" when they saw the first pics of the Beast stuff. But I remember when the WoC stuff, and to a lesser extent the Skaven stuff, came out my gaming associates were drooling.

Well, if only eh?