Vintage Ral Partha mummy

This is from Ral Partha's Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night collection. Listed and pictured as 01-020 in Lost Minis Wiki, it is also listed but without a picture in my 1978 Ral Partha catalog as ES-20. I just recently purchased this, and with no date or code on the base plate I can't tell if this mini was from '78 or if it is an update.

I painted this with inks, and was surprised at how well the details came out from the wrappings. With just the primer coat on, it didn't appear to have too much relief on the wrappings, but as the painting progressed, it began to pop as variations in color were added. The left arm, unfortunately, is cast a bit thicker and lacks detail. I'm not sure of the reason behind that, but it's a shame as much of the wrapping is quite good.

I don't do any base detailing on my minis (just a personal preference), however for this one I may add some grit or a rock or two. It seems like that would add quite a bit to the fig overall. 

I have a wight and a hireling carrying a chest that I have had primered for awhile. Yesterday I brushed in highlights and shadows on them. 

Brushes and Bases blog has started a 30 figures in 30 days project and I'm going to follow closely and try to keep motivated to see if I can get 30 minis painted in the month of July.

They're Here!!

I've seen them, Frodo! Black riders!!

Arrived today they have. The Nine, the Nazgul, the Ringwraiths, Servants of Sauron from Elan Merch (1751 Servants of Sauron ).  I have had 2 of the minis since the late '70's, since three of my friends and I pooled our money ($10.00) and bought the set at Hobby Haven in Mission. We rolled dice and I ended up with 2 of the unmounted minis.

I've always looked off and on for the full set, but have really pursued it since starting this blog and finally found a decent set for a decent price. 

They came in an opened blister pack and are in good condition. When I first opened them I feared the worst as the plastic blister had flecks of grey all over it. Luckily it wasn't lead rot, but just some of the primer wearing off the figs. The separately cast rider (1751h) has a broken axe which can be fixed, and 1751e is missing a sword, but all the rest are in good shape.

After taking a pic, I applied stripper to them and tomorrow will give them a good cleaning and if weather permits a spray coat of primer. 

Gator Aid!! - need ID for these mystery minis.

These were purchased by me back in 1979? at The Kings Crown in OP Ks. They are 25mm scale with no ID markings on them. The blister pack is long gone and I have no idea what company may have manufactured them. If I remember correctly they were not in the D & D, Fantasy area of the store, but in the wargame area, so may be related to a specific game or rule set. The original armament was scimitars and spears. The spears never fit properly and were only held in place by great globs of glue ( it never lasted ). For some reason the scimitars and part of the arm holding them have been cut off.

The base plates still have some cast lines on the bottom which leads me to believe they were never issued any kind of identification, as opposed to having been removed by sanding or cutting. I think I still have some of the parts for them so I'm considering a bit of a restoration. 

I'm remembering that they were one of those purchases that I made just because I finally made it to the hobby store with some money I had saved and I wanted to leave with something. What I really wanted to get was probably out of my price range so I decided on these. I don't think I was that impressed with them, then, or even used them much. I kind of like them now!

I hope someone sees this and can lend some info. I've exhausted all the options I can think of on search engines and on Lost Minis wiki.

Found 'em!!  Dragontooth Miniatures!

An Archive for the archive.

I think this is the only Archive miniature that I have. It is #764 Bugbear from the Dungeon Nasties series. Unfortunately there is no date on the base plate. A few other blogs and websites put the date out at 1976. Sounds about right.

 I purchased this miniature quite awhile ago. It was painted with thick green paint and I did 2 separate strippings to get it clean. Rinsing and brushing wasn't enough to get the old paint out. I went thru almost a complete box of toothpicks picking at it to get the gunk out of all the fur. 

There is no overlap on the fur so it was hard to get any shading detail on the main body. I got a little bit of shading on the head because it has some surface area but orange is a hard color to shade with the inks for some reason. 

With no extra equipment and the simple shapes, this was one of the quicker paints jobs I've done. Even lacking detail, this mini makes a statement at about 40mm tall. For all those who say "Bugbears don't look like that.",  I'll include the historical inspiration.

