One thing I really liked about the minis we used the other night for the Blighted Lands battle was all the 'classic' feeling fantasy figs Bob had on the table. I was digging around my really old stuff, you know, Ral Partha lead and what-not for some Viking stand-ins, and ran across this pair. They're mine from way back, frankly they might have even been my folks, either way their bases are both stamped 1977. That makes these guys 32 years old!
I tried a couple of things here, so these were my guinea pigs. First was object source lighting, I've got a Rackham Dwarf I'd like to paint up with a wickedly glowing green sword, and I wanted a little practice. So these guys have the same green glow coming out from under their hoods. The other trick I wanted to try was to use a textured paste on their bases and just paint it with a two-tone effect and a splotch of scrub. I've seen this done with 15mm figs and it didn't look so bad, so I thought I'd try it out. Either way, both techniques came out very "meh" for me, but these old figs were fun to paint nonetheless!
I like the models. I am with you on the meh aspect of the bases. The eyes look cool though.
ReplyDeleteThe bases would be easily fixed with a bit of grit and some flocking.
ReplyDeleteClassic Ral Partha Coolness!
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure I painted those guys way back in the day... Although scale creep has rendered many of them less appealing on the table today, I still think those old Ral Partha minis were some of the best ever.
ReplyDeleteThough Ral Partha has a special place in my heart, I think Reaper does a fine job of filling their niche these days.
ReplyDeleteThe thing that made RP so cool is they did minis for the sake of doing minis - no system, no agenda, just making figures that gamers could use however they wanted.
-Eli
The OSL looks pretty deece for first try, and I'd say the bases are between "meh" and "deece" ;)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should try the bases one more time on actual 15mm's. I was just looking for a short cut but honestly flocking (or whatever) them isn't going to add that much more of a step to the process anyway. I tackled the OSL in a very lackluster manner, and I think it shows, the boyo with the sickle came out better than the sword wielder though.
ReplyDelete@Brian: Yeah, these guys, true 25mm I guess, look absolutely tiny next to their modern day counterparts! I've got a whole (smallish) filled to the brim of this ancient lead too. I even pulled out two guys who are very passable as Viking berserkers.
@Eli: Reaper continues to impress me more and more every day, especially when looking for just that single, perfect model.
Thanks to everyone else for the comments!