Category Archives: Fantasy

Scots Wha Ha’e!

I painted up some Reaper Highlanders for use as a warband in Battlesystem. I’ve had most of these miniatures for a while now, but I didn’t like the way they were painted, so I stripped them and repainted them. I’m happy with the results.

These guys are some of Reaper’s earliest releases. I don’t think they’re part of their current line, but you can still get them on the website. This is my first real effort at painting tartans. While there are many different tutorials online, I used Trojan Art Painting’s method. I used a blue/green tartan for these guys above.

I did a small conversion on the Highlander on the left above, adding arrows to his shield. The arrows are brass rod with fletching made from green stuff. I went with a red/blue tartan on these three.

The last two models are a piper and a druid. I made another slight modification to the piper by removing his fourth drone pipe. I like the look of the 3-drone highland bagpipe better. His tartan is gray/black with red and yellow accents. I painted the druid in white robes to make him stand out more. Weird how he’s clutching wheat instead of mistletoe. Trying to make it look like mistletoe would just look like green wheat, so I didn’t try.

I played my first ever game of Battlesystem with these guys over the weekend. Batrep in the next post!

Brother Jerrod

Recently, one of my gaming buddies stepped up and decided to run a GURPS Fantasy game. I decided to play a monk so that I could make use of the fantastic 4th Edition GURPS Martial Arts rules. I give you…Brother Jerrod!

The miniature is Reaper’s Friar Stone, Travelling Monk (03205), sculpted by Tre Manor. I bought and painted the miniature long before my friend decided to run this game, but once he did, I immediately wanted to use this miniature for my character. Brother Jerrod is a blast to play. He’s a jovial, garrulous fellow with a voice like Brian Blessed after drinking a quart of scotch. I created his unique martial arts style to compliment his constant state of drunkenness. In fact, more than once I was fully committed to my roleplaying and got more than a little drunk myself.

Good times.

Although I went into great detail creating his fighting style and giving amusing names to his maneuvers (Tip the Jug, Bear Stuns the Trout, etc.), I left the details of his religious order intentionally vague. It wasn’t going to be a big part of the game, and Brother Jerrod probably doesn’t remember much of his order’s precepts anyway. He’s too busy getting (and staying) drunk to care.

Some Old-School Miniatures

I went on a bit of a buying spree these past few months on some old Grenadier and Ral-Partha stuff. Mind you, I already have a ton of this stuff from my days of youth, but lately I’ve been feeling somewhat nostalgic. I present to you some of my recent painting efforts.

Up first are these two knights. Both are repaints of miniatures I first painted when I thought using Testors gloss enamel was a great idea. I’ve been trying to identify them from The Lost Minis Wiki, but I haven’t been able to. I could have sworn they were Grenadier or Ral Partha, as I’ve had them since the early 80’s at least. For some reason I want to say the guy on the right was labeled a cavalier, but I’m not 100% on this. Anyway, they both have morningstars (or maces-and-chain, depending on who you ask), and that wasn’t so common on miniatures in those days. Any assistance identifying these guys would be most appreciated.

UPDATE: Thanks to some fellow enthusiasts on The Miniatures Page, I found out that the one on the left is from Superior Miniatures (Knight with Mace-and-Chain). The one on the right is from TSR, part of their “AD&D Heroes boxed set. And sure enough, he’s a cavalier!

I love miniatures that tell a story and aren’t just “generic guy holding weapon”. This one is an old miniature I bought recently. It was part of Grenadier’s “Woodland Adventurers” boxed set. I don’t have the rest of the set, but I love this halfling sniper. This is not a repaint. In fact, I don’t believe this miniature was ever painted before I got him.

I’m under a pile of lead now, but I’m going to continue to take a break and paint (or repaint) some of these old miniatures every now and then.

Elves, Dwarves and Rust Monsters

Thought I’d showcase some miniatures I painted recently.

First up are some Reaper elves. (Apologies for the blurriness of the photos. I need to get a tripod.) Up high is Ardynn, Elven Hero (Reaper 14046) , while down below is Baeldrinahr, Rogue Figher(Reaper 02952). Ardynn looks more like a High Elf to me. I decided to base him on snow and I’m happy with the result, although you can’t really see it. I decided to paint Baeldrinahr like a Wood Elf, so I chose the palette and basing accordingly. Both these would have made an appearance in my AD&D campaign, if I was still running it.

