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
