Gimli, Gandalf, Legolas and Aragorn - Mithril Miniatures

At least one of these miniatures (Gandalf) has been in my mini collection for over twenty years, but it is a new paint job.  The others were completed recently - but are also from an older part of my collection.  I eventually put together a whole Fellowship collection, although I am planning on stripping and repainting the hobbits.

Mice and Mystics Heroes

Here are some mouselings from Plaid Hat's Mice and Mystics boardgame.  It is great fun and an excellent way to get your 5+ year old children into fantasy board games.  The miniatures are made of plastic or a resin-plastic and are well detailed for board game pieces.

With the Reaper Bones II Kickstarter close to delivery, I am hoping the Mouselings in that set will be compatible with these guys for some expanded off-board adventures

Crusader Adventurers

Here's a look at another pack from Crusader Miniatures' rather limited line of fantasy characters.  As I said previously, Crusader is my favorite historical miniature manufacturer, and some of their Dark Ages and Medieval figures could easily fit into a fantasy setting. This three pack of named fantasy adventurers contains all demi-human characters.

From left to right

Illadrian  the Half Elf - very typical Elven figure, his thigh boots and leather codpiece are, well...unique.

The Gnome McCoy - Really like the proportions on this gnome figure; he is short but proportioned very slim.  Next to a dwarf he would definitely be distinct.  The two-handed broadsword must account for the Scottish name. The stone basing is from a press mold made by Happy Seppuku.

Urko Half Orc - My favorite sculpt and character.  His scale and chainmail armor and solid greaves and arm pieces give this character a look of a Germanic warrior in the late Roman Empire.  Very inventive.

Crusader Miniature CCF002

Dark Sun Mul

Googling a bit will show that I am not the first person to turn this Reaper figure into a Dark Sun Mul Gladiator - but I would like to state that I had the idea before I saw those previous versions.

The Dark Sun campaign world included a wonderful race that rarely appears in fantasy or gaming literature - the half dwarf.  It combines the best of both worlds - as tall as a human, but as stocky as a dwarf.  Sterile and hairless, "muls" are favored as gladiators in the arenas of Athas' city states. 

The figure below is a Reaper Bones barbarian whose conversion to a Mul requires only a specific skin tone and a bone blade in place of metal.   

Goblins and Kobolds

The release of the new D&D starter set with included adventure runs an encounter - spoiler - with goblins early in the module. Of course it does - how can an adventure for 1st to 5th level characters not have goblins?...Only if it has kobolds instead.

Here are small force of kobolds and goblins in honor of D&D obviousness.

My goblins are always blue, by the way, because of this guy: 

If you haven't read the Goblin series by Jim Hines, then you must not like laughing. Funny, but not ridiculous, and a nice subversion of your usual fantasy tropes. 

Norse Legends

Since I bought the Greek legends for the Of God's and Mortals ruleset, I needed some opponents - hopefully at a cheaper price.  The book lists stats for many gods and creatures, aside from those officially released as miniatures.  On the right is a Reaper Bones Valkyrie.  It is a great sculpt, richly detailed but it suffers from the "bendy" sword issue that plagues some (many) of the Reaper Bones. It tried the boiling water dip, which has worked in the past, but with the size of the sword and its thinness, nothing seemed to work.  I open to suggestions.

In the center, is a cheap 54mm Viking from a bagged set.  I think he will be Balder, Thor's doomed brother - who sadly never made an appearance in the Marvel movies.

A Gripping Beast 28mm Viking is on the left to give a scale perspective.

Kitsune from Stonehaven Minis

I recently received my Elven Adventurers Kickstarter from Stonehaven miniatures.  In hindsight, I wish I went in for more than what I did...which is probably what every company should hope for if they really want to use Kickstarter to launch an ongoing operation.

The two I really wanted were these Kitsune (Japanese fox shapeshifters).  For the most part, I think Eastern fantasy creatures are really overlooked by most manufacturers.  

The sculpting and casting are both excellent - though a bit flat when viewed in profile.  It was either from production or shipping but both of their arms can be "pushed" a bit to remedy the situation.  From a design standpoint, I like the overall theme and detailing.  The male looked very much like a merchant and was painted accordingly.  The female kitsune did not go in the cheesecake direction that many sculptors of anthropomorphic characters follow but looked very much like an assassin or gladiator.

Stonehaven currently has a kickstarter running for fold flat paper terrain done in their distinctive sepia art style.  If paper terrain interests you, Stonehaven has a solid record of delivering on their previous projects.