Colonel Marbles Miniature Masterworks - DECEMBER 2003

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01/12/03

the Shadowforge female gridiron support team is out but look at the workshop! Something the old Colonel is sure to enjoy, the cutest Dryad models you'll have ever seen. None of that ugly GW nonsense. Come on! Release them real quick. A wood elf army is calling me!

The chirstmas figure is also very nice, check out the ski boots She must have very thick skin though to go skiing in that outfit

Oh, and the frontpage has the top of the Nun support team.... a female priest? Very interesting - - Fatgoblin

Very cute Dryads... Anyone else having recollections of The Colour of Magic? - Jakar Nilson

I like the dryads ... I bet they'd go well with Tom M's new wood elves. - MiniatureAtlas

Nice to see a different take on the 'dryad' theme - Colonel Marbles

Very nice. That dryad will be mine! - White Knight

Yea, a 'spirit of the forest' rather than an entling. Very nice, hope they do a couple. - Doc

From the looks of it, they've all got a couple... - Rob

there will be six of them I think. There is another dryad in the composite picture to take the place of the chirstmas gal.

I know that they're supposed to be root like and all, but I hate the feet. Something more delicate is in order methinks. More on the order of tendrils and less stuck to the ground. - The Imp

Still much more delicate than GW and blacktree entling dryads. I had some thoughts to use 25mm bases with several 15mm elf and ishtak mini's (Demonworld) or upcoming Reaper fairies as some sort of Pixie swarms as an equivalent for EE dryads, but these look very good!

Some functional nudity! - Area23

Whataya mean? This is the TRADITIONAL take on the Dryad theme - GW Screwed it all up with theirs! - frotherGuest

Exactly! I never quite understood why they came up with theirs. Sure, I understand the extra protection in battle, but surely there was no reason to make them this ugly? I'll definitely be getting the new Shadowforge ones and toss out the handful of GW & BTD dryads I have now.

I agree that these are fairly nice. I think I will be picking some up as well. - Gloria Invictus

Exactly! I never quite understood why they came up with theirs. Sure, I understand the extra protection in battle, but surely there was no reason to make them this ugly? When GW's first came out I thought it was b/c they were afraid of naked titties. That was before the new Harpies and Daemonettes, of course! With any luck, they'll re-do the Dryads when they re-do Wood Elves? - frotherGuest

Possibly, but they didn't necessarily have to do them topless to have nymph-like dryads.

Hey, it's Jenny Seagrove from The Guardian! Or was I the only one who saw that highlight of William Friedkin's career? - Von Bork

the word on the dryads is March or April£2004.

02/12/03

Perry website has some very serious looking new muslim armies for the crusades.

You spend far too much time online FG - chronofus

tell me about it.....

I'll certainly have to make some room in my Fantasy Arabian army to welcome a couple of these.

Wait. Isn't that one of the Col.'s pet projects?

Hm. Actual Haradrim cavalry... And cheaper and looking better than GW's LoTR Haradrim...

Actually, the Colonel's project is the Nubians, Arabian/muslims is me. They do crossover to a certain extent of course.

02/12/03

New Sebeki hero from Crocodile Games... "I have come here to eat fish and kick butt... and I am all out of Fish!" - FrotherGuest

Whats not to love !? now I'm sure i can squeeze Crocodiles into my Nubian army concept somehow....

whats not to love !? the hat.... other than that, everythings great

Also not a fan of the hat. I think it is an improvement over the last one though. I still think they could have classier weapons than a maul. The big arse mace that the Croc mascot has comes to mind. First time I've seen the new site too. Very nice.

Cool. I wonder where the Wargods of Olympus link is? - ohkier

Wow, that's fantastic. That hat'll snip right off...tell me they'll be a more of these?

Trim the hat and he'd almost suit my mostly GW reptile army. I'm not sure I like the style of hammer.

Quite nice figure and paint job. I'd be tempted if they weren't AU$12 or so

Reaper showed a nice green of a gator a while back which you may be interested in. No idea the price but its reaper so you can roughly guess.

I saw that one, could be good for the old style Saurus sergeants, though it's probably got a heroic eye height of 32mm. Ya gotta love crocs who eat their weat-bix. More interestingly, I missed the halfling, called Dingo. I might have to add her to the Aussie list I'm working on: Oh no, the Dingo stole my treasure.

The new Mils Sims catalogue has revised the Reaper prices again, so they're not as bad as they were last time. 2.5x the US prices was crazy. I think it's back to 1.5x again. Still too high for me generally, but the mummy lords are calling my name.

yah, well the AUD have been appreciating something fierce against the USD.

I'm quite fine with the hat. After all, IIRC, it's what Sobek is illustrated as wearing...

I'll blame the illustrator then...

A splendid addition to the crocodilians in my army, hurrah! I guess me and the Colonel could enact some kind of civil war or summat? Nicely painted too. Dead Deputy

02/12/03

Renegade Celtic Myth Command. Don't htink we've seen those here before, at least i can't find them anywhere on FUUK. I like the two warriors at either end, especially the one on the left, i'm not convinced by the actual chieftan types, too mythical for historical, and not fantastical enough otherwise. If htese are still Steve Saleh he's been hanging about I-Kore too long with all those cricket bat swords. Back in the day he rpomised some Early Romans IIRC to continue the WOTG range for foundry. I want those. And more Thracians to put pointy ears on. - MrEd

Well I've seen one of these before - the big guy with the horned helmet - but I don't recall seeing the others. Not bad at all

I thought I saw them two weeks ago here. Another opurtunity for the "big cricket bat" people?

Roy Eastland did these 10 years ago. They were for sale @ Harlequin a few years back, but not any more. Nice sculpts - peteB

Hi Pete. Meaning what? Are these his figures or did he do some similar to these? How did RN get hold of them? - Brigade Games

Yes, I am a little confused as well. As I understand your words, these very miniatures were in fact sculpted by Roy Eastland 10 years ago.

