Kris' miniature thread

[Kris]

Anyway, back to more 'regular' sized mini's...

Next up are a few (more) goblinoid types, which I've attempted to paint reasonably quickly (especially the grunt/mook types) - just to get some paint on them.


Captain Lórenz and his personal guard:

The largest of these is a Ral Partha 'gargantua orc' and the others are Black Tree Design 'half-orc axemen'. The Ral partha mini came with a different (fur covered) shield - but I replaced it with a spare plastic one I had lying around.


Móruw the beastmaster …and worgs:

The main figure is another Ral Partha 'gargantua orc' and the worgs are DSA wolves (also available from Ral Partha Europe)


A female non-combatant & Yánot the small:

I've searched high and low for goblinoid female figures that didn't look too cheesy or cartoony - but with little luck. In the end I've tried to make my own from a GW plastic 'skaven plague monk' body (with the feet and tail removed) and bits from a plastic GW 'gnoblar' (i.e. head, arms, and feet).
The worg-rider (which I admit is not a great figure - but it is one of the few worg-rider figures I could find that will actually fit onto a 1 inch base) is a Ral Partha 'goblin wolf rider'


Goblin & hobgoblin troops

For these grunts/mooks I have just used some plastic uruk-hai and goblins from GamesWorkshop's LotR range. Individual sprues of these can usually be got pretty cheap on e-bay - though with these particular ones I've converted the uruk pike-men by simply shortening their pikes to spears, and I've also used a simple round shield on the goblin rather than the spiky one included (note that I've also fixed the goblins to smaller bases than the ones that they are supplied with).


Terrain:

These are just a few plaster of paris pieces made from the Hirst Arts accessory mould.


Next I'm thinking about maybe creating a few more of the female figures (though I'm not sure if I'm happy with the above conversion yet), and perhaps trying to come up with some kind of swarm/mob of goblinoid youngsters.

 

[Kris]

This one has been lying around in my box of shame (my tub of unpainted metal) for years now - and I can't even remember where/when I got it or who the manufacturer is.

It was obviously meant to be the cerberus (or something very similar - i.e. a large three headed hound), but the miniature came in several different parts - with the three heads being separate from the body, and just not fitting together very well at all.

Anyway, after looking through some of my (3e) monster books, and realising that the D&D version of cerberus is CR20+ I thought I would combat the problem of the ill fitting heads by removing one of them and using it instead as a (somewhat lower CR) 'death dog' from the Fiend Folio. Admittedly, because of the mini's 'large' size it will have to be a 4HD version of that monster - but I thought I would have a go at converting it all the same.

So here is the result of the conversion after hacking/cutting/filing away one of the heads, re-centralising the two remaining heads, and a whole lot of green-stuff to tidy things up a little. I've also mounted it's integral base into (rather than onto) a 50mm round base:

All in all I'm quite pleased with the result …so I'm bound to mess it up when I paint it

 

[Kris]

This post isn't really about miniatures, but it is related to them, and so I thought I would include it here rather than starting a new thread…

Anyway...

...so far I have purchased one of each of the dungeon tile sets that WotC has put out, and on the whole I quite like them (I'm not too impressed that they added the little triangles on top of the artwork to indicate difficult ground on the latest set - though that's a minor quibble).

However, when using lots of these tiles (which range from 8x10 inches to 1x1 inch) I've found that just laying them out can be a bit fiddly at times - as one knock of the table, or accidentally bumping one tile, can result in having to realign a whole bunch of them all over again (this is especially true if you have made a fairly complex arrangement out of several of the smaller tiles).

So I have been thinking of a ways to minimise/eliminate this - and I thought I would share my attempt at a solution:

As you can see I have purchased a small magnetic white-board, and I've made a whole bunch of magnetised wall sections that hold the tiles in place.

The walls themselves are made from plaster of paris (cast from 'hirst arts' mould number 70), and (after giving them a basic paint job) I've attached a small strip of self-adhesive magnetic tape to the bottom of each:

For me the project wasn't too costly as I already own a bunch of the hirst arts moulds, though the small white-board (just over 22" x 14" of usable space) cost around £11 (inc P&P) and the magnetic tape cost less than £4 for a length of 3m (nearly 10ft).

