From left to right: TSR Hobgoblin (aka Baajikiil), TSR Shambling Mound, Grenadier's
Undead Ninja, Ral Partha Sea Reaver, TSR Paladin done as a high-cost merc, and
the TSR Evil Army Commander from the Battlesystem Box Set, done as a Evil High
Priest.
Here are a few more, but the pictures came out poorly.
From left to right, they are a Ral Partha Gargantuan Orc Hero, an old Reaper thief standing next to the first stage of the Ral Partha Three-Stage Characters Dwarven Warrior, a Ral Partha Imports Female Swashbuckler, the first stage of the Ral Partha Three-Stage Characters Ranger, and a TSR cleric.
These, like Baajikiil above, are the PCs in my current campaign. From left to right, we have Boris the half-ogre, Crestlin the wizard (and group leader), Turik Axeforge, Serena, Renos, and Ol' Cort. They are also known as the Blood Dogs, a dangerous, ruthless and amoral mercenary group.
The Boris mini is excellent - I bought it on a lark because I thought it would make a useful Orc Leader, but when it arrived it was ideal for the half-ogre in my current campaign. Compared to the true 25mm scale minis I use a lot of, he is huge. Compared to the 28mm and 30mm minis I am using, he is not so big...but still, he has been Boris long enough to not really matter.
And why is Crestlin the wizard represented with a thief mini? Because his player, Mike, is only allowed to touch one miniature because he has a habit of breaking them accidently while playing with them - usually with pencils, other minis, or with legos. Uh-uh. Even if he runs a female giant, this will be his mini. I did paint it to match Crestlin's mode of dress, though, including his now-signature blue shirt. Renos came out tremendously well. Hopefully a better shot will reveal the details, like his grass-stained knees and five-o'clock shadow.
The Ol Cort mini was a placeholder, but I found something better. I bought a Witchhunter Zealot by Games Workshop to use as OC. The guy I chose is balding with a ponytail, has a book strapped to his waist and carries a mace and a fish. Cut the head off the mace and you get a nice short staff, which is what OC carries. He came out nice and shabby, but I do not have a picture yet.
Current Projects
My current "projects" are actually numerous. These are the ones I can discuss in a forum my players can view - I will not mention the really cool ones until I spring them on their PCs. This means a lot of this is fairly innocent information, and my project painting my _______s from _____ are not listed, nor that horde of ________s, and for goodness sake I am not going to mention that I am working on a _____ of _____s anytime soon. Better they find out when I pull them out of the box and use them.
- I need to finish painting the Black Prince's Allies: Warriors of Sutherkrein
for my current fantasy game, finish painting the Black Prince's Black Knights
up for the same, and finish painting a few Egyptian gods I pulled out of the
Planescape minis boxed sets.
- T'Raukzul the Terrible, from Reaper. A BIG dragon...he weighs about
3 lbs. I am going to paint him black and green - a deep, dark, brooding old
green. To me, dragons should be green, so I am painting him green. He is almost
done with filing and prep, assembly comes next.
- Orcs. I am eternally painting orcs. I have 8 Ral Partha orcs, 3 RAFM orc pirates,
and like a gajillion Reaper orcs - I have some from the army packs, almost all
of the single-pack ones I could find (unless I really disliked them - which
applies to a couple). I also have a few WOTC orcs from the Chainmail line (Orc
Gangfighters, an orc with an axe, an orc assassin, and two half-orc assassins).
Really, I should get a firm count, but that would spoil it for my players. :)
- Last but not least I am working on primering and painting my new 2000 AD minis
from Wargames Foundry. I have Dredd
started. Excellent...
This is a list of companies, personal homepages, and painting guides I like or find useful. Please let me know if you have suggestions!
Painting Guides
The Miniatures
Painting FAQ - indispensible advice. You cannot go wrong starting here.
Hot Lead - A *great* site dedicated to painting.
While I chose to follow other people's advice, Hot Lead really helped me when
I was making my shopping list!
The Painting Clinic - nice articles
on painting. Good advice in general.
Personal Homepages
Major General Tremorden Rederring's
Colonial Wargames Page. An amazing site for Victorian Age wargamers. An
inspiration for my Space:1889 campaign as well - I put Ouargistan on my map
of Earth!
The Amber Nebula - a GURPS
page by David Morgan-Mar, who had helpful advice for me. Also great miniatures,
considering there are no miniatures for Pachekki or Sparrials!
John X. Crimmins's Gallery
- (a fellow Pyramid subscriber) has painted some pretty nice miniatures. I keep
looking at his spacecraft and thinking I should get started on my Sathar Armada.
John is one of those people I can always rely on for painting advice, answers
to questions about terrain, minis, glue, tools, whatever.
Lee Langston -
another fellow Pyramidian with a lot of really cool painting jobs, especially
those 10mm Warhammer guys.
Erol Otus (yes, Erol Otus) used to paint minis. Here
are a few of them.
Companies:
The Foundry - historical 28mm minis,
including pirates, Romans, WWII, and Victorian adventurers for us Space:1889
fans!
