New Alliance minis! Trolls and demons and war machines

Via the 1/72 wall at VK.com. Red Box/Alliance keeps chugging along with the new fantasy releases. Check out these preview pics.

Disorganized thoughts: We've seen Alliance's blocky Peter-Jackson-style troll before with their first troll set. They actually paint up pretty nicely. Sets 2 and 4 here look a little too blocky; the Set 3 poses are a lot more dynamic and interesting.

Set 4 is possibly referencing the Orc Catapult set. I'm not really sure what's going on with the huge bases and limited number of figures and poses here. The Catapult itself looks like a lot of fun. Check out the one intrepid orc, apparently ready to take catapult-assisted flight!

The Fire Demons here are the long-promised "balrogs" (It's interesting to look at that post and see all that all the announced sets have now come to fruition. Good for Alliance!). The limited number of poses in interesting. They seem to be a bit larger than the trolls, but I'd also bet that the wings are separate pieces that take up space on the sprue. If the boxes are around $10-12, that puts the per-figure cost close to what Reaper charges for similar figures. True, they might be a bit bigger, but the sculpting also doesn't seem as good. I'd like to see them painted up before deciding for sure.

~Edit for 9/6/2017: I just realized that the box art here says that the Troll set 3 has only four figures total, while Troll set 4 and the two Fire Demon sets only have two figures each! Maybe that's a misprint, as it's a departure from the large troll sets Alliance has released already. But if it's right, then unless these will be much cheaper than Alliance's other sets, that makes the value proposition a little dicier. Even if they are as big as Reaper's larger trolls, let's say, if the boxes aren't cheaper than usual, the per-figure cost between Alliance and Reaper is about the same. And Reaper's figures are just better-looking.~

Still, it's great that Alliance remains committed to new fantasy releases. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with next!

Battlelore Minis for 1/72 scale

Interested in these figures? I'm selling a bunch on my sales page, along with other minis, including from the recently-fulfilled Bones 3 Kickstarter!

Battlelore is a tactical minis board game produced by Fantasy Flight games that's gone through a couple editions. The first edition was set in a generic fantasy world, while the current second edition is set in the slightly less generic world of Terrinoth, home to Fantasy Flight's Runebound, Rune Wars, and Descent games. The core game and its expansions were on sale at huge markdowns at Fantasy Flight's webstore and at Cool Stuff Inc. at the end of last year, leading to some speculation that Fantasy Flight intends to stop support if not production of these games. But it was an excellent opportunity to stock up on some very interesting fantasy minis.

Why the interest? Because I knew that the minis were sort-of-kind-of close to 1/72 scale, the preferred scale of this blog. How close? Let's take a look.

The core game comes with two factions, the first of which are the noble paladin-people, the Daqan. Shown here are minis from the core game and from the Daqan expansion, "Hernfar Guardians."

An Ironbound, Greyhaven mage, Citadel Guard, and Yeoman Archer. The core game comes with the guards and archers; the expansion has the Ironbound, mages, and extra guards. They seem close in size to Sven, with similarly proportioned features, but note that Sven the comparison viking is on a taller base, meaning the Battlelore minis are actually a bit larger. But they're close!

A Rune Golem, Riverwatch Rider, and Citadel Lancer, with an Eagle Games horse for comparison. The golem and rider are from the core set, the lancer from the expansion. The horses are noticeably bigger, though their human riders are actually about Sven-sized.

The large "Legend" figures: a Siege Golem from the expansion and a Roc Warrior from the core game. The riders are almost exactly 1/72 scale, and the large critters they ride look great next to Sven.

The other faction from the core game are the Uthuk, barbaric chaos-types who are into blood magic, demons, and other such ickiness. Shown here are figures from the core game and the Uthuk expansion, "Warband of Scorn."

A Viper Legion, Blood Sister, Berserker, and Blood Harvester. The core game includes the Legion and Harvesters, while the expansion includes the Berserkers, Blood Sisters, and extra Harvesters. Like the Daqan, these human figures are actually just a bit bigger than Sven, though perhaps they are close enough.

A Grotesque, Obscene, and Flesh Ripper Brute. The Grotesque is from the expansion; the Obscene and Brute are from the core game. These larger creatures look fine next to Sven. If anything the Obscene almost seems too small!

Legends: The Chaos Lord from the core game, and the beetley Doombringer from the expansion.

