Albion Fenbeasts acquired

Due to medical issues my hobby time has taken a hit but I finally managed to add some long sought models to the collection. Back in 2001 gw ran the Dark Shadows fantasy campaign. In it you had options to field a Dark Emissary evil wizard or a Truthsayer good wizard. One thing both of them could do was summon fenbeasts to add to your army. They are sort of a swamp monster formed around a magic ogham stone. I have one of both of the wizards but I never picked up any fenbeasts, until now.

A local guy posted up a bunch of models he wanted rid off and I traded him some Dark Angel terminators for the beasts. One is missing a head but I have plenty of bits and greenstuff to fix that. Now I just have to find the two wizards in the "Closet of Doom".


ColKG

More Dusty Olde Figs

Hi Kids,  Lately it seems I'll do almost anything to avoid painting, this post is exactly that.  I've started to check out the facebook pages for Oldhammer and Old School Minis, and this post is a general response to some of the posts others have made.  And taking pictures is a lot faster and easier than painting!

 One of the lads wanted to see everyone's most esoteric mini.  In my humble opinion, this is probably mine.  IIRC, it's from Jeff Valient Studios, Set #7 was written on the box.  I've always just called it the "Chickenman."  At one point it had a lot of detail, but 6 different paintjobs with Testors Enamels have managed to fill in about 85% of that!  I bought this thing at The Complete Strategist on East 33rd, NYC back in the early 1980's. Lots of my figs are from there.  One of the greatest regrets of my life is wasting all that cash on RPG's when I should have been buying more minis!!!!!!!  What was I thinking? D&D? Bah! Humbug!

 Yeah, there's a lot of balsawood bases from the good old days.  I used to cut them all myself.

 Another lad mentioned that he had never seen this Mino still with the ax in one piece.  Well, here ya go!  My Mino's didn't get a lot of use until that edition of WFB when they made Mino's a variant list of Chaos Beastman armies, which probably has a lot to do with his survival without breaking.

 Another guy posted a Marauder Giant Spider Rider.  These 5 are 3 Heroes and 2 Wizards. These are on 40mm bases.  I used these guys a huge amount back when the Fear rules meant the loser broke automatically if they lost the combat. No outnumber or anything else required.  It was the best way to crush Dwarves! And speak of the devil, there's that $3.29 Ral Partha Balrog, the first one I ever bought!  No, he's not the guy with it all hanging out. That was a couple years later.

 Six Groms of the Misty Mountains?  Actually, I thought I had seven.  Why more than one?  About 30 years ago Citadel had a sale, 75 minis for $100. Or maybe it was 100 minis for $75, I can't remember.  Anyway, all you could do was pick out the race, Citadel sent randon figs. A great way to bulk up your armies, but you could end up with some weird stuff.  That's also why I have 35 Dark Elf Cold One Riders with no Cold Ones. I ended up special ordering RAFM "Land Dragons" to use as mounts. Although Cold One Knights sucked so bad I needn't have bothered.

 You think about old Citadel plastics, you've gotta be thinking of these guys.  They were called "Drastic Plastic," and there were only two; an ork and a dwarf.  I have about 10 of the orks, these three were made with ALL the weapon arm options. I think I did this to separate the heroes. Stole the idea from White Dwarf.  Couldn't find the others, but the Basement works in mysterious ways. These retailed for the outrageous price of US$0.25.

 Old Hobbits/Halflings, this one is a Sci-Fi adventurer. I'm not sure if 40K existed at this point.  He's holding a spoon and a pistol.

 At this point I was getting tired of moving stuff around digging for older stuff underneath.  Mini archeology has never been my strong suite. So I just snapped a pic of my second Land Raider where its been sitting for 20+ years. The first one is painted up in the colors of the 8th Imperial Shock Assault Legion, otherwise known as the Imperial Dicks.  Remember, they came in boxes of two. Went for about 700 points IIRC. Too bad a 50 point Eldar D-Cannon could blow 'em to atoms all day long.   Don't worry, all the parts and bits are inside the hull.  And yes, some of those black boxes (empty Copplestone and Tiger mini boxes) fell over right after this pic.

 

When I saw this thing I knew I had to take a picture!  This is what the old version of Nagash looked like back in the early 1990's, still in the shrinkwrap.  This might be a first one they made, I'm not sure.  Yep, $20.00.  Back then that was about 6 hours work at minimum wage. Before taxes. And that store had a policy of pricing everything ABOVE retail!