My guess is that they were conversions of some of the original renegade celt figures.

Hi Lon. These miniatures (apart from the guy on the left) were produced by Harlequin in the mid 90's. They were made by Roy Eastland (where are you now Roy?) at the end of his time at Fantasy Forge, and were part of a batch that was released for sale by them (FF) as they were going broke. There was some confusion as to who then owned the rights to the minis, and I think that they were sold twice, once to Harlequim and once to the nice chaps at Renegade (maybe one side bought the moulds and the other bought the Greens?).

These actual minis have been kicking around for about 10 years, I moulded them once each for the two companies mentioned above (I always remember a miniature I've worked on). The Chieftain is a conversion from the excellent "Slaine" model that Roy did for Fantasy Forge.

Roy Eastland has a talent the nobody in the miniature industry has yet harnessed, It would be very good to see more of his work, he made some fine early medieval Saxons for Harlequim which are no longer on sale for some reason.

Actualy, i'm talking shite about the Saxons not being avaliable. Checked out btd site and found these in the Fantasy section. Very good they are too

He did some of the best skeletons I've seen for Harlequin some years back (not the ones currently on their site!) - haven't found a link to them though so guess they're not currently available. He looks to be doing stuff for War Machine and IKore. Fantasy forge released some excellent stuff - there must be molds out there! - The Dozing dragon

02/12/03

For those who want a mini of Lamont Cranston, have no fear, since this master of the oriental arts will soon come to you by ways of Pulp Figures...

Did you think you could get away with it?

Did you think I wouldn't know?

The Shadow knows...

Nice fig. Always rated a 'superhero' who gunned his enemies down whilst laughing manically. Did prefer Sienkiewicz's version with the long scarf and esp. the twin uzi's though. - UncEvl

looks excellent! I still have fond memories for the silly movie... never read the comic I'm afriad.

IIRC, the Shadow actually started as a fictional "host" for a radio series. The pulp magazine was then built around the name, with the Shaow as a fully-fledged character. Then they revised the radio series so that it featured the character from the pulps ... and they cast Orson Welles, though he didn't stay long.

Didn't like the film, and hated the Howard Chaykin update (though it improved a bit after he handed over to Sienkiewicz, Kyle Baker, and various writers whose names I can't remember). So Uzis? Pah! Give me blazing 9mm automatics any day!

My favourite visual interpretations are probably the Steranko paperback covers and the Mike Kaluta comics from the 1970s, so I prefer my Shadow a bit spindlier than Bob's version. But this will do very nicely, thanks.

Anyone intterested in the pulp stories of the Shadow should head off to here: http://www.shadowpdf.net/ These are beautiful PDF recreations of the original Shadow stories. And anyone who thinks the Shadow is really Lamont Cranston should get a surprise too... - Hobbs

03/12/03

Hey, I don't think I've seen this before (Fenryll (and other stuff) at Discount Hobby). - Mancha

hey cool, the weirdlings are available, though a bit pricey... Actually I like all of them But doubt I can afford it. The zorro is cool too.

03/12/03

Heresy Fallen Santa is ready, and with an alternative head to make a more generic figure.

wow! check out the fats on the tubby fella! great work.

It's the official miniature for both Christmas and Halloween! Neat!

03/12/03

Dark Age re-releases. No sign of 'Killer Badgers' yet sadly.

These are made of chocolate, right? - Woody

How rubbish. Could they have made them flatter and more uninteresting? Bet the babies are all the same too.

Fuck me they're shite. Even if I was into rabbits.

Now, now, I think the punters deserve a little more veracity than that eh? Remember what the counsellor said about facing our inner demons?

Not quite the dynamics of killer rabbits... One use for them can be found here...

Rabbits often ARE full of shite... I was going to make a &jelly mould" crack, but I think the one about chocolate made the same point.

watership down gamming? comming soon to a gw licence near you heroic bunny combat in a field gone mad

bright eyes....burning.... kill maim blood for the blood god? - waxfive

03/12/03

the Reaper greens page been updated. some undead grunts that look very decent, and a faceless horror by Julie Guthrie that is.... faceless.

I'd just come to post that too: prepare yourself for some real, err, 'quality'.

Must be hell to cast as well! Bet it's two+ pieces!

I'd really go for the fairy princess, if she didn't have wings. It's so hard to get non combatant women who look good. While technically the rest look fine, they don't grab me at all.

This is like two months in a row Reaper hasn't had anything of interest for me. The faceless horror doesn't even do much for me.

overall a mixed bag of nothing special, although there are some nice textures on that faceless thing

The "axelady" would have made a good Jeanne D'Arc is she'd carried a sword instead of an axe.

Snip the axe off and lean her against a Harley I reckon.

nothing worth looking at twice, IMO.

Actually I like the Fairy Princess, and I'm a confirmed Sandra Garrity hater. This is the one of the few times her High Fantasy style is really appropriate for the particular mini. And I like that "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" immediately comes to mind.

The armored woman ain't bad either, and I think the twisty almost-cloth-almost-air wraiths are a cool take on the concept. Sooner or later someone's gionna do a great paintjob on the Ettercap that will change the predominantly poor opinion of it, and the guys who play GASLIGHT and those pulp games are gonna love the Mummy Grunts because they're kind of comical.

So, there's a lot in here I like.

I personally like the faceless horror, although it has the words 'mould ripper' stamped all over it...so many sharp teeth! And the Boogying mummies are quite good too IMO. Those wraiths, though...[sarcasm]i think possibly their weapons could have done with being just a little bit more MASSIVE Just to really reinforce the ethereal nature of the wraiths... [/sarcasm]

Sorry... I just have a thing about the 'overly big' choppers these days. I like em big, i admit it and you can see it on my site but sometimes you can go slightly too far around the circle of cool (Eddie Izzard reference) and end up looking just a tad silly.

