Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM44 Djinn

Next out of the Lead Mountain  was Asgard's take on a Djinn, emerging from a bottle.

Initially I was not enthused - the figure is quite flat, and the base of it emerging from the bottle is very thin. I can imagine that a lot of these snapped and were discarded. As with all Asgard figures, detail on things like the hands is very poor, and the base is far too small for the rest of the figure, causing it fall over with alarming regularity. With that in mind, the first job was to fix it to a plastic base to give it stability, and then use Milliput to make the base look like a rough stone floor.

The Quran says that the Djinn are made of a smokeless and "scorching fire", which guided the paint job - a base coat of yellow, graduating up through orange to red, and then a wash of dark red, followed by dry brushing. This really brought out the detail of the figure, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well it brushed up! The stone floor was simply base gray, a wash of Army Painter Dark tone, and then highlighting.

It turned out quite well, considering I had low expectations of it - it is certainly a very dramatic figure, as if someone has inadvertently removed the stopper from the bottle and the Djinn has just burst out, stretching his arms after a couple of centuries confinement. He certainly looks pleased about something, and perhaps it is that lack of malevolence in the sculpting that is missing. Still, I can see this getting quite a bit of table top time, especially now that he doesn't fall over every time someone bumps the table!

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM13 Owl Bear and Ral Partha Personalities & Things... 01-040 v1 Were Bear

I’ve not posted as much as I’d like to – pressures of work, ferrying kids around and Christmas in general has put paid to that – but I have been painting, so over the next couple of days I’ll be posting shots of what I’ve been working on.

These two were originally part of a Wood Elf HOTT army, which spiralled dreadfully out of control. I ended up with enough figures for 3 armies (!) and eventually had to cull some units to make up 2 very distinct armies. Unfortunately these guys didn’t make the final cut, but I thought they’d hold up really well as standalone figures for wilderness encounters.

The Owl Bear is an early Asgard figure, and as a consequence the sculpting is VERY coarse – the claws in particular were just stalks protruding from the paws, and what is going on with the eyes?!? Still, it definitely has a lot of naïve charm, and invariably provokes a “WTF is THAT” response every time it hits the table – not bad for a figure that is nearly 40 years old!

The Ral Partha Were bear is a wonderful sculpt – really well detailed, with a terrific pose, full of energy. If I had a criticism, it is that it would be all too easy for the base to snap – Ral Partha metal was on the soft side.

Both of these figures were a pleasure to paint – a simple base coat of brown, then a dark wash, then dry brushing for the highlights. The Were Bear in particular benefitted from this. The Owl Bear needed a bit more work around the eyes, which are REALLY crudely sculptured – just holes poked into the figure! The bases are simply flock and a few stones and artificial grass.

Pleased with both of these!

Citadel Scorpion, Grenadier Nightgaunt and Ral Partha Wyvern

Although I’ve been painting, the autumn weather has meant that I haven’t been able to varnish the figures… until today. So here are three figures I’ve been working on since my last post!

The scorpion is from the Citadel Fiend Factory range - FF50 Giant Scorpion. Now, I have to be honest and say that the base paint job isn’t mine – I got this figure with a fairly decent paint job from an auction site, and decided to see if I could spruce it up. A simple wash of Army Painter Dark tone really brought out the detail, as did a rebase on a suitably sandy base. Simples! It is amazing the difference a quick wash does – the old Citadel sculpts have an amazing amount of detail. This will do very nicely as the guardian of treasure for any desert based scenarios.

The central figure is a Nightgaunt from the Grenadier Call of Cthulhu range. According to Cthulhu: “Nightgaunts have a vaguely human shape, but are thin, black, and faceless. Their skin is slick and rubbery. They sport a pair of inward-facing horns on their heads, and have clawed hands and a long barbed tail which is used to "tickle" their victims into submission. They can fly using a set of membranous wings.” When this came out of the lead mountain, I was underwhelmed. The sculpt is definitely on the chunky side – hardly thin! – and the pose wasn’t especially threatening. Combine that with a desired black coloured scheme, a lack of detail on the face (in fact no details!) and it could easily have just turned into a vaguely demonic black lump. With that in mind, I chose to make a couple of changes – the base colour for the figure was black, but the insides of the wing were crimson. After that, I decided to use dark purple to highlight the black of the torso, and that really helped bring out the detail of the muscles. The base is simply sand, painted gray and then given a dark wash – oddly enough, the reflection of the light from the figure makes it look light purple! I deliberately left it with a gloss varnish, which emphasises the slick, rubbery nature of the skin. It’s an odd sculpt, and whilst I was fairly pleased with the end result – I honest can’t see this one getting much table top time.