It’s never hard to get me to paint Dwarfs. These are some older Reaper sculpts that actually look kind of small compared to their more recent dwarf products. On the top are two Dwarf Heroes from Sandra Garrity (Reaper 03351). On the lower left is Sturm Jagstone, another Garrity sculpt (Reaper 02236). I love these miniatures.

Oh, Crap…

Lastly, I decided to showcase one of the all-time classic and most hated AD&D monsters: the Rust Monster! These two armored lads are about to have a very bad day.

The warrior on the left with the ridiculous sword is Reaper’s Alustan Nightbreaker, Paladin (Reaper 03192). On the right is Kain Swiftblade, yet another Sandra Garrity sculpt (Reaper 02025), one of Reaper’s oldest miniatures, and one of my personal favorites.

The rust monsters are a mix of old and new. On the left is Reaper’s recent “Oxidation Beast” (why get sued, after all? Reaper 03585). This one is metal (the irony!!….Oh iron-y! How doubly ironic!!!) but they make a Bones version that’s five bucks cheaper at the moment. The one on the right is a classic Ral Partha rust monster. I really like the look of both models, and I’m pretty happy with the paint jobs.

Bringin’ the Thunder

Two posts in one day! I did a little more work on my Dwarf Army recently and I thought I’d share the latest additions to my bearded host with you. I decided to paint up the artillery and some handgunners, so here they are.

First up, the artillery: two Dwarf cannons with crew. The one on the left is the old-school metal cannon, the one on the right is the plastic (much smaller) cannon from Battle for Skull Pass.

Next is a unit of Dwarf Thunderers from Battle for Skull Pass, along with an OOP Dwarf Lord holding a pistol. Ten Thunderers do not a unit make, IMHO, but there are enough for a skirmish or two.

This is my organ gun (painted previously). Together with the cannons, it should make life difficult for anyone in front of them.

Here are most of the shooty units in my Dwarf Army…coming along slowly but surely. Apologies for the blurriness. Up next: Miners!!!!

It’s all about Gnomes.

With The Recent Demise of My AD&D Campaign, I have decided to share some of the miniatures I was holding back from the blog for fear my players would see them too early. I figured I’d start with the last (and final) adventure, in which the PCs explored the long-abandoned laboratory of an eccentric (but legendary) Gnome inventor.

These three gnomes hired the PCs to help them explore the lab in the hopes they could find something that would be of use in repelling the evil svirfneblin who were attacking their homeland in force. The miniatures, L-R, are Reaper’s Balto Burrowell (02510) and Marius Burrowell (02959), as well as an old-school Ral Partha Dwarf, repurposed as a gnome because he scaled nicely.

Of course, the opposition had already invaded the lab in the hopes of sacking it themselves. I decided to use Reaper’s Bloodstone Gnomes for svirfneblin. I went with a brownish skin tone as opposed to the blue of true BSGs. The majority were Bloodstone Pinners (06212). I also gave them a couple of Beetle Lancers as sergeants (14548), as well as a captain (Bata, Beetle Rider Captain 14568).

Along the way the PCs ran into some of the gnomish inventions, still active and guarding the lab from intruders. These Brass Arachnids and the Arachnid Swarm are from Wyrd’s Malifaux line. I actually never got to use the Brass Arachnids, but I’m quite happy with how they turned out. On a side note, the Arachnid Swarm was a cast iron bitch of fiddly parts that I never want to assemble again. I lost count of how many times a leg broke off. In fact, I had two Arachnid Swarms, and I gave up trying to assemble the second one. The Iron Golem is from Reaper (02728), and I can certainly find a use for him in other games as a robot or something. He was originally supposed to accompany the PCs in their quest. If you were paying attention, you may remember they’re already hanging out with an animated scarecrow. Scarecrow…Tin Man…off to (stop) a wizard…you get what I was going for here. all the above miniatures are based on junkyard bases from Taban.

Lastly is the big Boss miniature my friends never got to face. He’s Frank-n-Steam, from Armorcast. Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to be available any longer, although there are still some similar Frank models on the site. Being resin, he required a lot of filling and cleanup before I painted him, and even then he still shows some bubbles and seams. I scratch built this base out of junk and bitz I had laying around. And yes, that’s a guy’s face in the chest. Much like the Iron Golem, I can use this thing as a mech suit or a robot body for a mad scientist in SuperSystem or .45 Adventure, so I’m not that bummed out that he never made it into my AD&D game.

