Another C23 Giant Ogre.

Whilst looking for something completely un-related in my games storage earlier this week I came across  the remainder of my old ( circa 1987) Citadel Miniatures Giant Ogres. Some were moderately well painted with oil paints sometime in the 90's when I was at Polytechnic; but a few like the one below were finished in Pelikan Plaka and looked, well, shite.
As part of a now ongoing mission to lend them some of the dignity they deserve they are getting a repaint.
According to my old Citadel catalogue this miniature is an Ogre Mercenary:

A few small points of detail to finish off, but overall fairly happy with how this one turned out. At the time I thought these were great, but nowadays the aesthetic of this era of Citadel Miniatures doesn't appeal to me so much. Compared to the earlier sculpts their stuff was starting to get too grotesque & cartoonish, particularly the Humanoid & Chaos stuff, however as an exercise in nostalgia this really takes me back to an era of playing WFB 2nd Edition on various kitchen tables and painting miniatures when I was supposed to be doing homework. This may explain why I cut down trees & dig holes for a living.

C23 Giant Ogre.

Another old gem from Citadel Miniatures currently getting the makeover treatment:

This I believe is an Oriental Ogre and he does look the part. Definitely getting a starring role in my upcoming fantasy central asian roleplaying campaign which I'm just polishing off; been busy doing the isometric maps this week. Not something I've attempted before but having a blast!

Yet More Grenadier Skeletons.

A few more ancient miniatures rescued from the lead pile this week:

This is one of my all time favourites, Grenadiers War Rhino Captive carrier. I used to use this in games of Warhammer Fantasy, hence the plastic GW skeletons crewing the beast.

This is one miniature I won't be re-painting, may update the base though.

Skeleton Kettle Drummer.

Another bizarre miniature from the talented hands of Andrew Chernak. I've had this since the mid eighties but it was long overdue a new paint job, having previously been painted rather garishly with Pelikan Plaka.

I thought this was it for Grenadier Skeletons but I have found a few more lurking at the backs of various drawers.

The two with horned helmets came with the War Rhino Captive Carrier ( which will also get a freshen up at some point), the standard bearer came in the same blister pack as the kettle drummer above & the bolt thrower should have a loader figure with it which I have based up singly as part of an earlier project.

Blog 100. Grenadier Miniatures Skeleton Horseman.

I've been holding this final miniature from the Skeletons: Raiders of the Undead boxed set back for a rainy day & that day finally came on Sunday, courtesy of an increasingly rare day off work.

Rather a great miniature for my 100th post on this blog, featuring the eclectic equipment so characteristic of Andrew Chernak's skeletons. Interesting to note that this miniature consists of two castings, rider & steed. Compare this to the 4 or 5 parts required to assemble the skeletons in the Barrowmaze boxed set I tackled earlier in the year for not a lot of extra detail & a definite lack of robustness for gaming use.

A Barrow Wight from The Barrowmaze.

The final miniature from my Barrowmaze order courtesy of Otherworld Miniatures:

Great figures but a bit fiddly to put together, it won't deter me from ordering more in future though.

Barrowmaze Boxed Set Completed.

Celebrated the solstice last night by finishing off the last ossified creatures from the Barrowmaze set. These chaps have become covered in calciferous deposits during their long incarceration in the Barrowmaze & are consequently tougher than your average skeleton.

Thats it. Barrowmaze Boxed Set complete. Uncertain what the next project will be painting wise. Watch this space.

More Skeletal Goodness.

Another skeleton this week courtesy of The Barrowmaze boxed set.

Another cool sculpt, but again really fiddly to assemble with separate arms & a separate shield. I've only got two miniatures left to paint out of this boxed set, the intriguingly titled Fossil Skeletons. These will follow in due course when my horrible eye infection has cleared up.

Bitten by the Writing Bug.

It had to happen sooner or later, after a year of not doing anything vaguely concrete following up on a one off game of D&D 5th I finally had an idea worth expanding upon. It is amazing where the mind can drift off to whilst digging holes ( one of the worlds most mind numbing tasks), this time I was pondering on early archaeology in Chinese Central Asia when it occurred to me that an Oasis town on a trade route would make a suitable environment for a range of different roleplaying scenarios. What has developed over the last couple of weeks is  Lop Nor ( not an original name I know, but it sounds right ) a sandbox setting that I'm starting to fill out in a little more detail; here's a taster of progress so far:

A rough outline of the setting, excuse the hammy intro at the top.

