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Author Topic: 15mm Glorantha: baboon and troll conversions + jack o’bear  (Read 3836 times)

Offline Hobgoblin

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15mm Glorantha: baboon and troll conversions + jack o’bear
« on: September 27, 2020, 10:19:35 AM »
While going through my 15mm boxes for my Traveller project, it occurred to me that I should abandon 15mm for fantasy altogether. I originally ran my kids' D&D games in 15mm, but ease and availability have led us to 28mm, a change that's been cemented by playing with them and friends over Zoom during lockdown. And I did start doing Hordes of the Things armies with 15mm miniatures on 28mm bases for mass effect, but that was just taking too long. I've been able to knock up HotT elements much quicker using 1/72.

So that led to a nice division of scales: 28mm for dungeon-crawling RPGs, skirmish games and individually based mass-battle games; 1/72 for HotT and similar 'element' wargames; and 15mm for sci-fi. So I'd paint up some of my 15mm fantasy stuff as aliens and primitives for sci-fi games and get rid of the rest.

But then I glanced at the gleaming new RuneQuest rulebook and thought "Oh, wait ...".

I've got lots of 28mm broo and the like, along with some Uz and dragonewt conversions that I've yet to paint. And I plan to get those done in due course. But they'll most likely be used for skirmish games rather than role-playing, even if we use the RuneQuest rules for the former. I'm unlikely to get masses of Lunars, Praxians and Sartarites painted up anytime soon at that scale.

It's a bit different with 15mm, though. As I'd been putting together chaos horde elements for the 15mm-on-bigger-bases HotT project, I've got plenty of plausible broo. And I've already got a brace of manticores, some dinosaurs, plenty of ghouls and skeletons, some semi-plausible Tusk Riders and some giant beetles. A perusal of 15mm sites shows that riding bison can be had (Battle Valor), and zebras can be 'converted by paint' (to steal a phrase from Jagannath) at this scale. Dwarfs and elves can also just be painted appropriately as Mostali and Aldryamai

That leaves trolls, which are tricky at any scale for Glorantha. But then there's green stuff (results below). These are Zorak Zorani and should possibly have lead weapons, but I've gone for bronze to liven them up.

I've got a few suitable adventurers lying around in the form of Copplestone barbarians and the odd historical figure. I'm not going to buy any more miniatures for this project until I've got several sets of foes done. But Xyston looks like it will answer most of my needs fairly cheaply. I want to go for foot and mounted versions of characters, something that would be prohibitively slow in 28mm but should be easy enough in 15s. The Big Rubble here we come ...

« Last Edit: October 06, 2021, 10:46:48 PM by Hobgoblin »

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: 15mm Glorantha (first up, dark trolls)
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2020, 05:41:23 PM »
And here's the first Tusk Rider. Poor photos in the dying light, but I wanted to record his completion. He's a bit goofy for a Tusk Rider, perhaps, but 15mm does tend towards comically squat figures, and he's a guy with tusks on a big boar, so that'll do.

I'm determined to avoid 'perfect as the enemy of good' in this project, so 'near enough' is the rule!

It occurs to me that the one Gloranthan beastie I've no idea about sourcing is the humble baboon. I can't find any evidence of any 15mm ones out there - does anyone know of any? I have some ideas for the walktapus and the scorpion-men, so to be stumped by mere baboons seems an outrage!

Offline LouieN

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Re: 15mm Glorantha (dark trolls and Tusk Rider)
« Reply #2 on: September 28, 2020, 01:43:51 AM »
Those are excellent. 

Offline peleset

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Re: 15mm Glorantha (dark trolls and Tusk Rider)
« Reply #3 on: September 28, 2020, 06:18:27 AM »
Good stuff!

