Category Archives: Miniatures

Day of the Octopus!!!!

Back in the day, I was a big fan of the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG from TSR (still am, in fact). I thought some of their adventures might make fun scenarios for Supersytem 3, and it turns out I was right! First up is the introductory adventure included with the basic set: MSH0: Day of the Octopus!

A brief synopsis: That tentacled creep Dr. Octopus is at it again! This time his scheme is to become “Supreme Ruler of New York City” (yes, really). To that end, he has created a 30-foot tall robot duplicate of himself that will destroy Manhattan unless the heroes can stop it! (Because, you know, that’s the best plan an insane, genius nuclear physicist could come up with.)

FYI ALL of the published adventures, as well as the rulebooks for TSR’s Marvel Super Heroes are available at Classic Marvel Forever in PDF format, and they’re FREEEEEEEE! Many of them are delightfully terrible, with questionable storylines, lame villains, and encounters that make you scratch your head and ask WTF??? But all of them seem easily adaptable to SS3, and 99% of the heroes and villains used in all of them are available as Heroclix models!

Without further ado, the dramatis personae:

The heroes (L-R): Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Captain America, and the ever-lovin, blue-eyed Thing!

The main villains (L-R): Beetle, Scorpion, Dr. Octopus, Radioactive Man and the Fixer! (Fixer looked different back in the day, but this newer version is the only Clix model of the Fixer, so I’m stuck with it.) And of course, looming menacingly in the back: The Octodroid!!!!!

As is usual with most starting adventures, the heroes far outclass the villains. I assumed the bad guys would need some help, so I added Constrictor and these killer robots as reinforcements. The robots are repainted and rebased Horrorclix Carnage Bots.

If you’re wondering about the Octodroid, he’s this old Toy Biz Marvel figure, spray-painted silver. I picked him up on eBay for 8 bucks including shipping. Not bad, eh? Onto the game!

An otherwise quiet day in Manhattan. Ben Grimm, Peter Parker and Steve Rogers are all spending some personal time in the park. Thing is buying a hot dog and feeling sorry for himself. Peter is having a picnic with Aunt May. Steve is on a date with his girlfriend, Bernie Rosenthal. Captain Marvel is on duty at Avengers Mansion (remember, this adventure was from 1984!)

All the heroes notice two well-known goons, Turk and Grotto, entering a building across from the park. They are up to no good! All the heroes in the park start to make their excuses and head over to the building, just as a huge explosion blows out the front wall! Who emerges but Grotto, accompanied by Turk, in full Mandroid armor!

(If you’re asking WTF??? allow me to explain: A suit of Mandroid armor was on display in the lobby of the building. You might think there would be extra security, or that the suit of Mandroid armor would be somehow neutralized for display purposes, like a cannon at a park, but you’d be wrong. It’s just sitting there in a glass case in the lobby, along with the plans for a new power source made by Tony Stark. Or it was. Until Turk stole it.)

Alerted by the explosion and able to fly at lightspeed,Captain Marvel arrives on the scene instantly. The Thing wastes no time rushing across the street and ruining Grotto’s day before closing with Turk! And at that moment, the super-villains arrive!!!

What are they doing here? What could they want? The heroes have no time for speculation, because combat erupts!

Thing beats up on Turk, but fails to KO him. Meanwhile, Spider-Man webs Turk to the ground. Turk is entangled!

Captain Marvel and Beetle exchange energy blasts! Captain Marvel is wounded!

After firing off a blast of radiation at Thing, Radioactive Man gets slammed by Cap’s shield and gets KO’ed instantly! (Cap rolled a ton of goals to hit, and it carried over to damage. Radioactive Man rolled poorly, and that’s all, folks!)

Scorpion shoots at Spider-Man, but fails to hit. In the next round, he bounds atop the building closest to the web-slinger, but before he can close, Spidey webs him to the roof! Meanwhile, Thing takes out Turk once and for all.

On the other side of the park, Captain Marvel gets the worst of it in her fight with Beetle and is KO’ed! Cap takes out the Beetle with a shield toss, and Thing rips up a lamp post and cancels Christmas on the Fixer! With three villains KO’ed, the bad guys bug out and flee the table! But not before a sinister-looking steel tentacle snakes up from a nearby grate and steals the plans for a new power source…the villains’ goal all along! This was but a diversion! Mu-hu-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

In the original TSR RPG adventure, the heroes had to search for clues to find Dock Ock’s hideout. But we jumped right into it! The heroes track Doc Ock to his lair in an abandoned warehouse, where he awaits them with Scorpion and Constrictor!

