Old school D&D - August 25 - Pig-face Orc Shaman

[Andrew May]

He looks fantastic, I'd love to sculpt one!

[Garanhir]

Lovely brushwork - the mini has something of the creature from the Black Lagoon about it 

I do know what you mean.  I think the face has that look about the mouth, and the way the figure's hand obscures one of the outer eyes lets you concentrate on the inner eyes.

Sundayhero, old 25mm lead figures are readily available on ebay, quite cheap for the most part, and some of the old manufacturers (Denizen, for example) are still around. The trick with ebay is to be prepared to spend time rummaging around, because you'll often get the best deals on figures when they aren't recognised for what they are by the seller.  Patience is the key.

[Spooktalker]

Thanks guys, you're really kind!

He looks fantastic, I'd love to sculpt one!

Me too! In fact I have two I'm working on that I'm sculpting over an armature made from hero-clix parts.  I started the pair before I got this archive one.

If I understand correctly, everything is true 25mm ? I've got a set of D&D heroes (lead figures, 25mm, from ral partha I guess), the problem is that they are completly not compatible with my other miniatures collection.

But I like this kind of miniatures a lot...and your great paint topic make me like them even more ! Are they still easy to find (and cheap) ?

Or to be more specific, is it easy and cheap to collect enough figures for a typical dungeon game (comparing WOTC d&d, let's say around 60 minis) ?


thanks

When someone tacks on "true" to a miniatures scale I take it to mean the figure is closer in proportion to real life (that is the heads-tall ration is closer to 6 or 7 and farther away from 4). In that sense these are not true scale, but just "regular flavor" 25mm. I'd say only Tom Meier figs, Red Box and ebob are deserving of the "true" adjective, though. Usually the figs are around 24-25mm to the eyes. There is a lot of variation in the decade+ I mostly collect (1976-1989) but they all go together pretty well, all told, and they go together much better than a random assortment of 5 different of today's companies.

Yes, they are common on ebay and generally much cheaper than anything produced recently, except for the odd figure valued for its rarity. But I don't play 25mm just because it's cheaper. Some of the old figs, this umber hulk is a chief example, are pretty crude, but many are much better than what you find from the top companies today. Also the casting from the early to mid eighties tends to be better than today, especially Grenadier figures. Figures cast in pewter are often cast with much too much pressure in order to fill the ends of the mold with the harder-to-melt material. Swords that should be flat end up having a concave bow to them. If you're on ebay you can often, but not always, save a lot if you go for lots rather than buying individual figures.

Yes, they are not very compatible with the style of figure popularized by GW in the 80s. I have a big GW collection and keep the two collections entirely separate. The giant slotta-bases are the main problem trying to mix them, though. Some companies like Hasslefree won't look too off if you base them on a penny.

[Spooktalker]

... (Denizen, for example) are still around. ...

I second the vote for Denizen. Awesome figures and a great buy. The molds are also in decent shape, and I got sculptor Chub Pearson's autograph with my order! One might call these approaching "true" 25mm scale. They are on the small side. I love the dwarves in particular and they are going to be my main D&D dwarves encounter group.

[Spooktalker]

My giant weasels, shown here teaming up with their pals the kobolds (first shown a few pages back):














Metadata:

Manufacturer: Splintered Light
Line: 15/18mm Animals and Creatures
Set: MISC09 Giant Weasels
Base markings: © SLM 07
Release date: 2007
Sculptor: Bob Olley
Date painted: 2011


Painting:

Nothing tricky here. These were fun and quick. I primed in Dupli-color gray and after painting glazed their coats with inks to give them a rich, reddish sheen. The undersides are bright, warm white and I did their eyes basic black with a white glint for that sinister beady-eye look. You can see the legs that aren't touching the ground have some structural support sculpted to suggest grass, but I think it works fine painted gray in my case and can represent dust being thrown up from the dungeon floor.


Blog post

Another blog post with a short roundup of weasel minis options.

