*
Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
March 29, 2024, 06:15:42 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Donate

We Appreciate Your Support

Members
Stats
  • Total Posts: 1686613
  • Total Topics: 118113
  • Online Today: 757
  • Online Ever: 2235
  • (October 29, 2023, 12:32:45 AM)
Users Online

Recent

Author Topic: Fantasy in Fifty Four  (Read 10460 times)

Offline tikitang

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 604
  • A shadow out of time...
Fantasy in Fifty Four
« on: May 21, 2023, 01:37:40 PM »
I have always had a thing about large models on small tables and I have decided 54mm is the future of wargaming for me.

It's something I've had on my mind for a while, but I finally took the plunge when I discovered Irregular Miniatures' 54mm Fantasy range, which I love!

As such, I have cleared out all my 28mm projects and am starting on a new 54mm journey.

I bought a band of six orcs and a band of five "dungeon delver" types (elf, dwarf, halfling, human wizard and human 'adventurer'), and started painting them last week. I'm not painting these with one specific ruleset in mind, but merely to have some classic fantasy figures available for any system geared for 3-10 models per side.

I decided to start with the orcs, so here is the first:



I originally intended to paint this guy as a Red Goblin from Warhammer Fantasy Battle 1st Edition (1983), but my red came out more of a beetroot colour, which I thought looked terrible. I decided, rather than attempt to correct it, I would just change gear and go for the more traditional murky green, which while not being very original, I think looks more 'classic'.
« Last Edit: May 27, 2023, 09:57:01 PM by tikitang »
https://a-descent-into-the-maelstrom.blogspot.com/


"The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything."

- Chuck Palahniuk

Offline tikitang

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 604
  • A shadow out of time...
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #1 on: May 24, 2023, 04:49:31 PM »
I got a little bored painting orcs, so decided to go for a human today. I had an urge to paint the wizard first.

I can never decide what colours to choose for any miniature by myself, so when searching for inspiration I usually prefer to borrow existing paint schemes from illustrations based on literature, and had considered painting him up like Gandalf the Grey (grey robes, black boots, blue hat).

But then I realised that, as much as I enjoy it as a novel, I don't want to wargame or roleplay The Lord of the Rings; Gandalf is far too powerful, narratively, to pitch against a mere handful of orcs. No, I don't want my wizard to be an incarnate Maia, I want him to be a fully mortal man, who just so happens to have mastered sorcery. That way, if he makes a spellcasting blunder or dies with an axe through his skull, it won't feel narratively incongruent.

So I decided to paint him as 'The Magician' from the Ladybird learn-to-read book series from the 1980s entitled Puddle Lane, written by Sheila McCullagh. I own the entire series of PL books as I enjoyed them as a child and wanted my own children to benefit from them. It's never made clear who the Magician is in the PL stories, but it is clear that he studies magic as a discipline, rather than having some innate divine power.

I carefully examined the illustrations in the books to figure out how he should be painted (including the very rare instances of him wearing a hat), and went for this:





I don't usually go for elaborate designs such as this, preferring simple, bland colours, but in 54mm scale it feels like there's more scope for it, particularly for an amateur like me! Despite the rather zany appearance, I'm quite pleased with how he turned out! 
« Last Edit: September 21, 2023, 10:48:03 AM by tikitang »

Offline MaaX

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 345
    • Facebook blog with my work
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #2 on: May 24, 2023, 05:29:23 PM »
WOW that wizard looks awesome!  :o
Great stuff man!  :-*

Offline Spinal Tap

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 974
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #3 on: May 24, 2023, 10:08:49 PM »
That wizard is absolutely top notch, I love how you've painted him.

Offline Mad Lord Snapcase

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Galactic Brain
  • *
  • Posts: 5030
  • Snapcase Hall, Much-Piddling, Devon
    • The Life and Times of Mad Lord Snapcase
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2023, 05:31:48 AM »
Lovely painting.


Offline Lost Egg

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1327
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2023, 07:09:35 AM »
You're off to a great start Tik!

Not heard of the 54mm Fantasy range before so will check it out, cheers.
My current project...Classic Wargame - An experiment in 24" of wargaming!

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=140633.new#new

Offline RSDean

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 156
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2023, 09:43:58 AM »
Those both look good, but I do have to say the freehand designs on the wizard are very nice.  I’ve looked at Irregular’s 54 fantasy before, and went back to look again after your first post.  Some of the medievals would seem like a good fit, if you needed more humans. 

If I’m not carefuly, I’ll end up ordering a “little” project of three dozen or so to add to my to-do lists…(On the other hand, I’ve already got 54mm medievals, so maybe a few could mix in … argh!)

Offline black hat miniatures

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 967
    • http://www.blackhat.co.uk/
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #7 on: May 25, 2023, 10:11:16 AM »
Looks great.

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...

Mike
Mike Lewis

Black Hat Miniatures
www.blackhat.co.uk

Offline tikitang

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 604
  • A shadow out of time...
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #8 on: May 25, 2023, 10:41:55 AM »
Thanks for the kind comments, all!