I've just thought what the faceless horror reminds me of...UK reference....there was a kid's TV show called Wizbit, one of the characters was a 'stinky but cool' swamp....looked like that but with slightly less gnashing teeth! - Andy Heresy

06/12/03

more chrismas madness, this time from copplestone

Nice. Not really for me, but I like them a lot better than the Crunchy Frog snowmen to be sure.

Wicked! Would go well with Heresy's fallen santa.

Very nice stuff, a class above the usual evil snowman (and they're normally good). Not keen on the evil penguins though...

The pingus are a big letdown yea. Ace snowmen though! I can imagine all the gaming societies racking their brains for scenarios they can fit those fellers into...

I think this must be how my dog sees snowmen - She barks at them every time we go by one, especially if it's a dark and stormy night! - frotherGuest

Snow golems! I was thinking of doing some of those! These are cool!

Geddit?

Cool!

Oh, please yerselves...

i like em a lot, go well with my fallen santa, although they might show up my sculpting a bit...!

I never said anything bad against them. I just wish my neighbourhood could accept some masterworks of the same caliber in 1:1 scale...

Huh, somehow I never imagined Copplestone (or Gisby, as his representative) to have this much of a sense of humor. Neat stuff though. I'm definately adding it to MY list (no pun intended ) of Copplestone intended purchases.

copplestone is a bastard, and a clever one at that. they must have taken him a weekend, he will sell loads, and the git put more penguins in the pack too....(no-one can resist the penguins ) team them up with andys santa for the ultimate festive mordheim/skermish warband

They may look like penguins, but they're really RAMAGE...

6/12/03

Confrontation Orc This may be some kind of limited edition ? Someone with better french than me could check it out and let us know?

Actually, I went to the site(s), but I didn't find any reference to the orc being limited edition. I think they meant that the release of the picture was an exclusive (or a scoop) for their site. Unless there's some more information somewhere I didn't look.

This is the most uninteresting Confrontation mini I've ever seen. It's amazing how a great paintjob can make a ho-hum model look worthwhile.

Rumor is that Rackham is releasing a R&F blister with interchangable weapons, like the Clones of Dirz blister, for each faction. I heard that this was one of the orcs.

I've never really cared for Rackham's orcs in general, but I think that the legs of this one are more natural looking in proportion than previous releases.

I think the paint job spoils the figure.

i actually think it is one of their better orcs

is it blue or green? Maybe an Orc with cold bits? How festive! - frotherBaz

I'm with Mancha - other Rackham Orcs have been way more twisted and gnarly - not to everyone's tastes I guess, but this one just looks a tad boring in comparison.

probably one of the new lads that they took on in september, had i gone i was going to do humans, they put each sculptor on a specific race you see not fantastic by rackham standards but they are rackham standards, i cant cope with figures that have huge pecs and small shoulders though

07/12/03

that saucy demon chick that was entered into the CCIV can now been seen in green form at freebooter's website, news section

You get a better appreciation of the level of, er detail there (I suspect some additional greenstuff too).

I didn't realise that it had those details the last time we saw it. Then again, I'm the kind of lameass that thinks having a painted Reaper Succubus Pricess is risqué...

I didn't realize how big it was at first either, but the painter pointed out that it's got an elf skull in her hand, which is a measuring gauge if you can see it.

Well, not much you can say about that one really is there, excpet maybe 'hey, nice flange'.

The paint job's not doing it for me though.

The paintjob's from the CCIV contest. I'm sure we'll see a different version on the Freebooter website soon.

09/12/03

Hi all, I have posted the painted pictures of the U.S. Marine Trenchfighters and the German Trenchfighters II packs from Brigade Games.

Nice 'deathwatch' style club, to defend yourself from hallucinations and maniac squad mates!

Gotta say, love the Flame Thrower

I have been told by many WWI enthusiasts that the flamethrower is the most accurate one on the market.

09/12/03

More Pulp figures - Brits, Yetis and dinos... So, we've seen the Shadow and the Lufttruppen before, but new stuff is here... Well, I've seen better dinosaurs. But now, we've got more choice. Can't go wrong with more choice, right?

This is like the fourth yeti set I've seen this year! What an odd subject to suddenly become trendy. I still like the Copplestone ones best though.

Yes, but I'm willing to bet that these ones (that are still of good quality) will be much cheaper than the Copplestone ones (and I'd be able to order locally...)

That brings up an interesting question ... why is Copplestone a bit pricey? BTW, Murch's stuff, as usual is great.

Because the best can always ask for a little more for what they do. You're willing to pay more for a Rackham mini than other lesser manufacturers.

I think its more like a sasquatch or a Big Foot than a Yeti. - Sturmpioneer

Painted appropriately, it'd work as either.

I like the top dinosuar, although it's tricky to tell what physical texture and what's a good paint job. Nice 'yeti' too.

09/12/03

Amazon captives. These are very good, for Amazon anyway!

I considered posting these here, but I was too shocked... Anyway, I agree they look pretty good for Amazon, especially the ones on horseback. Might be interesting for a viking raid scenario, but still, I' would have preferred some clothes on them.

Nekkid makes them more useful- could be celts, saxons, scots, fantasy (not my fantasy, but maybe yours...)

