15mm Glorantha: baboon and troll conversions + jack o’bear

[Hobgoblin]

Alternative Armies do this chap:

https://www.alternative-armies.com/collections/tabletop-miniatures-15mm-fantasy-range/products/mda81-human-barbarians

Thanks! That's a great call - and a good size for a beefy berserker, according to the description. I'll have a good scour of the 15mm AA ranges and see what else turns up (I have a few of the Dracci, which might make reasonable dragonewts).

[Hobgoblin]

An awful thought is brewing in my head: how feasible would it be to do the Cradle adventure with miniatures in 15mm?

On a more modest scale, I reckon I could get Apple Lane ready pretty quickly, miniature-wise - and I'd have the opportunity to run it twice next month with two different groups, over several evenings in both cases. But the big question would be whether to do it in 15mm or 28mm. Baboons are much easier to come by in the bigger scale, and I have Whiteye and, potentially, Xarban read to go. But it would be much quicker to paint everything up in 15mm - and to build the pawnshop, etc. And I already have 15mm trollkin underway.

Hmm ... perhaps I should have a shot at making a rudimentary 15mm baboon and then press-moulding it ...

[Hobgoblin]

And another thing: I was looking at some illustrations of Gloranthan trolls, and I wondered if the old Minifig gnolls might works as great trolls in 15/18mm (and dark trolls in 25mm ...). They've got the build and the snout - even the mohawks that some Gloranthan trolls sport - so all they'd need would be a darker paintjob than D&D gnolls.

I have a few - in which case my recent great troll might be revised back to be an extra-large dark troll or even a Mistress Race troll (presumably in very magical bronze armour, as one would expect lead). Here's how the gnoll looks for scale (my converted dark trolls are bit stumpy and slouched). Too big? Or feasible?

[Etranger]

I've got some of those Gnolls & I hadn't really thought of them for 15mm Great Trolls but  sizewise they'd work IMHO.

[Hobgoblin]

I've got some of those Gnolls & I hadn't really thought of them for 15mm Great Trolls but  sizewise they'd work IMHO.

I think you're right - I checked the Gloranthan Bestiary, and great trolls go up to three metres tall and 420 kg in weight, so those gnolls ought to do the trick. I might add some tusks. I was going to paint them in gnollish grey-green, but I've got too few of them to get much use out of them in 28mm. So they've got more potential as great trolls.

[Blackwolf]

Those gnolls are great,loved them as a young fellow,not too bad as great trolls either.
The Cradles adventure you mention,is that the one in Pavis or the River of Cradles book?
The Pavis one(escorting the baby giant) as you know is bloody difficult;  for the adventurers,and the GM. I simplified a bit of it,not using hit locations et cetera…

[Hobgoblin]

Those gnolls are great,loved them as a young fellow,not too bad as great trolls either.

Yes, I've decided to paint them up as Uz - not least because while they're at the upper end of great-trolldom in 15mm, they're probably bang in the middle of it for 1/72 - and possibly even viable as dark trolls in 28mm (in comparison, say, to Citadel broo). So, given that I've only got a handful of the gnolls, that's the way to get most use out of them.

I was see-sawing for a while on whether to pursue this project in 15mm or 1/72, but it was the widespread availability of broo in 15mm (Battle Valor, Magister Militum, Irregular, etc.) that tipped me towards that scale. Barring a few minotaurs from various scales, it's hard to get anything broo-like in 1/72 - and you don't want all your broo to be cattle-based, as you need actual minotaurs too.

But I'm also aware that that situation could change very quickly - Dark Alliance could put out a box of beastmen or goatmen or something, which might solve the broo problem at a stroke. So I'm kind of hedging my bets on scale a little; the more I have that can cut across scales, the better! My converted 15mm dark trolls might well end up as 1/72 value trollkin at some stage.

The Cradles adventure you mention,is that the one in Pavis or the River of Cradles book?
The Pavis one(escorting the baby giant) as you know is bloody difficult;  for the adventurers,and the GM. I simplified a bit of it,not using hit locations et cetera…

It's the Pavis one. I suspect I'll run it largely impressionistically. I did a huge naval battle earlier in the campaign - when the PCs were in Tekumel, and we were still using D&D rules - involving a Hlyss hive-ship. It's much easier to run that sort of thing in basic D&D, of course, but I picked up a few tricks to create the sense of a big battle going on. That was just done with miniatures and a drawn-out deck-plan of the ship, but I'm thinking about building the Cradle for this one - and maybe the Watchdog too (easily done in this sort of way).

Before we get there, though, the PCs will have a lot of Rubble-exploring and other adventuring to do. With their stats carried over from D&D, they're largely "eggshells armed with hammers" at the moment, as the magic they do have is of the hugely offensive D&D sort, but they lack battle magic altogether, and most have no magic at all apart from their gear (+3 sword as permanent Bladesharp 3, etc.). And even the ones with enchanted plate armour are still vulnerable to crits and impales. I'm going to give them the opportunity to acquire some battle magic, though. Their fireballs and lightning bolts won't work on the Cradle - though they might find creative ways to get off the Cradle and deploy them.

Dropping hit locations a la Stormbringer might be a good call - thanks for the tip! They have a device from Tekumel that allows them to resurrect casualties immediately - but it's fast running out of charges. I expect they'll need all that they have left on the Cradle!

[Hobgoblin]

Here are some WIP troll conversions: a cave troll and a couple of great trolls. They still need tusks!

The one on the right is a Grenadier minotaur that I started to convert to a RuneQuest troll as a teenager. A couple of years ago, I saw it and shook my head at the ruined miniature. But I think I'll just finish the job now; he looks like he'll look the part.

[Hobgoblin]

Baboons are underway now - after some excellent suggestions here. Six more, and Gringle's Pawnshop becomes viable.



And the cave troll's dental work is coming on. One thing I need is a suitable ogress or troll-wife body to turn into Slud from the Rainbow Mounds. Does anyone know of such a personage in 15mm?

[Blackwolf]

That cave troll is a bit good!

[peleset]

Bloody oath it is!

[manic _miner]

 Great work on these conversions.Love the green stuff work.Very tidy.

[Duff]

Brilliant stuff/

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, chaps!

Here's a blurry shot of some trollkin from tonight's game:

[Hobgoblin]

And the troll gang so far: