Citadel LE15 Amazonia Gothique - an unexpected tribute

So about three weeks ago, I decided to make a start on an idea I'd had for a while, a small vignette featuring the limited edition model, based on the classic John Blanche painting, Amazonia Gothique. Sticking fairly closely to the scheme of the original painting, I found the armour a bit of a challenge, as I don't often paint green. The plan was to include one or two odd looking characters into the mix, similar to what John did in his painting, "Troubadours", also produced around the same period as Amazonia. So I opted for one of the classic familiars, Iron Clad Imp and also the Motley Maniac, AKA Death Jester, another from Citadel's limited edition range.

I actually had a Motley Maniac still in its blister from, I'm guessing around 40 years ago so I carefully made an incision in the plastic to remove him, making sure not to damage the packaging, breathing in deeply that 1980's air as I did so. He's actually a very tricky little model to paint and not for the faint hearted and pretty unpleasant to work on, personally but I was pleased with how he turned out.

So last week, with all three figures painted and working on the base, I heard the sad news of John's passing, so what initially began as a John Blanche themed project ended up as an unexpected tribute piece.

I never had the pleasure of meeting John, the closest to that was passing him in the corridor at Lenton when I was there having a Golden Demon winner's tour of the studio/factory back in the 90's. It goes without saying that his influence over the decades was paramount with the undead diorama I produced is massively influenced on his legendary epic diorama we all know and love. I know my life would have shaped out somewhat differently if not for him. Rest easy John...

As for what's next, I'm most likely going to try and finish my slow burning Empire spearmen project. There's only three more models to get done to wrap it up so it's more than doable. Then I'll probably embark on more chaos renegades. We'll see.

Incidentally, this is my 200th blog post, dating back from 2013. I can't say I'm as prolific as many of the legendary bloggers in my field, if I'm lucky, I'll get about 15 posts in a year these days but it's nice to still use this platform and keep the blog ticking along.