When Fimm McCool's (Fimm McCool's Games Orkshop as it was then) first started way back in the mists of time 'mist' was very appropriate. I had recently got back into Warhammer after about 15 years away and was planning what army I would collect. My boyhood love of Heroquest was, as ever, forefront in my mind and I fondly remembered the somewhat unique big green monsters... fimir! Why weren't they an army in Warhammer? That was what I wanted to do... Back at that time a Nick Bibby fimir noble could be had for about £15-20 which, whilst still hefty for my part time salary budget at the time, was manageable. As a result I ended up with a full complement after some months of ebay watching. I never bothered with the regular Bibby Fimm Warriors though as they didn't inspire me. In any case weren't they too big for Fimm? Reemember that mix up over scales that is such a big part of the Fimir-flop mythos?
Fast forward to BOYL last year and a gent (sorry, I forget who it was) showed me his collection of Bibby Fimir. I was surprised to find the fimm sitting alongside the Jes Goodwin model on 25mm bases, I hadn't realised how much smaller they were! Only the tails were making it difficult to rank up, but something could be done about that, benefit of a soft metal model! Now I had to have some. When another gentleman on the Oldhammer Trading Faceache group posted a set I knew they had to be mine. Another part of the reason for not picking them up is that they must have been really unpopular at the time. They hardly ever came up for sale and when they did, even in the early 2000s you were looking at £25-30 each for them. Luckily we managed to make a trade and one of each sculpt was finally added to my army.
I had been really intimidated by the acres of bare skin on these guys, but Nick Bibby being the genius he is the musculature is all really well defined and they were a lot of fun to paint. I'd had recent practice, of course, with my new myeri miniatures so had refreshed my mind as to the colours and process. These guys got more intricate Maori-style tattoos because special models deserve special paint jobs! One thing that struck me when I had them in my hand was how much the poses with their massive, three-fingered hands and wobbly snouts reminded me of something else from my childhood...
Ah yes! the Trap Door things! I had to paint one of them purple-ish as a nod to my favourite animated kids' series. Now where did I put that Trap Door board game I designed almost 20 years ago?...
nice. The Bibby size probebly didn't help the Firmir much but that said, Ogre's were pretty large and it didn't seam to do them much harm.. I think GW just kinda didn't know what to do with them which added to the them kinda falling more then just size..
ReplyDeleteI really must finish painting my 'not trap door' figures sometime.. through I need to come up with my own Boney...
I don't actually think there was a size miscommunication. I know people who were there at the time said there was and probably it's a thing that has been prominent in their minds since, but these Fimm look absolutely fine on 25mm bases, which is what wfb3 says they should have. The nobles are notably bigger and wfb3 says 40mm for characters. That makes me think Nick understood perfectly what was being asked.
Deleteyeah. also... If he made a mistake and sculpted too big.. wouldn't they say something and maybe get him to re-sculpt? it's not like everything sculpted was "Oh, we have this model sculpted, we really have to use it"..
Delete