Fantasy in Fifty Four

[tikitang]

Thanks, Gibby!

[tikitang]

I had a day off work, so was able to squeeze in another orc!

I've decided to alternate painting one orc, followed by a hero, followed by another orc, etc. etc. to help break up the monotony.

As I was 100% happy with the colour scheme from the first orc by the time I finished, I just repeated it all over again:

[tikitang]

Painted up the dwarf today as work was quiet and coffee breaks were many!

As I said, I normally prefer to use an existing illustration rather than try to come up with my own colours (as I never know what to go for and usually always regret it), but today I decided just to look at the model and let it "speak" to me.

I came up with this, for better or worse:



I've decided I really like the medieval "parti-colour" look, so I'm probably going to paint the other miniatures in a similar fashion, albeit with different colours.

[Lost Egg]

He looks cool, clearly a much more serious fellow than the orcs...though I like how he's left the wizard to sort out the two orcs

I don't know why it hadn't occurred before but they'd work well for HeroQuest.

[tikitang]

Thanks!

...I like how he's left the wizard to sort out the two orcs

He's just pausing to take a selfie before leaping heroically into the fray!

I don't know why it hadn't occurred before but they'd work well for HeroQuest.

They would if one had a giant HeroQuest board with 40mm squares!

I had considered that, though, and even thought about painting the figures like the illustrations from HeroQuest, but in the end I decided not to.

[Lost Egg]

I did make myself a HQ board with 30mm squares...well I made a couple of compact boards, the first just reduced the room sizes while the second eliminated the corridors. I came up with a SoloQuest ruleset to randomise the dungeon as I explored.

[tikitang]

Finished this guy off today.

My first free-hand shield, inspired by those Hobgoblin often gives his orcs.

This orc's face seemed to be miscast when he arrived; his nose, eyes and mouth were a melted blur. As such, I used green stuff to reform his nose (I gave him a big, pointed one instead of the flat ones the other two orcs have), lower lip, and add a lolling tongue. The tongue is not nearly as good as the other orcs' (I should have copied that style more closely) but it's better than a gap.

[Gibby]

That shield is absolutely magnificent! Great green stuff skills too!

[Lost Egg]

Yep, cracking job on both fronts!

[Hobgoblin]

He looks great! The new nose adds a nice bit of differentiation too.

[tikitang]

Thanks, all.

The new nose adds a nice bit of differentiation too.

There's another orc in the gang (yet to be painted) who has that larger, bulbous nose variant, which seems to be deliberate. My nose on the orc above is an exact mimic of that nose. Not sure why the original sculptor gave one orc out of eight a different shaped nose than the others...but now there will be two!

[affun]

This is getting cooler and cooler. Really fun to see the 54mm scale and some unusual miniatures

[RSDean]

Looking good!  You’re making it harder to avoid ordering a bunch …

[tikitang]

Onto the next hero: THE BARBARIAN!

This guy is NOT an Irregular Miniature — my first deviation from the plan — but he's still made of good old fashioned metal!

He is in fact a 54mm Thunderbolt Mountain miniature, sculpted by Tom Meier in 1990.

No longer available new, so I had to order this used (but unpainted) from eBay in France.




Because he was from a different manufacturer, I was worried about him not quite fitting with the Irregular models, but I think he looks good along side them. His pose is more dynamic, but that reflects his barbaric energy, and my common basing and painting style makes him look part of the gang. He's on the taller side, taller than the other Irregular humans, but that seems appropriate given his nature.

[white knight]

I love it! The colours and the choice of minis are great. All the old school charm but in a larger scale!

I'm also moving more and more projects over to bigger scales, doing:
* Weird WW2 in 1/35,
* Victorian horror in 60mm
* Three Musketeers in 60mm
* Robin Hood in 60mm
* Conquest of America (conquistadors and aztecs) in 60mm
* Legends of China in 60mm

And I have collected a bunch of 54mm figures for fantasy as well, but they are still unbuilt and unpainted.

Also bought a bunch of kits to do Star Trek TOS in Mega Construx, which is also around 50-54mm-ish.