James' toys-into-fantasy-minis thread.

[James Holloway]

Although I enjoy and paint fantasy minis, and I do play Frostgrave and am just starting with Dragon Rampant, the truth is that I mostly use minis in my now-just-concluded D&D game. In D&D, I like to keep the enemies varied, which means that there are many enemies I'm not going to use more than once. Given that I'm on a budget, how to reconcile this fact with my love of minis? By using cheap stuff to make them, clearly. Here's an example:

These swarms of mutated creatures were made from various pound store and charity shop toys:



I'm particularly pleased with the fly-head guy, who might turn up in my Chaos forces some time.

Here is one of them in action:



More about the process and the critters here: http://gonzohistorygaming.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/the-breath-of-annihilator.html

I'll add more things to the thread over the next few days, and I'm always open to suggestions if you have them!

[LordOdo]

I like the idea of every time new enemies pretty much, amd you've found a great solution to make it happen! The fly-head-guy is awesome indeed, great build!

[Shub-Nullgurath]

Very interesting.

[Schrumpfkopf]

I love this. Please keep it coming.

[DeafNala]

Your creations are SPLENDIDLY imaginative. GREAT WORK!

[James Holloway]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. In the final battle of the campaign, as I mentioned, the heroes faced off against a huge black dragon. Now, dragon models cost money, but as it happened I saw a dragon toy in a charity shop for £10 some weeks before. It even roars and its eyes light up.



Blog post, including video of the thing in action, here: http://gonzohistorygaming.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/final-fight-annihilator-in-person.html

[livanbard]

The fly guy is awesome, can you give us some closes?

[James Holloway]

I was planning on doing another one anyway, so when I do I'll photo the process step by step.

[James Holloway]

I bought some skeleton warrior plastic figures from Poundland. They're far too big to just be skeletons in 28mm, but I figured they'd make good statues or giants or whatever, and at a dozen or so for £1, what was the harm? I've been planning an undead army for Dragon Rampant recently, and I decided to turn three of these guys into an Elite Foot unit.

Here they are before painting:



I primed them with grey car primer, which seems to work well on bendy plastic models for me. I then drybrushed up to white and just covered them in a sepia wash before going back and picking out details. Here is the first model about 25 minutes into painting:



And here he is finished:



He's pretty crude, but he's suitably imposing, and he went from primed to finished in probably less than an hour all told. And of course he cost about 8p. So I am satisfied, and I think the unit will look suitably intimidating on the tabletop (although in game terms an Armour 4 Undead unit is a very bad investment).

[djbii]

Lovin this thread! 

[beefcake]

Very cool. Jealous of your poundlands. Everyone seems to find such great stuff.

[ShortscaleDave]

Hi James, love this!  I'm a huge fan of Toy Bashing for wargames (mainly due to a a few years of being a starving artist mini sculptor) and I just set up a facebook group for this very subject. I'd love to share this thread there, or if you'd like to join and post directly feel free! It's brand new so memebership is single digits right now! And I will be slowly updating the info etc.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1883414948607249/

[James Holloway]

I have joined it!

[Neldoreth]

Ah, this brings me back to my days as a starving student!

Are those bubbles all over that miniature? Looks like casting bubbles to me, but I wasn't sure.

Great stuff
n

[James Holloway]

I think they are an attempt to create texture and the appearance of age, since they are only on some surfaces and not others.