Category Archives: 25mm fantasy

KICKSTARTER, Dwarven Forge’s Caverns

Dwarven Forge's Caverns
I couldn’t resist. I’m in for three sets. Learn more about the Dwarven Forge Caverns Kickstarter here.

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.

RED BOX GAMES, Celebrating Four Years

Kyrie Brighthelm

Tre Manor of Red Box Games has announced a great sale in honor of their fourth year of business:

Well Guys, we have made it 4 years. I think that officially means I have beaten the odds that most companies fold within the first 3 years or is it 5? Ah well who cares. On with the savings. I am currently running a sale in which EVERYTHING is discounted down by $2.00. Yes that is right two full dollars. The sale starts today, Monday the 1st of August, and runs to next Monday the 8th of August ending at midnight that night.

This is a great opportunity to support one of the great talents in the industry and pick up some amazing models.  I highly recommend RBG’s latest releases, some of which are featured in this post.

Boneback Multipack C

Brynjar Bondi

Greater Infernal Horror

Gregor the Crooked

Sverreulf the Red-Handed

DP Forum, speed painting contest

This was my entry in a recent speed painting contested hosted on the Dragon Painting forum, a Grenadier (Mirliton) goblin.  The sculpt is about 25 years old.  I was in a retro mood.  Enjoy!

 

Anakron Miniatures Studio, base tutorial

Anakron recently uploaded an excellent video tutorial for making simple yet highly effective bases for 28mm miniatures.  Click on the image to view the video on his homepage.  And while you’re there, be sure to check out his other offerings, including a variety of hobby tips and a stunning range of extremely limited (only 30 castings per model) resin miniatures.

One word of caution: the video is in French.   That being said, it is so well made that you shouldn’t have any trouble following his instructions.

Anakron recently acquired a special camera mount to make video tutorials of this sort, so you can expect more of the same in the future from one of the industry’s most talented artists.

EDIT: Anakron has kindly shared his paint formulas used in this tutorial.  You should have no trouble substituting similar colors from other brands, should you be so inclined. Don’t forget to check Color Match over at Silicon Dragon when in doubt.

Rocks:
– Dark grey: Prince August 867 Blue Gray
– Medium gray: Prince August Games G50 Cold Gray
– White: White

Grass:
– Dark green: Vallejo Game Color 028 Dark Green
– Light green: Prince August Games G31 Green Camouflage

Sand
– Dark Brown: Prince August 822 German Camouflage
– Medium Brown: Prince August 819 Iraqi Sand
– Light Brown: Prince August 837 Light Sand

EDIT 2:

Plants shown at the end of the tutorial were made using the following:

Grass: static grass, which can be found at any good hobby shop.

Dry desert plants: zeechium, which can also be found at most hobby shops.

Green plants were made using a product called erica foam, which might be available at a local hobby shop, but may require some searching online to locate.  Here is a link to the manufacturer (in French): LINK

Eureka Frog Warrior Musician

I recently finished this piece as a present for my brother.

You can purchase this model from Eureka Miniatures or Eureka Miniatures USA.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photos.

Frog Warrior Musician from Eureka Miniatures

Nostalgic Image of the Day, 03 November 2009

Dragon Tooth - The Magic Shop

The Magic Shop, by Dragon Tooth (1984)

Otherworld Troll, WIP

Under the Mountain 17 October 2009 5626Under the Mountain 17 October 2009 5628Under the Mountain 17 October 2009 5629Under the Mountain 17 October 2009 5632

This is a WIP of Otherworld Miniature’s Troll I.  I still have some work to do on the face and a few stages of glaze to add, but it’s largely complete.  I’ll fill the seem between the plastic base and scenic base plate with green stuff and putty before finalizing this piece.

One of my favorite miniatures as a child was the troll from the Grenadier Denizens of the Swamp box set, so I was elated when I first discovered the Otherworld trolls (there are two) a while ago.  I have two Troll I and one Troll II models, and look forward to seeing the completed set on my shelf.

More Great Terrain Projects, LotR

Bywater Mill

The Bywater Mill, by MacGothmog

The Buckland Brewery, by TheBucklandBrewer

The Buckland Brewery, by TheBucklandBrewer

Both of these are featured as tutorial threads over at The One Ring.  You can check them out by clicking on the images above.