They should have thrown a bloke in there too. But as Doc said, good for Amazon.

can you get black/brown static grass?.if so you could make some right euro-mirkins on em.gwart. - Gwartizan

Spank Time! - Rev. Nice

Sorry to disappoint some of you guys, but Amazon does also make male slaves/captives - and yes, the proportions on the one I've seen are completely in line with those of the female figures. - Gungnir

can we get an official line on this?

girl with tits out tied up== bad (fatal fantasy)

girl with tits out tied up... on horse== good

i wonder if this is amazon sculpting the volunteers selection process for the tit guilloteen (sp?)

girls without tits out by Mr buddle and Mr kloke and Mr Hoyle and Mr Copplestone are much better than these anyway

09/12/03

A letter:

"Hello Colonel Marbles, I am sending this new to you : I am preparing to launch a new range of Napoleonic 28 mm figs. I have no website at the moment , only an email : grognardfigs@9online.fr and my address for samples and catalog. I join some pics of the figs ready by now and if you want more pics you can go to www.steve-dean.co.uk, Grognard figure. I have begin with Fusiliers-chasseurs of the guard sculpted by Todd Harris. Chasseurs of the guard sculpted by Bobby Jackson.

I think that the Steve Dean painting dosn't do them justice. Top sculpts. - frotherGuest

Quite neat...

I didn't think much of them after seeing the Steve Dean painting a few weeks ago, but I'm really impressed by the greens, especially those in the second post. It'll be interesting to know how they fit alongside Foundry and Front Rank, but these are looking good.

Those could be some of the best bayonets I've seen - frotherGuest

It's looking like this will be the start of a very good range for Napoleonics.

I like the looks of these figs, though Frenchies aren't for me. A few Bavarians would go down a treat though.

10/12/03

new? excalibur demon lady.

saw it on archangel's website titled, Sorscha Chaos Sorceress. I don't remember seeing it before. seems like demon ladies are multiplying (I'm not complaining!)

Nice .. especially like the paint job on the legs.

10/12/03

Alionas Santa's. Not sure whether we've seen these before. They look familiar, but I can't remember.

Very nice Santas. Alionas is from Germany, right?

Right.

Then I won't be able to order one for Christmas (lack of money, other miniatures priorities...). I guess I'll just have to contend with the 1:1 scale gnome I sculpted two years ago...

But the sculptor is Russian, 's why there's a Putin mini and Ruttians. I believe he was involved with Svezda too.

Russian Santa has white dress and is called father frost or something.

they faces on those santas look really nice and cute. But that putin mini is awesome!

Time for a quickie Christmas showcase???? Alionas St. Nicks, Heresy Twisted Santa, Copplestone snowmen, what else???

team frog stuff, reaper, shadowforge, foundry

Also Freebooter, Fenryll

From my collection:

RAFM 3850 - Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

Ground Zero Games GC-28 - Santa's Little Helper

Foundry December£2000 promotional model - Father Christmas (there were two other variants, one of Santa being robbed by Goblins, the other of him chasing them away with a rocket launcher)

Excelsior Entertainment EXE-73001 - Karnophage Khristmas

New Wave Miniatures NW006 - Priscilla, Christmas Vixen 1

New Wave Miniatures NW007 - Tiffany, Christmas Vixen 2

I notice that Shadowforge has a Limited Edition Christmas Girl, but she's about 35mm.

Crunchy Frog has a whole Christmas Wars range, but they're (he says, relishing his new vocabulary) claokers, the lot of 'em.

Masquerade has a skeletal Santa rising from the grave.

I'm not sure but I feel that the mini is a Russian Frost Mage, that is a character of the Russian folk tradition. But maybe I'm wrong and anyway I really cannot say what kind of relation Frost Mages may have with Santa... - s4794

Come to think of it, he might make a good Kislevite Ice Mage...

11/12/03

A few warmachine pics that I've never seen before

Yet another Menoth born-again-whatever guy...

And these guys! They're Herne & Jonne, but we can call them Laurel & Hardy, or Abbott &Costello since it fits...

Or Danny & Arnie?

These Goblins are becoming quite a little bunch...

Herne the dwarf and Jonne the ogrun are now on my list of must haves. The knight exemplar figure is interesting. Not really to my taste, but interesting anyway.

Yeah, I'd rather have those two stooges than the BAM...

I wasn't into Warmachine's stuff at first, but the range gets better and better... I think my favorourite is still the small goblin guy in coat and hat.

Lately I'm getting interested in their robots. I was considering them as more refined automatons in a standard fantasy setting (and then escluding guns and lasers).

For example imagining a dwarf society with very high magic/technical standard Llike I say, in the Morrowind game, even though their Dwemer/Dwarfs are properly a different category of elfs and not "real" dwarves. - s4794

11/12/03

Black Tree brings back their old Scifi range. Two packs of starship marines and three packs of squa... space dwarves...

Now these I like! I can only remember seeing the space elves back when BTD was Harlequin...

Those look pretty nice and not an imperial eagle or skull to be seen.

The marines look a bit IROBOTISH...those vision aids have got to go.

How is this company gonna avoid a lawsuit from the EE? The bolters alone will get them in trouble.

And I didn't mean the minis had to go...just those eyes, and just IMHO.

Although at CAN$20 for 6, they seem expensive. Wait. Scratch that. For CAN$9, you get 2 EE normal Space Marines. Thus, for the same price, you get a third more. Even better. GW's personalities are usually CAN$12+ each. And the Space Marine Command boxset is CAN$54. Wow. Close to $35 in difference...

I like these power armour troops! How come the space dwarf piccies are NOT on the BTD site but ARE on FU!UK?

I like the lasgun-totin' umpire in the middle. - frotherGuest

Those space dwarves are really nice

That couldn't possibly be a lasgun! That would infringe on the "Intellectual Property" of the EE! - MrCanuck

On a connected thread, I've been moulding Space Dwarves for Bob Olley's new Olley's Armies range. The Stuntie renaissance starts here!

