Burrows and Badgers - close to completion

I have returned to blogging after a several month absence. All I can say is that it happens. Kids, job, exercise all come before the internet. I haven't been so busy that I gave up on gaming and painting, but when the time crunch hit, taking pictures and posting was the first thing cut.

I do have a nice backlog that should fuel some posts for the next couple of months.

First up, more from Oathsworn Miniatures' Burrows and Badgers. This is from their first Kickstarter and I am closing in on finishing the set.

These five shown below were most recently completed.

 Nate the Wanderer, Mouse Hedge Knight. 

Darmok Foecrusher, Marmot Mercenary

Bassk uz'Drasst, Green Lizard

Glormug Wyrde, Toad Animist

These figures are really begging for a D&D 5E conversion. And I could put it on the DMS Guild...and that's how I take on too many projects with too little time. Maybe one day. 

Oathsworn is one of my favorite manufacturers. Their kickstarters are almost always early and their figures show such a unique personality. They are not as detailed or elaborate as figures from larger manufacturers, but they more than make up for it in dynamics and characters. The castings are also top notch, quality metal and I am surprised to find the slightest bit of flash. 

All my ducks in a row

I got these Duckmen from Rebel Minis holiday sale, and they went to the front of the line in my paint queue. They are the old Mongoose duckmen for Runequest, currently released through Rebel minis as part of their Darkhold line.

I imagine these as the strangest Frostgrave band possible, or maybe as a weird wilderness encounter for PCs in my next campaign.

The sculpts are excellent, and each figure is unique. They are short, averaging about 20mm, but well detailed.

Due to aging eyes, painting at this size is not my strong suit, one reason I avoid 15mm despite its growing popularity. However, between my anthro characters and other short races, I seem to spend a lot of time in this size.

A blog reader recently asked for some comparison shots from various manufacturers, so here are a few combinations

L to R: Iron Wind Quickling, Rebel Ducman (2) and a Reaper halfling

L to R: Oathsworn dormouse, Rebel duckman (2) and a full size Reaper Elf. 

The duckmen compare relatively well to most halflings, though they lack the bulk that some manufacturers add to their halflings and gnomes. I suspect they don't want them to look like normally scaled 15mm or 20mm figs.  

And now, just some mice: 

L to R: Reaper mousling, Oathsworn dormouse, Splintered Light Rat and Oathsworn mouse.
Note that the Splintered Light fig is on a thinner base. 

A Party of Halflings (not the usual halfling party)

Here's my next set of miniatures from Acheson Creation's last Kickstarter campaign.

In all my years of gaming, I've never played a halfling character, though I am very likely to now run a halfling only warband with these guys - either in Frostgrave or another skirmish game.




As with the last set of Halfling adventurers, these should appeal to those looking for an old school (OSR) art style. The faces and costuming are very expressive and unique. As with the last set, I found some of the details requiring straight edging (scabbards in particular) to be a bit indistinct or off.

Nonetheless, I think they are fine figures, and if Acheson Creations includes more of them in a future Kickstarter, I will probably pledge at the necessary level.

Darkhold Goblins

Some time off for the holidays as allowed me to reduce the lead mountain a bit. I picked these Dark Hold Goblins from Rebel Minis at Nashcon earlier this summer. Finally finished them this week, and will hopefully play them in a 5th Ed game with my kids.





These are sculpted by Bobby Jackson and are definitely worth having if goblins are your thing. They are the right mix of comical and menacing, so they could be used in a variety of settings or flavors. The casting and production quality is top notch, very clean and no flash.

If your inclined to make a purchase, Rebel is running a sale until the New Year. I might pick up the goblin minions and maybe the duckmen. I have always received quick service from Mike at Rebel, so if the Darkhold/Runequest design interests you, they have some great stuff.

Link to Rebel Minis.

Acheson Creations Female Adventurers

Acheson Creations produces a diverse line of resin terrain and earlier this year they ran a Kickstarter for a line of plastic dungeon tiles. It delivered within a month of its promised date - which makes it early by most crowdfunding standards.

They avoided some of the outrageous amounts of free stretch goals that get a lot of projects in trouble, but one appealing freebie was packs of male, female and halfling adventurers in metal.

Here are the eight female adventurers, recently finished, but not necessarily grouped as sold. I've arranged them more for party balance.

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The sculpting quality does not match up to most of the top names in the field. Some of the hands a little lumpy, and one particular problem I noticed was a lack of separation and definition between sword scabbards and the surrounding leg or cloak.

However, they do have a lot of appeal for several reasons. First, is scale. These are true 28mm (I know 28mm is a size not scale) and match up closer with old school fantasy figures and historicals. Speaking of old school, their overall aesthetic matches the artwork from the early editions of D&D.

Here's a shot with the Acheson tiles in the background. I'd say it's Frostgrave ready.

Dragoth Undead King

I had this miniature finished a few weeks ago - for Halloween, in fact. My son, who is a big Nightmare Before Christmas fan, nicknamed him Jack and it stuck. He's been the big baddy in a couple of Open Combat games.

The mummies were painted mostly by son, who is six. As I have stated before, the real appeal of the Bones kickstarter's is cheap miniatures for my son and daughter to paint at a low entry price. And for a mummy, it was a good basic lesson. Paint it skeleton white, sepia wash and drybrush the highlights.

Fafhrd and Grey Mouser

My first introduction to Fafhrd and Grey Mouser was not through the original novels by Fritz Leiber but from a comic book adaptation by Howard Chaykin and Mike (Hellboy) Mignola. Howard Chaykin, in addition to being a great creator of original characters (American Flagg) also knows his way around other writer's works. And in the late 1980s at the prime of my comic collecting days, Mignola was one of my favorites. He is a stylist without making his style obtrusive on the story. I enjoyed the collection quite a bit, but not to the level of Marvel's Conan comics, especially Savage Sword. Regrettably, I did not pick up the novels until years later and was blown away by the craftsmanship of Leiber.

Here are two obvious Reaper "not Fafhrd and Grey Mouser" figures, Fafnir of Kjord and Arran Rabin. Fafnir is in metal, the other in Bones plastic. Side by side, one can see that metal holds better detail, especially in the face, than bones plastic, not withstanding improvements in Bones II over Bones I. He's still worth picking up if you need a Mouser stand in for an RPG or skirmish game. 

Leiber continually emphasized Grey Mouser's monochromatic apparel. On the page, it's fine, but on a figure it is hard to avoid a dull, boring look. However, put the Mouser against a grey stone background and I instantly see why the smaller man favored such an outfit. It's sword & sorcery urban camouflage. 

Before my comic collecting days, but a little web research led me to this forgotten (better forgotten?) work from Wonder Woman's disco era costume days.