I'm actually quite happy with the result, as it really holds the tiles in place very well (i.e. I can tilt the board nearly upright without them falling out) - but it does add considerably to the set-up time, and is probably only usable if a layout is assembled prior to a game for a specific location or two.

Anyway, I thought I would share my 'solution' here in case it is of interest to others

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I like the walls Kris. The look great! The only thing I wonder about the set-up is the size. It looks like you only have room for 1 or 2 reasonable sized rooms on the board.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Kris]

It looks like you only have room for 1 or 2 reasonable sized rooms on the board.

That's true - it's only really going to be of use if it is applied to a single encounter area.

To be honest I was a little wary about buying a large magnetic white-board, as those things can get rather expensive - especially since I wasn't 100% sure how the whole thing would work out

The original plan was to use this smaller board as a test, and then maybe buy a larger one later (which would obviously then require that I build more walls).

I'm not sure if I'm going to go ahead with that yet (as I don't really have the space to store it at the moment), though if/when I do I'll post a few pic's of the new set up

 

[Kris]

Apologies for the thread necromancy (as it's been quite a while since I updated this), but I figured I'd post a few pics of some of the stuff I did earlier in the year.

If you look to an earlier post (above) you will see some 10mm miniatures that I painted to represent an army in my campaign world. Well I've since decided to paint up a few 28mm miniatures in the same colour scheme ...and here they are:


First off, some miniatures from Black Tree Design:

And some from Crusader Miniatures:

Plus a cleric & ranger type from Ral Partha Europe (from the DSA line):

And finally, some really old miniatures from Games Workshop:

 

[frankthedm]

I can't even remember where/when I got it or who the manufacturer is.

It was obviously meant to be the cerberus (or something very similar - i.e. a large three headed hound), but the miniature came in several different parts - with the three heads being separate from the body, and just not fitting together very well at all.

Sounds like something out of Grim Reaper Casting Nasteez line. Looks like it too. They had some OK figs, and they focused on monsters, but the actually quality was often hit and miss. Some of the first minis i bought, cause they were often in discount bins!

Wotc commissioned the D&D Silver Anniversary minis from them.

D&D Silver Anniversary

The new miniatures of both monsters and characters are designed in the standard 30mm European scale, increased in size from the former industry scale of 25mm, and were previewed at the Wizards of the Coast® castle at the Gen Con Game Fair in August 1999.

The initial release comprised an assortment of 24 blisters. The selection of miniatures in the final line includes characters and monsters from some of the pinnacle publications of the Dungeons & Dragons product line.

The master metal castings and production molds for the line were made by Grim Reaper Casting, but all the production figures were cast in-house at WotC's own factory in Renton. Note that the figures are cast with integral bases - but in a range of different shapes and sizes.

 

[Kris]

Sounds like something out of Grim Reaper Casting Nasteez line. Looks like it too...

The 'Nasteez' name does ring a bell - so I think you're probably right

Anyway, I dug out another of those 12"x12" polystyrene ceiling tiles the other day (the same thing I used to create the dwarven gate above) and I thought I would have a go at making a few small (rocky) terrain pieces:

And here's the smallest one next to a miniature for a size comparison.

Appologies for the pictures (they are a little washed out - the rocks are actually base-coated and then dry-brushed with three gradual highlights, but it doesn't really show in the photographs), and my batteries have run out in my camera to prevent me taking any more

 

[Chgowiz]

Kris, have you written anywhere else about using HOTT for quick and dirty D&D mass combat? I'm starting to explore HOTT/DBA as a way of having a mass combat as part of a D&D game session, instead of it being the whole session. I was curious if you'd done anything with that.

 

[Kris]

I'm afraid I haven't done anything with it yet (as I admit I've not run a game now for quite some time).

I did however discover this website when I was contemplating the idea:
Hordes of the Things for D20

...but that was about it really (though I do intend to try it out some day).

Anyway, sorry I couldn't be of much help.