Bob Olley is doing new Space Dwarves?! - nudspinespittle

Those armoured guys really look great and their guns would require very little modifs to look like las-weapons, they would make perfect IG storm-troopers from your standard totalitarian world... Does anyone know who sculpted these minis, and if BTD plan to develop this range? - LFant

We can but hope. I really miss the old 40K marines and figures. The new ones just don't have the same anarchistic feel to them. It so happens I was wandering back though old issues of WD. Issue 139 has a page of metal marines called things like "bolter 4" in the back and they has CHARACTER. It wasn't until I saw it again, I realised how much 40K has lost its way. Good grief, the world SO needs a nice large range of proper replacements... - Katie

the armoured humans were paul muller, the dwarves are mark simms (well pete said so) and the space elves were my favourite namless sculptor danny pacey, how namless is danny? well he did the entire atlantis impirium range from concept to finished sculpt and still does'nt get a mention on their website or advertising.

he has done a bunch of stuff for westwind but on their most recent advert they credit the painter not the sculptor so danny probably did the elves featured in the advert. so remember kids next time you see a decent figure but have no idea who sculpted it....it was probably danny pacey

And don't forget Danny did a whole load of BTD stuff and is also working on his Projekt X figures for North Star.

12/12/03

more prehistorics in the copplestone high adventure range. a flightless bird and a flying reptile, how funny is that?

I think they're by Richard Kemp, who happens to like making dinosaurs and such like

And Cavemen and -women coming next year!!!! Will be used as half-orcs here...

Love that birdie. Always loved those ever since I was a kid!

Why ? Use the Maidenhead "Babes that time forgot" range.

I need more Neanderthal-ish cavemen. Like devolved 'goblin-men'

Like Bobby Jackson did for Reaper. Or perhaps the Pulp ones.

And I want to mix 'em with the old Grenadier barbarians and 'half'-orcs, and I prefer units from the same sculptor. The maidenhead birdies and rhino are very nice though.

Have a look at the Honourable Lead Boiler Suit Company site, they have a great range of dinosaurs and giant birds also by Richard Kemp. They have a few cave men including some 'Homo Erectus'.

I quite like the Moa. And for the HLBS H.erectus, you've just got to love "Lucy"...

13/12/03

Can you say Oliphant? From GW - frotherGuest

No one will believe it...I've seen an Oliphant!!!!!!!!

What's everybody's opinion? Equal or better to the conversion that poped up on TMP a few weeks ago?

Difficult to say from this photo, but I am inclined to think that the EE edition will be closer to scale than the conversion.

hell yea!!!!! I think that its probably equal to the scratch built one, Scale wise it looks a bit smaller perhaps - which is fine as it will actaully fit on a wargames table. Of course, its better in the sense that I can actually get my hands on one of these

Well, it's bigger than my oliphant (I've got some work to do, since it has a pretty crummy printed cardboard howdah...)

14/12/03

Mr. Browlie of Miniforums put up a blurry pic of a Kev White WIP Grymn. A female space dwarf by my estimation. I'm not keen on the gun, but the armor and helmet look pretty good. Mr. White has been active on that board if you have any questions for him.

Is that for AIcom?

Not that I know of. Mr. White states in the thread that it is available for distribution. I take that to mean he's got no buyers for it currently.

Can't see "Female Space Dwarfs" drawing much interest. - frotherGuest

15/12/03

new A&A miniatures, love these guys...

"MOORISH CAVALRY AND NEW MACEDONIANS We've added more new images to the website. MIR6 and MIR6a, our two packs of Moorish cavalry, are now pictured on-line. There are also new pictures in our Alexandrian Macedonian range, including cavalry packs MAC2 Prodromoi Light Cavalry with Kontos, MAC3 Thessalian Cavalry and MAC4 Greek Light Cavalry with Javelins. There are also new pictures in our gallery, including some beautifully painted Persian Elephants. See them on-line at www.aandaminiatures.co.uk"

One deal they will have next month is 6 quid a pack (a pound off/pack). This is in the January WI.

They're nice looking figures, anyone know who the sculptor is?

The Sasanid elephants are quite nice. The moorish archers as well...

This is going to give me a real elephant dilemma

14/12/03

GW Bretonnians. You can see (more or less) the entire range now, here. The green knight was the best miniature from the old range, and seems to be the only one that survived the redesign. (maybe that mounted peasants too) Wonder what weird piece of fluff accompanies that "Grail Reliquae"

I bet that new fay enchantress is going to appear in a lot of High and Wood elven armies. So questing knights now carry greatswords instead of lances? Well, it was kind of silly to have 4 types of knights all carrying lances. In general I like the new character figures. The hippogriff does show more of a horse nature than the older incarnations. The damsels aren't bad either, although the old ones are classic minis in their own right. I just can't get myself to like the new commoners. I loved the old metal ones with their HYW feel, but these look just silly to me. Not too fond of the new plastic horses either.

All hail Black Tree's HYW range! Still can't square a fully armoured knight on a pegasus.

Actually, I've found that the perfect alternative bretonnian commoner force is made up of a mixture of roughly 3/4 HYW + 1/4 Normans. (or, in the case of Crusader, even some El Cid figures)

The wacky pilgrims & corpse are more suitable for Mordheim; horse's skulls, candles etc. More like a possessed warband... Quite nice but not very Breton chivalry. The sorceresses are really disappointing as far as I'm concerned.

I think Brian Nelson's old Bretonnian sorceress on foot is one of the very best minis Citadel ever put out. The new one isn't. I always liked the Repanse de Lyonesse figure too. Nicely detailed. No silly 48-inch bustier armour - and it was the first one Michael Perry sculpted left handed. One the whole, the new figures are too cluttered and grim for my tastes. I hope that the old ones will still be available from mail order (plastics apart). I think I'd rather pledge my service to Front Rank.

