Grenadier Fantasy Lords 2nd Series 025 Lord of Death

No two ways about it; Grenadier chose some weird subjects to sculpt in the 1980’s. Next out of the lead mountain was this chappie, complete with cowl, cloak and scythe (but sadly missing a cocktail stick stuck through small pieces of cheese and pineapple). The paint job was fairly easy – white primer, then a couple of washes of Army Painter dark tone, then lots of white dry brushing to bring up the white again. The cowl and cloak were then painted black, and then dry brushed with several shades of gray to bring it up, followed by various ‘touch up’ jobs in white and black to tidy the entire figure up. I'm not entirely sure what the strange thing around its waist is - a pouch for putting gathered souls in, or a sporran maybe? The base is simply model railway gravel given a dark tone wash, and then dry brushed red and orange to try and suggest that it is stalking around on warm coals.

It’s a big sculpt – the second picture shows a Grenadier Fantasy Warriors (FW) barbarian against it to give you can idea of the scale, and the FW range were big hefty sculpts themselves! – and I actually quite like it as a sculpt. It has a definite sinister air, and not something you’d want a group of adventurers to encounter at the end of a session. Imagine your Cleric trying to turn THAT!

The question I have about this figure is WHY Grenadier produced it - who it was aimed at? It is such a specialised figure that I really can’t see it getting much table time at all. I mean, how many D&D sessions need a giant skeleton with a scythe? It might potentially get some play as the centre piece of an Undead army I suppose, but even then I can’t imagine Grenadier ever shifting many copies of the figure. As a wild guess… was this figure ever marketed for the Heavy Metal and Goth market…? I should imagine it would find a few takers there. As it is, it’s a comparatively rare figure (although as with many Grenadier figures, it’s not of great value on certain auction sites).  

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM58 Wyvern attacking

A wyvern is a legendary winged creature with a dragon's head, which may be said to breathe fire or possess a venomous bite, a reptilian body, two legs (sometimes none), and a barbed tail. 

Next up from the lead mountain was this early release from Asgard. Now, I'm not a fan of winged creatures in metal - there is usually an overhead in securing the wings to the body, followed by the liberal use of Milliput to fill in any gaps, and even when the wings are on there is always the risk that a tabletop accident will cause them to break off. Plus they attract dust like there is no tomorrow. Still, onwards and upwards…

The sculpt came in four pieces – the body, two wings, and the tail. The actual sculpting is pretty good – lots of fine detail, not too many flash lines to remove – and the securing pins/slots for the wings were surprisingly well moulded, with only a minimum of Milliput needed around the joint for the tail. Interestingly, the original catalogue line drawing from Asgard shows the figure with the tail down – but it is fairly obvious from the sculpt that the tail is supposed to curve upwards, a bit like a scorpion’s tail. Once assembled it became apparent that the sculpt was very unstable, hence the need for two 40x40mm bases glued together to support it.

The paint job was comparatively easy – light yellow for the belly and underside of the neck, then green for the main body, head, wings and tail, with just a splash of red for the barb at the end of the tail. Washes and dry brushing then brought up the fine detail of the scales and on the wings. The base is simply flock plus some stones and twigs from the garden - my reasoning is that the Wyvern is most likely to be encountered in the wilderness, rather than in a dungeon!

I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out – not bad for a figure that’s nearly 30 years old! I suspect it is a fairly rare piece, as it’s the only one I’ve ever seen in the wild, although I understand that Viking Forge still produce the model. I’m guessing it was never that popular due to the cost of it in the early 70’s – it is a fair sized lump of metal – and also I suspect it would get limited table time, as opposed to something like a dragon which would be brought out again and again. Shame really, because I think it’s a lovely piece of early sculpting.

Grenadier Monster Manuscripts Vol.III MM19 Efreeti

Efreeti are supernatural creatures in Arabic and Islamic folklore. They are in a class of infernal Jinn,  noted for their strength and cunning. An Efreeti is an enormous winged creature of fire, either male or female, who lives underground and frequents ruins. Efreeti live in a society structured along ancient Arab tribal lines, complete with kings, tribes, and clans. They generally marry one another, but they can also marry humans. While ordinary weapons and forces have no power over them, they are susceptible to magic, which humans can use to kill them or to capture and enslave them. As with the Jinn, an Efreeti may be either a believer or an unbeliever, good or evil, but he is most often depicted as a wicked and ruthless being.

The next item to be extracted from the lead mountain was this fabulous sculpt by John Dennett. The paint job on this was surprisingly easy - yellow at the base, blended into orange, and then finally red for the main torso (although I did keep the lower part of the right arm orange to suggest it was still emerging from the flames) - and then a wash of GW crimson, followed by lots of dry brushing. The armband and the earring were picked out with gold, whilst the eyes and teeth were picked out with yellow and white. The base is simply Milliput, scored to suggest flames (perhaps not too successfully), and then painted orange and dry brushed yellow to try and merge into the base of the figure.

 

I think this is a fantastic sculpt - incredibly sinister, and radiating malice. Imagine the reaction of adventurers entering a desert tomb and finding this waiting for them! VERY pleased with the way this one turned out :)

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM25 Giant Snake

What's this?!? TWO postings in the same month?!? Ludicrous... I actually have a couple of weeks off, so I am using the time to get in some much needed painting. Next from the lead mountain was this rather unspectacular beastie from Asgard.