Ill-Met in Lankhmar

Figured I’d post a few of my painting projects from a few years ago. First up is a duo likely familiar to any classic Sword-and-Sorcery devotees out there: Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser!

I’ve loved the Lankhmar stories since I was introduced to the characters in TSR’s Deities and Demigods, way back when I was a kid. Both of these are Reaper miniatures, sculpted by the legendary Sandra Garrity. The Mouser is (02034) Kurff the Swift, while Fafhrd is (02152) Fafnir of Kjord (an homage if ever there was one). These miniatures together would make a very cool diorama if done properly, with the Mouser preparing to scale a wall, and Fafhrd covering his back. Unfortunately, I painted Fafhrd years ago and the Mouser only a few weeks ago, which is why they’re based differently (and why I think the Mouser looks better.) I’m not wild about this picture. I can’t account for the shiny, glossy look on Fafhrd. Must be the camera flash, as I never use any kind of glossy paint or sealant and he certainly doesn’t look shiny in real life.

Up next is another duo, from my current AD&D campaign, the Tears of Yevona. This is Scarlet and Rouge, a pair of renowned “crime-fighters”. Many bards have written songs extolling their deeds of derring-do. Unfortunately, every time they’ve appeared in my campaign, the PCs have had to rescue them from someone or something. (“Of course, a few more minutes and we would have managed to free ourselves and overcome our dastardly captors. But your aid is appreciated nonetheless, comrades!”)

I actually forget which one is Scarlet and which is Rouge, so I’ll just call the girl Rouge. Rouge is another Sandra Garrity Reaper sculpt, (02006) Sidrith, Sword Sister; while Scarlet is (02430) Rictur Deihn, Assassin, sculpted by Bobby Jackson. (I used Rictur Deihn as a character miniature myself in a GURPS fantasy game years ago, and found a new use for him as an NPC in my AD&D campaign.) I painted both of these several years back. I think they could use more facial shading, but overall I’m ok with how they turned out.

The Dwarves are Upon You!

I have found a cure for my painting blues. I’ve decided that rather than drive myself crazy painting things I don’t want to, I’ll take a break and get started on those Dwarfs I’ve been meaning to paint for a while. Here are the results.

It’s a modest start: one unit of Warriors, one unit of Miners, a small unit of Quarrelers (that’s crossbowmen, not argumentative dwarfs), and an organ gun. It should be noted that with the exception of the organ gun and its crew, none of these are GW models. Like I give a shit. Both the Warriors and the Miners are from Black Tree Design, the Crossbowmen are from Mantic. I placed them around some Gale Force Nine Battlefield in a Box Rocky Outcroppings.

First up are the Miners. I love the look of Black Tree’s dwarfs, as they are all metal and chunky, reminiscent of that old Citadel Dwarf range, which I really like. The only criticism I have of them is that there isn’t enough variation in the packaging. Out of 20 figures, I got 5 of one sculpt and 4 of another, while conversely I got 1 each of two very cool sculpts. Oh well. I did my best to paint them with enough variation so that they are individualized, but I tied the unit together by using the same dirty colors across the board (they’re miners, after all). I used some leftover mat board from my Modular Roads project as movement trays.

Up next are the Warriors. Again, I like the look of Black Tree. These guys are doubly cool because they’re so armored up, I could easily use them as proxy Ironbreakers. (Quick Math: I get 20 of these metal dwarfs from Black Tree for about $40. The same unit of “official” GW Ironbreakers would cost me $100. I’d say they’re likely to be Ironbreakers most of the time.)

I didn’t make any banners for either unit yet, because I kind of suck at scratch-building banners. Maybe one day I’ll get around to it.

Last are the Quarrelers and the organ gun. The organ gun is an old-school GW metal version. I actually like the newer version better, but this one is fine. I have mixed feelings about the Mantic Dwarfs. They definitely have a look all their own, and you can’t beat the price at about $1.50 each. I really dislike the fact that in this pack of 10 dwarfs, you get a bunch of head variations but can only really use 5, as the other 5 dwarfs are all one piece. The one-piece dwarfs are the dwarfs that are firing the crossbows, pretty much the front rank. There is a noticeable lack of detail on these models as opposed to the ones with separate heads. In addition, they don’t really rank up well unless you want the back rank to be facing off to the side. A somewhat annoying design flaw.

