Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM65 Flying Reptile And Wraith

Next up from the lead mountain... Asgard's take on the Nazgul from The Lord Of The Rings:

As with all Asgard sculpts from the early 70's and 80's, it's quite coarse compared to the fine detailed sculpts you see today. In particular, the Wraith is VERY crude - the folds in his cloak are acceptable, but on his legs (which unfortunately you can't see in the picture) I think he's supposed to be wearing chain mail leggings, when it fact it looks like he has a pair of woolly tights on!

The Nazgul/Reptile is a rather splendid sculpt though. The figure came in 3 parts - body and two wings - and I had to use an inordinate amount of super glue and patience to make them stick together, again due to the coarseness of the sculpting. Once assembled, it was a pleasure to paint - a surprising amount of detail, which came up well with washes over a base pink paint job for a suitably unpleasant effect.

The sculpt is something of a rarity - I've not seen another one - although I understand it's still available from Viking Forge in the States. I suspect that it didn't sell well on release for a number of reasons - firstly, Asgard didn't (or couldn't) advertise it as a Nazgul, and secondly it was an expensive sculpt when I acquired it. A third reason is that it was sold in a time when miniatures catalogues only had line drawings of the figures, not photos - and the line drawings from the Asgard didn't do it justice, and gave no indication of the size of the beast. Bit of a shame really, because I think it's an attractive "old school" mini, worthy of a place of honour in any Chaos army.

Grenadier Julie Guthrie's Personalities 881 Succubus

Next up was a fairly simple (but rather evocative) sculpt from Julie Guthrie, when she had her own range at Grenadier:

I am of the opinion that Julie's sculpts were a turning point for Grenadier - previously, a lot of them  had been a bit cartoon-ish, whilst her work heralded a more "realistic" style (if anything in a fantasy miniatures world can be described as "realistic"!).

The figure was really easy to paint; base colours, then simple washes, then highlighting. I was especially pleased with the way the bat-wings came out!

Grenadier Fantasy Lords 1st Series 105 Werebear

It's been a while since my last post - a combination of work, Christmas and New Year effectively preventing me from posting on a more frequent basis - but I've been been painting, which is why there will probably be several updates this month!

First up is this rather splendid sculpt from Grenadier:

 

Nice and easy to paint; white primer undercoat, then a mid brown base coat, then a wash of Devlan Mud, followed by drybrushing. The base is just flock, plus a couple of stones from the garden.

I really like this figure - it simply oozes power and savagery - and I can easy imagine it in a scenario like the Battle Of The Five Armies in "The Hobbit", ripping into the hapless goblin hordes! Rather than being stored away, this figure is going to be used as a Behemoth in my HOTT Wood Elf army.

Very pleased with the way this turned out!

Grenadier Wizzards And Warriors W53 Giant Tick (variant?)

Next up, a bit of an oddity. I got this miniature as part of a job lot from a certain auction site. It was quite badly painted - an entire tin of black gloss seemingly applied with a decorating brush! Once I'd got the paint off, there were no manufacturers mark to help identify it. After a lot of searching and some help from the guys at RalParthaMinis: Collecting Ral Partha Miniatures, I think that this is a variant Giant Tick from the very early Grenadier Wizzards And Warriors range:

It's a very simple, quite naive figure, in keeping with the rest of the early Grenadier sculpting. For the paint job, I wanted a combination that would automatically make you think "yeucck", hence the lurid pink and brown. I was actually very pleased with the way the brown came out - a suitably mottled effect!

The only base that the figure would comfortably fit on it left several "gaps" on the corners, which I've got around by adding the skull and bits of pieces of broken weaponry. I've also sprayed it with a gloss finish, rather than the usual Dullcote varnish; somehow the sheen gave the figure a more sinister look!

I had quite low expectations of this figure, and I'm actually very pleased with the way it came out. I can imagine it would have quite a lot of use in DnD games as a generic dungeon beastie to terrorise low level characters!

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM91 Knight Of Chaos On Foot

The accompanying figure is the Chaos Knight on foot. Whilst the mounted figure was OK - the photo really didn't do it justice, and I'll probably put up another pic soon - I wanted a slightly more "grubby" look, which I attempted here: 

 

I was a little bit happier with the paint job this time - primarily Citadel Tin Bitz, highlighted with dull gold, and with a green motif for the trimmings on the figure. Not too happy with the shield, though;  not one of my better efforts, and the flash on the camera did it no favours! As with so many of the Asgard range, the figure suffers from real proportion issues - the head and upper body are far too big for those skinny legs! I think it has got real presence though - you could imagine the figure being regularly utilised as the guardian of some dungeon treasure.

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM92 Mounted Knight Of Chaos

Next from the lead mountain was an old Asgard figure from the early 80's, although I vaguely remember getting mine in recent years from Viking Forge  (http://vikingforge.datasquire.net/). As with a lot of the Asgard figures, it is very coarsely sculptured, especially when compared to equivalent figures of the era from Ral Partha and Grenadier:

The paint scheme was fairly simple - predominantly red, green and silver, then lots of washes and highlighting - and the base is just simple flock. As with so many figures from the Asgard range, it is weirdly out of proportion - the head of the Knight is far too big for the rest of the figure, and the entire Knight figure itself looks far too big for the horse! It's difficult to see who would have bought this particular figure - it's not really suitable for role play, and there were far better Chaos cavalry sculpts from Citadel/Games Workshop at the time. Combine that with the coarse sculpting and you can see why it wasn't a huge seller. The paint job didn't turn out quite how I wanted, either - in hindsight I should have perhaps gone for a darker, dingier effect. There is an accompanying  Knight of Chaos on foot figure, so I'll try that style with that figure next.

Grenadier Fantasy Lords 500 Series 504 Pet Dragon

First up out of the lead mountain for the new painting technique was this beastie from mid-80's Grenadier:

The paint job was a base coat of black, then a highlighting coat of sand primer, then another highlighting coat of white primer. I have to be honest and say that I didn't care for the effect that the sand primer gave, and in future I'll just stick to a base black coat plus white primer for highlights. After that - base colours of red and yellow, and then lots of washes followed by highlighting.

As with many Grenadier sculpts of the era, it is a slightly strange figure - obviously aimed at the role-playing contingent, as it is a "Pet Dragon", presumably for a sinister necromancer who wanted something more exotic than a chihuahua or a white cat ("I've been expecting you, Mister... Conan...?"). As such it could probably be regarded more as dungeon dressing, though I can imagine it getting a limited amount of play use for selected scenarios where you absolutely need a pet dragon. No wings on the sculpt - is it really a dragon? - and I do like the pot belly on it... it suggests it is a very well fed creature ;)

On the whole, quite pleased with the way the first figure using the new technique turned out - it's slightly "grubbier" than my usual paint jobs, especially on the yellows, which is always a sod of a colour to paint  anyhow - but on the other hand it does have greater depth in shading. Definitely something I will experiment with on future figures!