Whimsical Fantasy Miniatures

This is the Wizards Folly from Northumbrian Tin Soldier, a multipart resin kit which I’ve had my eye on since if first saw it.

As you can see it the tower can be used in various stages of repair, from just the base all the up to a fully built tower, if rather ramshackle.

The inside it detailed and has some practicality as well.

I painted the whole thing a light beige colour then used painted a few individual bricks separate colours to add variety. Once drybrushed and given a couple of washes everything blended together quite well.

Once fully assembled the whole thing is actually quite sturdy and not likely to fall apart. Being resin it take take some work to make sure the parts fit together well but it wasn’t so I’m really looking forward to using this in my games. It’ll look great in Moonstone and work well in Rangers of Shadow Deep or Five Leagues From The Borderlands.

The Aedwyrm from Oakbound Studio. They also have rules for their The Woods game mentioned a few posts back, but that’s not why I got this miniature. I’ve always loved the Great Spine Dragon from Games Workshop of the 80s but I’ve never owned one. Looking on eBay they can go for at least £600 which is for too much.
This dragon is very much inspired by the great spined dragon so for me it was a must buy as soon as I saw it.

When I got the aedwyrm I also picked up the optional wings set, but in the end I decided not to give him wings as I liked the look of him as a wingless dragon.

I custom made the base from plasticard and build up layers of cork board so all of the dragon’s feet were in contact with the ground. I added different sizes rocks to make the terrain look more natural.

I’ve had this guy for about a year and I was just in the mood to paint him and I’m happy I did because he was a joy to paint.

For the photo above I had to get the camera quite low so as to see his eyes. I suppose looking down is a very common thing for a giant to do.

I got Knoll the troll from the excellent game of Moonstone recently. I’d always meant to get Knoll soon after he was released but other projects got in the way and after seeing the video of Tom collect his multiple awards at the UKGE I thought now was the time.
The detail on him is amazing, some of the finest detail I’ve seen on a miniature. He was so much fun to paint.

I also received picked up the skirmish game The Woods by Oakbound Studio . It’s a game based on European folklore and uses a dice-less system. At first glance it seemed quite complicated but I soon became intrigued in how the rules play out so I thought I’d put together a warband.

I’ve had a whole bunch of 15mm Copplestone casting’s Picts for a while which I’ve always intended on painting blue and using them as Wee Free Men or pixies or something. I thought they’d make a perfect warband for The Woods.

The badgers I order from Oakbound Studio and I converted one of the pixies to ride a badger, which I’m pretty happy with.

In the lists for pixie warbands you can add a fodden, which is basically a troll covered in foliage so Knoll from Moonstone was added to the warband as this fits him to a tee.

I thought I’d shake up my photography and try to take photos of miniatures on terrain in a more scenic picture. This is partly inspired by the current kickstarter for a photography backdrops book.

I made a small piece of terrain and, for the time being at least, used a picture on my iPad for the backdrop which will do until I get the book from the Kickstarter. I’m pretty happy with the results.

I found painting these to be somewhat of a challenge probably because I decided to paint them all at the same time. The challenge came from what colours to use and to make each one look different.

Mustn’t forget Kevin with his Camera.

That’s all of the miniatures in the Time Bandits range by Northumbrian Tin Soldier painted. I’m looking forward to using them in a game, perhaps in a special scenario in a historical skirmish game.

These two models painted up quite quickly. I’m pretty happy with their overall looks even though I placed them on some grassy ground rather than the deck of their ship from the film.

In the film Mrs Ogre has a blue pattern in her sleeves. I thought about adding this to the miniature but I don’t think my freehand is up to scratch so I wasn’t brave enough.

One of the things I like about the Time Bandits miniatures is that they are quite varied. Here we have Agamemnon and a minotaur from ancient times.

I made his armour slightly more shiny than that in the film just so it reads more like armour on the miniature.

This was a fun miniature to do. I made his skin more red, similar to the film.

Two more miniatures from the Time Bandits range by Northumbrian Tin Soldier.

Og as a pig was fairly simple to paint. For pig parts I just used a pink flesh coloured paint but with whiter highlights.

I enjoyed painting Robin Hood. He’s a nice simple fantasy style miniature with an overly large face and a great expression.

I’ve had this excellent set of seventeen miniatures for over two years and they were indeed the first miniatures I ever bought from Northumbrian Tin Soldier so it was high time that I started to paint them.

