Category Archives: Grenadier

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.

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!

 

Nostalgic Image of the Day, 17 October 2009

Denizens of the Swamp box set, by Grenadier

Denizens of the Swamp box set, by Grenadier

In light of my last post.

NOTE: Image featured in this post is Copyright © 1998-2008 The Stuff of Legends.

Nostalgic Image of the Day, 04 October 2009

Grenadier Dragon Lords Guardian Dragon

Grenadier Dragon Lords Guardian Dragon

One of my favorites from the old DotM series.  Mirliton now sells this under the name Dragon of the Mountains.  Unfortunately, their paint scheme doesn’t do the model justice.

NOTE: Image featured in this post is Copyright © 1998-2008 The Stuff of Legends.

Nostalgic Image of the Day, 03 October 2009

Grenadier's Wizard Room

Grenadier's Wizard Room

NOTE: Images featured in this post are Copyright © 1998-2008 The Stuff of Legends.

Nostalgic Image of the Day, 02 October 2009

Grenadier Fantasy Lords - Raiders of the Undead

Grenadier Fantasy Lords - Raiders of the Undead

One of the more memorable sets from my childhood.  I wish Mirliton would remake this.

Latest Dabblings

German Mercenary

German Mercenary

This is a work in process.  It’s one of the German mercenaries from Mark Copplestone’s Back of Beyond collection.  I still need to add some details to the model, clean a few things up, and finish the base.  This is my first attempt at using the “new” round bases (the Warmachine ones with a small basin in the center) for my models, and unfortunately I overloaded it with sand.   I hope I don’t make this mistake again.


This is the first goblin I finished for my northern war host, one of my major projects for this year.  It’s a prototype, so it took me a while to finish.  There are several things that did not turn out the way I had hoped, but I learned a number of things along the way.  I especially don’t like the dark tin/copper color of the armor plates, and will try brass for future models.  Hopefully I will get better results with my next attempt.

This is an old Grenadier model available through Mirliton in Italy, by the way.

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.

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.