Elder Miniatures: Grenadier's Cthulhu

 

Hi Kids,  Old figs are all the rage right now, so howsabout some Elder Gods minis?  I don't remember what these particular beasties might be, and even if I knew which was which I doubt I could spell the damn things.  Only the Aztecs had gods more unpronounceable than HP Lovecraft.

 Then again, if I took the trouble to check the sheet that came with the box all would no doubt be revealed.  Too bad its all the way down in the basement, three staircases from here.  Guess it'll have to wait for another day.

 Who's that on the right?  Looks like the big C himself. Does anyone else remember that old song sung to the tune of Chattanooga Choo-choo?

"Pardon me boy, is that the lair of great Cthulhu?
In the city of slime, where its night all the time..."

Then again, maybe not...

Shocking but true, some of these bad boys are painted.  Those Deep Ones are some of the first figs I ever drybrushed! Back then we didn't bother painting the bases, we figured in all our teenage knowledge you'd have to paint different colors depending on what kind of terrain the figure was supposed to be standing on at that particular moment.  I still really like the winded snake on the left, although I'm not really sure it's out of the Cthulhu mythos at all.  Maybe its Aztec...

Kit Kringle, the new gaming store in town!!!!

 Hi Kids, Ok, brace yourselves!  There's actually an honest-to-God gaming store right here in Winston-Salem, NC, USA.  After 8 years in the wilderness, civilization dawns!  Hard to believe, I know. Just in case you don't believe it, you can get independent verification by heading on out to 4007-C Country Club Road, near the intersection with Gordon Street. Or calling 336-760-0065. Or emailing customer_service@kitkringle.net.  Or going to www.facebook.com/kitkringlewinston.

It's Bunny the Wonder Dog!  Official greeter/guard dog/snack nibbler!  No one gets by un-sniffed!  Every store should have a mascot, says Bunny!

 Looks like they even have a calendar of what's going on! Right now they still have table space available on Saturdays, so I was thinking maybe this could be a nifty place to set up some good old fashioned South Dakota Grudge Match miniature games! Naturally, I took some shots of the stock.

 Arkham Horror!  Oh the humanity!  Did I ever tell you I hold a Masters Degree in Metaphysics from Miskatonic University?  True story...

Steve Jackson Games.  Not Ogre, but can you really blame them?

 Dr. Spock!  No, not the guy who wrote that book on child care. The interesting one!

 Holy Cow!  What are all these cards for?  Magic?  What's that?  A game you don't have to spend ten years painting miniatures?  What fun is that?  Better not answer that.

 Ahhhh, RPG's.  I remember those days....

 X-Wing, Star Trek, Wings of War....

 And of course some shots of the Gaming Space!!!  This corner is about 1/3 of the tables available.  It was Friday Night Magic, so there were quite a few lads in attendance.

Another shot in the other direction.  Such cheerful gaming lads!  There were another handful of tables not in either shot.  One of the W-S Boardgame group meet here every other Thursday nights, and I heard a vicious rumor that there are a few guys who show up to play Dystopia Wars on occasion!  Now if we could just ease them real subtle like into the joys of miniatures...  What does everyone think? If we can get a few of the lads together we could do some Disposable Heroes, Flames of War, or The Sword and The Flame...  For those of you who like to plan ahead, there's a pizza place across the street, a deli and a diner just 100 feet away!  And an ABC store even closer if you have to drown your sorrows after rolling 35 "1's" in a row. Or is that just me?

Grenadier War Rhinos and Wooly Mammoths! GW's quakin' in their boots!

Hi Kids, Yeah, yeah, everybody knows about the new Necromancer lad from GW. 1000 pts. US$100. I'd like to point out back in 2nd ed a Balrog was about 1500 pts.  (Or was it first ed?)  So are the Superdudes getting weaker? That's a 33% drop in combat value.  Although I've always dug the spectacular figs some outfits make, when it comes to wargaming I like playing army vs. army.  That means lots of figs.  An "army" of one superdude and a cheering section is not what I'm playing. (That also mean I loose a lot!) By the way, my first Balrog was US$3.29, back when a normal miniature was US$0.80.  Still got the damn thing floating around the Basement someplace.  Painted it with Testors Enamels, cause they were the only paints we had back then.  Maybe someday the Basement will let him float to the surface. It might be chipped but I bet it hasn't faded!  And I still have the anatomically correct male Balrog from Ral Partha, and the modified version they came out with later where they added a jockstrap to make him more politically correct. Funny. But on to our story:
Here's some shots of some more Grenadier Heavy Hitters, the War Rhino!

