Sunday 30 March 2014

Viking Forge FM-01 Giant Troll w/Axe and Spear / possible Asgard FM35 Hill Troll?


And now we have a bit of a mystery… hopefully solved. But first, a history lesson. Asgard Miniatures were one of the earliest British manufacturers of fantasy figures. Eventually, they were sold on to Table Top Miniatures (TTM), who eventually sold the moulds on to Viking Forge, where you can still get some of the excellent (and not so excellent) Asgard castings. 

A couple of years ago, I won a job lot of TTM miniatures – several of them were still in their original TTM bags and labels, so they were definitely genuine TTM - and some were loose, but the seller assured me all of them dated from a period in the 1980’s where he’d bought them from TTM. This was one of the loose figures from the TTM job lot.

At first, I couldn’t find him at all in Lost Minis, so I checked on the Viking Forge website and spotted him listed as FM-01 Giant Troll w/Axe and Spear. That in itself was kind of odd; he didn’t bear any resemblance to the other Troll sculpts from the range, and also the original Asgard FM01 Troll was a much dumpier (and very coarse) figure. Rather than a Troll… he looks like a Hill Giant, or perhaps… a Hill Troll? In Lost Minis, the entry for the Asgard FM35 Hill Troll is empty. No-one knows for sure what the figure actually looks like… no catalogue lists the figure. Could this chappie be the missing FM35 Hill Troll? He certainly looks the part - closer in appearance to a Hill Giant than a Troll, to be honest.

The figure itself is very well sculpted – lots of detail and expression, and good threatening pose. If I had a criticism, the weapons supplied with the figure are a bit flimsy, and I can see them getting bent or snapped very quickly. Actually, that's another pointer to suggest he’s an early Asgard sculpt - other figures in the range have flimsy weapons, plus the odd looking axe he’s wielding is a ringer for the weapon supplied for another Asgard miniature from the same range, FM85v.1 Lord of Chaos.

The figure was a pleasure to paint; flesh tones, browns for the furs, red hair and a dash of silver for the chainmail, then a wash of Army Painters Soft Tone, followed by dry brushing. The base is simply flock plus a few twigs and stones from the garden; the strange looking bulrush thing is a sprig from some grapes!

I was very pleased with the way this one turned out – it’s a wonderfully detailed sculpt, with a distinctly menacing air. Perfect for terrorising adventurers when they seek shelter in a cave! Now, if someone could just confirm whether this is the missing FM35 Hill Troll...

3 comments:

  1. You made me discover an unknown Asgard, thanks a lot. I have some kindness for that old (and forgotten) manufacturer :-)

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    1. My pleasure :) I really like the old Asgard sculpts - a lot of them still look great, nearly 30 years after being first produced!

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  2. The axe looks very much like the ones I (OR TONY ACKLAND ) used to make in the very early days.It could have been on a Conan-ish warrior perhaps. Tony probably remembers:

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