I think I'll get both of them! (Black Tree and Front Rank, I mean) Corvus Belli does 'em too, I think, and they look pretty good. Foundry are nice too, if a bit small (and costly). I might get a couple here and there from the new GW range, but genereally prefer the old ones. I really don't like how they stick these little shields on all the figures. It's the skull syndrome all over again...

never liked the Bretonnians - being the winners of the Codex Arms Race for 5th edition - but the models are very nice. I'll probably pick some up to use with other systems. An BTD's "Fantasy Medieval" range are great as well! - frotherGuest

Actually, maybe I could go a box of plastic knights of the realm. I assume they come with command figures? The photo actually shows 9 figures for a box of 8, so maybe there is some trickery going on and there is no command. Did anyone notice one of the peasant archers has a super hero face mask on, or maybe just has very big sun glasses The archers just don't look great to my eye from this pic. I'm not sure I like their description of men at arms either. Not terribly strong or skillful? Hmm, dosn't sound like what a good cavalry based army needs for support.

I think the range is very high quality in terms of sculpting. I would have thought most fantasy gamers would agree, at least in an objective sense, that this is the case. I realize that tastes vary widely, but the figures are uniformly grim, which is a coherent leap away from the chivalrous goodness of the past range. I think the detail looks very good. 'Course, being GW, there are plenty of exaggerations in the figures and the weapons.

well I think many will agree that the sculpting is high quality. The problem is that the design has deproved since their last incarnation. In particular the plastic men-at-arms are decidedly poorer cousin of the previous metal ones. Not very happy with the way the shield blocks everything, which was the same feeling I had with the plastic saurus. Spend all that time painting a miniature and then you block 3/4 of it from sight. Sure they are high quality but historical HYW are cheaper and comparable quality and superior design. (yes, I have the old bret sorceresses too..... )

15/12/03

there is a goblin wolf rider shaman in dragonrune's yahoo group. Can't really make out the details though.

Yes, well..... that's what happens when you let me near an unpainted mini. I have a "REAL" painter working on one that should be done his week. Then we'll see what its supposed to look like. - Dragon

ok, the painted pics for the shaman as well as those foot comand are up on dragonrune's website

Somehow I'm not too keen on it. And it seems tame compared to previous Dragonrune Warg-riders...

A lot of it may have to do with my photographic skills. Or lack therof ! Yes, this model seems more contemplative than combative. But then again, he's a Shaman. The figure is sculpted by the same person who did the other wolf riders and the detail is excellent. - Dragon

I definitely prefer the over the top poses of the last wolf riders.

I'll hold off an opinion until we see another photo/paintjob.

16/12/03

Don't know if anyone else has mentioned this fig, Ilyad's Spider Queen. 15cm tall - xipetotec

I've got to get me one for that dark elf army I'm never going to build.

gross......yet strangely compelling! very nicely done.

Well, I must say that "I LIKE IT!". - Sturmpioneer

Gets a thumbs up from me !

Nice model, but quit trying to turn me off the "fair" sexe!

the 'tail' is bloody weird but it looks nice. Would be great as an idol for people to worship though... but I suspect its too expensive to use as background scenery

The spider bit is cool, but the queen bit is actually quite poor. Imagine it with normal legs and think if you would be impressed then...

The spider arse is fantastic, the face is good, the breasts are individually compelling ,the staff is a nice idea (although she seems to be gripping it a bit too tightly and squishing it), the sword looks a bit short to reach past the legs...all in all, the components are fantastic but somehow the model as a whole doesn't quite work, possibly the relationship between the curved, evil spider body and the ramrod stright torso....The afro is very round, an excellent 'do... wonder where she gets her hair done? Do you think she's a natural purple?

She must have been designed according to Socrates' logic on beauty...

16/12/03

Easternfront: we saw many of the greens they have before but heres a new one. looks fantastic

The figures do look nice. The web site doesn't work very well however. The pop-up catalogues don't have scrollbars under Netscape 7.0 - don't designers test their stuff anymore? Not as bad as that WarCrow/corvus Belli site which is all Flash enabled. Gotta be the most annoying thing... - frotherGuest

It's a err, umm, well, err...going in the fishman showcase, that's what it is.

17/12/03

Warrior Dragon. This isn't too shabby for a tenner (10UKP).

I thought you said Dragon Warrior(tm)... Boy I loved that NES game. Too bad I sucked at it...

Good spot, they've got a very variable range which someone may have forgotten to cram into the Chaos Knight showcase... (yes, me).

The Halflings look quite good. OK, that's really ALL the halflings. Neat, they've got pictures of all their fantasy miniatures...

Yea, they've improved their website by leaps and bounds since I last checked it (admittedly about a year ago). Nice to see all figs available singly too (even horses). Just as shame, since they are so inexpensive too, that there are so few variants... I think they expect us to battle with 100 figs made up of only 5-8 variants each...

17/12/03

Miniforums is rapidly becoming the Land of White. Blurry WIP Ogre pics from Kev White. This one gets armor and will supposedly sport many interchangable parts. Not much to judge at this stage really. I like the armor, even if it does seem sophisticated for an ogre and the face is pug ugly, which in this case is good!

it looks nicer then the previous one.

Very nice example of Maximillian armour...

Definitely some heavy armor there. Kind of reminds me of that GhorGhor model from Ilyad, but less stylized.

Except smaller and slightly less humourous. GhorGhor is always having fun...

Yes, he's a goliath Goliath.

18/12/03

New Superfigs! Click on below and then on Catalog to see their newest additions to their seperhero range. Wish they would add a little more detail to some of their mins. - Ghost

They are a tad lacking in sophistication, but nice and robust and certainly capture the feel alright. Nice to see they have also got there superhero skirmish game out now as well - itching to give that a try. Anyone given it a go.

I don't mind the low level of detail. It leaves lots of open space for costume paterns. Spandex undies don't have a lot of surface detail on them after all.

The guy is called "Demon Biker". Now if one just chops off his head and sticks a flaming skull there, he would become...?

Wonder what's happened to the civvies that were supposed to be out last month.