I've always liked the mega fauna from prehistoric times, and these things are mega in more ways than one! None of the crew are glued on, just in case they have to go rogue!  If I were smart I'd mount them with some pins so they might actually stay on longer than a few minutes...

 If one is good, more is better! After they sat in the Basement 15+ years I got motivated to field these things when Forge World came out with their Ogre Cav units.  I have one of those floating around someplace, too.

These bad boys were painted by Col Kilgore himself, when he wasn't too busy surfing at Charlie's Point or sniffing napalm.



 No motivation lasts forever, there are still a few awaiting the paintbrush. Oh yeah, that Giant is the nuclear option.  You're going to need a bigger brush.

 And while we're on the topic of Grenadier Family Atomics, here are some even Bigger Mega Fauna!  Step back!  Give 'em room!  Yeah, that's the original price tag.  US$19.19 each.  What is that nowadays, 3 space marines?  Can I still use that term?

 Another few figs.  I have one each of the Undead Legion superheavies painted up, and have used them in buckets of 3rd ed games.  In fact, now that I think about it I'm shocked the wings are still on the skeletal Dragon.  I used 5 minute epoxy on all the joints, and although that stuff is a pain in the butt it holds like nothing else can!

Old Hammer from the Depths of the Basement of Heaped Miniatures

 Hi Kids,  Looks like there's all sorts of excitement on the web about old figs.  Of course, there's always been a certain "old figs are cool" sensation with my friends and I.  Not really sure why having figs older than college students is a good thing, but I went spelunking into the Basement to see what I could see.  Most of these are Grenadier or Citadel figs from the Goode Olde Days.

Starting out on a low note, this is far and away the most disappointing miniature I've ever owned.  Bought it brand new, and when I opened it up was so absolutely horrified at the 2-dimensional nature of the beastie I put it right back in the box and have ignored it ever since.

 Ugh.  I wonder if it's worth anything on ebay?  Primered white.

 Here we have two of the three Lead Belcher Organ Guns I own.  All still in the boxes, the one not pictured is still in the shrinkwrap. I was going to ebay it last year but never got around to it. I really dig all those Grenadier Dragons of the Month, but nowadays these dragons are about as large as a GW pony.  Most of these dragons were what, US$8.95 back in the 1980's?  That's about the same as a GW pony's price now too, come to think of it. I love the four Warg Orc chariot, always have.  I've got a painted one also, and have used it in hundreds of games back when we were gaming all the freakin' time!  Ah, those all day long 30 turn 3rd ed games were so much fun!

 A shot of assorted Grenadier box sets.  Come to think of it, if they were all that great why have I left them in the boxes for 30+ years?  Sometimes I really wonder just how slack I might be.  A hint for all my buds:  Don't answer that!

This bad boy was in the back of that last picture, but I figured as a kick-butt dragon Teronus deserved to be up close and personal!  One of these days I'm going to have to inventory my madness. All these figs were purchased brand new in local NC hobby shops or on visits to The Complete Strategist on East 33rd Street, NYC, where I'd go a couple times a year and toss cash around.  Haven't been there in a couple years now, I need to get up there and poke around again!  They probably still have some of this stuff on the shelves!

Grenadier Juggernaut, Painted Old Hammer!

Hi Kids, I know everyone got the accurate impression that I have all sorts of unpainted stuff floating around.  Lots, but not all!  Here are some examples of PAINTED old minis! Now before you keel over from the shock, let me point out that I did not paint these. I commissioned our resident expert Col Kilgore himself to slap some pigment on these figs. He's a lot better at it than I am, too! First up is Grenadier's Juggernaut!  Remember the Orc rider is a 25mm fig! Back when that actually meant 25mm....  I have always dug this fig!

Back when I wanted a Lizardman army, I thought this heavyweight would be a great general!  I still think so, but I lost interest in Lizardmen were I came to the conclusion that even 15d6, taking the best 2, would not allow me to pass a Leadership test. The Orc rider is not glued on.

 Damn that flood light is bright!

His other side.  The Col told me there's a facebook page ("Old School Miniatures" )where they were blogging about this fig, and I figured I'd stick it out there for all to see.