I've always had a soft spot for Glorantha since I played it in High School.
Such that, the thought had crossed my mind that Eureka Miniatures 18mm Trolls could also work as Dark Trolls with a similar conversion.
Thief, Reaver, Slayer.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: 15mm Glorantha (dark trolls and Tusk Rider)
« Reply #4 on: September 28, 2020, 07:14:43 AM »
Thanks, both!

I've always had a soft spot for Glorantha since I played it in High School.
Such that, the thought had crossed my mind that Eureka Miniatures 18mm Trolls could also work as Dark Trolls with a similar conversion.

That's a good call - and I'll need to make great trolls too, for which those might work well. The Blood Dawn orcs I've been using are about right for dark trolls relative to Xyston historicals, once one accounts for the slouch. So the Eureka trolls, which I presume are a bit bigger, might be a good fit for great trolls.

I've long been intrigued by the Eureka 10mm 'ogre beasts', which look like they'd make perfect 15mm broo. But I gather that they're a little small for that - although broo have been demoted in size relative to humans between RQ2 and RQ: Roleplaying in Glorantha!

Offline trev

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Re: 15mm Glorantha (dark trolls and Tusk Rider)
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2020, 04:04:12 PM »
Those are great.  Always nice to see some RQ stuff.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: 15mm Glorantha (dark trolls and Tusk Rider)
« Reply #6 on: September 16, 2021, 08:59:41 AM »
Thanks, trev!

This project has - potentially - sprung to life again as I've transported the party in our long-running daily D&D campaign to Glorantha and converted their stats (the gnashing of teeth as 54 hit points becomes 14 ...). So they're in Pavis at the moment, on a quest for something that might just be found in the Rubble ...

Thanks to swiftnick, I have some excellent 15mm Battle Valor beastmen to paint up as broo. They've tipped me over into continuing in 15mm rather than 1/72 (which I use, along with 28mm, for other parts of the campaign); there aren't many broo-types in 1/72. Also, my 1/72 orcs will work OK as extra dark trolls and great trolls.

I also have some more Uz conversions to finish off, plus dragonewts. Aldryami and Mostali will take care of themselves, and I might dabble in greenstuff to create some of the more outlandish broo gangs (e.g. the Slop and the Slime). Walktapi and dragonsnails will be easy enough to convert (mindflayer head on troll body or something like that, etc.), and I'm fine for centaurs. Baboons are an ongoing challenge.

For trollkin, I'll either just use goblins, or possible these and these from Tin Soldier (I have some of the halberdiers, which I'll check for scale against my dark trolls; 15mm is quite forgiving anyway, so the fact that these guys are so low to the ground and wretched-looking probably rules them in.)

But what I'm thinking about now are humans: Lunar hoplites and peltasts, Orlanthi, zebra riders and other Pavisites, etc. So, if any of you Glorantha-philes were in the same boat, what 15mm figures would you use for these? And what manufacturer? In an ideal world, I'd be looking for some cheap army deal that covers a lot of bases (dumpy cavalry that will work as zebra riders, auxiliaries that might be barbarians, regulars that would do as Lunars and so on).

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Offline Albus Malum

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Re: 15mm Glorantha - suggestions sought!
« Reply #7 on: September 18, 2021, 01:29:26 AM »
Not Baboons, but Khurasan miniatures has some 15mm scale apes, and even some wizard of oz type apes with wings.

also Trollbins can be had from demonworld miniatures.

Also quickly looking at Glorantha, it appears to have duckmen,
Duckmen can be had from Magister Militum as 15mm fantasy, so if your looking for the duckmen, thats your ticket,
« Last Edit: September 18, 2021, 01:41:47 AM by Albus Malum »

Offline Blackwolf

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Re: 15mm Glorantha - suggestions sought!
« Reply #8 on: September 18, 2021, 02:35:34 AM »
Excellent thread!
Looking forward to what you use for Orlanthi et cetera; in my younger Gloranthan day’s I always modeled the Orlanthi types on the dark ages, the Citadel influence,nowadays more in keeping with Greg Stafford’s ideas ,I would  use Celts. In the Heroquest book Sartar they are described as olive skinned ,dark hair with dark to fair eyes . However as it says in all the books ‘it’s your Runequest’.
If you need any resources,let me know I have pretty much got everything Gloranthan,even Dorastor :)
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Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: 15mm Glorantha - suggestions sought!
« Reply #9 on: September 18, 2021, 11:37:17 AM »
Thanks, guys!