Finally, on the right we have a Ral Partha Wyvern from the Personalities and Things… range. Ral Partha do some terrific sculpts – fantastic detail – but if I had a criticism, it is that a lot of their figures look and feel a bit flimsy in comparison to other manufacturers, especially when you put them together on the table top. Looking at it next to the Scorpion and the Nightgaunt, I’m not sure you’d take the Wyvern to win against either of them! I started off with a red base coat, and then various shades of yellow for the wing feathers. It wasn’t an easy figure to paint, either – the tail is curled up to form a base, and that wasn’t especially well moulded. It also caused a lot of pooling on the base when I applied a red and a fair amount of cursing as I had to mop it out!  After that, lots of dry brushing, which really bought out the detail.

I like the figure a lot, and the paint job came out OK – I think this may get a decent amount of table top time, purely as a distraction figure. It might even stand in as a stirge!

Asgard Fantasy Monster FM76 Dragon-newt

It's been a while - a hectic combination of work plus taking kids to look at universities has eaten up an inordinate amount of time. That hasn't stopped me painting though - though most of the recent work as been a combined HOTT/Battle Master Dwarf army. More on that some other time. 

First things first - what IS a Dragon-newt? To be honest - I don't know! I can't find any reference to anything related to it on t'internet, so I am guessing it a pure Asgard creation, a bit like the mythical FM18 Secrom. So all we have to go on is the sculpt. And what a sculpt! I think it is terrific - a weird combination of reptile and feline! I think is meant to be some swamp or lakeside top predator, judging by the name and pose. You wouldn't want to mess with those claws or teeth!

Anyhow, on to the painting. This was pretty simple - green for the upper body, a dull yellow for the under body, and then wash and drybrushing. Simples! I went with red for the eye, purely to break up the green, and also because it looked more sinister. The base is just flock and twigs - although the reeds are actually strands from an old toothbrush, painted green and then drybrushed.

I like this sculpt a lot - it's one of the better Asgards - you can imagine this beastie stalking lost adventurers as they try to cross marshes or swamp! As a consequence I can see it getting a lot of table top time for outdoor adventures. It seems to be a fairly rare piece - I've only ever seen one other on e-bay - though I understand Viking Forge still produce it state side.

Grenadier Wizzards & Warriors Slime variant, Minifigs Sword & Sorcery SS47 Slimeman and Unknown mud/clay man

Next out of the lead mountain were a number of related sculpts – all easy to paint – so I’ve posted them together:

The Grenadier sculpt was from their earliest Wizzards and Warrior range, which was produced to tie-in with the D&D craze that was just taking off. The actual sculpt itself is not impressive – just a smooth lump of lead with a “eye” stuck on – so it was a bit of a challenge to do something (anything!) with it. The first job was to glue it on to a base of PVA glue – not only did that secure the sculpt, but once the glue dried it provided a smooth surface that suggested the sculpt was rising out of it. After that, a really simple paint job – base yellow, pink for the “eye”, then a wash of Army Painter Soft tone, then picking out the “eye” again with pink. Simples!

The Slimeman is from the Minifigs Sword and Sorcery range in the early 1970’s, and were originally sold as the official range of D&D figures. They are VERY basic – hardly any detail – and I was not enthused when this came out of the box. Still, I tried – same approach as the Grenadier slime, stuck to the base with PVA glue, and then a base coat of yellow, then Army Painter Soft tone, and then a GW green ink wash. Much to my surprise this actually came out fairly well – it looks like a vaguely humanoid shape rising out of a layer of green slime. Most unappealing.

