Wednesday 16 January 2019

Dorian Hawkmoon

I've have started reading 'The Chronicles of Castle Brass', by Michael Moorcock. For those of you unfamilar with it, it is a compliation of three stories set in the a post apocalytic Earth, set at least a 1,000 years from now. The setting is part of the Eternal Champion Multiverse, and the central character of these books, and the earlier books, is Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln [Cologne,Germany].

Now, Games Workshop produced a miniature of Dorian Hawkmoon, and other miniatures depicting characters from the Multiverse, in it's BC5 Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion boxset, produced in 1986. This miniatures depicts Dorian before the overthrow of Granbretan, when he still had the Black Jewel implanted in his skull. Whilst reading the book last night I thought it would be fun to paint up Dorian today for no other reason than for the fun of it. Which I did.
The boxset can be seen here:
http://www.solegends.com/citboxes2/bc5eternalchampion.htm

The miniature is lovely. Sculpted by Jes Goodwin, Dorian has all the grace and elegance which is suggested in Moorcock's writings, by some of the artwork based on the books (I am thinking of Rodney Matthews artworks in particular), and also which Jes Goodwin was to produce in his ranges of Elves in the following years. The miniature was fun and quick to paint, with nice detailing. One word of caution is that the miniature is delicate. The casting of the ankles is thin, as is where his sword meets his hand. I have seen several broken, and have anectotal evidence that this is common. As he is the Duke of Koln, I painted the shield with flag of Cologne.

Enjoy :)
 The 1986 Grafton Books edition (1987 re-print).
The cover artwork is by Mark Salwowski.
 Dorian Hawkmoon, Duke of Koln.
 Rear view, showing his firelance.
 Shield, based on the current flag of Cologne.
 Front view.
I am currently sorting out my Rogue Trader Tratior Legions, and so might return to the project I abandoned a couple of years ago. However, I have been distracted by a big box of Slann, and the Eternal Champion range today, so I really need to focus on a project for my next update.

13 comments:

  1. A lovely paint job. I collected and read all the Moorcock books in the 1980's. Some I had to travel to a very `interesting' bookshop in Nottingham to buy; the other customers were smoking strange smelling cigarettes. Very eye opening, followed by a trip to the Asgard Miniatures `shop' in High Pavement.

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    1. That sound like a wonderful experience. We had a few interesting old bookshops years ago here in Brighton, but alas they and the games shops have mostly ebbed away over time. A couple of bookshops in Brighton still have some intersting old books, including some Moorcock. I do enjoy reading Moorcock. I find the multiverse a mindopening concept.

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  2. Cool, I like it! Don't worry, focusing on a single project is overrated :D

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  3. You might be right. Glad you said that too, as I have just been randomly painting some old Imperial Army miniatures from 1987. :)

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  4. great painting on a classic Jes figure. I believe Chris Achilleos did some artwork at a later point for the eternal champion as well

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    1. I do like Jes Goodwin's miniatures. They were elegant and just the right amount of details I do see some similarities with some of Rodney Matthews artwork.
      You're right, Chris Achilleos did some great
      Eternal Champion artwork as well.

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  5. Well done! I have one of these models waiting to be painted. I plan on using him as a standard bearer for a unit of elf Warriors.

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    1. Thank you.
      That's a great idea. With the Firelance, I always though he would make a good early Rogue Trader era Eldar adventurer, perhaps without the shield though.

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  6. I did love this series of figures as a kid!

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    1. I did as well, but I never owned any until a few years ago. The whole Eternal Champion range is great.

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  7. This is from the second set of Hawkmoon books, isn't it? Theres the Runestaff series and then a follow up set, from some time later.

    Being a long term collector of Moorcock 70s editions, I was most pleased to find two of them sitting on a random ledge at Clapham North tube station. Enquired, but they had been sitting there for days apparently. Not for much longer they weren't :)

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    1. Yes you're right. This is the Trilogy after the Runestaff series. Congratulations on picking up two of the 1970's editions. Some of the cover artwork from the 1970's really good.

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