Published April 11, 2012 | By David Clough

Kits inspired by Fantasy Artists

From Ceremonial Studios, sculpted by Richard Almond

Where do fantasy model sculptors get their inspiration from?

Often it’s from famous fantasy illustrators like Frazetta, Vallejo and Achilleos. In this section I’ve tried to pair some of the paintings with the kits they inspired.

Needless to say this is only a very small selection of the many out there. I have owned all of the kits or figures featured here at one time – except the Bowen Death Dealer – but have since sold many of them.

FRANK FRAZETTA

Frank Frazetta has inspired kits, pre-paints and even a range of plastic figures.

Valiant brought out 75 mm metal versions of “Death Dealer” and “Moon Maiden” in the 80’s but they were very poor sculptures.
Joachim Lindman/ Swede Creations produced a mounted “Death Rider” kit in the 90’s. Randy Bowen (Bowen Designs) sculpted a much larger pre-paint of “The Death Dealer” in a standard and deluxe version which is very fine and very expensive.

Clayburn Moore of Moore Creations sculpted an exquisite pre-paint version of “The Barbarian” and has also produced a “Princess” figurine and a snow-globe version of “Silver Warrior”.Avatar also produced a cold-cast kit version of “Silver Warrior”.

The late Richard Almond sculpted “Venom Destroyer” and “The Evil One” (based on FF’s “Mongol tyrant”) for Almond Sculptures and Ceremonial Studios respectively.

Fatman Productions produced “The Conqueror”; a generic Frazetta/ Dealer figure. Shawn Nagle has sculpted (several?) Vampirella kits and recently another Death Dealer figure. Diceman produced a very nice version of The Moon Maid; now sadly OOP.

Lord of The Rings illustration		Venom Destroyer
Death Dealer		Randy Bowen’s “Death Dealer”
Conan The Barbarian		Conan pre-paint by Clayburn Moore

CHRIS ACHILLEOS

Chris Achilleos has recently endorsed an official line of pre-painted statues by Iconia.

Fine Art Castings produced metal model kit versions of “Raven1” and “Raven2” and “Commanche Girl” in the early 90’s in 200mm. They were detailed but fairly clunky.
Richard Almond did better sculpts of “King Kull” and “Gor” for Ceremonial Studios.
Chub Pearson’s “Scaley Axel” for Barton Miniatures was also obviously influenced by Achilleos.
The Czech company Hofi more recently produced a smaller scale version of “Harem Guard” which unfortunately looks a bit bandy-legged.

		Scaley Axel, Barton Miniatures, by Chubb Pearson
Harem Guard		Harem Guard by Hofi
King Kull		From Ceremonial Studios, sculpted by Richard Almond

GERALD BROM

Brom has inspired two 1/6 garage kits produced by model producers Simian “Miss Muffet” and ” Grafter“.

RAFM has produced a small scale metal version of “Blazon“.

Tim Bruckner sculpted “Gazelle Woman” which has been released as a cold cast resin pre-paint by Sideshow.

Gazelle Woman		Gazrlle Woman by Sideshow
Blazon		Blazon by RAFM
Grafter		Grafter by Simian
Miss Muffet		Miss Muffet by Simian

LUIS ROYO

Luis Royo is one of the best represented fantasy artists in the model world due almost exclusively to the Korean company Sol (and possibly by Elfin).

They produce a range of figures derived from his paintings as vinyl kits and one or two in resin. See below for examples.

Immaculate		Immaculate – Sol Models
The Acacia Leaves		Summon Guardian – Sol
Wings Of Reflection		Fin – Sol

BORIS VALLEJO

Boris Vallejo’s work was first interpreted in kit form by Grenadier in a now semi-legendary series of 77mm vignettes that included “Primevil Princess“, “The Magic Goes Away“, and “Gracus the Centurion“.

They looked great in photos and were enthusiastically endorsed by Boris but disappeared almost immediately. I’ve only seen pictures but have been told by dealers that they were very poorly cast and sculpted.

Cellar Cast were the next to tackle the Vallejo oeuvre with a series of 1/6 resin kits in the 90’s. All are now unobtainable and collector’s items.

Vampire’s Kiss		Vampire’s Kiss – Cellar Cast
Amazon’s Pet		Amazon’s Pet – Cellar Cast
Primeval Princess		Primeval Princess – Cellar Cast

OTHERS

Gabriel Marquez told me that he sculpted his superb “Blackheart River Bottom” – or sometimes also called more prosaically “Water Zombie” – (produced by Sassy’s Satellite) based on a graphic novelisation of “Interview with a Vampire” – remember Lestat’s little trip to the swamp?