Forces Of Darkness Part Two

Continuing on with the gallery of completed miniatures for crawling through dungeons, here are the rest of the baddies so far.

Shambling Zombies.

Obligatory Skellies. After watching Jason and the Argonauts the other week I have a real hankering to get in and paint up some shields for them.

I have a heap more of these guys and a set of Oakbound Miniatures not Fimir to get painted up at some point, wether they will be green or not I'm not sure yet.

Cute little Gobbos. There's plenty more of these little blighters knocking around too, and I'm in the process of painting up a Shaman and Chieftan for them.

The Orcs. Needless to say I have a lot more of these to paint up too.
I have lots more of everything to paint...I'm sure you all know where I'm coming from.

Humble plastic Orc to lead the boys

 

Humble metal Orc to lead the boys

Forces Of Darkness Part One

Here's the Heroquest Gargoyle in all his demonic glory and what is surely a mock crucifixion pose. I know a lot of people regard this miniature as an absolute turd but I've always had a soft spot for him, because at the time it was the most bad assed mini I'd ever seen.
Those familiar with the model may notice that is not the whip that  Bloodthirster Jr is traditionally armed with- it's actually made from a twisted up cigarette rolling paper (actually, it was the bit that that tells you "10 to go") with superglue poured over it.
Here's what the previous owner had Jr looking like:

Imagine how bad assed he would have been if I'd left him holding that Ork chainsword.
All praise be to Khorne the Blood God!
Actually, most if not all praise to Dettol, god of strippers!

Fell Chaos Warriors, deadly are their axes, static are their poses.
The plastics are stand ins/extras until I get around to painting the proper Heroquest minis.
The metal with shield will represent a Chaos Warrior Champion when the quest calls for it.

 

 My freehand shield design skills need some serious work, but I am still happy enough with this crude and primitive design, which after painting it reminds me of the art seen on Mambo surfwear.

 

I never really knew of Citadel's Snakemen range until about a year ago, and I knew I had to get at least one when I saw them.

Talisman Necromancer, paying homage to Shakespeare or summoning forth terrifying Mummies?

Beauty and The Beast

Dungeons are the traditional home of not only creepy crawlies and monsters, but beautiful women, right?
It definitely seemed that way to me, the Temple Of Set and Thulsa Doom's Palace came off as pretty convincing dungeons and they were both heavily populated by foxy ladies.
I'll admit basing my assumptions on instances from 80's fantasy movies may seem a little naïve but I've come too far already and I'm not turning back now.

This is a Hasslefree Miniature, and she is quite small compared to your average Citadel mini.
Painting the eyes was an extremely torturous process, but I finally got there.

Now, onto the Beast part.
And just as no Dungeon is complete without a nubile damsel, no fantasy adventure is truly complete without a nasty big dragon.
I'm not even going to prattle on about dragons, they just are and we all have to deal with it.
Ronnie James Dio sang about dragons a fair bit, and he even had to deal with them invading his album covers.

 

 This Dragon Masters Dragon was painted by my brother

 Despite being an old sculpt, this actual model is only new- I bought it from the GW collector's range when it was announced that metal minis and specialist games were going the way of the...dodo

 My brother is a good painter, I got him this to try and entice him into finishing painting one or some of his armies and having a game with me

It didn't really work, but this Dragon looks lovely.

We Can Be Heroes: Wizards and Mages

Wizards, Mages, Warlocks, Spellcasters, Magic Users...call them what you like, if I'm honest the character class has never really been my cup of tea.
Now before anybody places a hex on me or turns me into a frog, I like them just fine, no D&D or questing party / fantasy army is complete without at least one.
I'm certainly not anti beard or flowing robe, and I love books and reading...but when I read through the character classes in D&D as a wee lad and most certainly when I saw the 4 heroes from Heroquest, the magic user or wizard was the last "dude" I wanted to be.
If I can only use 4 spells per day or quest, I'll be extremely hesitant to use any at all, I barely even used magic when playing Golden Axe.
I had no problems putting the boot into those little thieving Gnomes or whatever they were that came and stole your s*%t when you were trying to sleep though.

But I digress...

 This guy is probably responsible for my mild aversion to Wizards.
I think he is trying to compensate for something...a "stuffer" so to speak.
I'd be lying if I said I didn't like disco music though.

