Friday, February 21, 2014

Painted: Hobgoblins

Painted: Hobgoblins

A new encounter group for you that has long been in the works, and a new presentation style. I like to think I have great success showing off the miniatures isolated against a backdrop as I've been doing, but over the past year or so I've been drawn to the idea of setting up posed diorama shots.

Here's a major source of my inspiration, John Morey . Note that for the most part he's using prepainted figures, which we know have average tabletop quality paintjobs in the best of times, but the artistry of the photography morphs them into something much more, and a few pics in we're immersed in the illusory diorama landscapes. Can't recommend this guy's work enough, and have gone as far as to create a gallery in flickr of some of my favorites. Along the same lines, though a little farther out from our fantasy miniatures niche, is the work of guys like Matt K.

Hobgoblins block the party's advance in the lost caverns of Brule

My own effort here is pretty basic as far as the composition goes, and I did have to resort to a tiny bit of Photoshop, though only a very small amount all considering. The only bits that are shopped are I extended the left and right cavern elements in front of the background, from their actual height of about 3 inches to the top of the picture. In lightroom I added vignetting. Really, that's it. It may be awhile before I get to it but I want to eventually try incorporating split height, greater scene depth, source lighting and others of the more sophisticated techniques used in those pics I pointed you at.








Manufacturer: Minifigs
Line: Dungeons & Dragons
Set: Hobgoblins
Base markings: Marked on top of base HB01-HB14
Release date: 1977
Sculptor:?
Date painted: 2012-2014
Notes: Many of these needed significant restoration. The eye sockets were drilled and eyes and angry brows were added. Some crescent moon emblems were replaced, most weapons were replaced, and most shields were press-molded from molds made from original shields. Weapons are largely a combination of Thunderbolt Mountain and Wargames Factory castings.

Making of

Figures by Minifigs, circa 1977. This first batch of 10 completed 2013. I have many more WIP and waiting in the wings.

These were a significant restoration project, and wound up re-sculpting all of the eyes and brows and replacing most of the weapons, in addition to casting the shields from a press-mold from several variant original castings and re-sculpting some other details here and there. They were also a major chore to rebase, and here they are mounted on 14 x 19mm ellipse bases so that they can fight 3 abreast in a 10' (2") corridor, and magnitized so they can be stored upright as the weapons (a variety of Thunderbolt Mountain and Wargames Factory) are a bit delicate. In retrospect the bases were such a pain though I almost wish I hadn't bothered.

I picked up a four or five of these around 2007 in a large box of old lead, and these (along with an Archive owlbear and a Grenadier elf and wizard) are really what set me adrift on the old lead odyssey that has me now far out in distant waters.

These are also among a select few miniatures I own that are older than I am.





As always, the collection can be viewed in its entirety at flickr.

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

The making of the pig-face orcs that never were

Orcs WIP

I made several attempts to summarize some thoughts on orcs miniatures to go along with some pics of the WIP orcs, but each attempt digressed into such a rambling mess of ideas I have on the business of making of miniatures as a whole that I again opted to let the pics do the talking for me.

Here are the bare conversions:

I used brown stuff/green stuff mix to help them keep their shape a a bit. I learned to use a wire armature under any extension of green stuff, no matter how small. Drill a hole in the face and stick in some wire. Just sticking on a blob on the face and forcing it into submission works, but with a wire it's easier.

I had open pics of the old illustrations for reference while I was sculpting. I always use reference. You'll notice that pig-face is a bit of a misnomer, actually the snout is fairly different than a pig. The first figures I did were more piglike despite the reference I was using but eventually, on the leader type and brown-skinned solid gold line orc I started doing them a little more like the illustrations.

Priming my conversions is usually one of the most satisfying moments of a project. Before priming the different-colored parts make the whole appear jumbled unless you concentrate, whereas after I usually get what looks like a unified whole. It's a bit of a moment of truth too, so whatever the result, good or bad, you get the satisfaction of dispelling the mystery and or anticipation.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

The pig-face orcs that never were

Painted: Orcs

I've shared quite a few D&D encounter groups here, but I've been holding out on you when it comes to the orcs. This is another project that I finished years ago (early 2010) but I only now finished the legwork for a proper post. I think I'll come back and say some more about the project to convert these from several varieties of Grenadier orcs (and one goblin), but pics will do fine to fill up this particular post. Essentially, after scouting my options for 25mm D&D orcs I decided to bring together a bunch of dissimilar orcs produced along an even spread from as early as the late seventies up through late eighties and that I happened to have lying around, and attempt a sense of cohesion by means of adding the same pig-snout to each, made from greenstuff. The pig-face, of course, is that attribute orcs have in official D&D illustrations from throughout the seventies but that almost no miniatures have besides the Minifigs ones ~1977 and the Otherworld ones (~2007?). And so these are a bit of a what-if—the orcs that never were.


 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Fantasy Lords (second series)
Set: 020 Orc Command Group
Figure: M255 Orc leader
Base markings: M255
Release date: ?
Sculptor: John Dennett

  

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Fantasy Lords (second series)
Set: 020 Orc Command Group
Figure: M256 Orc drummer
Base markings: M256
Release date: ?
Sculptor: John Dennett

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D "Solid Gold Line"
Set: ?
Figure: Lesser Orc w. Spear
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak
Notes: It's possible this was an alternate figure in the 5002 Monsters box set.

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D "Solid Gold Line"
Set: ?
Figure: Lesser Orc w. Bow
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak
Notes: It's possible this was an alternate figure in the 5002 Monsters box set.

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D "Solid Gold Line"
Set: 5002 Monsters
Figure: Lesser Orc w. Sword
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D "Solid Gold Line"
Set: 5002 Monsters
Figure: Lesser Orc w. Waraxe
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Battle Lords
Set: 1602 Orcs, Army of the Black River
Figure: M112 Orc w. Club
Base markings: M112
Release date: 1986
Sculptor: John Dennett

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Fantasy Lords
Set: 109 Orcs
Figure: Orc
Release date: ?
Sculptor: John Dennett

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: Fantasy Lords
Set: 108 Goblins
Figure: Goblin
Release date: ?
Sculptor: John Dennett

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D "Solid Gold Line"
Set: 2011 Orc's Lair (also in 103 Orcs blister pack)
Figure: B. Axeman
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak

 

Manufacturer: Grenadier
Line: AD&D "Solid Gold Line"
Set: 2011 Orc's Lair (also in 103 Orcs blister pack)
Figure: E. Swordsman
Release date: 1980
Sculptor: Andrew Chernak


A face off to show you their size

As always, the whole collection is also on flickr.