Category Archives: 28-32mm fantasy

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.

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.

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).

CONFRONTATION, Viress Cards Available

The cards for Viress and her weapon bearer, exclusive Cadwallon models for the 2007 Paris GenCon, are now available for download here.  The zip file contains both the French and English cards.

CADWALLON: CITY OF THIEVES, The King of Ashes Expansion

Fantasy Flight recently announced the forthcoming release of the first expansion for their board game based on the Aarklash Universe, Cadwallon: City of Thieves.  From their website:

As you seek to outmaneuver rival guilds, you’ll find many new challenges in the catacombs beneath Cadwallon. Rumored to house the legendary riches of the King of Ashes, these rooms and passageways have piqued the interest of all Cadwallon’s guilds.

The King of Ashes expansion introduces new strategic considerations to the game with its exploration tokens. During set-up, players randomly place exploration tokens alongside the chest tiles in all the district’s rooms, but unlike the chest tokens, these remain facedown [sic] until a thief explores them. Exploration tokens represent the many secrets hidden in the shadows of Cadwallon, including staircases that can lead to the newly-exposed catacombs beneath the city!

This expansion is being produced in partnership with Dust Games and Cyanide Studios.

I own the base game for this series, but have not had a chance to play it yet.  That’s not going to prevent me from snatching up a copy of this expansion once it’s available.  I buy games like this as much for the art and miniatures as I do with the hope that my schedule will allow me to actually play them one day.

Speaking of miniatures, included in this expansion is the third printing of the Mid-nor cyclops.  If you didn’t get one in lead when they were still widely available or are hesitant to invest $79.99 on a resin copy from Legacy (via CMoN), this game presents yet another opportunity to acquire this fine miniature.

 

WRATH OF KINGS, Resin Models Now Available

Limited edition resin versions of some Wrath of Kings models are now available from the Cool Mini or Not store.

Wrath of Kings is being developed by the same studio that made Rackham so famous years ago.  Some of those aesthetics are on display here, but for the most part Wrath of Kings represents an obvious transition into a new stylistic direction.  Kudos to the team for not letting their past haunt their future, and for finding new focus for their creative energies.

RED BOX GAMES, HelsVakt Fenris and Infernal Nether Beast 1


Tre Manor of Red Box Games has just posted previews of two beasts included in their next scheduled release.  Both models should be available in about two weeks (pending confirmation from the caster).

The Fenris beast (top) is the first strong competition I’ve seen for Tom Meier’s giant wolves (stalking, baying); I actually think Tre has outdone Tom with this sculpt.  I hope more are coming, as one of these will not be enough.

According to Tre, the Nether Beast shown here is just one of three in development (the other two are about 95 and 50 percent done).  As it’s rather massive (that’s a 40mm base it’s standing on), the sculpt will be cast in resin.

For the past four years I’ve been looking for proper mounts for an old-school goblin/ogre/orc/troll/giant army I’ve been working on, and you can’t imagine my elation when I saw the Nether Beast and learned there were two more in the pipe.  Part lizard, part bull, hints of dragon, a dash of human anatomy, built for speed on the back and strength on the front–perfect!

I’m ordering these as soon as they are available (plus several other models on my RBG to-buy list).  Expect a review sometime soon.

MANNIKIN STUDIOS, Bylot Painted by Anakron


Mannikin Studios has recently posted a painted version of Bylot, one of their first models, by Anakron.  From the announcement on their website:

David AYRAL (Anakron) of Anakron Miniatures Studio recently submitted these pictures of his stunning version of Bylot (glennling 1). We’re quite impressed by Anakron’s incredible display of skill, and humbled that he was inspired enough by the piece to bring it to life. Thank you, Anakron.

Bylot is one of the ghosts from Henry Hudson’s ill-fated crew that haunt the Catskill Mountains in Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, and is included in our range of characters based on Arthur Rackham’s illustrations for the work. Bylot was sculpted by Anakron.

Visit Anakron’s gallery on Cool Mini or Not to cast your vote for his rendition of this model, and stop by Mannikin Studios to check out their growing catalog of miniatures.