The third faction, the necromancy/undead themed Waiqar, is available in two expansion sets. The first was Heralds of Dreadfall, the second was Terrors of the Mists.

A Skeleton Archer, Reanimate, Necromancer, and Bone Horror. The first set includes the archers and Reanimates; the second has the Necromancers, Horrors, and more Reanimates. Included here for comparison are two painted skeletons from Caesar Miniatures undead set. The Caesar figures are just a bit shorter than Sven, but are noticeably shorter than the Battlelore figures. This perhaps shows why I'm hesitant to recommend these figures as complements to a 1/72 scale fantasy collection. On the other hand, the Bone Horror looks just fine as a 1/72 scale boney aberration.

A Wraith, Barghest (actually two figures per base), and Death Knight, with an Eagle Games horse for comparison. The Wraith and Knight are from the first set; the Barghests from the second. As with the Daqan cavalry, the Death Knight horse is much bigger than the 1/72 scale horse. The Wraith is huge! You could probably mod it so it isn't so big, though you'd probably lose the cool bands of tattered cloth in the process. Or it can just be a really big ghost.

Legends: A Banshee from the second set, and a Barrow Wyrm from the first. The Banshee is about as big as the Wraith, and its skeletal minders are closer to Sven-sized than the Reanimates. The Barrow Worm looks just as big as an undead dragon ought to.

Conclusions? These are some great-looking pieces, and the larger figures are for the most part unobjectionable. How you feel about the humanoid and cavalry figures for 1/72 scale is pretty much a matter of taste. They are just a bit too big for my taste, but I'm decidedly a pedant about scale. If you like the look of these, it's definitely worth picking up, especially if they go on sale again.

Big Tree and the Big D

See, I told you I'd pick up the blogging pace. Two posts in one month; it's an Easter-liturgical-season miracle! I've a couple new minis to share, plus some fellow mini bloggers I'd like to spotlight at the end. Read this entire post, I say!

Let's start with this bloke:

It's a Reaper Bones "Spirit of the Forest." The poor fellow remained untouched except as a repository for unused brown paint for too long; I actually think this is less dignified that mouldering in the "lead mountain of shame" (or in my case, the "plastic tor of chagrin"). He deserves much more respect than that.

A closeup of some details. A lot of the really great paintjobs of this figure feature charming red toadstools, but I thought that sort of thing looked a little too cute. I went with more natural earth tones and greens for a more naturalistic look, at least as naturalistic as a pile of animate vegetation can be.

From the back. Lots of details adorn this figure, and I'd have gone mad trying to distinguish all of them. I focused on fungi, leaves, and vines, and let drybrushing do the rest.

Comparison with Sven, who remember is one inch tall. Reaper's larger minis always seem like they are looking down on my 1/72 figures, which I like a lot. A subtle effect is that the treeman's head and fists are a lighter shade of brown than the rest of him; it's the same color that you see on the vine around his right foot. I think it helps those features pop a bit without looking like they were deliberately highlighted.

Now the next surprise project. Remember this fellow?

He's ready.

It's a big demon from the World of Warcraft boardgame, with a trident borrowed from a Mines of Moria troll. What was holding me back was all the detailing on his armor. "Sure," I thought to myself, "how hard can it be to paint the raised areas a different color?" Ugh. After the initial rough highlighting months ago, it probably took me two hours of futzing with red paint, then gray to cover mistakes, then red to cover the mistakes I made trying to cover the mistakes I made before, in a maddening circle of persnicketiness (By the way, Autocorrect thinks "persnicketiness" is a totally legit word, but has reservations about "boardgame."). Eventually I had to choose between settling and going insane; I think I made the right choice.

Here's a closeup show the extent of the detail work. It also shows how my "magic" blackwash, while good enough for the tabletop, isn't going to win me any prizes. I've done something I thought I'd never do, which is buy some actual quality hobby paint, in this case a dropper of flat black from Vallejo. I'm hoping it makes my washes a little smoother and less splotchy.

Here's the comparison shot with Sven.

Worst prom photo ever.

And here he is with the treeman, for some reason.

Caption contest.