“It’s Clobberin’ Time!” Doctor Octopus barely has time to activate his security robots before the Thing is in his grill. He decks Doc in two rounds, which made for a very quick end to this scenario. Meanwhile, Captain America shield-bashes Constrictor into submission! All in all, not a good round for the villains. But as he lapses into rocky-fisted-induced unconsciousness, Doc Ock manages to activate his most villainous automaton:The Octodroid!

BEHOLD! THE OCTODROID MARCHES!!!

The Octodroid begins its path of destruction, shattering buildings to the left and right. The heroes move quickly to intercept! Spidey tries to web its legs together, but the Octodroid will not be bound! Captain Marvel fires a blast of energy, inflicting damage. In response, the Octodroid pauses its attack on New York to fire at the heroes with the plasma cannons contained in its tentacles, but fails to hit any of them.

Then after a few more exchanges, Captain America once again saves the day. He hurls his shield with uncanny precision, striking the Octodroid in its eyes! Something shorts out and the Octodroid comes to an abrupt halt, toppling over a few seconds later. New York is saved! (Once again, Captain America rolled a shit-ton of goals that failed to be resisted by the Ocotdroid. Even I was surprised by how quickly the robot fell!)

This was a lot of fun and I plan on adapting more of the published TSR adventures to SS3 soon. Up next: MSH-1: The Breeder Bombs, featuring the X-Men!

WizarDecember Week Four

The end of the year signals the end of WizarDecember as well. I would like to thank everyone who participated, whether by submitting miniatures or just by dropping by and viewing the work of some very talented hobbyists! A reminder to all to check the sidebar for some interesting blogs, some you may know, some maybe not. I plan on being a regular visitor to all of them!

Without further ado, the final wizards of 2015!

First up is TMP’s CBPill with another Wargods of Aegyptus miniature, an “Asar Mistress of Worlds”. While I don’t play the game, CBPill’s submissions for Dwarvember and WizarDecember have piqued my curiosity as the game seems to have some pretty nice miniatures associated with it.

Next up is a Scibor Tech Priest proxy for CBPill’s (not) Adeptus Mechanicus army! I love Scibor’s miniatures (especially the Dwarfs), and this one looks like another fine sculpt. I’d be wary of playing with him though, as the resin might not hold up to constant handling. But YMMV!!!

And finally, CBPill ends WizarDecember with “Stanley whose RPG character is a Wizard named ‘Palmyricus the Perfidious’ (thought that would be a silly change of pace.)” We probably all know a Stanley. Technically not a wizard himself, but don’t tell him that! “Lightning Bolt! Lightning Bolt!”

Thanks for all the great submissions, CBPill!!

Next up is Punkrabbitt Returns’s submission, which has to be one of the strangest and coolest wizards I’ve ever seen! This is Ooleekoo, “a Morokanth shaman, essentially a sentient tapir native to Glorantha specializing in spellcasting.” Punkrabbitt has Frostgrave fever, and this looks to be a new wizard for yet another Frostgrave warband! You can see how he converted the original model and hear all about Ooleekoo over at his blog, Tumbahelada de Punkrabbitt, over in the sidebar! He used a plastic Toob figure! How frickin’ cool is that??? Awesome and inspirational job, Punkrabbitt!

Another awesome paint job on another awesome base by TMP’s 144artist! This is another Hasslefree Kev White sculpt. The scenic base really adds a lot to the miniature and the freehand work on the cape is terrific! I generally suck at freehanding anything, but after seeing 144atrist’s work and what a difference it makes, I’m going to have to try it more often!

Here’s a closeup of the detail work on the rear of the cape. Thanks for participating in both recent painting challenges, 144artist!

Finally, here is my submission. I originally planned a big blowout to WizarDecember, but then I got a PS4 and Star Wars: Battlefront, so…it didn’t happen. However, here is a lizard-wizard for your perusal! This is a Reaper Lizardman Shaman. I’m happy I got to pose him amongst my recently created swampy terrain, even though the pictures aren’t spectacular.