So, what next? Well, I have all the dwarfs from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set awaiting painting: 12 Warriors, 10 Thunderers, 8 Miners, a cannon and crew, a Thane and 1 Slayer. (I’ve always thought Dwarf Slayers are stupid.) I have an unbuilt unit of Mantic Shieldbreakers that seem to have the same annoying lack of detail on the one-piece models as the Crossbowmen. And I have another regiment of GW dwarf Miners (making that 15 more miners in total, minus my unneeded second command group). I have another dwarf cannon and crew, and a proxy Flame cannon to paint, plus a few lords and heroes…So the army is a long way from complete, but I need to get back to my other projects for now.

AD&D Campaign: The Tears of Yevona

Once again, I figured I’d share some of the miniatures I’ve been using for my ongoing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 campaign. If you’re inclined to check out more, you can find some earlier posts here and here.

The Player Characters

First up, the PCs. Left to right: Elvar, the mage; Azrael, the bard, and Dematose, the cleric. Elvar is Reaper’s Halmar, Young Wizard (Reaper 03449). He is holding an uncorked potion bottle in his hand, and what I painted as flame is supposed to be vapor, I guess. I kind of like the flame look, even though I clearly suck at painting fire. Azrael is a Dark Sword bard from their Elmore Masterworks line. Dark Sword makes some incredible miniatures, and this may very well be the best bard I’ve ever seen. I’m ok with the paint job, even though my diamond pattern kind of fell apart halfway through. Dematose is Privateer Press’s Bastian Kinnet, Battle Chaplain of Morrow. I’m really happy with the way he turned out. Missing from the group is the ranger, Gough. He’s missing because his player owns the miniature and wanted to paint it himself. Of course, 2 years into the campaign, he’s not fully painted yet, even though my friend has painted other miniatures in the meantime. This is because my friend is a shithead.

This is not my friend’s paint job.

If interested, this is the miniature he chose for Gough. it’s another Dark Sword miniature, this time from their George R. R. Martin line: Wildling with Great Axe. Very cool.

The Butcher Bruvvers

If you followed the first link above, then you know who the Cudgel Gang is. When the players last encountered the Cudgel Gang, they left a few of them alive, including the dastardly leader, Quin Payden. Well, since then, Quin added some new recruits to the Cudgel Gang, and even replaced the ones who died with some thugs who look remarkably similar. Above are the two newest recruits, the Butcher Bruvvers. These are Heartbreaker Miniatures: Half-Troll with Ball and Chain and Half-Troll with Club, from their fantasy sculptors line. In their recent rematch, the PCs got some much-wanted revenge. They managed to kill almost every member of the Cudgel Gang, including the Butcher Bruvvers. The only one who escaped was (you guessed it) Quin Payden, vowing revenge. It’s a good bet he’ll turn up again.

The toughest fairies you’ll ever meet.

Not long ago, the PCs wandered into a faerie ring and were shrunk down to tiny size. They were promptly taken captive by faeries. Since I think most faerie miniatures look like, well, fairies, I decided to use these RAFM Dark Elves instead. They’d been laying around unpainted since the early 90’s, and it gave me an excuse to paint them. Soon afterwards, the PCs were given a chance to win their freedom if they could perform a service for the Faerie Queene. She sent them on the very dangerous errand of stealing the crown of Tarkhagal, the Spider King.

Spiders!

Not surprisingly, the Spider King had a lot of spiders around as guards. The PCs had to fight their way to him, defeating swarms of these guys in the process. The tiny spiders are from Mississinewa Miniatures. The big yellow ones are from Reaper (Reaper 03055). I painted them the color and pattern of an orb spider I found online, and based them with some Halloween decoration cobwebs. In the game, the small ones attacked in swarms and had weak poison. The yellow ones shot webbing and had stronger poison.

The Spider King?

