In the photos above and below, you’ll see the characters that will form my first go at an adventure party - all the usual suspects of course, to whit, female and male magic users, a ‘ranger’ type, a female and a male fighter, a thief, a ‘barbarian’ and a dwarf - all except the barbarian, who is by Alterrnative Armies, are from the ranges by Ral Partha Europe:
Next up are the ‘Baddies’ - a Sorcerer, a Druid, an Anti-Paladin, and a Sorceress - (again, from Ral Partha) these will very much be employed in the role of the controlling entity for a particular dungeon, that might be themed according to their talents - the Druid might oversee lots of creepies, crawlies or creatures, whilst the others could be surrounded by the undead, summoned monsters or goblin or orcish henchmen:
Alongside these I plan to work on all the classic encounter creatures and life forms - from gelatinous cubes to spiders, from trolls and troglodytes to lurkers and mimics, from kobolds and gnolls to giant rats and dragon folk…… basically anything that takes my fancy, or has a nostalgic edge from those half remembered days of playing D&D many moons ago…..
I’ve been choosing figures very much on the basis of what I like the look of, rather than adhering strictly to the manufacturer’s categories or descriptions - an example is the thief in the second photo above - he’s actually a torch-bearing leader of the peasant militia of the Empire faction of Ral Partha’s Demonworld Classic:
I just like the look of him being up to something semi-nefarious, hooded, with torch held aloft !
As I work my way through painting various figures, I’ll plan to post the details of each, and work on some comparison photos as well - which I always find useful in starting new projects. It might be a while before I get around to those seen above, as I’m gradually increasing my skill level in this new scale - why start on the intricate garments of the sorcerer for instance, when you can splash some black in the direction of a spider and call it done !
I’m going to be basing the majority of miniatures on plastic tiddly-winks of around 22mm in diameter, painted up to resemble the dank, verdigris stained surfaces of the dungeon - sizes can be seen here, with UK penny and tuppence for scale:
As to where I’ll be getting the figures and other items- I’ve put together a short resources list as follows, starting with the principal manufacturers here in the UK, with some of my comments:
Alternative Armies - an expansive range of great designs, covering Hordes of The Things and tabletop fantasy armies, with useful character and single monster figures - always having great sales and deals - as I write, they’re currently having a 20% off sale across the board for the month of August - the sculpting can sometimes be on the softer side, and some of the figures are quite slight in heft or small in height:
Ral Partha Europe: a very large range of both army and group sized figure packs, alongside a huge collection of individual figures, covering probably everything you’ll ever need - the sculpts are very crisp and detailed, but perhaps on the ‘chunkier’ side of things….. certainly tall, although not scale-crept any larger than 15mm:
CP Models: stock the Conan style, ex-Crom’s Anvil range, alongside their own fantasy offerings - some useful decor / -ative items here, like scenics and terrain:
Copplestone’s amazingly detailed and characterful ‘Barbarica’ range - Conan-style writ large but then writ small - how he gets such style into such small figures, I’ll never know - although that said, these do scale (perhaps quite rightly) on the ‘heroic’ side against other manufacturers, whilst being perfectly compatible:
Old Glory UK: has the excellent ranges from Blue Moon manufacturing - some lovely Gothic Horror pieces alongside some very useful items across the historical range, as well as Steampunk/Cthulhu-esque and even ‘The Mummy” style figures for Egyptian adventures:
Irregular Miniatures: Very much Old-Old School sculpts, perhaps a bit of an acquired taste, but always something useful to be found amongst their vast and varied offerings:
The Little Corporal in the UK stocks the superlative offerings from Splintered Light Miniatures - some really classic minis here, scaling well alongside Ral Partha’s:
A close up gallery of their figures can be seen in this forum post here:
Dragon Frog Games in the UK has the Battle Valor fantasy ranges: lovely sculpts - a bit on the large side, but in context, some very useful items -check out the Special Edition figures category:
Peter Pig offer their own Fantasy range, with some great ‘Araby’ types, alongside all the classics - they are probably the slightest in ‘heft’ though, and smaller in height than the other manufacturers, but useful, nonetheless - chaps on flying carpets ! - an Arthurian Wizard ‘Shazamming’ a victim…… !
Essex Miniatures have their own classic Old School range, but more importantly also have very useful things like shields packs and other accessories - always worth looking through the Medieval ranges, too:
Ancient and Modern Army Supplies - or more traditionally, Donnington Miniatures have their own Medieval ranges, and again, some very well made scenic and ancillary items that might be of use - I’m a big fan of their casualties, individual weapons and camp and baggage items:
Chariot Miniatures stocked by Magister Militum - an extensive traditional fantasy range, with some useful individual figures:
Honorable mention should go to Skirmish Supplies,who always have a selection of various manufacturers available at good prices:
To conclude, just a few words on some of the sites that I’ve been using for inspiration \ envious longings with regard to the potential for using 15mm:
Old Ben’s amazing ideas thread of Cthulhu-inspired small scale skirmish over at The Wargames Website that sold me on the idea:
The gorgeous work at Warchest on Copplestone’s incredible Barbarian range:
“It does what it says on the tin” - beautiful work and bountiful ideas on starting a 15mm Dungeon:
And finally, some lovely individual threads of work here over at the Lead Adventure Forum:
All great stuff - if a little intimidating in terms of the standard of work - hard to believe the minis are only 15mm!
Next time, I’ll be having some Monstrous fun……. ;-)
You are coming along nicely on this! And, thanks for all of those links - just in case ;)
ReplyDeleteCheers, El G ! - just beginning to get to grips with things really, but am trying to keep up the momentum - glad to be of service (temptation ? ) with the links. ;-)
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I like to keep them all in one place within a post, otherwise I end up scrolling for ever down my ‘Bookmarks’ page…. !