The ambiguity is intentional. You can decide if the spandex covers the arms or ends at the shoulders, for example. This makes the figures a little more versatile. The civilians are done. There are three packs of ten now available. Scott has been very busy writing a book for another system, but I know he intends to get pics of the unpainted lead up ASAP. Painted pics will follow as soon as his painters (he and I mostly) get their asses in gear. - Aaron

19/12/03

I have posted painted pictures of the Brits and Sikhs in the webstore Click on the small picture or product name to get a much larger detailed view.

The product codes are:

BG-WIAB20 British Infantry in Wolseley Helmets Advancing

BG-WIAB23 Sikh Infantry Advancing

Both are applicable for the Great War in Africa, Palestine and the Sikhs are also useful for Western front. These picts have not been photoshopped yet. Best regards this Holiday Season, Lon Weiss

Nicely done.

Thanks Rob. Pack # 2 for each will be out after Christmas. The Belgian Askari and Aussies are due to arrive next week if I am lucky.

Quite neat. The main differences between the BG Sikhs and the Foundry ones seems to be poses (the Foundry ones are slightly different from each other) and turban sizes (and their turbans are bigger than the BG ones)...

19/12/03

I try very hard not to froth up over figs by the EE or related entities, but this piece is just incredible. A ForgeWorld Titan Tech Priest.

Okayyyyy. Just give a real damn mechanic any day of the week over the Adeptus Mechanicus-for-dummies, like the Warmachine Khador mechanics...

Music springs to mind:

"Snot running down his nose,

Greasy fingers smearing shabby clothes." - Allen Curtis

eureka has some very nice mechanics..... (here I go again! )

Fantasic. You may not like EE as a business but they have some very talented people working there.

19/12/03

New stuff at Rackham including the new boxed Dirz regiment.

Holy crap that necromancer is cool! I really want a bigger pic of that Dirz box though. I can't tell if they have added any sculpts. And the pic of the Goblin Blower is pretty neat too. Nice gas mask.

If you click on the pic of the Dirz box - it brings up a very large image.

Guess I didn't click enough links. Looks like they do have a couple more sculpts in the box. I'm glad I waited!

Yes, I really like the boxed sets. Does anyone know when the English version of Ragnorak is coming? And how about a review of Hybrid? I was thinking about getting one, but I can't figure out what it "does" from the site.

Are those the first Dark Elf nymphs?

"Lanyphs des Bois Nois" = something of the Dark Forest???? Too bad there isn't a bigger picture. - frotherGuest

I heard they were going be like Fianna, but evil.

Yeh good stuff as ever !

19/12/03

I have a picture of 100 Kingdom's Callus the Renegade figure. This isn't illustrated on their site...

Nice one, Rob!

Now where'd you get that?

This guy i'm trying to chat up arranged them for me.

#fear#

<<Click here for full image>>

20/12/03

From Beyond "Goblin court". Alright, it's not Disturbia, but it looks quite neat.

Somehow they seem like the old Harlequin goblins and Vendel crossbreeds. This must be the first release of Kevin Adams new company, From Beyond.

Well, he is the one who came up with the smiley guy goblins that dominated GW (and hence many competitors as Heartbreaker, Harlequin etc...), so it shouldn't be a surprise. A bit pricey though, they're goblins after all (and thus fairly small).

I meant Kevin Adams goblins he did for Harlequin! But they looked better than the last stuff he did for EE. Also the dwarves are cool, painted some up as bearded goblins, Labyrinth style! (which makes me remember the old GW chaos dwarves who would've been so good for a Labyrinth goblin army...O.O.P.)

Hmm , nice but £30 for those few figures is still a bit strong. And why a limited edition ?

Curses! That's 2 sets of gobbos (the Rackham pirates being the other) which I've have bought if the prices hadn't been so ridiculous. - Grom

Nice enough figs fer sure - nothing new, but certainly fun. I esp. like the dog - cartoony but a laugh. Whilst 3 quid a fig probably seems like the current going rate if you compare to Rackhams prices, it does seem a tad steep for these though as I wouldn't quite put them in the same league, good as they are.

This in from 'FromBeyond Kev' - this could not be the great Kev Adams himself could it - the mans a God to all frothers (and any right thinking miniatures lover!) after all........

"With regards to the pricing of 'The Goblin King's Court Redux'

For the first release by From Beyond we wanted to do a limited edition set of figures that would grab some attention. A few ideas were discussed, and the Goblin King's Court seemed the best. To make the set more desirable it was decided to only make 500 sets - 250 to be made available through Monolith in the UK and 250 to be made available from Virtual Alchemist in the USA. Sets of a similar weight and figure contents are sold between£20 and £25 (example the Crocodile Aegyptus unit packs and Citadel LOTR sets respectively). Figures on general release are made in their tens if not hundreds of thousands. Is it too much to ask to pay a £5 or £10 premium for a quality product that has been made in very limited numbers?

Am I the only person who can see these collectables reaching a much higher price on ebay in months to come - it wasn't too long ago that the Foundry Monthly giveaway packs were reaching the £25 mark for one or two figures - and that is with none of that money going to the originating company or the designer. The money from these Limited Edition Goblin sets is going straight back into developing the 'General' releases.

We sold 56 sets on the first day of release, with most of the purchasers asking if we were going to do more sets on the same basis. We are, but we are also doing other models on general release, and if the Limited Goblins at £30 aren't to your taste, we have some fantastic 'Tim Burtonesque' Evil Toys, at just a pound each, and on a similar vein, some very characterful Scarecrows. The first 'General' release consists of about 40 figures. The second 'General' release is nearing completion, and is made up of Undead Characters.

We hope to hear from you soon!

