Monthly Archives: May 2012

FIRE INDUSTRIES, Fire Industries

Speculate.

Remember these guys?  Fire Industries took over all resin production for Rackham for a time, but it didn’t last long and soon after R was filing for bankruptcy.  It was somewhat of a strange partnership from the start, but lasted long enough for FI to put out some great terrain pieces (reproduced from R originals) and interesting models for AT-43 (their warthog comes to mind).  Some of their models have actually been made available through other channels (large pixie, ninja goblin, and the warthog, for example), but from what I can recall not through any store or dedicated website.  It’s a pitty, as I always liked the resin terrain pieces.

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Dragon Titan of Aarklash

I just uploaded some new high-resolution photos of the titan dragon to the Cynwäll elves page in the Archive.  Included in this upload are the photo for the box art (above), the box art, and a much larger version of the studio photo.  Enjoy!

GRENADIER, Nick Lund Goblins

I mentioned in a post last week that I’m working again on my old school army of goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, ogres, trolls, and giants.  The army is comprised largely of sculpts by Nick LUND and Bob OLLEY for Grenadier, Ral Partha, Olleys Armies, and Reaper. A reader expressed some interest in the project recently, and so I’ve obliged with these two photos.  (It was also a great opportunity for me to test drive my new photo studio, but I’ll save that for a later post.)

I purchased these Grenadier goblins from Mirliton in Italy a few years ago.  To my knowledge, all the goblins featured here were sculpted by Nick Lund.  As sculpts go, they’re soft, ropey, and reminiscent of the rock star sensibilities that This is Spinal Tap parodied so well.  I consider myself something of a miniatures snob with a low tolerance for poor concepts and their weak execution in putty; but for whatever reason, I love these.

I completed most of these during the same week that the Dragon Painting forum held their last weekly challenge (I did not officially participate in the challenge).  Three of them were done (or largely done) well over a year ago, but two needed some attention here and there and weren’t on finished bases, while the center goblin in the photo below was painted for a DP 90-minute speed painting challenge last year.

I spent about an hour total on each model.  The painting level is far from stellar, but the point of this project isn’t for display and I feel the style works best for these sculpts.  I still need to add some vegetation to the bases, and insignias on the banner and shields, but I’ll do that latter once more of the army is done.

The sizes of these goblins are all over the place.  The goblins above are on 25mm bases, the ones below on 20mm.  I’m treating them as greater and lesser goblins, but don’t think they were designed with that in mind.

Here’s an interesting piece of trivia: this project is the subject of my first post for this blog more than three years ago.  I don’t know if I should feel embarrassed by my terrible progress, or proud that the project is still getting my attention.  I’ll let you decide.

RUNECAST, “Hoggie is mean, clever and lucky”

Gregor’s on a roll.  Promptly in the wake of his Satyr Ancient (previously reported here), he’s sculpted another character for his forthcoming range of beastmen.  No name for this guy yet, but that’s immaterial.

Anthropomorphic creatures like this normally don’t appeal to me, especially pigmen, but this I love.  Lots of folks on the forums have mentioned the quality of the fur (which is indeed quite good), but I’m more attracted to other details about the sculpt, like the pose (arms in particular), the clever placing of the flail’s ball and chain, and the three-digit hands.  the only thing upsetting about this piece is that we will have to wait until the end of the year to get it (assuming we can’t change Gregor’s mind with a little more pressure 😉 ).

More pictures and commentary can be found on Gregor’s blog.

QUIRKWORTHY, “Tis the Season”

Jake Thornton just posted a great article on his blog, Quirkworthy, about the latest price rise announcement from Games Workshop.

Price rises, or, more specifically, GW’s annual price rise is bubbling on the forums. There was a link, but it’s been altered so that it doesn’t work. However, the basic scuttlebutt is that GW supposedly mentioned their price rise in 2 lines of a deeply embedded page, several links down their site. Copies of what purport to be the US trader’s new retail price list are kicking about with some scary % increases. Supposedly the non-US retailers have heard nothing of this. Whether it is real or nonsense is anyone’s guess.

Actually, I don’t think I care. [more here]

I passively follow the goings-on of GW through their newsletter (which I barely glance at) and the unavoidable tidbits picked up from forums and various news sites on the Net.  I don’t hold a grudge against them, and I certainly don’t go out of my way to criticize them.  I just have no interest in their core products and universe(s) (except, at one time, their LotR models, but that’s another story).

The only time I ever feel an urge to discuss GW is at times like this when they announce price rises on the horizon, and the grumbling ensues.  I’ve actually tried, on more than one occasion, to write an article on this phenomenon, but in the end always opted to devote my energy to other projects.  Fortunately, thanks to Jake, I’ll never have to, as he’s captured my opinion in his article to a T.

RED BOX GAMES, May 2012 Releases

Gynnade Krigare

Red Box Games just announced their most impressive release ever. From their announcement (unedited to preserve Tre’s unique voice):

Well guys at long last the first wave of the HelsVakt Expansion are up for pre-order. Believe me I have been just as anxious to get these out as you guys have been to have them available. This has been a REALLY logn road and I am very glad to be within reach of the ( hopefully ) happy end of it. There is still much much more in store; modular hordesmen, Shield maidens, Archers, characters and yes of course CAVALRY!!! I really hope you guys like what I have ready thus far.

In addition to the HelsVakt Fenris and Infernal Nether Beast, this release includes Yrsa the Accursed (remember the older version from two years ago: IMAGE), Belegast the Bloodthristy, Varp Krigare, PLUS modular bits from these models and limited resin versions.