As you can see I’ve started with the evil ones first.

…and of course now for the Lloyd shots.

I spent time trying to get the shading and highlights of the reds to work as some of the furrows in Evil’s cloak are quite shallow. After some experimenting I found adding brown to my red seemed to work quite well for shading.
Also one of the minions (Benson) has a plastic wrap over his head but painting this on the model would be quite tricky so I opted for a thinned down white wash of sorts with some of his flesh colour showing through.

A 6-soul Sluagh, a large resin piece on a 60mm base. I’ve been after a larger treeman style model for a while and this is just the piece. With rocks mixed in it’s as if nature has come alive.

I had a lot of fun adding tufts and foliage to the model once painted and I think it really brought the model alive.

I got another orc model simply because I like the miniature. Oakbound calls it a Stallu Redcap. I can imagine using him as an enemy leader model or unique individual for Five Leagues From the Borderlands.

Here are some naughty imps from Northumbrian Tin Soldier that they released a couple of weeks ago, along with a few other miniatures for Halloween.

I recently ordered these two models from Oakbound Studio, and I thought I’d paint them straight away, my first from this company. I really like how magical they both feel and I think they’ll fit in well with this project.

I’ve ordered a few more miniatures and hope to paint them up soon.

4 Soul Sluagh

Stallu Noaidi

I got these two Northumbrian Tin Soldier models about a year ago but I never got around to painting them, although they were assembled and primed for most of that time. With halloween fast approaching I though it was high time I painted them.

I thought I’d try a black background for these as it seems more fitting. I’m very rusty using black and it shows off the slightest marks, something that grey hides quite well.

Here are the final eight goblins, all armed with polearms.

…and of course the Lloyd shots.

Here’s another eight more goblins, the archers and the knights. The blue shield came with the miniature but I wanted some of the other knight to carry shields. After a quick look through I found a few spare shields from the Frostgrave plastic cultists box set by North Star.

Now for the Lloyd shots.

I’ve tried to add some brighter colours than I normally use with these miniatures to reflect their whimsical nature such as really pushing the blues.

Here are the first four of the twenty goblins available from Artizan Designs at North Star all sculpted by Mike Owen for their Borderlands range of fantasy miniatures.

I really like how every goblin is different and has its own character. I want to hear story’s about each one, especially since they are all named.

When I saw these two miniatures by Mike Owen of Artizan Designs I knew I’d get them. I love their design and they set light to my imagination. They are the kinds of miniatures I would think about back when I was just starting out in the hobby, back in the early 90s.

As well as giving the miniatures a careful paint job I wanted to try something different for their bases.
I thought of mushrooms straight away. After some browsing I settled on resin mushrooms from Green Stuff World that my local hobby shop sold. But disaster! They were out of stock. As I walked home I though about ordering them online but then I realised something, why not make my own from green stuff. It couldn’t be too difficult. After watching several videos on YouTube I give it a go.

I must say they were pretty straight forward to make and I used a copped up cocktail stick for their stems. The main thing I had to focus on was not leaving fingerprints in the green stuff.

This was also my first time using leafing material and I think it looks really effective but it does go everywhere as it’s incredibly light and floaty.

I enjoyed painting these miniatures so much that I’ve ordered all twenty of their Goblins as well, which I plan on doing similar bases with.

I thought I’d catch up on some backlog and I’ve had a few Moonstone models waiting to be painted. Last year I bough the box Tumbledown Street but only had only painted the one model, Fritz.

Now it’s the turn of of Agatha Tavernfrau and Quack.

Agatha was pretty straightforward to paint. I concentrated on the face as it’s a focal point of the miniature, giving her rosy cheeks. Trouble is her face now looks a little like a ventriloquist dummy.

Quack was a little more complicated to paint as their is so much detail on this miniature, especially his apron. It was a little overwhelming at first but once I blocked the main colours in it sorted itself out. I had problems with his left eye, and I’m still now entirely happy with it. I may need a small brush.

This is Sergeant Honks and Norbert Billington from Northumbrian Tin Soldier. I’ll use them as options for either a warhound in frostgrave or a warbird in Rangers to add some comic relief to the game.

I’ve had them since late last year but only thought about painting them the other day. I don’t know why I waited so long as they were a quick paint.