Trish Carden Miniatures And Designs… Part 3.

Giant of Albion. Designed by Trish Morrison. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Trish Carden (Morrison) has been sculpting fantasy and wargaming miniatures for more than three decades. Included within her bulging and highly impressive CV, Trish has produced hundreds of wonderful sculpts for Games Workshop and Marauder Miniatures. Since going freelance in 2018, she has also produced a range of fascinating and exciting sculpts for Lucid Eye and Footsore Miniatures and Games.

As Trish is one of my all-time favourite miniature sculptors, I was thrilled when she agreed to speak to me about her work and career. In addition to wishing to thank Trish for kindly offering me her time for this blog, I would also like to thank Trish for all of the wonderful and inspirational sculpts that she has produced over the years, thank you, Trish!

Trish Carden Miniatures And Designs… Part 3. (continuing from Part 2).

Lizard Men C19 — C19 Lizard Men. Designed by Trish Morrison. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Giants of Albion and Hengus the Druid. Designed by Trish Morrison. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Trish: The Lizardmen were the 2nd range I sculpted for GW. I remember them and the Troglodytes getting some concepts that had been done, either by Tony Ackland or John Blanche… my memory fails me there! They were a good second range for me as I’d already tried a few ‘lizardy’ ideas out in the Beastman range. This was a more structured range though, with a unified look to all the troops. I had to learn more about how an army would be put together, what the troop types would be, what weapons they would be armed with, etc. Never having played any wargames before, there was a lot to learn but it added a new dimension to how I thought about the sculpts. The pose was important to enable them to rank up, also essential was consistency in their look and size. I was also learning about moulding and how to make a figure that would cast well. I enjoyed the whole process and they were a fun range to make. Funnily enough one of my favourite things about them was the tortoise shield!

C24 Troglodytes. Designed by Trish Morrison. Copyright: Games Workshop.

The fifth edition of Warhammer was released in 1996. As well as the game seeing a revised and updated set of rules, two of the Old World’s previously forgotten forces were resurrected in earnest, Bretonnia and Lizardmen. A keen dinosaur enthusiast, Trish was in her element working on a number of reptilian beasts.

C19 Lizard Men. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Trish: Later in the 1990’s I ventured into Lizardmen territory again, sculpting some creatures for the range. A lot of these took inspiration from prehistoric creatures, I have quite a large library of dinosaur books and I’m always happy to have an excuse to lose myself in them for a day or two! I also use reference from reptiles in general, the way they move and the pattern and texture of their scales. I think you can see in every sculpt the elements of the real world creature that have been used and adapted to make it fit a fantasy army. I really enjoyed doing the larger creatures in the later ranges. There was more scope for adding details in the skin and faces that would really make the figures come to life.

Lizardmen Stegadon. Designed by Trish Morrison and Alan Perry. 1996. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Gnomes Profile.

Even smaller than Dwarfs or Halflings, for a time in the 1980’s the race of Gnomes featured in Games Workshop’s Warhammer world. Closely related to Dwarfs, players could field units of these grumpy nocturnal chaps in their battles. Over time though the race was written out, consigned to Warhammer history, they, unlike the Bretonnians and Lizardmen would not return. As with many of Games Workshop’s models during this period (mid-1980’s), the C11 range of Gnomes were full of character and wonderfully detailed. The person responsible for sculpting these cantankerous little cave dwellers was Trish.

C11 Gnomes. Designed by Trish Morrison. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Trish: The Gnomes were a small range, they never became as popular as their larger cousins The Dwarfs. Nonetheless they were fun little characters to make. They were the smallest sculpts I had made up to that point so it was a challenge to get plenty detail into such a tiny area! Even though they were tiny they still took me a day or two to sculpt each one. Sometime bigger models are actually easier and quicker and they’re certainly a lot less strain on the eyes! The Gnomes were much more varied in style than Dwarfs or Halflings. Their armour and weapons were more of a hodgepodge of styles, as if they’d picked up different bits and pieces to repurpose. Weapons varied from a dagger being used as a sword to a human sized hammer as a club. To me they had a bit more of an armed Villager look about them rather than a cohesive unit of fighters. They were each very distinct little personalities and had an old world fairy-tale feel to them… very enjoyable to make!