 

[Mason]

Nice work, Spooktalker!
 

The weasels seem to fit in nicely with the Kobolds, not something that immediately springs to mind.

[Welf VIII.]

Nice work, Spooktalker!
 

The weasels seem to fit in nicely with the Kobolds, not something that immediately springs to mind.

Well the auld Monster Manual I suggests Kobold to team up with Weasels.

@Spooktalker: I deeply admire what you are capable of. Think you would be able to make a common pebble stone looking like a fantastic miniature simply by adding paint to it. Very well done!

[Thantsants]

Nice one 

[Mason]

Well the auld Monster Manual I suggests Kobold to team up with Weasels.

Doh!
Having never dabbled with D&D in any form, I had no idea...

[Spooktalker]

Thanks kindly, glad you like these!

Doh!
Having never dabbled with D&D in any form, I had no idea...

I wrote a tiny bit of commentary about how they work in the game (so far):
http://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2012/11/giant-weasels-in-ad.html

 

[clam]

Lovely, as always. Keep up the good work, spook

[DeafNala]

The Weasels are EXCELLENT additions to your Project....BEAUTIFUL brush work. They look like they'd be natural adversaries for Bob Olley's Dachshunds. VERY WELL DONE!

[Spooktalker]

Thanks Clam and Nala!

The Weasels are EXCELLENT additions to your Project....BEAUTIFUL brush work. They look like they'd be natural adversaries for Bob Olley's Dachshunds. VERY WELL DONE!

Funny you should say that! This is from the blog post comments:


 

November 16, 2012 8:28 AM
As for the weasels, the problem I have with the Splintered Light ones is that they look a bit like dachshunds instead of the bounding, bouncy gait they are known for. Heck, even bears run like that. Neither set has the characteristic long necks either.
I know what you are going to tell me Spooktalker: "Well, why don't you sculpt some yourself then?"
Well, maybe I will...

November 16, 2012 12:15 PM

    Haha, you have a point, they do look kind of weinery. Well, once yours come out I'll grab 'em up and use these as the dreaded Daschweasel instead. Colloquially known as the weiner-weasel. Almost as feared as the owlbear, and just as angry. Their angry yap chills the marrow of even a hardened band of adventurers and they're bread for small-tunnel fighting.

[\quote]

[Spooktalker]

Here's a bit from the blog post (http://belchedfromthedepths.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-minotaur.html) I did on him (but there's a bit more where this came from there on the post):

Metadata

Manufacturer: Otherworld
Line: DM Series - Dungeon Monsters
Figure: DM6a - Minotaur I
Release date: 2008
Sculptor: Paul Muller
Date painted: 2011


Painting
I wanted to have the painting highlight the contrast between the human and the bull parts of the figure, and to this end I chose a very human flesh tone for the man parts and a a bullish black for the hair and head. This set up another challenge, however, because there are some parts that are sculpted to be hairy on the figure, and others that are more less bare, but even a hirsute man is going to have hair more or less all over—on his back, arms, chest, etc. I tried a very old school technique to get that hairy look, but feel it was only partially successful. I added graphite shavings from a pencil to some matte medium and daubed it on as I had done for a five o'clock shadow or two back in the day. The shavings more less dissolved, however, leaving a more uniform gray than I'd hoped for. I went back and forth with black and flesh paint to work the hair and flesh together to a point where it seemed natural, and am fairly happy with the result, but after the fact I think less gray and more finely drawn, individual, black hairs may have sold the effect better. My other thought was that as a creature spending most of his time wandering underground mazes I gave him too sunny a tan. Now if I make the others paler, however, I might draw undo attention to the fact.

[Thantsants]

Very nice indeed and I think the hairy effect works very well. Not heard of the graphite shavings technique before - that's an interesting one. Your brushwork certainly does the job very well.

I think the skin is fine - wouldn't a naturally darker skin tone remain to a certain extent even if stuck down in a labyrinth?