Yrsa the Accursed

Varp Krigare

On Yrsa, Sebastian Archer wrote, “Yrsa is great – cool to see a muscley athletic chick (that actually looks like a female still!) rather than the usual sexpot bodies.”  Indeed.  I think it’s a positive expression of the direction this industry is taking, that we’re seeing more and more “studies” of anatomy (Thank you, Alan C!).  Enough with the creeping neo-Victorianism that has (largely) plagued the sensibilities of artists and manufacturers in this industry to date.  Accurate portrayal of the body was a mission of da Vinci (and so many others) in the past, and I’m absolutely delighted that miniatures sculptors are picking up the torch.  I have zero interest in gratuitous displays of swelling mammary and pendulous cock.  But as for unabashed displays of the body when character demands it–go for it!

Thank you, Tre.   Follow your instincts, and continue to excel.

JOEK MINIS, Good and Bad

JoeK Minis just released a couple great miniatures, Mr Good Axe and Mr Bad Axe.  From their announcement:

Both figures have been sculpted by the talented Matt Gubser, and I think will be an absolute blast to paint up! They both stand the usual sort of height for my figs, so you’re looking at the 32mm mark, but as you can see they’re chunky guys!

Agreed, these look like a lot of fun to paint.  Don’t get me wrong, I love gritty, detailed models; but more often than not I want to enjoy painting for its own sake rather than make completing successive pieces a personal and technical challenge of some sort.  That would explain my massive collection of Reaper models, and my current Nick Lund orc/goblin project.

Nice release, Joe.

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Dwarves of Mid-Nor

This doesn’t count as one of the high-res images, but it’s close.  You can find it on the Mid-Nor page, too.

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Akkylanie and Tir-Nâ-Bor

I can tell from the page hits that you guys already found the Griffin.  Last two high-res images are up.

I hope you all enjoy these.

 

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Goblins of the Ûraken Clan

The third (of five) high-resolution Confrontation images is now available here.

MECHA, MC2 France / Tetraedge

Andrew May, one of the crafty miniatures sleuths that frequent Frothers, came upon some interesting information, today, on Pascal Blanche’s Deviant Art page.  Regarding the image above, Pascal wrote:

a design i made for a game company ( MC2 France / Tetraedge ) with Jean bey one year ago. Unfortunatly the project stopped, but we had great fun creating it.The model was designed to become a70mm figurine with removable/customisable parts. the prototype you see there has been printed by the talented guys @ moddler. The end result was pretty detailed considering the size .

This is a surprise.  I’ve known for about three years that Jean Bey was developing a new miniatures game of some sort, but assumed it fizzled and died and never dreamed anything like this would surface one day.  Now that I’ve seen this model, I think it’s a shame it will never go to production.  I’m not really interested in mechas, but this is a wonderful piece.

For those of you who don’t know, Jean Bey was the infamous creative director that many blame for Rackham’s demise.  I’ve heard lots of stories, but wasn’t there myself; I’m decidedly neutral on the subject, and there my opinions shall rest.

Say, Speaking of Andrew May, have you seen his cloud giant for Otherworld?

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Kelts of the Drune Clan

The high-resolution image of the Drune army is now available in the Archive.

AARKLASH ARCHIVE, Cynwäll Elves

I just added this high-resolution image to the Cynwäll Elves page in the Aarklash Archive.  I have four more of these, and will upload them over the next few days.

Why is this news worthy?  Click on the image. 😉

RUNECAST SCULPTS, Satyr Ancient

I’ve been remiss.  I should have posted this a month ago when I first saw the sculpt on Frothers.  Regardless, it’s probably passed under most people’s radars, so I’ll just assume it’s still “post worthy.”

The first few folks to respond in the Frothers thread were immediately reminded of the Gloranthan Broo shaman (just writing that makes me feel like such a geek), but according to Gregor of RuneCast Sculpts this is just the first model for a planned beastmen faction.  I really don’t care what it’s called or classified as–I love it!  The sculpt is primal, earthy, and not excessively busy. I haven’t been this excited about a goatman since Studio McVey published their Pan model a few years ago (see here and my painted version here).

I initially assumed it was quite large, something closer in size to Rackham’s Belial, but it’s actually quite small.  My only complaint is that it won’t be available until the end of the year at the earliest (insert sad face here).

PODCASTS, Game Classy

I don’t listen to any podcasts or watch any vlogs on a regular basis.  I’ve tried most, but none have ever captivated me for long.  The other day I discovered Game Classy, however, and for now my habits in this regard have changed completely.  I’m hooked.  No one is more surprised than I.

Many of the podcasts on gaming and miniatures have never appealed to me, because they’re usually a group of generic guys sitting around a table talking.  But there’s something different about Game Classy.  I think it’s a combination of a few things.  The guys who make Game Classy are good conversationalists.  The fact that they can make things I care little about so interesting is testament to that.  But they also have strong character-type qualities that I normally associate with skit actors.  The diverse interests of the cast work in the show’s favor, too: one is an RPG enthusiast, one is mainly a painter, and the (quieter) third is somewhere in between.  Whatever it is, I’ve consumed the entire series in the last three days, which is unprecedented for me.

Off the top of my head, the only other time I’ve been this entertained by other people’s conversations is when I first met Deke of Soda Pop Miniatures at PAX2010 in Seattle.  Because of his display of his lightening whit, I overstayed my welcome at the Soda Pop booth every day of the convention.  My most memorable conversations with Deke had little to with gaming; they were his anecdotes on life in general.  I’d share some of those stories here, but this is not really the forum for that and I’d never do them justice.  Suffice it to say, Deke is gifted with the storyteller’s art and rare ability to make the mundane meaningful.  If you ever find yourself wandering past the Soda Pop booth at a convention, try to get him talking and you’ll see what I mean.