Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Future Owlbears of the Forest


A large chunk of some of my recent acquisitions have been 15mm, of said 15mm are these half dozen Uhul, Owlbear-kin offered over at 15mm.co.uk as part of their fantasy SHM range. Their SHM range gives aspiring sculptors and designers a chance to get their stuff in our hands.

Of course my main interest in these isn't their Owlbear coolness, but they were sculpted by our own Eli over at I See Lead People. I say "our own" because if you've been around the same circles that brought you to Mik's Minis, chances are you've run across his site as well, or at least have seen his comments. He's very much an active member of our blogging community and to see his figures made whole here is too cool for words.


Of course the first two I show you aren't available for sale on the 15mm.co.uk website. Their are unreleased Uhul, but keep your eyes peeled, you never know. The fig on the left is an Uhul Shaman with a large, bird-of-prey skull scythe. The fig on the right is another Uhul in an upright stance with separate spear (see group pic). This one is going to become a sci-fi starport denizen at one point.


Here you see the Uhul Chief (left) and 'upright spear' Warrior (right). Unfortunately the chief's hand weapon broke off in shipping, so he may become a spellcaster, or perhaps with a pistol addition he could make another cool sci-fi. No, I like the fantasy aspect of these and will keep the majority of them in that genre.


Two identical warriors, or are they? Easy-cheesy green stuff weapon mod turns a spiked club into a bone club. They're also equipped with hide shields. So far the fantasy range consists of three Uhul; the chief, a warrior with hand weapon and shield, and the warrior with the upraised spear. All good choices to start off a small Uhul warband, maybe as antagonists to some Hyborian age heroes excellently painted (as usual) by Spacejacker. So if you're looking for some cool 15mm fantasy, especially sculpted by a fellow blogger, you don't need to go any further.

11 comments:

  1. You know, I think I'd use these guys as allies ;)

    I recently bought Eli's starport denizens from the same company. Great minis,!

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    1. Allies huh? Wise allies at that! Couldn't resist the pun, as for starport denizens, they're up tomorrow!

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  2. can't wait to see these painted always like owl bears

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    1. Owl Bears are incredibly cool, and these are kind of like a less feral, tool-using variety. Even better in my book!

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    2. Not just tool-using. they regurgitate the remains of their prey and then work the bones and hair into their weapons and make magical charm and fetishes out of them :)

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  3. Hey folks,

    About those unreleased Uhul. The Shaman is a definite release sometime March-ish (along with a second batch of starport denizens). The Other unreleased figure was meant as a chieftain, but there were some technical issues with the sculpt.

    The Uhul, who's name is derived from a German word for owl, were originally made as a fantasy monster race for D&D type games. The origin of their design has its roots in a misinterpretation of some sketches I was doing for a Star Wars game. Somebody saw some doodle of Talz warriors and thought they were owl men.

    When it came time to start sculpting, the Uhul seemed like the perfect candidates for that work. Though they are some of my very first sculpts, they still look pretty good.

    I hope to get more of them out sometime, power that be permitting, as well as more Starport Denizens.

    -Eli

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  4. I hassled Eli a bit about making SciFi Uhuls as well as they are very cool figures, but I may just convert some of mine, anyway. I wondered if they might not make feathery wooki or sandpeople types.

    My chief also had a miss-cast hand weapon/stick so I guess there might be a problem with the mould.

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    1. How are you going to arm your sci-fi Uhul? I guess that's an obvious answer, it's just that I have zero 15mm gun bits. I see myself definitely painting up one, if not more, Uhul for sci-fi-ness.

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    2. I have to admit an unfair advantage as any solution I come up with will doubtless include a bit of sculpting.

      A relatively simple gun build is to use some flat, metal sprue like that which is often used for holding accessory sets together or the smaller parts of 15mm metal vehicles (Old Glory does this).

      Cut a rectangular shape out of that about the size of the gun you want. You can further notch it and cut it to shape. Make sure to leave some room for the barrel.

      Take a little green stuff and push it into place where you want the gun's details. Shape it into the general shapes you want. Don't worry about getting lines perfectly straight, you'll take care of that later.

      Once the green stuff has hardened you can go back with an exactly and cut and shape it a bit more and cutting the lines straighter. After this you can either cut a notch or drill a hole with a pin vice.

      Cut a piece of wire or plastic rod to the length you want for your barrel. Make sure it's thick enough for your barrel Glue this into the notch or hole. If you need to, you can add more green stuff to reinforce if needed.

      Seems like a lot of steps, I know, the biggest part of it is time.

      -Eli

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    3. Sorry that should be exacto not exactly

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