I mentioned blog sharing, which I wanted to spotlight as I've recently updated my blogroll. Most of those guys don't need me to promote them,  but a few stand out as special friends here at Cheap Fantasy Minis. First is Sceavus' 1/72 blog. Sceavus contacted me a few weeks ago to share some very cool fantasy conversions he's done, and I thought he should blog about them. Do check them out! Here's an example:

Next is Automato's Stroke of Meh blog. He's got some great D&D boardgame minis painted up, among other projects. Despite his self-deprecation, he's a great painter; much better than I!

Finally, here's Umpapa's blog. Umpapa does more modern/scifi stuff and less fantasy than I, but we're both interested in finding non-historical options for 1/72-20mm scale. Plus he's a pretty good modeler too!

These are folks who I think deserve some special attention, but everyone in my blogroll is great, and folks like Sam, Paul, and Kris have been really supportive. Really, everyone who has ever commented here or at one of my posts elsewhere, or who's bought something from me, or sent an email, or linked here: it's great to know that my ideas are interesting to a few people! You all really do make hobby blogging worthwhile. More stuff coming soon, I hope!

Struggling With My Demons

See the end of this post for more about my reader poll. Also, check out my sales page, please!

I finally got the demons done, about a month later than forecasted. It's not that they were especially hard to paint, though it did take me a while to settle on a color plan (short version: red). It's just that Real Life, dread foe to all hobbyists, reared its head. No one big thing, but lots of little things.

Again, these are mostly Caesar knights with 15mm demon heads from CP models. Tails are dramatically bent florist wire. The middle guy above has a goblin head, also from Caesar Miniatures.

Another set. I think the metal armor looks good for "demon legionnaires." The red fabric/quilted stuff looks fine, though I'm not sure how diabolical it looks.

The two big guys above are Twilight Miniatures demons, with one head swap and another head reposition. The female demon is a Caesar elf with bat wings taken from a Safari Ltd. "good luck mini."

Comparison with Sven. There are a lot of different materials used in this project: plastic bods, metal heads, wire tails, rubber wings. I wasn't sure how well paint and primer would take to all these, but they seem pretty cohesive. I'm particularly impressed with how well the CP heads work with 1/72 models, despite being made for smaller scale minis.

Uncompleted is this big guy, a World of Warcraft board game piece with a pitchfork from a LotR Mines of Moria troll. The trick is the red detail, which I somehow thought could be painted in its own color. The fact that it's raised makes it a little easier than you might think, and I know any blackwash I use can hide some of the sloppiness. Still kind of a big job, so he'll have to wait a bit longer.

So I'm going to run my poll a little longer. Thanks to respondents so far. The majority seem interested in the idea of RPG rules related posts, but there is a substantial minority that is uninterested. This suggests maybe starting a new blog, except most of the "yes" votes want to see them on this blog. So maybe I'll start a new blog but be sure to mention new posts in this space.

Anyway, the poll is below again. Please answer if you're a regular reader and haven't done so yet. Also, sales page!

(The poll should be embedded above, but if not, it should be found here.)

Demon-strations

[Painted and completed, 9/26/15!]

While we're waiting for the latest Bones Kickstarter to end, I'll finally share the demon mods I've been working on.

This crew is made up of various Caesar Miniatures knights, most with demon heads from CP models. The green head up top is a Caesar goblin. The tails are pieces of florist wire. If you do a project like this and know anyone into flower arranging, ask to borrow just a piece, which is all I needed for all these tails.

Other demonic critters. The big guy is a World of Warcraft board game piece, with a hand and trident from a GW "Mines of Moria" troll. The demonette is a Caesar elf with bat wings from a Safari Ltd. "Good Luck" mini. Her tail is a paperclip, which is a lot harder to bend into shape than the florist wire. The other guys are Twilight Creations demons: one got a head swap, the other a head repose.

I finished painting the female demon and goblin-head. You can see that I added some horns and a little goatee, made with the tiniest, fiddliest bits of Milliput I ever hope to work with. Superglue plus a layer of Future Shine to seal will hopefully keep these bits attached.

A view from the back, showing off the wings and tails.

I'm making pretty good progress on the other demon legionaires when I actually have time to paint. I hope to have them finished in a month or so.

Bones II minis for 1/72 scale

I'm still selling several Bones II minis. Pics are now available on my sales page. Also, in case you missed it, I updated my post on WarQuest with some new information.

I received my Bones II order a few months ago and was pleased to discover how many work with 1/72 scale. As I discovered with the first Bones Kickstarter, smaller minis look human-sized in 1/72, while large minis seem just a bit larger, in a more fantastic way. Let's take a look.

