Lead Menagerie: July 2015

Friday, 31 July 2015

RAFM 3949 (b) Gargoyle

And a bonus posting. I obtained this figure from a job lot on e-bay, and I've been unable to identify it fully. The base is clearly marked RAFM, but nothing else. I've checked Lost Minis, but I can't spot it anywhere - anyone with any ideas? As with all the RAFM sculpts, it is lovely and clean, and cast in good crisp metal- a real pleasure to deal with. The figure came in 3 parts - two wings, and the torso - and my only criticism was that the base was originally very narrow, making it prone to falling over. In the end I glued it to standard GW base and used Milliput to give the impression of stone flags. The actual paint job was very simple - yellow for the underside of the tail, then base red, then a GW ink wash with dry brushing to bring out the fabulous detail. Simples! This was a really easy figure to paint, with very little effort, and I'm pleased with the result - I can see this getting a lot of table top time as a generic winged demon.

Edit: finally identified as RAFM 3949 (b) Gargoyle by the good people at Lost Minis!

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM40 Troll Champion

And back to Asgard. Their Fantasy Monsters range has lots of trolls and half-trolls in it, but from two different sculptors. I think one of the sculptors was Jes Goodwin, who did the later, fine detailed "good" troll sculpts, and the earlier, coarser sculpts were done by someone else. This is one of the earlier sculpts.

As with so many of the early Asgard sculpts, it is really coarse - there is some detail, especially on the chain mail and the gauntlets, but the rest of it is very poorly done. In particular, the face is just two holes poked in for the eyes, and a gaping hole for the mouth. Still, out with the brushes. For early Asgard's I've found it best to keep it simple - in this case, silver and dull gold for the armour (I wanted to suggest brass, but it came out a bit too light for my liking), leather for the gauntlets and red to give a bit of impact. The original weapon (which I understand to be a stone mallet) was missing, so this chappie ended up with a plastic mace from a GW Chaos knight. After that, standard washes, and highlighting.

It's a brute of a thing, with real presence - look at it in comparison to the Asgard dwarf from the same era - but ultimately I think the quality of the sculpting lets it down. I think it's supposed to be a centre piece, a War Champion to lead your armies, and I think it lacks the detail to make it that stand-out piece. It will probably see some table top time as a guardian of a treasure room for low level adventurers, though.

Thursday, 16 July 2015

Citadel Fantasy Tribes Trolls FTT8 Troll Brat hurling rocks

Just a quick update of the latest nugget extracted from the Lead Mountain. Citadel did some excellent figures in their pre-slotta days - they simply ooze quality - so when this figure turned up I was really pleased to take the brushes to it. It was a really simple figure to paint as well - base colours of flesh and brown for the fur kilt, and then orange for the hair, purely because I thought the figure reminded me of idiot son from the Dick Emery show, only more violent. Washes and high lighting brought up the detail a treat, whilst the base is just small bits of Milliput painted gray and then dark washed to mimic what he is throwing.

I really like this figure - just look at that expression of dumb malevolence! If this is a teenage hill troll, I can't begin to imagine what the grown-ups are like. I can this one getting a lot of table top time, either as a generic hill giant/troll, or else as a recurring NPC.