In other news, amongst my Christmas loot this year I received a Barnes and Noble gift card, which was promptly put to use purchasing Frostgrave and Thaw of the Lich Lord. To my newfound friends who submitted wizards this month, I can no longer resist the pull of this highly reviewed game. I credit Punkrabbitt in particular for all his warband submissions in November and December. So hopefully, I will play some Frostgrave in the near future and write some AAR’s about it! (Although I don’t think a Lizardman warband would work so well. Being cold-blooded in the frozen city? Might result in at least an initiative penalty or two. 🙂

I’m taking a break from hosting painting challenges for a while, in part because I can’t find a word to work into “January”, but mainly because I need some time to focus on projects I’ve let go (like Imperial Assault) in favor of Dwarfs and Wizards for the past two months. I’m more than willing to participate in someone else’s challenges, if the subject is right. So someone pick up the glove!

Thanks again to all! Happy New Year!

WizarDecember Week Three

This week was my birthday, and between that and the general holiday madness it was a challenge to be able to submit anything this time around. But WizarDecember stops for no one until the 31st! So, without further ado, here are the wizards!

First up is Punkrabbitt’s Week TWO submissions, here a little late but welcome nonetheless. You can read all about his Frostgrave warbands over on his blog, Tumbahelada de Punkrabbitt, accessible through the sidebar if so inclined. Up top is the old Citadel wood elf Queen Alarielle, circa late 90’s. Below that is an old Citadel wood elf mage. Together they’re a wizard and apprentice for Frostgrave, respectively.

Punkrabbitt’s week three submission is a conversion of a Reaper Bones miniature. Using an Iron Wind Metals rabbit head, Punkrabbitt converted this wererat to be a bunny-headed wizard for yet another (bunny or Chaost-themed) Frostgrave warband! Awesome!

TMP’s 144artist submitted this Hasslefree female wizard, again for use in…you guessed it…Frostgrave! (I gotta get into this game.) 144artist combined some terrific brushwork with a Micro Arts Studio base and here is the result! I particularly like the blending on the crystal ball and the designs on the hem and back of her robe. Thanks again, 144artist!

These two are from TMP’s CBPill. Up top is an old Celtos Kev White Sculpt that is a new version of CBPill’s Necromancer from an old WarGods of Aegyptus world campaign. (His words, not mine.) And on the bottom is a “wizard-type from the Dark Fable line of Ancient Egyptian minis.” Both look great. I’m considering an Egyptian-themed pulp game in the future, and that guy on the bottom would fit right in. Thanks again, CBPill!!!

Lastly, here is my submission for the week: this RAFM Wizard with Wagon. I’ve always loved the opening scene in the Fellowship of the Ring, when Gandalf rides into Hobbiton in a wagon loaded with fireworks. So I guess it’s no surprise that I went for a Gandalf look when I painted him.

I now wish I painted the goat more of a whitish color. I painted him first, then decided on the Gandalf look, so by the time I painted the wizard it was too late to change the goat around and make my deadline. Although I used different colors, they look a little too similar for my liking. Also, it seems I need to rub off some of the static grass on the side of the base. Ooops.

This is one of those miniatures with a lot of character. I’m not sure what this fellow poking his head out the back is supposed to be, so I just went with a standard “red demon” look.

WizarDecember concludes next week, the day after Christmas! Happy Painting!

WizarDecember Week Two

Back for its second week is WizarDecember! We’re a little light on submissions this week, but I’ll be taking any new ones all throughout the weekend.

First up is TMP’s 144artist with this awesome Hasslefree witch, complete with a base by MicroArts Studio. 144artist plans on using her in a classic Dungeon Crawl. Great job! Very impressive shading on the abdomen!

I guess I should have specified it was NSFW, but if your work really gives you a hard time about this, you need a new job. Thanks for participating again, 144artist!

TMP’s CBPill submitted this odd-looking fellow from Reaper. In his words, he’s “some kind of Alien Cosmic Wizard, probably evil.” I like this miniature and I’ve never seen it before today, so I looked him up on the site to see if he’s part of a series. Sadly, I think he’s the only one of his kind so far. Reaper has him listed as the “Andromedan Vizier”, so maybe some more are on the way. I love the palette you chose for him. Bright colors on an evil guy aren’t the norm…but then again, he’s alien, right? Thanks CBPill!