Chaos Daemon Prince. Designed by Trish Morrison. 1997. Copyright: Games Workshop.

Fiends, Minotaurs, Daemon Prices and more, Trish’s Chaos sculpts of the mid-1990’s are some of my very favourites of all her work and I was keen to ask her a little about these models.

Trish: Chaos was a very popular range for Citadel and I was happy to be able to make lots of creatures for various ranges. As the different Chaos powers devolved there was lots of opportunity for making new and exciting things. A bit of a step up for me was when Alan Merrett asked me to re-do the four Greater Daemon figures. They were all iconic characters by then and I was quite nervous about making a good job of them and doing them justice. They turned out pretty well though and it was a point where I definitely felt I’d levelled up in my abilities.

Of the figures from that period, one of my favourites to make were the Minotaurs. They were fairly big figures for the time and gave me the opportunity to improve my humanoid anatomy. Bodybuilding magazines were often to be found on my workbench in those days!

Fiend of Slaanesh. Designed by Trish Morrison. Copyright: Games Worksop

The great thing about so much of Chaos is the chance to create hybrid creatures with anatomy that is recognisable but also exaggerated and twisted. From the mainly human looking Ogres to the completely chaotic and bizarre look of something like the Spawn, I had a blast working from concepts and my own ideas to make so many different looking beasts. The studio was buzzing with ideas at the time and I still think it was one of the most creatively exciting times for miniatures. I took a lot of inspiration from Natural History books and cheese induced nightmares and all the ideas that were flying around the studio from the other designers. It was good working with so many talented people, it meant there was never a shortage of suggestions and feedback and it kept you constantly motivated.

Leaving on a high, Trish’s final model for Forgeworld/ Games Workshop before setting off on her freelance sculpting career in 2018 was the immense Vorgaroth The Scarred & Skalok The Skull Host Of Khorne. This amazing model is available via Forgeworld HERE.

“Legends tell of the trail of slaughter left behind by Vorgaroth the Scarred and Skalok, the Skull Host of Khorne, their path of destruction having run for millennia, their victims beyond count. Although one would not hesitate to kill the other if given the chance, together they have razed civilisations to the ground. Whenever the mortal armies of Khorne falter, it is Vorgaroth and Skalok that the Blood God sends to turn the tide of battle in his favour.” Forgeworld

Trish: The last figure that I made for Forgeworld before I left was also Chaos… I sculpted both Skalok the Dragon and Vorgaroth his rider. Skalok is without a doubt the biggest figure I’ve ever sculpted. It began with concept sketches and physical mock ups to decide on the pose and the general look. I was very lucky in that I was given pretty much free rein to do whatever I wanted… within reason of course! He was sculpted in Sculpey firm grey polymer clay. The whole body was made in one part, sat on a turntable so that I could work all the way around it. I wanted to do lots of detail on the skin so I made a number of stamps that I could use for texturing. In my head I was thinking dinosaur meets Kaiju meets Komodo dragon as a starting point.

After I’d done the body and the stone support it was baked and cut up then the armour was applied, again in Sculpey with bits of chain and resin cast skulls. The wings were probably the most difficult bit to sculpt and fit as they were so big and difficult to hold. After the dragon was armoured I concepted the throne for the rider which I wanted to grow organically out of the beast’s body with hundreds of skulls adorning it as befits Chaos! The last thing to be made was Vorgaroth. Altogether it took around a year to finish, although I was only working three days a week. I’m really happy with the way it turned out, it’s one of the few figures I’ve made that I don’t want to change anything on!