Page 67 from Greyhawk Supplement 1.

Another vintage Heritage mini done.

This guy has been primered for awhile, so I thought I would make it a Heritage weekend.

This is from the Heritage Good Wizard set. It's 1301b and I purchased it online a few months back.

I think I liked the pose because I could try an OSL on it. I have a few figures with lanterns that I have acquired which will work out better, so Mr. Good Wizard gets a regular paint job. 

I used Amsterdam ink Brilliant blue for the robe color and variations of whites, browns, yellows and grays for the remainder. A little difficulty with the eyes as the right eye kind of melds into an eyebrow(?). The older castings are just not as crisp as newer stuff, but there is no sense in fretting about it. I paint the parts as well as I can and sometimes its tough to win. 

I have a few more wizards on the shelf. They are from a partial box set of Grenadier Wizards and they need to be primered and base coated. I'm always indecisive about the colors for wizard minis. So far I have done the basics - black, gray, blue. Maybe the next one should be red. 

UPDATE:

I found the picture I took of this mini when I first got it before I stripped and primered it. It had your standard late '70's glossy enamel paint job.

Vintage D&D minis

I've hit some stumbling blocks on my desert game and the 15mm wargaming in general. I seem to be lacking some creativity these last few weeks, so I'm getting back to basics to see if that will generate some ideas. I decided I would just paint some figures.

These are all Heritage figs from Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques (which have some of the best names for miniatures ever!)

Starting from the left -

Evil Hideous Skeleton Men 1155b

In The Darkness Before The Dawn Avoid The Bad Hairy Nude Things 1158

Wood Trolls of Mirk 1016

The first two are from the 1100 series and the troll is from the 1000 series of the Fantastiques. Both the skeleton and the BHNT have base dates of 1977 and although undated I'm pretty sure the troll would be from the same year. While these lack a lot of the sharp detailing of modern minis they have decent detail and definitely invoke an old school feel. 

All of these were hand brush primered with vallejo white primer, then washed with diluted vallejo black.

I lined in the crevices with vallejo black (undiluted), then highlited with vallejo white.

I then painted with Amsterdam inks and varnish coat to finish. I like to mix colors but flesh is tough so I did buy a flesh colored ink. The color is good but it doesn't cover as well as the other inks so theres more bleed thru than I would like. Multiple coats would help. 

I have a few more minis from Der Kreigspieler - a Tasmanian devil that has been primed and a Krot that is still in his original Humbrol covering that I painted back in 1978. 

Crafting projects

The last couple of weeks have been disrupted by weather days at work so weekends have been cut short with work and chores and the game I had been planning to play is still set up on the table. I will attempt it next weekend.

 I've been focusing instead on some smaller projects that will lead to my Desert game. 

Buildings, excavation sites, and how to set up the terrain seem daunting, so I have just been doing them in smaller test projects to iron out any kinks. 

I found a decent way to strip the paper covering off of dollar store foam so I can have a ready supply of 1/4 inch foam. Easier for buildings, walls and small relief terrain than shaving down the 1/2 inch + pink board. I also bought some impression rollers for clay and they actually work pretty good on the dollar store foam. 

These are 3D printed texture rollers for clay. The detail edges are not exceptionally sharp so they do need some pressure to get an impression in foam. 

I got these on Etsy, about $10 each. They are a harder plastic than the standard 3D printed objects I've purchased in the past, but have only just started using them so will have to see how well they hold up. The figure is 15mm for size comparison. The cobble pattern left deeper impressions than the flagstone one. I tested the other 2 and they were about as deep as the flagstone. One other test I need to do is to sand down the skin of the foam and perhaps softer middle foam will lend itself to deeper impressions. All in all if they last for any length of time I think they are worth the money. I have air dry clay I can use too, but foam is faster, weighs less and is less messy.

I also tested some home made sculpt a mold using shredded TP and durhams water putty. I may try to fine tune the mix, but would rather get some plaster of paris to work with.

This is a test piece for covered excavation sites for the Desert terrain. I'm adopting a few standard sizes for them so they can be covered with a selection of either buildings, or simple terrain.