 Much, much better- Mr Advanced Heroquest Wizard.
The mad scientist known as Cheetor pointed out that this guy bears a striking resemblance to Kris Kristofferson, and I'll be damned if he wasn't on to something there.

 3rd Edition Talisman Astronomer

 Light Wizard or 3rd Edition Talisman High Priest.
Formerly owned by the most excellent Oldhammer community member Asslessman.

 Talisman Philosopher, probably wondering why he has to share a post with all these wizards.
Suck it up buddy, you're carrying a scroll around so you've been lumped in with the magic users.
Formerly owned by the most excellent lybban from over at Warseer.

Talisman Pilgrim, another trade acquisition from the esteemed lybban.
This miniature is also the current representation of Rambulge Dungaree Pastorious, my character in the D&D game we have going on at the oldhammer forum.
"But you said magic users aren't your cup of tea, Bruno you lying sod!?"
Well, he's a fighter/magic user, so it's OK.

We Can Be Heroes: Dwarfs and Girly Elves

Or is that Dwarves and Girly Elves?

Either way, but we all know that when a Barbarian ventures into a Dungeon he is traditionally accompanied by one of each (and a Wizard, but that's for later)...

 The Heroquest Dwarf, basically the White Dwarf at 90 if I'm not mistaken

 A humble Plastic

 Marauder Dwarf...he needs some work on his face

 Imperial Dwarf

 Female Dwarf

 The Heroquest Elf

3rd Edition Talisman Elf (is it a female?)

We Can Be Heroes: Barbarian Ladies

Now you might be thinking that my apparent fixation with scantily clad, oiled up muscle men with big swords is a bit strange (or not), but this said fixation also applies to Barbarians of the fairer sex.

Every Conan needs a Valeria (or Belit) or vice versa, so here we go...

 Big Moma Sky, Citadel 85

Foundry Valkyrie

 This one is from Mannequin Miniatures, "Sasha The Sword"

 Big Moma Wonger (AKA Helena The Swift) Citadel 85

 Another Foundry Miniature

This Marauder Wood Elf is my representation of Zula, Grace Jones' character in Conan The Destroyer.

We Can Be Heroes: Barbarians

Right, so who can say they weren't impressed by the Barbarian miniature when they first clapped their peepers on the contents of Heroquest?

Not me, that much is for sure.
Growing up in the 80's, Barbarians made a rather large impression on me- He Man, the cover of D&D Basic, Conan The Barbarian and Destroyer, and of course the art of guys like Frank Frazetta...you get the idea.

Without further ado, here is my (painted) collection of Barbarian minis, ready to crawl through a Dungeon at the drop of a loincloth or pair of shaggy underpants.

The Heroquest Barbarian

3rd Edition Talisman Champion

3rd Edition Talisman Barbarian

Citadel Norse Slayer, 1985

This last bloke is meant to be Subotai, archer and thief- companion of Conan the Cimmerian.

Enter The Bruno

Better late than never, I've decided to create a blog of my own that will chronicle and showcase my miniature painting efforts and attempts.

Exciting origin stories are like opinions, and mine is no different- I was sucked into the world of miniatures and tabletop gaming via Heroquest and then Space Crusade in the early 90's, which were of course a gateway to Games Workshop, Citadel miniatures and their affiliates and what have you.

Second Edition Warhammer 40,000 was my poison, and I have fond memories of my dad taking me to pick up my copy on release day, after what must have been a hell of a lot of nagging.
Games would be played against a couple of friends with the contents of the 40K and Space Crusade boxes and my fledgling Space Wolves army all cobbled together and 98% unpainted in that fine tradition.

I lost interest somewhere around 1997, favouring the pursuit of the Unholy Triumvirate ( the last one is rock and roll, hint hint) and the miniatures were packed away.
I attempted a comeback to the game about 5 years later but found that things had changed- Space Dwarfs were gone, Orks were different and it was an entirely new game.
I made an attempt to get back in, but my heart just wasn't into it.

Fast forward to 2009, where I had the epiphany that by the power of a notorious online auction site I could collect and assemble all those miniatures I always wanted as a kid but didn't have the money for, and that maybe I could just keep playing good old Second Edition 40K regardless of the current game.

A bit over a year ago, I discovered Orlygg's Realm Of Chaos Blog and the Oldhammer Forum and discovered a whole slew of other fine folks with similar ideas the world over...I wasn't alone!

Anyways, enough waffling!