Fantasy warbands for skirmish gaming [Latest: Barbarians, April 12!]

[Faust23]

Hey Patrick, those look great!

I've been buried in my fantasy game board & rules of late, plus a vacation in the middle, so I missed this thread until now.

You will love the stuff that Damien and I have been working on with old Ral Partha & Grenadier figs.  Your's fit right in! 

Glad to see some paint on these guys.  I have the kicking fighter on my workbench waiting to get some love.  He was the first D&D miniature I ever painted.  I couldn't afford paint thinner, and I painted him with enamels from my plastic model paint set.  That was thirty some years ago....

Keep up the great work.  Love seeing these types of projects here.

[PatrickWR]

Glad to see the old-school stuff getting so much love! I'll see if I can dig up photos of more painted Grenadier guys.

For now, we have a couple of knight/paladin guys. The one on the left is definitely Grenadier, from the AD&D Fighting Men boxed set, converted with a helmet crest from a GW Bretonnian knight and a spiked mace. I'm not sure about the guy on the right. I'm thinking he's from Grenadier, too. Any ideas?



The basing scheme is meant to match the hobgoblins from page 1 of this thread...kind of a cracked-lava design. These two figures helped me learn to love helmet crests!

[Faust23]

I think the guy on the right is a Fantasy Lords figure from Grenadier.  Someone more erudite in that line may correct me, but I seem to remember seeing him on the Mirliton site, IIRC.

[Minohtar]

He's a Metal Magic paladin, one of the first minis I ever painted.

[PatrickWR]

He's a Metal Magic paladin, one of the first minis I ever painted.

Fantastic, thank you! Someone dropped him on his head a long time ago and bent one of the ears of his bull's-head helmet crest. I say it gives him character!

[PatrickWR]

Here's a couple more mounted figures. These two guys were packaged as "thanes" from Alternative Armies, so I'm thinking they were originally designed for historical gaming. Oh well, that's never stopped me before.

Alternative Armies stuff is generally on the large side, and these guys were no exception. They tower most of the vintage 25mm stuff in my collection -- but they scale quite nicely with newer Reaper-sized figures. The guy on the right was originally holding a standard but I didn't want that, so I replaced it with a long-handled hammer from a Warhammer kit. Paint job was simple and quick -- because these guys had to get on the battlefield ASAP!



I love the redbearded guy's pose. If there was a text bubble coming out of his mouth it would say "COME AT ME, BRO!"

[Minohtar]

Fantastic, thank you! Someone dropped him on his head a long time ago and bent one of the ears of his bull's-head helmet crest. I say it gives him character!

You're welcome.   Meant to say how much I'm enjoying this thread, great job on some wonderful old lead.

[PatrickWR]

Here are some more fighting men. The guy on the left is from Reaper, but it was the old-style packaging on the blister pack. The middle guy is a modern Reaper sculpt...he's a bard and his left hand was carrying a lute, but I cut that off and replaced it with a shield, and suddenly the sculpt looked normal.

The guy on the far right in the green cloak...I'm not too sure where he came from. I acquired him half-painted in a grab-bag of miscellaneous lead. He had a slot-tab under his feet, rather than a Reaper-style pedestal. Maybe Warlord? Any suggestions?

[Damien]

Hello Patrick, love the paint job on the Reaper minis. The guy in green is 14037: Sir Conlan, Crusaders Sergeant, from the Warlord range. (Btw the Thanes are fantastic as well).


Cheers,
 Damien

ps I'll pm you this weekend.

[Blackwolf]

Nice work on some wonderful figures

[PatrickWR]

Thanks guys! This thread is turning out to be a great way for me to puzzle through the origins of some of my miniatures.

Here's another pair of figures that have seen a lot of action on the tabletop. The fellow on the left is the only halfling in my collection...I'm not sure where he's from, but his style reminds me a lot of the old animated "The Hobbit" movie. His paint job has not aged well...it's too dark and smudgy. I guess the wash I used was too heavy.

The huge guy on the right is Drac Mac Syro from Rackham's Confrontation game. He was, I believe, the last metal miniature they released before switching over to prepainted plastics. He's clearly an analog for Conan the Barbarian and Bran Mak Morn, and he looks fantastic. I painted him up 5 years ago and he's been used in virtually every game that features human raiders or barbarians. I've had to touch up his paint job a half dozen times over the years.

[PatrickWR]

Here are a couple of stout dwarf fighters. The one on the left is an old Citadel miniature, I think...he was holding up a standard, but I replaced it with a halberd (featuring a blade that is almost as big as his body!).

The guy on the right is a simply glorious Grenadier sculpt. So much expression and detail on that stumpy little guy! Say it all together now: "AND MYYYY AXE!"

[Faust23]

Hello Patrick, love the paint job on the Reaper minis. The guy in green is 14037: Sir Conlan, Crusaders Sergeant, from the Warlord range. (Btw the Thanes are fantastic as well).


Cheers,
 Damien

ps I'll pm you this weekend.

Drew also owns the Sir Conlan figure. Although he renamed it to "Suck Justice!" 

[PatrickWR]

And here are some dwarven warriors from Mantic. The jury's still out on them -- they have a very distinctive style, but I'm not sure if it's my "dwarven ideal" for how the little stunty guys should look. You be the judge.

I purchased one of Mantic's grab bags that they sell around the holidays, which usually features 100+ miniatures for $55 shipped to the U.S. I split one with a friend, actually, and we each got a dozen or so troops from all of their fantasy armies (elves, undead, dwarves, orcs).

[stone-cold-lead]

I love the mix of different models in this thread.