I’ve looked at Irregular’s 54 fantasy before, and went back to look again after your first post.  Some of the medievals would seem like a good fit, if you needed more humans.

Yes, my thoughts exactly! I'm planning to start out by just using the orcs and fantasy humans/humanoids (i.e. elf, dwarf, halfling etc.), but I can see myself getting a bunch of skeletons and really expanding into some of the Medieval figures in the near future as well!

Offline Diablo Jon

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1247
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2023, 09:38:21 AM »
The Oldhammer part of me feels like you should try and track down some of the early 80s Citadel fighting fantasy miniatures which were plastic 54mm fantasy

http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Fighting_Fantasy


Offline comet5

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 137
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #10 on: May 26, 2023, 11:31:06 AM »
Tikitang have you seen the fantasy figures that Tehnolog produce.  They are quite cheaply available on ebay.
Alea Iacta Est

Offline tikitang

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 604
  • A shadow out of time...
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #11 on: May 26, 2023, 02:15:57 PM »
The Oldhammer part of me feels like you should try and track down some of the early 80s Citadel fighting fantasy miniatures which were plastic 54mm fantasy

I could try doing that...but Irregular Miniatures are easier to get hold of, and metal (which I much prefer)! They also have an old-school feel about them which is close enough to the Oldhammer "vibe" for me, without needing to track down rare and specific miniatures from the era.

Tikitang have you seen the fantasy figures that Tehnolog produce.  They are quite cheaply available on ebay.

I have indeed seen those, but I wouldn't choose them over Irregular Miniatures as I am not very keen on plastic and don't particularly care for their cartoony style.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2023, 08:24:49 PM by tikitang »

Offline Hobgoblin

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4912
    • Hobgoblinry
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #12 on: May 27, 2023, 07:26:25 AM »
These are fantastic - and the psychedelic wizard is superb. That's what a wizard should be!

I can see the benefits of sticking with metal - the heft is attractive in its own right. There must be a lot of scope for Gary Gygax-style "conversion by paint" with the historical Irregular 54s - it wouldn't take much more than a non-human skin tone to get the Roman elite, wolfskin and all, looking like a D&D hobgoblin, for example. And the Dark Age figures tucked into the Ancients section offer plenty of candidates for adventurers, berserkers and bandits.

If I were doing this, I'd be tempted to take a look at the Bob Olley ogres and trolls from Ral Partha Europe as potential small goblins. They're 40mm tall and quite skinny, so they'd work quite well as "dungeon vermin" in 54mm, I think. There are some with javelins, bows and crossbows (as below), which would help them fit in as small humanoids (and they're quite cheap):





Oh - and for "dungeon monsters" that might fit quite well stylistically with the Irregular stuff, have a look at the Asgard re-releases from Alternative Armies. There are a lot of monsters in the 40-60mm range - like this chap, who, given his stance, looks dead on as a human-sized lizardman in 54mm:


And I'm tempted to launch into the scale myself just for the opportunity to field a small goblin on a velociraptor!


Offline tikitang

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 604
  • A shadow out of time...
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #13 on: May 27, 2023, 11:19:41 PM »
These are fantastic - and the psychedelic wizard is superb. That's what a wizard should be!

Thanks! That is most kind of you to say.

I can see the benefits of sticking with metal - the heft is attractive in its own right.

Quite so!

the Dark Age figures tucked into the Ancients section offer plenty of candidates for adventurers, berserkers and bandits.

Yes, also my thoughts; their Medieval and Dark Age models offer great potential for expanding the fantasy range. I think there's also some great Arthurian potential between those two ranges.

Oh - and for "dungeon monsters" that might fit quite well stylistically with the Irregular stuff, have a look at the Asgard re-releases from Alternative Armies.

Oddly enough, I was just thinking this morning about looking to see what AA have to offer; I knew they had some big'uns in metal which might go well with 54mm characters.

Those Asgard 30mm ogres would make excellent 54mm scale 'Little People' in the Arthur Machen tradition!
« Last Edit: May 27, 2023, 11:23:30 PM by tikitang »

Offline Gibby

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2352
Re: Fantasy in Fifty Four
« Reply #14 on: May 27, 2023, 11:29:02 PM »
I really love the wizard - excellent work of the brush! I shall follow your thread with interest!

 

Related Topics

  Subject / Started by Replies Last post
14 Replies
4845 Views
Last post August 01, 2011, 06:10:20 AM
by Grimm
3 Replies
2572 Views
Last post October 07, 2014, 10:30:34 PM
by joroas
4 Replies
1388 Views
Last post May 15, 2018, 07:33:35 PM
by wrgmr1
4 Replies
2021 Views
Last post August 13, 2023, 11:13:34 AM
by Kikuchiyo
128 Replies
21435 Views
Last post March 27, 2024, 04:40:36 PM
by Metternich