Finally the party came face to face with the Spider King. Or did they? This is Meepo, a goblin who wandered into the faerie ring years ago and escaped the faeries, only to fall into the Spider King’s lair. For whatever reason, Meepo was immune to the deadly effects of the spider venom. Instead, it drove him mad and increased his physical attributes. The real Spider King kept him around for amusement. Meepo is an old-school Warhammer Forest Goblin Spider Rider. While I have a huge WFB Orc and Goblin army, I never used Spider Riders because I thought they looked silly. (The new ones are much cooler- looking.) I had this guy laying around though, probably the result of a trade made long ago. I figured I’d put him to use as a boss, and here he is.

The SPIDER KING!

After a long battle with lots of spiders and a crazed goblin, the PCs thought they had killed the real Spider King. On their way out, however, they got a rude awakening. The real Spider King, Tarkhagal, dropped from his lair in the ceiling and blocked their exit. That’s him above. I looked high and low for a little crown bit I could use for this big spider, but I couldn’t find one. I even looked at charms for bracelets. No dice. Tarkhagal is Reaper’s Huge Spider (03049), and he is huge. His leg span wouldn’t even fit on a 60mm base. I should have included a picture of a regular 28mm miniature for comparison. He’s about 3 times the size of one of the yellow spiders above.

Well, the bloodied, weary and poisoned characters managed to subdue Tarkhagal and take his crown, thus winning their freedom from the faeries. They’re currently back to their normal size and continuing on their adventure.

What’s Old is New

I’ve been on a bit of an old-school miniatures kick lately, no doubt inspired by guys like the Old School Grenadier Miniatures blog (now sadly gone, it seems).

A bit about that. I first started painting minitures in the 5th grade. Since I’m 40, I’ve been at it a while. I don’t claim to be a master painter; I learn more and more every day. But back then, and pretty much right through high school, I truly sucked at it. I painted all my miniatures with Testors gloss enamel paint, which doesn’t lend itself to shading, highlighting, mixing, or just painting in general. Not that I made any attempt whatsoever at any of those techniques. Most of my miniatures looked pretty gloopy.

It wasn’t until I started playing Warhammer and 40K in college that I discovered acrylic paint. A huge difference for sure. And although I have little love left for GW, I learned a lot from their publications and my painting dramatically improved in a relatively short period of time. Since I was building armies to game with, I painted GW figures pretty much exclusively from the early 90’s -2000 or so. Around 2003, I took a long hiatus from both wargaming and painting, having to pack up my paints and miniatures in storage. I only started up again about 3 years ago, and now I can’t stop.

Partly because of nostaligia and partly because I look at them and cringe, I’ve decided that in between my regular projects I’ll give some of my earliest efforts the repainting they so desperately need. Here are some of them.

Everyone I know who collected miniatures back in the early 80’s had the guy on the left. He’s from the Fantasy Lords set 121: Knights. I think he’s a pretty cool miniature from that time, plus he has a bec-de-corbin. How many miniatures do you own that are similarly equipped? Unfortunately, I didn’t take a picture of him with his old paint job, which was a true atrocity. I never bothered to base any miniatures before I started playing Warhammer, and I see no reason to base them for repaints. Next to him is a Ral Partha Dwarf: I can’t find the number. If any of you can, I’d appreciate you telling me. I recall he was in a blister labeled “Conquistador Dwarf”, but I’ve also seen him referred to as a “Dwarf Champion”. This guy never had any paint on him before now, so there was no “before” picture to take. I did base this guy, because I’ll probably be using him in my AD&D campaign as an NPC. I’m pretty happy with the way they both turned out.

Here’s an example of my work back then. Note the lovely Testors glossy flesh color on the charging halberdier. Impressive, no? Now just imagine if he had a face, how good that would look, and you get the idea of the general quality of my painting back then.

These are the repaints. The miniatures are some classics from that era: Ral Partha’s Chaotic Knights of the Skull (01-137). Like many of the miniatures of this time, scale was all over the place. These were supposed to be 25mm miniatures but they’re more like 32mm. The halberdier’s legs are far enough apart that you could fit the knight in the first picture within his stride. Although I think they’re both kind of silly, they were easy and quick to paint in between my current projects. I still don’t like the miniatures, but I like to think my paint job has improved over 25 years.

I think I’ll keep repainting old stuff and posting the results from time to time.

Dead Dick's Tavern and Temporary Lodging

The Angry Piper's miniatures and gaming blog.