Fantasy in Fifty Four

[Sunjester]

W Britains produced quite a range of 54mm models for The Fellowship of the Ring when Peter Jackson's trilogy first came out, you might find something useful on Ebay from that range!

[tikitang]

A halfling has joined the heroes (sporting the mi-parti or parti-colour look once again).

[tikitang]

Strangely, I've found myself with much less time for painting in the summer months, even though work is quieter.

I had a new delivery of Tom Meier's Thunderbolt Mountain Miniatures this week, and managed to find time to paint one known as the "anti-paladin"!

This fellow originally came with a two-handed sword he held in both hands (one hand gripping the blade), but when I opened the box I discovered one of the quillons of the cross-guard was considerably shorter than the other, no doubt an accident in the manufacturing process. I tried to 'fix' this by shortening the other quillon, but I cut this too short and essentially ruined the weapon.

Then I had another idea. I had a look in my (very small) 'abandoned projects' box and found a Bob Olley minotaur armed with a spiked mace. Although not a 54mm model, the minotaur's hands were exactly the same size as the anti-paladin's, so I cut off the minotaur's hands and glued them onto the anti-paladin's wrists. A perfect fit!

[MysteryMachine]

That's an excellent fix - it looks really good.

With a mace, he can do double duty as an old-school cleric as well!

Mr Meier is a very talented sculptor indeed, and I really like the painting on this guy.

[tikitang]

Thanks; I appreciate your comment!

Already got plans for a cleric character, though, so will keep this fellow purely as a fighter type.

If you are not a member already then join the Little Wars Revisited Forum here:

https://littlewarsrevisited.boards.net/

Lots of people doing 54mm fantasy...

Thanks for the tip, Mike! I've just joined the board; looks like some people are doing some great stuff there.

[BeneathALeadMountain]

Tikitang - apologies very late to an excellent thread. I love what you’ve done but especially the wizard and the fact you’ve gone with the complicated book outfit rather than the less dramatic (made out of leftover upholstery supplies) TV version (what were they thinking the wizards hair wasn’t even white!). A real blast from the past, thank you for posting.

Balm

[tikitang]

Thanks!

I love what you’ve done but especially the wizard and the fact you’ve gone with the complicated book outfit rather than the less dramatic (made out of leftover upholstery supplies) TV version

Indeed! I'm not sure which came first, the Ladybird book series or the Yorkshire Television show, but (from what I've seen on YouTube) the latter looks pretty dreadful! I never saw it as a child, which I'm very glad about!

[tikitang]

I took a two month break from painting over the summer (not through choice, more through circumstance) and towards the end of that period (just a couple of weeks ago) I had a little crisis where I almost abandoned the project, but I managed to "pull up" from that particular nose-dive and things are now steady and back under control again.

At my current pace of work it appears I'm going to achieve only one miniature a week, if I'm lucky, but that's okay.

The latest addition to the project is this orc, who I have decided will be the leader: he has the largest weapon, has more armour, and his helmet has more protection around the face (including a massive nose-guard).



That leaves only two orcs to go before I have a complete* orc warband.


* When I say 'complete', that is to say: I will have painted one of every type of orc model that Irregular Miniatures sell.


 

[Lost Egg]

I'm sorry to hear things have been slow / disrupted but it's good to see you back tikitang.

The orc leader is a 'fine' looking fellow. I'm not sure if it's the big sword over his shoulder or the extra armour but he looks beefier.

[tikitang]

I'm sorry to hear things have been slow / disrupted but it's good to see you back tikitang.

Thanks!

The orc leader is a 'fine' looking fellow. I'm not sure if it's the big sword over his shoulder or the extra armour but he looks beefier.

Pretty sure it's just the large sword and extra armour. Otherwise he is the same size and physique as the others!

[RSDean]

At my current pace of work it appears I'm going to achieve only one miniature a week, if I'm lucky, but that's okay.

I haven’t picked up a brush in about two months either.  If you maintain that pace, you were only planning to do a couple of dozen anyway, right?  So it’s less than a year, which doesn’t seem too bad.  Choose the right rules and some sort of game can appear before that.

For clerics, I guess the question is whether you want a heavily armored figure with a mace.  I actually have these two from Irregular painted up for my 54mm medieval skirmish:

 

[tikitang]

Funnily enough, I have both of those figures and the chap on the left is actually next in my paint queue! He is indeed going to be my cleric. I am not interested in the D&D-style-armoured-cleric-with-a-mace type; I like my clerics robed, staffed and preferably holding a cross. That fellow on the left couldn't be better suited for the role. You've done a very nice job on them! I was going to go for a brown coloured robe myself. The fellow on the right I was going to make into some evil necromancer type.

you were only planning to do a couple of dozen anyway, right?

Correct! I have two more orcs to go and a handful of humans. Reckon I will have them all painted by Christmas.

[RSDean]

Now I’m going to have a paint a few to get the urge to repurpose my 54mm medievals as 54mm fantasy…

[tikitang]

And here he his: a cleric, or, as I like to call him, the Holy Hermit!

[tikitang]

This week's miniature is my penultimate orc:



Only one more to go after this, then I'll have a complete orc warband (i.e. every 54mm orc made by Irregular Miniatures).

This fellow is the only orc in the group that came with a large bulbous nose, as opposed to a flat, pig-like one with a ring through it.

You may recall that one of my other orcs came with a casting fault so I replicated the same nose this one has in green stuff. Not sure why there's a nose variance in these otherwise identical-looking monsters. It made me wonder if the pig-nosed ones have undergone some kind of ritual mutilation?


In any case, I have a couple of updates to share:

1. Over the summer I decided I wanted to separate the Irregular Miniatures from the Thunderbolt Mountain miniatures. Even though they're the same scale, their sculpting style is markedly different and even though my painting style is consistent, the difference, visually, between the two ranges is quite jarring to me. As such, I'm going to run two separate 54mm projects: one project will be skirmishes between Irregular Miniatures warbands, of which there will be more models present on the table at a time (like eight models per side), and the other project will be skirmishes between Thunderbolt Mountain miniatures, of which there will be much fewer miniatures on the table (perhaps three at at time). This is to ensure the two sculpting styles never meet on the table and thus avoiding the visual irritation this will produce!

2. I stumbled upon a ruleset last week called Many Ages which really seems to tick a lot of boxes for me in what I want from a skirmish game. Using Many Ages' warband creation system, I calculated my orc warband (when finished) will be worth about 100 points. In order to ensure the opposing force (comprised of humans, elves, dwarfs and halflings) are equally matched, and that no Thunderbolt Mountain miniatures will be involved, I've ordered another batch of miniatures from Irregular, mostly consisting of 15th Century men-at-arms and archers.

I'm looking forward to finishing the orcs (which I'm not a fan of painting) at last, so I can work solely on the humans and their kindred.