A Fantasy Miscellany (2016-01-24): Great minotaur and resin buildings

[majorsmith]

Fantastic figures, love the vendal stuff

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi folks,

well, this project isn't dead, but in my customary fashion, hasn't been updated in almost a year. I did actually paint a whole lot of figures over the last few months (a good dozen Goblins, with more Orcs and Goblins on the painting table, plus a whole bunch of Dwarves also finished), but I'll postpone showing those until I get my lighting issues sorted out properly.

Still, the pics of this item worked out nicely, and I wanted to do a short update (I'm currently doing a bit of "Mirkwood"-style terrain which I'll show later). A couple of months ago, I found a silver-plated decorative iguana figure in a local gardening/pet store, which I originally intended to re-paint as-is, but then I found a leftover head from my Grendel Hydra, attached it and covered/sculpted the neck/shoulder area. It's a bit hunchbacked, but does look suitable ill-tempered at being disturbed while lying around near a warm spot down in its cave.









And finally with a Foot Sergeant by Fireforge Games for size.



Evidently, it is a small dragon, but I think it might make it more manageable in a gaming environment than certain huge beasties. I'm thinking of doing one or two more to have them herded into battle by a Balrog, Sack-of-Gondolin style, but those bloody iguanas seem to be sold out everywhere in this neck of the woods.

Anyway, I'll focus on the Mirkwood trees first, and then finally decide on what kind of gaming surface I want for the fantasy stuff. Currently leaning towards some fenlands-style moors, but having second thoughts about a proper Woodland Realm thing (you know, river coursing along the board, lots of vegetation in various states...). Comments and suggestions welcome!

[von Lucky]

He is lovely. Hope you find more to convert.

[warburton]

Great stuff, I look forwaqrd to photos of the rest of the stuff

[Vanvlak]

I'd missed this thread - the goofy giant is grand, and his grin actualy makes him creepy rather than idiotic. And the paint job is perfect for the job. And I thought he'd be my favourite in this thread, until I saw the arachno chaps 

[Westfalia Chris]

Hoo boy, six months nothing. I blame Doctor Who and the LPL.

Seriously though, I had painted a couple of Fantasy minis back in January which I had planned to use for the LPL, then decided on the Doctor Who theme, and so they languished in the boxes. Then, a couple of weeks back, I got caught by a real Fantasy fit (absolutely don't know what triggered it, but it was unusually productive) and painted up a bunch of prepped figures.

Most are reinforcements for my Equal-Opportunity Horde of Evil That Does Not Do Racial Discrimination, but some Dwarves of which I am particularly fond have also snuck in at the back.

First, I was most lucky in getting a couple of the old Fantasy Warlord figure range from our esteemed Admiral Benbow. While I am not a big fan of the "open hands and separate weapons" approach, some figures are pure oldschool gold.

An Orc warlord:



Another Orc shaman:



Goblin foot:



Next, an Evil Warrior^TM from Alternative Armies ex Asgard:



A Harlequin Great Orc warrior:



An Iron Claw Miniatures Goblin catapult:



A Grenadier "Old World Dragon":



And finally a Reaper Not-Balrog to top things off.



On to the Dwarfhold!

Dwarven King and bondsmen, by Lead Adventure Miniatures:



Dwarven Warriors by Lead Adventure Miniatures:



Two Harlequin Dwarves:



That's it for painted minis today! I've actually done up a batch of skeletons (with an eye on Frostgrave), but I haven't yet finished the bases, so those will come with the next update.

For the undead force, however, I also dug out a 20-year-old Grendel undead dragon. Now, normally I do not do WIP shots, but with this one, I am lost for a proper paint scheme. I would prefer to have him in a grey scheme with bones and innards to provide contrast, to match the other undead minis I've already done, but I already did a grey dragon (see previous update) and am wondering if I should do something else. So, if you have any suggestions for a good skintone base colour that would make a convincing zombie dragon, I'd be happy to listen!



Thanks for looking!

[OSHIROmodels]

Great stuff Chris 

How about a really pale,gone off green (almost white) for the dragon and then use the exposed flesh as the contrast between the bones and skin?

cheers

James

[warburton]

Great stuff I like jimbibbly's idea for the zombie dragon colours too

[bandit86]

That lizard remake is great!

[DeafNala]

UBERCOOL STUFF...especially the Dwarfs! It was definitely worth the wait. VERY WELL DONE!

[FramFramson]

Loving that 'dragon'. 

[Westfalia Chris]

Hi all,

some more stuff I painted over the last few weeks! These are a real "blast from the past" as we started out our "gaming history" with these almost twenty years ago. I recently found them when doing some housecleaning at our parents' place. The "small stuff" are all Heartbreaker miniatures from the early nineties, the dragon is the "Great Green Dragon" from Grendel, still available.

An evil knight:



Four "lawful" knights (to avoid the "good/bad" dichotomy for once):



These are huge figures, easily 32mm size. I plan on using them for "tank" roles for dungeon crawls and heroes for skirmish scenarios, and one or two of them will get a retinue of Fireforge figures.

A little demon, sculpted by Kev Adams for HHG back in the mists of time.



I think this one is still available from Ral Partha Europe. A rather fun figure, although I struggled quite a bit to find a scheme, then settled for a bog-standard saturated green.

And finally, the dragon. Here, the choice of colour was very straightforward - I wanted to emulate an olive-green scheme I had seen many years ago in a dragon illustration by Wayne Anderson. Wings are a bit clunky, and I had to re-sculpt one of their tips which had broken off sometime in the last two decades.



A charming figure, though, with lots of heft and the right mix of volume and detail in the right spots. I'll add a large oval base as with the other dragons at a later time, but for now, it'll have to huddle on its rocky outcrop.

Still undecided on how to do the zombie dragon. Now looking into a mix of mottled greens, bleached out and moldy.

Thanks for looking!

[Westfalia Chris]

What then, a new year and some additions to this project. I recently came into possession of some lovely resin items which were great fun to paint up.

First off, an Ilyad Games "Gaurochs" minotaur. Huge lump of resin, great casting and easy assembly, though. It was missing the original axehead, but since I wasn't too fond of it once I had identified the manufacturer and Googled it up, not too big a loss - I replaced it with a mace-head made from a cotton sphere impregnated with superglue plus some points made from hard PVC.



I added a scratch-built base from cardboard, plastic and Milliput to bring the strangely-shaped base (an irregular octagon of sorts) to a useable size and style (70mm diameter round).

The figure's pictured here with another Heartbreaker knight (32mm scale, roughly) for size. A huge piece of kit which would work well as a chieftain for a feral minotaur band.



Furthermore, I received some of the wondrous Tabletop World resin buildings via Miniaturicum. Those are extremely nice if you like the style, but it's the casting that has me marvelling at the makers' skill - there's practically no assembly involved (the cottage below comes in two pieces, the merchant's house in five). Just washed them, primed black and worked it up from there using reddish artist acrylics of various shades to emulate a red sandstone and brick look to break from the usual greys and browns for fantasy buildings.





I've still got the Blacksmith's Shoppe and the Coaching Inn lined up for painting. I'll add some finishing touches to the buildings once I get the set completed, but this is pretty much the style I was aiming for.

Thanks for looking!

[Comsquare]

Looks great, Chris 

Got the Cottage and the Blacksmith Forge myself and have to agree regarding casting-quality, great stuff.

[von Lucky]

Nice painting. Good choice on the reds for the buildings.