Not Baboons, but Khurasan miniatures has some 15mm scale apes, and even some wizard of oz type apes with wings.

also Trollbins can be had from demonworld miniatures.

Also quickly looking at Glorantha, it appears to have duckmen,
Duckmen can be had from Magister Militum as 15mm fantasy, so if your looking for the duckmen, thats your ticket,


Good calls on those - thanks! The "trollbins" might be a bit big for trollkin, but they might work out OK - it's a bit hard to tell how big they are. I'll subject them to some scrutiny - they might even work as Aldryami runners if they're small enough and with an appropriately leafy paintjob.

Blackwolf - yes, I'm thinking about Celts/Gauls for the Orlanthi. For the Lunars, I'm increasingly thinking that I'll use lots of different types of ancient soldier and distinguish them mainly by red garments and the moon rune everywhere.

Here are some very quickly painted broo - sloppy and dirty paintjobs, but getting them done quickly adds some momentum!

Offline Chief Lackey Rich

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Re: 15mm Glorantha - suggestions sought!
« Reply #10 on: September 18, 2021, 12:38:43 PM »
Don't overlook theoretically 28mm scale stuff just because you'd thinking 15mm.  There are loads of "giant insect" and swarm figs out there for 28mm that will work for bigger 15mm bugs, and what kind of troll settlement doesn't have some bugs around?  I'm particularly fond of the smaller "arachling" and "beetling" sets from Mortal Arrow, but some of the big creepy-crawlies and perhaps a few of the fungal things/bases might be helpful as well.

https://www.mortalarrow.com/bazaar/mortal-arrow-miniatures/

In actual 15mm, Splintered Light has griffins, unicorns (easily clipped into zebras, of course, although just using smaller horse sculpts might be easier), several oozes for any gorp you might need (although those are easy to self-sculpt), loads of broo (mostly goatish, but they have other species of anthromorphs), some minotaurs and centaurs for Beast Valley, and I'm sure I'm missing some other Gloranthan possibilities.  A few samples:

http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/griffins.html

http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/duen3.html

http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/beastmen.html

I'd also have suggested Old Glory for inexpensive historical figs and perhaps some of their Blue moon horror figs (eg Telmori werewolves) but their site seems to be in overhaul mode.

Offline trev

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Re: 15mm Glorantha: suggestions sought - and broos!
« Reply #11 on: September 19, 2021, 09:35:19 AM »
Very nice additions.

Have you you seen the latest Glorantha Sourcebook?  Some pretty good artwork for ideas.  They looks to have used various real world sources for inspiration.  Assyrian, Indian, Bronze or early iron age Europe and Middle East etc.

https://www.chaosium.com/the-glorantha-sourcebook-hardcover/

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: 15mm Glorantha: suggestions sought - and broos!
« Reply #12 on: September 19, 2021, 02:16:03 PM »
Thanks! Yes, I've got the PDF of the sourcebook and also some of the HeroQuest stuff (Sartar, etc.). Must have a good look through those.

Here's a great troll to expand the nascent Uz warband. This is just an unconverted Tin Soldier ogre. I'm happy to use figures that are close enough in many cases - so a big snouty fanged thing with a big club works for me as a great troll.

Offline Hobgoblin

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Re: 15mm Glorantha: suggestions sought, broos and great troll!
« Reply #13 on: September 22, 2021, 03:34:20 PM »
Another question: who makes 15mm barbarian types with horned helmets? I'm thinking about Storm Bull berserkers here, of course!

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!


 

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