Ral Partha AD&D Monsters 11-417 Greater Stone Golem

And staying with the idea of creatures made from stone... this was one of the last figures made by Ral Partha under the TSR banner before they in turn went under. It's got all the usual indicators of Ral Partha - good clean lines, great sculpting and no flash. He was a lovely figure to paint as well - a base coat of gray, and then a very VERY light wash of Army Painter Dark tone, followed by dry brushing. The light wash picked out the detail and gave some areas a marblling effect, which I think looks great on the figure. As with the Metal Magic Stone Giant, I picked out the eyes with white, and it definitely gives the figure an rather otherworldly gaze. Very pleased with the way this turned out, and I can see him getting quite a bit of table time as a generic guardian of temples.

Metal Magic C1034b Stone Giant with Club

Hobby Products GmbH was a German company that produced games and miniatures, and Metal Magic was the  imprint used for their miniature lines. They produced a wide variety of ranges over the years, many of which had little visibility outside of Europe. Most of their ranges had been phased out of production by the mid-1990's. As a consequence - this chappie is a bit of a rarity. He is a wonderful sculpt, and looks like he was deliberately modelled on the black and white line drawings from the Monster Manual 1e - check out the line drawing below. He was also a pleasure to paint - base coat of gray, light sand for  the loincloth and brown for the leather, then Army Painter Dark Tone, followed by dry brushing with gray and then white on the club. The white eyes were picked out simply to give focus to the face. It is a terrific figure, elegant, brooding, and I find it amazing that a company capable of such great sculpts could go under. This figure is definitely going to see a lot of table time!

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM72 Female Troll

Q. Where do trolls come from?

A. Reproduction between male and females of the species, of course.

This is another Asgard sculpt, and it is one of the better ones. It is also comparatively rare, both in term of availability and in subject matter - but then, I suppose the demand for female troll figures is limited. The usual rules of painting any Asgard figure apply - keep it simple. I have an on-going theme in my D&D campaign of trolls and ogres having gray skin, so it was a matter of picking our out a contrasting colour for the hair, which is why she ended up as a red head. After that, Army Painter washes, and dry brushing. Simples! I think this is a terrific figure - obviously female, unpleasant to look at, and malevolent. Just look at that expression! I particularly like the hairy chest as well - it's like something found at 2am on a Sunday morning in a side street in Stoke. In my D&D campaign I have a need for a cave dwelling witch, and I think I've just found the figure to represent her...

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM24v2 The Silent Shambler take 2

A bit of gap in  posts due to me being away, and also heavy rainfall preventing me from varnishing - so expect a number of posts in the near future as I catch-up with completed figures. Next out of the Lead Mountain was this fine fellow - now, I've already painted another one of them here, and whilst I was happy with the paint job I always thought it would have been good to use the figure as a Lurker in my Woodland beings HOTT army - so that dictated the paint job. This time I used a very light brown, then Army Painter soft tone, and then a very light almost yellow-green for the dry brushing before picking out the eyes and teeth. The base is simple flock, to match the rest of the troops.

I really like this figure - it is one of Asgard's best - and I still think it holds up now, nearly 40 years after it was sculpted!  I just like the strangeness of the pose, and the slightly dim but malevolent expression. Very please with the way it turned out!