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!

Reviresco Minos finished

The Minos is finished and delivered to Chuckaroobob. Here are a couple more in progress shots.

Here is the sides on and the roof of the superstructure test fitted.

Here is an almost finished shot. Everything assembled and test fitted. I just have to glue down the tabernacles and hold covers then finish the two lower masts.

Minos Finished! All parts painted and assembled but no rigging. I didn't really have a good plan to go by and after talking to Chuckaroo we decided running all the lines would get in the way moving figures around. I made some deviations from the standard Minos. The top of the wheel house and the boats are removable for accessibility. I also toned down the colors of the various fittings, so it would look a little more naval and less a colorful floating Greek bordello.

As I type, I believe a plan is underway to make the Minos a centerpiece in an upcoming Prospector Bob pulp game. Time will tell.

Progress on the Minos

The Minos is nearer to completion. I would have had the hull sides on but I ran out of contact cement and the super glue bled through the paper too much. The only real complaints with the kit so far is that some of the parts needed to be a bit larger and some of the double sided printed sheets were just a bit off. The flip side is some of the pieces were too big but you can trim a piece to fit and the misprinted parts can be touched up with a bit of paint. I finally finished painting the portholes and hatchways. Most were horribly cast and filing them to some sort of normal shape had held up assembly of the hull. The next real hurdle is going to be the rigging. No plans for that in the kit. It is going to be all guess work from the few pictures in the instructions. I am still trying to figure out exactly which bits and bobs go where.

Soon it will take to the gaming waters.

Minos project

Here is a Wip picture of chuckaroobob's Minos freighter. I am building it for him to use in a proposed Gallipoli beach assualt game and for use in pulp games. I have the keel and more of the bulkheads assembled but no pictures currently. I am held up in the assembly process by all the metal I am cleaning up and then painting. Until I get them done I can't put the sides on because the bits have to be glued on before assembly.