The Stench Gate, downwind of the shambles district it lives up to its name.

The more salubrious Grass Gate.

 I have it in mind to run this setting using Craig Cartmells Deadsimple RPG rules, to which end I have put together a suitable character sheet:

This is still very much a work in progress but I do have a small group of players interested in giving it a go once the long winter evenings set in. At the moment I don't intend to mess around with any 'story arcs' malarkey, I'll just drop the players in & see where they run with it.

More Otherworld Miniatures. The Crypt Knight.

Not being familiar with the Labyrinth Lord set of rules I'm not sure how the Crypt Knight would be represented in old money; another very nice miniature though:

Being as how he represents a knight I have tried to represent some faded splendour; the shield has come out alright, but the once yellow cloak does more closely resemble hessian sacking, but then I expect crypts are pretty hard on clothing. 

Most of the undead I paint are finished with Vallejo Panzer Colour acrylics, I find the wide variety of woody & earthy tones work well with the subject, better than trying to muddy down brighter colours & a lot less effort to boot.

More Barrowmaze Undead & Anticipating Frostgrave.

Back to more of the un-living for this episode of the ongoing Barrowmaze saga:

Crypt Thing, pointing at something.

Sapphire Skeleton, the sapphire in the skull causes this variety of skeleton to re-animate unless it is smashed.

Another, more animated, version of the Barrow Guardian featured previously

Another batch of very good miniatures from Otherworld. The animation of the skeleton is particularly good, very reminiscent of his brethren in 'Jason & the Argonauts'. The only downside is having to glue four separate pieces together, holding those tiny arms in place while 5 minute epoxy dries feels like a task Sissiphus would have baulked at.

Finally in anticipation of the July release of 'Frostgrave' a panoramic shot of the board I intend to game this on. I say intend because unless I can get a couple of my colleagues at the local boardgames club to participate, the chances of this project ever taking flight are minimal. This as ever is simply down to time, I just never seem to have enough of it. I really do see the appeal of Frostgrave having enjoyed in my younger days both Mordheim & Necromunda, GW games in a similar vein where you begin with a small retinue of characters & improve them over the span of a campaign. Indeed Necromunda got played almost to death over the space of a couple of months in my earlier feckless years, still got the much converted miniatures ( bits were added every time a character bought or found an upgrade of some sort) & my gang sheet buried in storage somewhere, sold the boxed set for what seemed a ridiculous sum of money when I last moved house along with a lot of other gaming stuff that hadn't seen light of day for some time. Didn't have the space & really needed the money for more important stuff.

Barrow Harpy & Older Sibling.

Bit of a slow old week on the painting front, work is seriously eating into my leisure time. Having to take the Sabbath on pain of death from Mrs. HGA who is beginning to forget what I look like. Anyway, freshly lubricated with a tidy pint of Malbec I got this beauty finished off last night:

Otherworld Miniatures Barrow Harpy.

In company with a Ral Partha Harpy c. 1990 from the hands of Bob Olley.

Nicely animated sculpt this one but coming in six separate pieces it ought to be. I might just add it was a complete pain in the arse to assemble, but at least there was enough metal to be able to drill & pin. This is definitely not the case with the skeletons I've just started on, hope & superglue are going to have to suffice!

Barrow Guardian & Tomb Robbers.

Three more Otherworld Miniatures representing denizens of the Barrowmaze Mega-dungeon.

Barrow Guardian

 I could have gone for a more standard grey cloud to represent this animated statue, but I wanted to try something different. The intention was to attempt a nice red sandstone but it has come out more like rusty iron instead, nevertheless I like the effect & he will make a good stand in for an Iron Golem.

A pair of Tomb Robbers.

I really like these 'Tomb Robbers', low life despoilers of the Barrowmaze, just like adventurers really. These guys would make perfectly adequate low level pc's or henchmen. I particularly like the adventuring gear being carried.