Elric of Melnibone

 I had to put the Warhammer Orcs aside; I got hit with a bad case of painter's block and just couldn't keep going on them. Instead, I pulled out some Sword & Sorcery (and Sword & Planet, it's interstellar cousin) figures from Bronze Age Miniatures and got them cleaned up, glued to bases and primed; I've been eyeing Bronze Age's figures for a very long time - since the days when about half their catalogue was "blank" figures intended for you to sculpt your own hair and clothing on to, but it took me quite a while to pull the trigger.

Last night, I pulled one of them and set to work. Bronze Age lists this figure as "Grey Elf Wolf Lord with Rune Sword" but he's pretty immediately identifiable as Elric of Melnibone, a creation of British author Michael Moorcock. First appearing in print in 1961, Elric was conceived as something of an anti-Conan; instead of being a big beefy barbarian who eventually makes himself king, Elric is a sickly albino sorcerer-king, ruler of a cruel race, too conscientious and empathetic to be loved by his subjects, and kept alive by the vampiric powers of his demonic sword Stormbringer. He's doomed to bring about the end of the world, a fate he struggles to free himself from. 

Elric's story continues on in music and roleplaying games, and has served as inspiration for later characters across a variety of media. My introduction to him actually came in the form of the Blue Oyster Cult song "Black Blade," which Moorcock had collaborated on with the band to develop the lyrics. 

Outside of his eyes and the gems on his sword, I tried to sticker to cooler and neutral tones as much as possible for the color palette; I do intend to go back and add some snow to his base to "chill" the composition further, I just didn't have the time to do so tonight.

I've also had some fun stuff arrive today - Forge of Ice is taking over production and sale of Barbaric Splendour's "Ophidian Menace" figures as Kevin from Barbaric Splendour has had to step back from the business for health reasons, and Alex was kind enough to send me a set of figures since I'm doing some freelance writing for him.

As well as a spectacular piece of resin-cast terrain:

This gateway is part of a set of crumbling stone walls and towers he's been working with Ian at Fenris Games to develop, which will hopefully be going on sale later this year. Part of why he sent this to me is because I'm one of the people who made this piece possible; the battling monitor lizards design on the doors was based on a drawing done to illustrate an RPG scenario I wrote for Alex, set in his Bronze Age Lost World setting of Azor. 

Gina also ordered me some more Bronze Age Miniatures figures, and I placed an order with Gringo 40s, so it's time to update the tracker:

Miniatures Acquired: 97

Miniatures Painted: 87

Terrain Acquired: 1

Terrain Painted: 2

Scatter Acquired: 0

Scatter Painted: 4

Fistful of Lead Fantasy: Battle for the Goddess

 I've had cavemen on my mind lately; between seeing people painting Lucid Eye figures on Facebook, and David Sullivan's posts on his blog about the game Tribal, I've been itching for some stone age action. So I've placed another order at Lucid Eye for a copy of their "Savage Core" rules and some Ice Age-ready Amazons, and ordered Tribal 2nd edition with a tribe's worth of Bobby Jackson-sculpted cavemen. In the meantime, I got out some Lucid Eye "Neolithics" cavemen I painted last year, along with some "Cult of the Cyclops" cultists from Forge of Ice. Going through my terrain box, I found a Venus of Willendorf-style idol from Reaper Miniatures, and a scenario was born. 

A lush, isolated valley holds the ruins of an ancient temple, and with stands the Goddess - a fertility idol of untold age and potency. Two sinister groups - one, the Cult of the Cyclops, led by the vicious and conniving Kandar-Itaa; the other, a gang of thuggish prehumans led by a terrifying and alien Pterro-Man - have converged on the valley, both with evil intentions towards the idol. 

 

The Pterro-Man, with its second in command, Chief Mu-ok Man-God and his tribe, sought to perform a ritual at the feet of the Goddess that would give the Pterro-Man greater influence over other tribes of prehumans, bringing them under its evil sway. The Pterro-Man can fly and exert hypnotic influence over humans (in proper Burroughsian fashion), while the cavemen have an assortment of traits making them much more vicious in close combat.  