My submissions for this week are a bit eclectic.

First up is this holdover from Dwarvember, a Reaper female dwarf wizard. One more reason I love dwarfs: even the wizards have hammers! For some reason I can’t explain, this miniature looks much better than the picture shows. I’m happy with the miniature, but not so much with the pictures. Hmm.

My second and third (!) submissions for this week are two versions of a classic Marvel hero: Dr. Strange!

By the hoary hosts of Hoggoth! It’s a Heroclix repaint! The miniature on the left shows more or less how he looked when painted by underpaid Chinese factory workers. On the right is my repaint. I also rebased him on an old RAFM base of skulls from one of their weird death angel miniatures. I think the flight stand kinda takes away from the miniature a little, but it’s the best way to hold him “aloft”.

This last one is an old TSR Marvel Superheroes version of the Doc. Looks like he’s in the midst of firing off his legendary eldritch bolts of bedevilment! Either that or he’s walking like an Egyptian. You decide. While painting this miniature, I was reminded how bad the sculpts on the TSR miniatures were. Also, I’m no metallurgist, but these miniatures never seemed to hold paint very well, even after priming. Perhaps something in the composition of the metal itself?

Week Three on the 19th! Happy Painting!

WizarDecember Week One

WizarDecember officially gets underway this weekend with some impressive submissions! And here they are!

First up is TMP’s 144artist with this Reaper Pathfinder gnome summoner! I really like the “iconic” Pathfinder series of miniatures, and with 144artist’s paint job, it’s not hard to see why. Thanks for the submission!

TMP’s Skrapwelder sent in this Reaper wood elf mage. Awesome work. I’ve always found yellow to be a tough color to work with, especially shading it well. I also really love the face in this miniature: perfect shadowing! Thanks, Skrapwelder!

Just under the wire, TMP’s CBPill submitted this interesting fellow. CBPill explains: “This is a figure from the Colony87 Kickstarter. He’s supposed to be a space merchant, but he really looks kind of wizardly to me, so that’s how I painted him and put the green magic swirl in his left hand.”

Works for me! I also like him as a space merchant!

Punkrabbitt returns returns for WizarDecember as well with this GW goblin shaman from Battle for Skull Pass. Punkrabbitt says it’s for yet another Frostgrave warband. I’ve managed to resist the pull of Frostgrave so far, but it’s getting harder everyday with all the great reviews, and miniatures like this just highlight the possibilities… Thanks, Punkrabbitt!

Lastly this week is my submission: this Reaper “death priest”. I posed him with some skeletons from Mississinewa Miniatures (sadly gone, now) and some Armorcast mausoleums, just for effect.

That about does it for this week! See you on the 12th, and Happy Painting!

WizarDecember is here!

Flush with the heady wine of Dwarvember success, I have decided to host yet another painting challenge for December. As the title of this post implies, it will be wizards that are the focus of this month’s challenge.

Once again, the “rules”:

Pics/links will be posted here every Saturday in December, starting on the 5th. The other dates will be the 12th, 19th and 26th. I’m pretty lenient on the submission times. Just get it to me by the end of the weekend to be included in that week’s post. And no fair submitting miniatures painted prior to December!

Wizard miniatures may be from any company, and any scale, and any genre! So if you want to paint a traditional spell-slinging mage, go for it. Or if you want to break out the Cthulhu priests or Shadowrun shamans, that’s perfectly acceptable as well. Clerics, druids, necromancers…we don’t discriminate here!

Send your pictures or a link to your blog to angrypiper@angrypiper.com. I will post my own wizards here, as well as any pictures I receive. I will link to your picture if you wish to host it on your own blog. And I’ll put a link to your blog on the sidebar for good measure.

First post is on the 5th! Happy painting!

Dwarvember Week Four

The final weekend of Dwarvember has some great submissions! Thanks to all who participated in the painting challenge this month. It’s been a fun time!

Without further ado, here are the dwarfs!

First up once again is TMPs 144artist with some spectacular Mantic dwarf badger riders! I love these miniatures and didn’t even know about them until I received this submission. Great job. Makes me want to buy some!