The final figure was in a job lot with the Grenadier slime, and to honest I have no idea what is supposed to be, or who made it. If anyone has any ideas – please let me know! It *looked* like it could be made out of clay or mud, so the same approach again – PVA glue base, then a sand base colour, then Army painter soft tone and highlights.

All of the figures were finished with a gloss varnish to suggest a slimy sheen, and on the whole they work pretty well for very basic figures that were sculptured over 40 years ago! Slimes and molds area feature of many dungeons, so I can see these getting quite a bit of table top time.  

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM53 Balrog

Next to be extracted from the Lead Mountain was this beastie from Asgard. It’s their take on the Balrog from LOTR. It originally came in two parts – the body, and the wings, both cast in metal.

Attaching the wings to the body gave me no end of grief. The moulding to attach the wings was crude to say the least, and the wings are incredibly thick and heavy – they weigh about the same as the body! It took several goes, a lot of superglue and a LOT of cursing to get them to stay on. Once I had them fixed, the joints were filled with Milliput. Not an easy job! The next problem was the figure once the wings were attached – it wouldn’t stand up unassisted, due to the small base size. This was addressed by gluing it to a GW base – the original Asgard base had stones moulded into it, so I extended that by adding additional stones carved from Milliput.

So on to the paint job. This was actually the simplest part – base red, GW wash for depth, and then lots and lots of dry brushing. I wanted it to look like a creature of fire, and I think that the colour scheme worked pretty well. The flaming sword was problematical – not really much detail to work with – but I tried my best by picking it out with yellows and whites to suggest heat. The whip of fire was just a matter of highlighting the tail ends of the whip. As for the base… the easiest thing would have been to paint it gray, but I wanted to give the effect of heat and fire, so I painted them orange to suggest reflected flames. There are a few grains of sand on the base as well, picked out in red, to suggest embers.

Whilst I like the figure, I can’t see it getting too much table top time. I rarely run campaigns that make use of Balrogs or Fire Demons, although if I do need one I can bring this chappie out. And it has wings, which are one of my pet peeves with miniatures. And it is a seriously large bit of metal – look at the Grenadier early 80’s archer next to it! I understand Viking Forge still produce it using the old Asgard moulds, and I think it still holds up pretty considering it is nearly 40 years old!

Grenadier Fantasy Lords 1st series 134 Armoured Centaur and Garrison Sword and Sorcery SS76 Female Centaur

It’s been a while – a combination of work and then holidays has prevented me from posting – but I’ve still been painting. Here we have two figures on the same topic – centaurs – but with very different styles. The Garrison figure was bought as part of a job lot, and when I extracted it from the Lead Mountain I was NOT enthused… then I realised I was also working on the Grenadier figure as part of a HOTT Woodland army, and thought it would be interesting to paint them and show them together.

Garrison were one of the earliest figure manufacturers – I think this figure was sculpted in the mid 1970’s by the great John Braithwaite, and based on the Robert E Howard Conan novels. As consequence, it is VERY simple, and quite coarse, with some very strange proportions… maybe he was reading The Sun’s page 3 when he sculpted it! Still, out with the brushes… the main thing with the early figures is to keep the paint job simple, and I did exactly that – dark gray for the horse body and hair, then dry brushed white. The torso is just base flesh with Army Painter soft tone for shading, and then flock on the base.

I didn’t have any expectations of this figure, and I was quite surprised it turned out fairly well. It actually reminds me a bit of the primitive art, Neolithic paintings on cave walls, simple and a little bit child-like, but with a definite energy. I like this figure!

The Grenadier figure was done in the mid 1980’s, and shows just how far sculpting had gone. This figure was actually rescued from a junk pile at a war games fair, and had obviously had a very hard life – really badly painted and dented. Soaking it in Simple Green brought the paint off, but it had lost a bit of detail. Excuses, excuses….

I stuck to the same colour scheme – dark gray for the horse parts, dry brushed white, and then picked out the armour with white as well, followed by a quick coat of Army Painter dark tone and finally picking out detail with gold and burgundy. The face and arms were simply flesh tone and Army Painter soft tone again. I really like the mid-80’s Grenadier figures, the one produced before the oval flat bases and the Nick Lund era, and I think this is one of their better efforts – I’ll be happy to see him based up as part of a centaur Knights unit.