Some miniatures for Song of Blades and Heroes (undead warband for Mordheim)

[Jagannath]

These look great - what weird minis. They feel to me almost like there's a medieval Cthulhu thing going on. Love 'em!

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers! As soon as I saw snouted beastmen in feudal get-up with kettle hats, I knew I had to have them. They remind me, vaguely, of the Dragon Warriors Elven Crystals campaign, in which the main villain has snouted beasts in human get-up doing his bidding (they're called wodwos, if memory serves, but they're not terribly like traditional wood-woses).

There's some other interesting stuff in the ERM lines too: rhino men, for example.

[Hobby Services]

You know Splintered Light actually makes pig-faced orcs in 15mm, right?  And Zombiesmith has them in German WW2 uniforms and gear, for those campaigns where the Axis includes Mordor (as you'd expect).

[Duke Donald]

I'm impressed by your steady output of quirky and cool minis, a whole 77 pages of it now!

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks!

You know Splintered Light actually makes pig-faced orcs in 15mm, right?

Yes. Alas, they don't have a UK distributor, as far as I know, which more than doubles the price to get them here. I'll probably get them at some point, but only when the painting table's clear of 15mm, so that I can justify a big order!

And Zombiesmith has them in German WW2 uniforms and gear, for those campaigns where the Axis includes Mordor (as you'd expect).

I didn't know about those!

[Hobgoblin]

Here are some very hastily painted miniatures for this week's Whitehack game. The scenario is a raid on a sorcerer's tower, but as we're playing on Saturday rather than Sunday this week, I had less preparation time. I've repurposed a very old 25mm Grenadier orc as a giant demon guarding the entrance to a tower of brass (there's going to be a heavy Moorcock theme this week ), and have very hastily drybrushed some Minifigs men-at-arms as "pawns" - brass-armoured automata that are going to be arrayed like chess pieces on the chequered floor of the room in which they're encountered.

I'm hoping that the players won't have to fight the demon, as he can't tell one mortal from another. They should learn of this when they rescue a prisoner from the monstrous, liveried guards of the last update (an evil baron's soldiers delivering sacrificial victims to the sorcerer), so they'll get a chance to don the surcoats and helmets of the monstrous guards and sneak in.

The "pawns" will be "eggshells armed with hammers" - AC 7 (equivalent to plate and shield, to reflect a more advanced sort of plate), hefty damage from their poleaxes, but only a single hit point each. So they'll be hard to hit, and hard-hitting, but they'll go down instantly if a blow gets through.

One observation: much as I like them, I always find the (non-Lund) Grenadier figures hard to paint. There's something about the relative shallowness of detail that makes them resistant to my normal methods.

[Dr DeAth]

They look good - especially considering they're hastily painted.

[Jagannath]

Love 'em - it's funny, I try and avoid multiples of a pose where possible, but for automata type creatures it works really well. The big beast is great, red and brass is very 'demonic'!

[swiftnick]

Have gone back to the beginning ( it is a slow day at work). Have got to page 30 and needing a break. Absolutely wonderful stuff. Great figures with some great painting. Just wondering you don't come from Edinburgh do you? The painting style seems familiar for some reason.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks, all! The automata proved quite deadly yesterday, as it took the players a while to realise that they had only 1 HP apiece.

Just wondering you don't come from Edinburgh do you? The painting style seems familiar for some reason.

Yes, indeed.

[swiftnick]

Well that is me at page 55 now and pretty amazing stuff. I see you are from Edinburgh and used to paint for Mac's models. I worked their briefly in the early 90s which is probably where I saw your work.

[Hobgoblin]

Cheers!

Yes, that might be it. All the old HOTT stuff on page 4 sat in Mac's Models for years and years (I'd forgotten about it until I got it back).

[swiftnick]

Mike or Justin?

[Hobby Services]

Thanks, all! The automata proved quite deadly yesterday, as it took the players a while to realise that they had only 1 HP apiece.

Say what you will about D&D 4E, the concept of the 1HP minion monster type was genius.  

Agree with you about automata.  They're the one spot where having a bunch of identical sculpts works well.

Although I did do a whole platoon of the same figure for a weird Supersytem team one time.  There was one central psionic superguy painted normally, and then groups of ten hench-models in different monochrome shades representing his psionic-energy clones.  That was kind of neat.

[Hobgoblin]

Say what you will about D&D 4E, the concept of the 1HP minion monster type was genius.  

I wasn't aware of that! I've only ever played the original AD&D (and then only as a player); GMing Whitehack is my first foray into actual D&D (more or less), rather than Runequest, Dragon Warriors, Palladium, Tales of Blades and Heroes, etc. ...

The various iterations of D&D always leave me slightly baffled - there always seem to be more rules than anyone can possibly need. Whitehack (a "hack" of the OD&D "white box") is really elegant and concise, in contrast.

Mike or Justin?

The latter! Mike's stuff was always much better than mine. He's in Hong Kong now.