Reaper Minatures - run by a former
PBM ally of mine. Currently, my favorite company. They make very nice, very
scary monsters. Apes, spiders, wolves, etc. - all of them very intimidating
and very real looking. They also have a nice painting guide.
The Sentry Box - A game store with a
large supply of OOP miniatures. They are in Calgary, Canada. I have always found
them extremely pleasant to deal with.
Ral Partha used to be my favorite manufacturer, but they have long since gone
away. A company called Ironwind Metals
owns their line, so hopefully they will return...including the Black Prince's
minis I like so much.
Armorcast - they make very nice Resin
pieces. A trifle expensive, but really nice.
Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture makes
molds for building your own castles and such out of little bricks. Take a look
- it is worth it.
Hundred Kingdoms - A new
miniatures army game ala Warhammer et al, but with extraordinarily cool miniatures.
Well-made miniatures, although watch out for the individual heroes - they tend
to be very huge so they can stand out. I bought one of those Giant Gor minis,
too - a big, heavy mean-looking ape. Cost me $18, but the little smiley plastic
one I bought in a gift store and then modified (made it look mean) cost me $3.25
and looks just as good. Well, at least I have two apes for my ape army.
Eureka Miniatures - I bought a grab
bag of 30 of their pirates for $50. Great minis - only two near-duplicates,
modular weapons, seperate bases with wood board patterns (decks!). Cheap, too,
thanks to the US/Australian conversion rate.
Fortress Minis - Makers of some
cool Amazons and Mummies.
Copplestone Castings - I
have a pair of bare-headed troopers from Copplestone, both very, very nice.
Miscellaneous Pages
Historial Miniature Wargames Homepage
Gamelinks - more
miniature wargames links.
Want List
There are a few minis I really want to get a hold of. A few are WAY out of production.
Ral Partha
01-095 Jabberwocky - but I hear Ironwind metals is making these
01-122 Bandersnatch and Jubjub Bird (I now have a Bandersnatch...just need Jubjub)
01-141 The Black Prince's Orc Guard
01-142 The Black Prince's Elite Guardsmen
01-144 Black Falmyrian Guard Cavalry
01-145 Black Falmyrian Champion
01-156 The Black Prince's Black Knight
01-157 Dark Elves and Black Dwarves
NH-004 Ahoggya with three weapons and shield
Oh yeah, and the Black Prince's Army boxed set. That one is pretty rare. I do not even know if they made any, actually, I just remember seeing it advertised. I have more than enough Malkotian Spearman and Warriors of Sutherkrein, though.
Grenadier
Boxed Sets
6501 Adventurers (for Call of Cthulhu)
6502 Creatures (for Call of Cthulhu)
TSR
I thought they did an old-style Umber Hulk, too, but I could be wrong. I need one of those if they exist.
Wargames Foundry
Pretty much anything in the Street Violence range except:
SV 1/6 Juno's Crew
SV 1/8 Yossa's Bonehead Skins
SV 2/4 Segei's Corportation
SV 2/6 Gazza's Bootboys
SV 3/4 The Mob
SV 3/5 Young Plugs
SV 3/7 The B-Team
SV 1/2 SWAT Team Takedown - I have 3 of these guys already from one of those
"$9.99 packs" they sell with 3/5 of a regular pack.
There are only a couple I do NOT like - SV 2/5 The Family (only the Flamethrower guy is cool in that pack) and SV 3/3 Alice White. Ugh. Otherwise, they all rock, and have the best names - "Wise Melon." Heh, heh.
I like Gladiators, too. I only own:
GLAD 1/6 Spirited Underdogs
I really like Foundry's Vikings, Pirates, and Victorian Age minis. My players, bless their hearts, bought me a horde of Pirates - technically, the Cutthroats Rampaging Mob. My one complaint is that Foundry makes like 200 different pirates, and says they avoid duplicates in hordes....but I only got 46 unique pirates and 14 duplicates in the horde...one of them a triplicate. Bummer. What is worse that I bought the pack of Treasure Island Characters, and my horde came with another Squire, another Captain Smollett, another Long John Silver; another Doc Livesay...and Captain Smollett was a duplicate in the horde. So I have 67 Foundry pirates, and 18 of them are duplicates. Grr. I guess I will either sell some duplicates, do some conversions, or just paint them with different colors. On the bright side, along with my Eureka pirates I now have 98 pirates...a little over 100 with my Reaper pirates and I have numerous Warhammer militia who will make passable pirates if I need them. Now, for some ships.
I also have the 2000 AD Precasts - Slaine, Johnny Alpha, Mean Machine Angel, and Judge Dredd.
Copplestone Castings
Anything from the Future Wars line except for Terminators, Hunter Aliens, and Zombies. Oh, and who needs a news crew? I just need gun-armed minis for my skirmish games.
I own no Flagship pirates (I own a lot of Eurekas, though). Pirates of any types and pirate ships of any type would be cool. They have a $65 boxed set for 3rd edition Pirates! which I would like to have at some point...hint, hint.
Go back home.