I was NOT enthused. Whilst many of the early Asgard sculpts have a lot of charm and character (for example the excellent trolls from the Fantasy Monster range), several of them are quite coarsely sculpted... such as this one. The level of detail on the scales, eyes and mouth isn't great to be honest, and there were plenty of flash lines on the scales which were difficult to cut away/smooth down without wrecking the figure. Still, out with the brushes... 

One immediate issue was the base for the figure - it didn't fit well on a 45x20mm GW 'long' base, so it ended up on a 40x40mm base. Even then the head still stuck out over the edge! It also made the base look a bit empty, hence the addition of the heads from a plastic GW skeleton cavalry unit. The original idea for the paint job was to base it on a coral snake - brightly coloured and defined bands to give out a very definitive 'here is danger' signal - and in hindsight I should have gone for a deeper orange or even red, as the final result does make it look like a serpentine version of the lead character from Finding Nemo :( The actual paint job was just white, orange and black bands plus a light yellow for the underbelly, followed up with an Army Painter Soft Tone wash on the orange and yellow parts. The base is just builder's sand.

To be honest I wasn't happy with the figure or the paint job, until I put it on a table and stepped away from it. Oddly enough, it looks a lot better from a distance, especially when placed next to unwary dungeon adventurers. I suspect this figure may get a decent amount of tabletop time - it will certainly meet the need for a generic 'oh-look-here-is-a-giant-serpent' encounter. It also seems to be a fairly rare figure - I've only seen a couple of copies turn up on certain auction sites, and they seem to go for a decent amount. One for the collectors and completists rather than the painters ;)

 

Grenadier Monster Manuscripts vol 1 MM4 Basilisk

"In European bestiaries and legends, a basilisk is a legendary reptile reputed to be king of serpents and said to have the power to cause death with a single glance."

The next nugget to be extracted from the lead mountain was Grenadier's take on the Basilisk. Whilst I am big fan of Grenadier figures, and especially of John Dennett who sculpted this one, I was not enthused - it looked like a slightly comical figure rather than the king of serpents. And what was with the eight legs??! Still, out with the brushes...

I'd been reading an article about how difficult it is to paint yellow, and I thought "it can't be that hard". Wrong. It's really difficult to do it without the figure looking grimy... this is my best shot and I still think it needs a bit of a wash. Originally the figure was done in two shades of yellow - a dark yellow for the scales on the top, a lighter yellow for the bottom part of the figure - and then a light coat of The Army Painter mid-tone wash. And then highlighting. Lots and lots and lots of highlighting, before picking out the detail of the crest in red, the teeth in white and the claws in black. The base is simply GW sand, whilst the finish is satin varnish to give it a slightly shiny scale look.

It didn't come out too badly I think - it's just a really weird creature, basically a dinosaur with too many legs - and I still think it looks too cuddly to strike terror into the heart of anyone. I suspect it is to do with the pose - that raised claw looks like it is about to beg for something. Love and affection and a nice cup of tea perhaps.

As for the eight legs... well, I did some digging, and found this woodblock print of a basilisk from 1640, which is probably where John Dennett drew some inspiration and then probably thought, "the king of serpents... with a chicken's head. Nope. Let's give it the head of.... T.Rex." And no, I don't mean Marc Bolan...

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM30v2 Half Troll with sword

Wow... is it really a month since my last post? I originally set myself a target of posting at least twice each month, but a combination of work and other commitments meant that it just hasn't happened. As it is... I've just managed to sneak one in under the wire before December.

This chappie was next to be extracted from the lead mountain, and is the brother to this which I painted earlier in the year. I took pretty much the same approach with the paint job - Citadel paints, washes and highlighting, whilst the base is  a small stone from the garden, some flock from a railway basing set and strands of stick for the reeds. 

 

As with his brother with the hammer, it's a very appealing figure - probably the last thing you'd want a weary group of adventurers to see rushing towards them! I also believe it is comparatively rare - I've only seen one other instance of it on e-bay, although I understand you can get recasts from Viking Forge. Well worth the investment if you can find them!

Grenadier AD&D Small Figure Set 2010 Denizens Of The Swamp Giant Snake

Next out of the lead mountain was this little gem - one of the early Grenadier figures from the early 1980's, from the Denizens Of The Swamp box set. I'm a big fan of the early Grenadier figures - I know that they can look somewhat childish and naive compared to the more sophisticated sculpts of today - but to my mind they have a wonderful fun element that seems to be lacking in a lot of modern figures. They also seemed to mirror the drawing style of the illustrations in the early AD&D manuals! 

I think this is a terrific figure, with a definite sinister air to it. My only concern it whether I've done it justice with the paint job.I am sure every miniature painter has at least one figure in their collection that they look at and think, "why did I paint it that way". 

To be honest, that is where I am with this figure - I looked at it, and instead of going with inks and drybrushing, I decided to give it a black base coat and then pick out each of the scales with green or yellow. Yes, really. It seemed like a good idea at the time... but it took forever, and I'm still not sure that it was the right decision. 

The base is just standard green flock, with some shards of bark from the garden serving as "reeds". I also applied a single gloss varnish, to think and convey the smooth sheen on the snake scales.

The figure itself is great, although if you wanted to be picky you could point out that the head is maybe a bit too large, and those fangs are just comical... but it looks the part, and that is the main thing. I'm not too sure about the paint job though. Still, its perfectly good for terrorising lost adventurers who make the fatal error of crossing a swamp!