From Beyond Kev"

So in essence...we thought we would see how stupid people are, and what do you know...it worked - DemonEtrigan

Wow. Around CAN$75 for 10 minis. Sounds like it beats the LoTR metal boxed sets...

From the text it seems Kevo is using EE's LOTR boxed sets as a benchmark and then moving up from there... Um... Still, very nice, in all fairness. Not 3 quid each, I don't give a fuck what the secondary market will do.

i agree that they have a vendel feel, but there's also the sense of where Kev has taken goblinkind over in foundry land. i think they're great!! (and honestly, for a little company to start out and offer figures that look that good - cut em a little slack on the price. It's hard to get started). If they do well then we can complain about the prices (and hope for things like discounts).

Grab attention with good quality, not outrageous prices. Saying "they'll be worth a lot on eBay" ... who the hell cares?!? What are these for? Speculators? Think you'll sell out of these quickly? MAKE MORE. At $30 or£20 quid, they'd sell SO many more of these. They're nice minis. I'd buy them if they weren't priced as "collector's editions". Starting out like this virtually ensures that the reputation as "they guys more expensive than GW/Foundry".

Even some of the Goblin mad frothers around here are not going to get these?? Not a chance. They're nice, but not that nice.

yes, he has been consistently one of my favourite sculptor over the years. While I'm happy to fund his company, it has to be something I want at a reasonable price! Those goblins do look nice, for the same price I can get so many other things. Eagerly looking out for new (regular) releases from him.

21/12/03

Masquerade's "Reborn Santa". I don't believe we've given this mini the coverage it deserves.

No, we've given it too much. #laughs# Good to see the undead getting a piece of the festive action! (And an actual release from Masquerade... )

*Froths festively* - Grom

Will you stop mocking poor Sadam?...

21/12/03

Kallistra pygmy catapult. Not exactly the greatest picture, but I don't think we've featured this already...?

That's rather cool, if more conceptually than actually.

Great. That's just what my native forces needed today. In TSATF, natives need to have a clear numerical advantage for an equal game...

I'm still waiting for the Gilligan and skipper figures, and Ginger and Mary Anne.

Umm...okay... Do you think that would work? Wouldn't the palm trees break?

Cowabunga !! Looking good for my Nubian army....

22/12/03

Below are links to pics of the unpainted Superfigs Civilian packs. All three packs contain 10 figures and retail for $15.00 (U.S.). They are all available from West Wind U.S. and UK. We'll have painted pics in 1-2 weeks. - fourcolorfigs

Nice mix of stuff in there. I may have to get all three. I only wish the details were a bit more crisp.

About time someone filled this obvious gap in the miniature industry. I think they look pretty good. If the guy in the wheelchair had been wearing a suit he'd make a good professor Xavier.

If we sell enough of these three intial packs, I can see us making more. I have ideas for restaurant staff, hotel staff, hot dog vendors, roller bladers, etc., etc. - fourcolorfigs

yeah, good stuff

Mix is the right word. There's some good stuff here, but some - like the figures with their hands in the air - look very bland. Maybe it's the photography. Anyhow, I'll buy some if West Wind ever updates its website.

25/12/03

New Freebooter Mini - Weihnachtsminiatur2003

A mechanical Santa.

Fast. Someone think up a GASLIGHT scenario to use it in...haha it looks great! nothing like christmas to inspire some wacky minis!

Hmm...If we replace that extended arm with some sort of cannon that grin might be menacing.

Why does that remind me of Futurama's evil Santa-bot? In fact it kinda looks a little like Bender too. - CmdrKiley

25/12/03

New Fenryll Minis: Stone Elemental (El&eacyte;mentaire de pierre), FA117: Desert Warriors (Les Guerriers du désert)

And the Oscar goes to....

(Well, it was the first thing going through my mind when seeing this.)

Hmm. Add a sword, and it might be possible to game Terry Pratchett's Moving Pictures...

I quite like the stone elemental except for the way the feet terminated

Small picture for the desert warriors, but with a bit of putty and skill, one could come out with Aiel Warriors from Wheel of Time...

Maybe it's just the way they've been painted but they look kind of Mongolian. If we paint up the elemental in metalics we can hand it out as an award for distinguished service to the Froth.

30/12/03

Vendal Border Reivers.

I've seen about 40 of these. What look to me like English, Scots and Irish for the 16th century. All done with Colin Pattern's usual precision. I like this period of history, all the colour of late medieval with the added entertainment of guns that can't hit a barn door at 10 yards. The armour also has a look that is not seen elsewhere, like the Spanish of the same period but done on the cheap.

The Vendel Website is about due for it's bi-annual overhaul as well... - frotherGuest

Oh bliss. Now to get rules for the Piercey's and the Douglas'. I suppose the best rules would be a skirmish set a la the LotR rules.

Mr Guest - I laughed at that one! There are mentions of free rules on TMP from the Vendel stable to go wiv these guys. It's a big sweeping change in direction for Vendel from Greeks to Indians to guns and stuff. Looks like Mr Patten is indulging his whims. Nice stuff though. I have the indians and the greeks - not sure I will be partaking in the BR though. - Si2

Nice looking figs for an era i tend to get sucked past.

30/12/03

Archangel Games has news of "the new Magic Challenge Giant from those cool guys at Excalibur. The miniature on the right is Sorcha - a standard sized 30mm mini from the Magic Challenge range."

I think he's uglier than the average giant.

If he were sculpted for 10mm figs, no, make that 6mm, I could understand the cartoonish, not detailed look...

Of course, that would mean that he'd need to stand 30mm high...

Not good.

Nota fan of this one. The head reminds me of those monstrosities of Albion released by the evil empire. - Ghost

No, the Giants of Albion were sculpted much better than this...

Looks fine to me. Better than the most recent Orc/Goblin Giant the EE brought out, IMNSHO. And better than the Albion Giants as well - they were much more gangly! - frotherGuest

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