Lineup of Major D&D Races à la Grenadier

Some of the D&D races from Grenadier via Mega Miniatures

Some of the D&D races from Grenadier via Mega Miniatures

I thought this might be useful: a lineup featuring some of the major races from my recent MM order,   (from the left) a half-orc, human, elf, human female, dwarf, gnome, and halfling.  I hope that some of you find this useful and informative.  Cheers!

Lineups of More Grenadier from MM

Fighter, half-orc, ranger, dwarf, and thief

Fighter, half-orc, ranger, dwarf, and thief

0908 Fighter with Sword
0872 Half Orc (Guthrie)
0928 Elven Ranger
0903 Dwarf Adventurer
0905 Female Sneak Thief

Assassin, dwarf, wizard, elf, and fighter

Assassin, dwarf, wizard, elf, and fighter

0829 Assassin (Guthrie)
0860 Dwarf Hero
0904 Wizard Adventurer
0816 Elf Fighter
0864 Fighter in Plate

Ranger, weapon master, elf, druid, and a gnome on the end

Ranger, weapon master, elf, druid, and a gnome on the end

0805 Ranger with Bow
0828 Weapon Master (Guthrie)
0858 Elven Warrior
0863 Druid (Guthrie)
0833 Gnome (Guthrie)

Interested parties can pick these up from Mega Miniatures’ eBay store here.

The First Lineup

Grenadier Recasts from Mega Miniatures

Grenadier Recasts from Mega Miniatures

Here are five of the Grenadier recasts I received in a recent order from Mega Miniatures, about which I briefly wrote in an earlier post.  More specifically, from the left:

0910 Cleric Casting
0933 Dwarf with Crossbow (Guthrie)
0960 Elven General
0931 Royal Paladin
0918 Halfling Adventurer

I hope my little studio adequately conveys the size of these miniatures (true 25mm goodness) and the quality of the castings (excellent).  That sentiment holds true for everything I plan to feature here over the coming months (years?).  Indeed, one of the impetuses behind this site is to provide, once and for all, good pictures that accurately demonstrate the size and casting quality of models.  I also have a laundry list of comparisons between miniatures from various manufacturers that I’d like to feature, especially at the 10mm and 15mm scales.  Stay tuned!

Introduction

The rough core of my northern warhost.

The rough core of my northern war host.

The idea for this blog came to me a few months ago, but I’ve restrained from starting it until now so that I could finish a number of higher priorities.  Per one of the motivating factors behind this blog, I also thought it might be a good experiment to wait until shortly after New Year’s Day to start posting.

I was swamped with work last year and didn’t have much time to paint.  But I think if I had managed my time a little differently, I could have squeezed some more minutes out of the day to devote to my hobby.  I decided that what I needed was a plan.  I needed a schedule and a goal (or two) to keep me on track.  Also, since I am out of practice, I felt that I wanted to try a different style for at least one of my projects (28mm), something quicker and easier.  The Foundry painting system codified in Kevin Dallimore’s Foundry Miniatures Painting and Modeling Guide (I’m about to order my own copy) seemed well suited for what I had in mind.  Finally, I wanted something of a retro feel to this project, if not simply because that aesthetic is especially appealing to me now.

With this in mind, at the end of the summer I placed a large order with Mirliton in Italy.  I bought almost their entire range of goblins and hobgoblins + a few trial orcs to flesh out the primary regiments in my winter-themed war host.  I’ve primed and based the initial batch of models in a way that I hope is generic enough to work with most game systems (although I doubt I’ll ever have time to play).  I’ll start painting these using a modified version of the Foundry/impasto painting scheme on Monday, 5 January.  I’ve got a number of ideas for this army, which I will post here over the coming days.  (I should also take a moment to mention that my inspiration for this army is the WitchHunter’s Norse Army.  Beautiful stuff.)

I also want to make great strides with my 10mm Middle-earth project this year.  I initially started chronicling this over at The Last Alliance.  However, for a variety of reasons that I will not go into here, I have decided that is not the forum for projects of this nature.  I hope to finish painting roughly thirty boxes of Copplestone 10mm miniatures this year, beginning with the “Rohan” cavalry.  About half of my goal is primed and ready to go.

Finally, I’ll be using this blog as a traditional blog from time to time, meaning that I intend to comment on things I find in the Web related to the miniatures hobby as a whole.