 

Meanwhile, under warlock Kandar-Itaa's direction, the Cult of the Cyclops seeks to corrupt the Goddess, ensuring that there would be a huge increase in the number of cyclops mutations born across all the kingdoms of the Hollow Earth. Kandar-Itaa himself has spellcasting powers, Urgu the Cyclops is large and frightening, and the rest of the cultists are armed with bronze swords and studded dinosaur-leather armor.

 Both groups began to fan out as they moved towards the Goddess; before long, Urgu and one of the cultists encountered Torg the Hunter and a lesser tribal warrior, while Kandar-Itaa blasted Mu-ok Man-God with a Searing Bolt. The ape-man chief, writhing with pain, lost his next activation, while Urgu bashed Torg to death with a huge, roughly-shaped chunk of obsidian. 

 

 

 

The smell of blood drew a huge predatory dinosaur into the valley, where it beelined towards the first humanoid it saw: Jaal, one of Mu-ok's tribal hunters. Jaal managed to stick the gigantic beast with his spear, and another tribal warrior raced to assist.  

 

The giant dinosaur quickly ate both Jaal and the lesser warrior, striking fear into the hearts of both the Pterro-Man and Mu-ok Man-God. The Man-God lived up to his name and shrugged off the fear, charging the dinosaur...and getting eaten. The dinosaur, sated, stalked off. 

 Meanwhile,  a pair of tribal warriors charged Urgu and a nearby cultist, savagely beating them with clubs until both the cyclops and the cultist fled the battlefield. 

The Pterro-Man, rattled by the dinosaur eating so many of its underlings, was not able to put up a strong defense when Kandar-Itaa and his followers arrived in the temple. The Pterro-Man died shrieking under the hacking bronze blades of the Cult of the Cyclops, while Kandar-Itaa himself polluted the mystical power of the Goddess. A new, darker future dawned for the tribes and kingdoms of the Hollow Earth...

All in all a great game, and a fast one too; I think this one was over in about four turns. No complaints here, because I got a late start playing tonight, so I'm very satisfied with how this one turned out.

Quick Chaos Warband and Cavemen

 Managed to squeak out a few figures towards the end of September.

A quick Chaos Warband for games of Fistful of Lead: Fantasy. The leader is a 2000s-era Warhammer figure I got on eBay a while back, and the rest are from Knightmare Miniatures. With any luck they'll be seeing some action on the table tomorrow.

Then I painted up a Pterro-Man from Forge of Ice to lead some "Neolithic Warriors" from Lucid Eye Productions into battle. I've always been a big fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs' fiction, and these are perfect to serve as one of Burroughs' Mahars and its Sagoth servants from the "Pellucidar" series of novels. They'll definitely be seeing some table time in pulp games!

More Pulpy Painting

 I had some more figures primed and ready to go this week, and some of them promised to paint up quick with fairly restrained color schemes, so I dove in over the weekend and got them knocked out quickly and to a standard I'm happy with.

A pair of Snake Priestesses from Forge of Ice

"General Cappy Boyd and his Expatriate Mercenaries," from Pulp Figures

These will all be showing up sooner or later in pulpy games of Fistful of Lead.

Latest Finished Figures

Not much to say here, just a photo dump of my most recent finished figures:

Mummy Lord and Queen by Reaper Miniatures, front row from Dark Fable Miniatures.

"Sleazy Merchant" from Forge of Ice, ladies from Dark Fable Miniatures.

Sir Reginald Plumm-Duffe flanked by his daughter Margo and batsman, Bunting. 
Figures by Pulp Figures.

Armed Archaeologists from Copplestone Castings

A few more Archaeologists from Copplestone Castings.

Kickstarter Notice: Forge of Ice's "Sleepy Sentries and Sleazy Merchant"

I figured I should give this one a plug here, since I am backing it (and doing so a bit higher than I had originally planned for), so here goes:

Forge of Ice, a small miniatures company based out of Alaska, is running a Kickstarter to fund a production run of their latest figures, a set of six guards (two alert, four asleep at their posts) suitable for various "Lost World" and "Sword & Sorcery" settings, along with the fat, sleazy merchant they work for.  Various other figures from Forge of Ice are available as add-ons.

I'm currently backing it for the four sleepy guards, with the two Snake Priestesses as my add-ons.  I say currently because I believe some stretch goals are still to be added as well as additional add-ons.  So I may be adding more to my pledge before the Kickstarter ends (just two weeks left!) and adding more figures to my order.  We shall see.