I remember Grenadier had some cool bear riders back in the day. I’ll have to hunt those down somewhere.

Up next is another familiar Dwarvember participant, TMPs Black Cavalier, with more classic Citadel dwarfs.

Throbin One-Eye,

and Kimril Giantslayer. Here’s a unit of EM4 Dwarf Shieldbreakers. These look to me like the old Fantasy Warrior dwarfs:

Black Cavalier also found time to finish out his Chaos Dwarf mortar team:

On a side note, Black Cavalier is looking for some dwarf items in trade. I’d paraphrase, but why do that when here’s a direct quote?

“I’m looking to buy a chaos dwarf swivel gun, just the gun, not the crew.
Also, I have 2 of the same figures from the chaos dwarf mortar crew(the one I submitted this week), but I don’t have the other mortar crew holding the linstock (the spear thing with the fuse lighter on the end). I’d like to trade my extra unpainted guy with the mortar round for the guy I’m missing.”

Here’s a link to his TMP Marketplace post where you can see the miniatures in question. Thanks for a truly epic submission week, Black Cavalier!

TMPs Balin Shortstuff returns, combining his apparent love of billiards with his love of dwarfs for a truly unique unit of dwarf spearmen! Balin is trying to ID the manufacturer of these figures, so drop him a line if you can ID them. Well done!

Punkrabbit returns returns with more submissions from his Frostgrave dwarf warband!

Top and middle: some dwarf miners and a dwarf slayer from GW’s Battle for Skull Pass. The bottom is an awesome conversion of the cannon crewman from the same set to be used as a dwarf witch lord! You can read all about how punkrabbit returns made his conversion and see more pics on his blog, over in the sidebar! Thanks again!

TMP’s CBPill offers up more Hasslefree Grymn for the challenge.

I love the Grymn, and they’re one of those “wish I had time” projects that plague me. Nice to see someone doing them justice! Thanks, CBPill!

Finally this week, my submissions. I finished up my own unit of miners, some from Battle for Skull Pass, some not.

I used the command group from BfSP, considering I didn’t have much of a choice. Then I built a unit of miners without a command group to bulk out the unit.

The dwarf on the left is from Skull Pass, the one on the right is from a unit box of GW dwarf miners.

Well, that about wraps it up for Dwarvember. Coming next month: WizarDecember! Details to follow soon, so watch this space and get your magic-using miniatures ready!

Dwarvember Week Three

We’re past the halfway mark for Dwarvember, and this week has some of the best submissions yet. Let’s dive right in with this awesome dwarf piper conversion by TMP’s Balin Shortstuff!

I’ve said previously that being a dwarf and a piper pretty much make a miniature the best thing it can be, and I stand by it. (Click that link to see my pre-Dwarvember Bob Olley dwarf piper, if so inclined). Balin couldn’t recall the manufacturer of this figure, but I wish we could get a shot of what it looked like before the conversion. Well done!

Returning again is TMP’s 144artist, with two Mantic Warsmiths:

My favorite is the blond warsmith on the bottom. Great base work too! Although I painted up some Mantic dwarfs from Kings of War a while back, I have yet to play any of their games. Love the look of the figures though. Thanks again, 144artist!

Black Cavalier returns for Week 3 with two more dwarfs. First up, a Chaos Dwarf mortar crewman. Love the fangs on the old Citadel Chaos Dwarfs.

And another Reaper dwarf: Freja Fangbreaker. Personally, I don’t have many female dwarf miniatures painted, which is something I will try to remedy soon.

TMP’s punkrabbit returns joins us this week with some GW Battle for Skull Pass Thunderers he’s using in a Frostgrave warband. Any chance you’ll save the wizard for WizarDecember, punkrabbit? It’s just around the corner!

You can check out punkrabbit returns’s blog in the sidebar under Tumbahelada De Punkrabbit, where among other things he discusses his decision to jump into Dwarvember this week. Thanks for the submission!

TMP’s CBPill once again joins us with an Egyptian-themed dwarf, Big Bukka Bloved of Bes, a dwarven bard.

There aren’t many dwarf bard miniatures out there, and I’m betting this is the only Egyptian dwarf bard figure in existence. So thanks for sharing, CBPill! Remember to check out his Duelling Scrolls blog in the sidebar for more pics!