These small humanoids are about the size of 1/72 humans. On the left are Balazar the gnome summoner, Lini the gnome druid, and Woody the halfling ranger. Their heads look rather large, but they should be fine for 1/72 otherwise. On the right are a kobold champion and sorcerer, with a kobold spearman in between. These new minis are quite a bit larger than the old kobold Bones, despite having the same sculptor, but they should work for 1/72 lizardmen or dragonmen.

These are also close to human-sized in 1/72 scale. Two mushroom men (or "myconids" in D&D), a lesser demon, a kelpie, a demilich, and two "hordlings."

Animals: a wolf, bear, wildcat, wolverine, and hawk. These are all bigger than actual 1/72 versions of the same critters, but they are good for "dire" or monstrous beasts. Besides, that hawk is about as small as it can be and still be useful at the table.

Medium-sized beasts: a basilisk, barrow rat, chthon, mind eater, prairie tick queen, and spider from the first Kickstarter.

These monsters are close in size to Reaper humans, but I think they are nice as larger monsters in 1/72. A "Ti'ilk" fishman, lesser demon, two Egyptian avatars, Thoth and Sekhmet; and a crystal golem. The "lesser demons" are all about the same size, though the vulture demon is a lot bigger. Dig the blue plastic on that golem!

Some huge monsters: a chimera, water elemental, and "burrowing horror" (or "bullette" in D&D). Again, I love the clear blue plastic. The water elemental is about the same size as the clear red fire elemental Reaper made for their first Kickstarter.

Finally, some giants: a "swamp things" troll, stone giant, mountain troll, and ice troll. These are all much bigger than the ubiquitous cave trolls I painted last year. I still like how these big guys look compared to Sven.

Bags o minis! Twilight Creations, etc.

I recently mentioned Twilight Creations in a news post. I've since gotten ahold of a bunch of minis from their board games. Their minis are a bit smaller than most board game minis and are a good fit for 1/72 scale.

Let's start with their Zombies!!! minis, which are their most well-known figures. Shown are the male and female zombies from the original series, available in the core game or various expansions, and also available in cheap "Bag o" sets of 100.

These are made of a very rubbery plastic that bends easily—the other figures on this page are made of firmer, less flexible stuff. I don't particularly like the first sculpt, with that weird overlarge arm, but I used the heads from these for my 1/72 zombie project. The female sculpt is a lot better, especially if you trim off the severed head it's holding. It could easily be used for witches, hags, ghosts, and other monsters. Also sometimes available though seemingly out of production are bags of zombie dogs (useful!) and zombie clowns (idiosyncratic! though possibly adaptable to more general purposes). I've also mentioned the figures from the Zombie Zoo expansion and from the 3rd edition of the core game, which I'll also show here.

Photo cred Twilight Creations

So long as I'm mentioning content from previous posts, here are the minis from Dante's Inferno, available in sets without the game from Twilight Creations' store. Lots of neat 1/72-ish monsters.

I also just got Twilight Creations' new Cthulhu!!! game, especially for the minis. Here they are.

The two on the left are player minis, of which there are three each. They're just a hair bigger than Sven, who is standing on a larger base, but could be useful for pulp gaming. The stars of this game are the next two figures, the "byakhee" monster and the cultist figure, of which the game includes 25 of the former and 75 of the latter. The monster is a little odd but surely useful for something. But the cultist is great! There is no "Bag o Cultists" that I know about, which is too bad, because lots of gamers could use a bunch of generalized dudes in robes. They are again a little tall, but could easily be made shorter since they are in robes. The one odd detail is the face; I can't tell if the figure is open-mouthed or just has a large nose. But the robes are perfect, and the pose is pretty evocative.

Lastly, something a little different, figures from a "Bag o" set not made by Twilight Creations. These are from a "Bag o Chthulhus" made by Fantasy Flight, intended as counters for their out-of-print (I think) Call of Cthulhu card game.

There 6 of the large figure and 36 of the smaller ones in the set. These are made from a very hard plastic with a lot better detail than many of the Twilight Creations figures. Any of these could be used as statues, gribbly monsters, or in the case of the large sculpt, He Who Sleeps himself.

Edit 10/21/2014: I mentioned the Bump in the Night minis, which I'll show below: see this post for more. Also, see my seller page for information on buying some of the minis on this page.