My submissions for the week follow. First up, a repaint of a recent plastic AD&D miniature, the Duergar Champion from the underdark set. Here’s the original paint job:

Actually that stock photo shows a much better paint job than was on the miniature I had. I’m not a fan of these latest AD&D figures. The scale is all over the place, the sculpts are generally bad, and they all pretty much look like they were painted by Janice in Accounting. I saw no reason to keep him a Duergar, so I added some color and here is the result.

Also, I managed to get those Ral Partha Dwarfs painted after all. The dates on the bottom say 1986, so they’ve been awaiting paint for a while!

Next week is the last week of Dwarvember, so it’s time to start looking ahead. What say you all to “WizarDecember” next month?

Dwarvember Week Two

Time for more Dwarfs! Week Two of Dwarvember is officially here. So, without further preamble, on to the submissions!

First up, some Roman-themed dwarfs from fellow TMPer Fredrick. Fredrick painted this tribune, and here he is seen exhorting his troops. I don’t know who makes these figures, but Roman dwarfs are pretty cool!

Fredrick named this fellow “Primus Pilus”. Nice to know even Roman dwarfs like big axes.

And finally, a shot of the whole unit. Well done, Fredrick!

Returning for week two is TMP’s 144artist, with a truly awesome dwarf unit complete with custom movement tray!

These guys look great, and you can see more of 144artist’s work over in the sidebar (Tactical Simulation Gaming). Here’s a closeup of the unit champion (among others):

Thumbs way up!

Also back for Week Two is TMP’s Black Cavalier, with another Citadel Chaos Dwarf Swivel Gunner:

As well as a great Bob Olley Reaper Dwarf, Quimby Copperthumb.

Great job, Black Cavalier!

As an aside, Bob Olley is one of the best sculptors of dwarfs out there, IMHO, and I love his work. Check out his Dwarf World line if you feel the same way. Used to be available through Armorcast, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.

Another veteran of Dwarvember thus far, TMP’s CBPill returns with this Hasslefree Grymn Pirate Kajaran with a blade swap. Nice conversion!

You can see more pics over at MiniSmith Forge, link located in the sidebar. Thanks again, CBPill!

Then there’s this one by TMP’s Skrapwelder, dubbed “The Most Interesting Dwarf at the Prancing Pony”:

Stay thirsty, my friends!

You can find Skrapwelder’s blog over in the sidebar under Rot and Drivel (which is his blog’s name, not me being an ungrateful asshole). Thanks for the submission, Skrapwelder!

Lastly, my meager submission for the week. I was planning on painting some old-school Ral Partha dwarfs (maybe next week) but real life got in the way. Instead, I was able to paint the Dwarf Lord from Battle for Skull Pass. I didn’t want to stick with GW, but it’s all I’ve got for the week.

Once again, not the best pictures.

Hope to have some dwarfs from various manufacturers done for next week. Until then, Happy Painting!

Dwarvember Week One

Dwarvember is officially underway! But we’re off to a slow start, so hopefully we’ll have more participants next week. I’ll continue to add more Week One submissions (should I receive any) to this post through tomorrow evening, so check back soon.

On with the show! First up is a Reaper Bones Dwarf from TMP’s 144artist:

You can find a link to his blog, Tactical Simulation Gaming, over in the sidebar. He’s got lots more dwarfs over there, including a Kings of War army he’s working on presently. I like the painting technique he used to achieve the look of the chest hair.

Up next are two from TMP’s Black Cavalier. First up, a Reaper Dorn Ironspike, a classic Sandra Garrity sculpt:

And second, an old Citadel Chaos Dwarf swivel gunner:

Well done, Black Cavalier!

And here’s one from TMP’s CBPill, a Dark Fable Egyptian dwarf:

I was unfamiliar with this line of miniatures until I received this submission, so thanks, CBPill! You can find his blog (Duelling Scrolls) over on the sidebar as well!

And lastly, here is my submission: my unit of Dwarf Warriors from the Battle for Skull Pass boxed set. Although some of these were painted last month, I finished the unit in November, so it counts! Sorry for the blurriness of the picture. I need photography lessons.

Next week I’ll submit an individual dwarf or two rather than a unit. Happy painting until then!

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The Angry Piper's miniatures and gaming blog.