Gryphons / griffons/ griffins

..I am actually not quite sure wchich is the mos proper word in english for this mythological creture half-lion, half-eagle

And actually also do not know how big should it be

I like how they look in Warhammer Fantasy  and Warcraft Battles, as mighty and scary flying battle mounts for heroes and generals

But as always,. I prefer my favourite scale 1/72, and I wondered how to get some of them..

After much searching, I decided for 2 models from D&D- Wizkids prepainted miniatures

First is from "icons of the realms" series. It is a nice animal with a very dinamic and beautifl flying pose

I actually like a lot the model, See how it looks next to a 1/72 infantry guy and when mountee by a Redbox armoured knight and judge yourselves

The second figure is a much more massive model. It is from the D&D Dungenons Deeps series. It represents an standing griffon, in a quite quiet but observing pose. It is bigger than the first one, but nevertheless still looks good when mounted by the same knight

Now i have to decide the perfect riders (I will choose and elf and a human hero or general, still do not kno who will ride each beast) and then to convert the figure with saddlres, reins and so on...

Suggestions are welcome. By the way, this Blog has a nice suggestion :

http://plasticgeneral.blogspot.com.es/2010/06/empire-general-on-griffon.html

Jötunn.Frost Giants

Hi,
I just acquired some figures from Dungeons and Dragons miniature game pre-painted figs made by WIZKIDS company)

Three of them are HUGE,


I wanted to represent som giants from the Norse mythology, maybe to confront Thor or some 1/72 viking adventurers for their Saga,,,

They are, form left to rigy: Frost Giant (D&D Tyranny of Dragons series) , Frost Giant JArl (did not get the series) and Frost giant (from Pathfinder battles: Dungeons´Deep)

The last one, resulted to be a female giant! (I ralized after receiving the fig, only, when I relaizaed her breasts!!!) It was not dissapointing at all, though

Nice figures, but my wife asked me. after wtching their size, if they are supposed to sleep with me in bed instead her...

Project Mumakil-(I)

This time I show the start of execution of some ideas I had in mind for years

I love the scene of Pellenor Fields in Peter Jackson´s The Return of the King..

The charge of the Haradrim on their "oliphants" is overwhelming. I wanted to do something like that with my 1/72 figures

First idea could be using the GW Mumak Massive model..but....too expensive and no much originality in this plan..

So I searched for my own mumakil :)

These are the selected candidates: some plastic toy elephants (2 from Papo and Schleich: around 7 eur each) and one ultra cheap made in China elephant- 2eur

They all are African species kind, and all in around 1:35 scale, which towers around 8cm over poor 1/72 warriors


Last one is a beautiful model from Plastoy named "War Elephant", which is a heavily armoured asian elephant, It was actually more expensive (30 eur) and slightly smaller than the other three, but was too good not to take it home..

It came with a crew of two 54mm tartar-like  warriors which I shoud keep for another use (i accept suggestions..)...It was also already painted from factory (good painting work)

Since 3 of them were "African" species, and I prefered the smaller ears of the mumakil in film and my own asian elephant, i cut a bit in the africans´ears (I have to improve the surfaces still in those areas)

Now I must think how to deseign and manufacture all the towers and warfare equipment on the beasts.. As wel as warpintings and so on (and selecting of the right crew and mahouts.. these last will serve probably on foot instead seated, exactly as the films shows)...

Here some more details on the armoured one.. I put 3 HAT Moorish men into the tower, which will serve as Haradrim crew. I hope you can check the size comparison (not a good pic this time)

Fianally, i took some men form the "HAT moorish command an converted them  by legs-swap as an easy way to gain more variety: A foot trumpeteer (original figure is mounted) and a mounted standard bearer (original comes as foot)

 I think it was a mistake of HAT no giving a mounted standard beared  in this set for a muslim army... The Christian set give both posibilities (foot and moutned) which you can use as musician, standard beared or just single knight..

To be continued...

Evil guys

Here I present some bad guys  developed by myself...

Some of the Caesar "Lich" can easily be converted to evil human wizards or necromancers... I just took the head form some stelets medieval levy...

I hope you like the result. I think Marc achieved something similar Cultists in "cheap fantasy figures"

 I also made an armoured Vampire count... I did never really like the Caesar thin funny caricaturesque Bela Lugosi figure... So i swope his head on an impressive and tall Redbox irish warrior... much scarier!

Since I speak about vampires,. let me finish with the main one... 

Vlad Dracul the Impaler..

The unique figure from Lcky Toys "VLad Tzepes"is nice, but I wanted a more warfare pose for him.. and better if mounted..

So something new was perfomed, taking a Zvezda russian nobleman

Enough for today.. I come back soon with my Mumakil project...

Some more dwarf conversions

After many months of inactivity I will try to take again the posting here
I converted dozens of dwarfs.. Well i post only some new...

First some converted Alliance dwarves (dwarf chieftain with risen fist and hammer,and the kneeling one who sttod up by easy legs swap with fegbearer) and another norman with shortened legs and who was added too horns and beard form epoxy. Quite good result for an old venerable clan warrior..

Then first experiment with 1/72  dwarf artillery!!!

Leader is the old known dward from Arcane Legions.
Gun comes form an extinted boardgame (Quest for the Dragonlords) which Ibought from a collector because I relly liked the metal models. It was not cheap... I will post more pics of the figures at some time
Gunmen are another cnverted alliance dwarf (spear went to gun tool with green putty) and the other one is an old metal roleplaying 28mm gnome, quite acurate for an 1/72 dwarf!!!

Undead conversions and suggestions

Hi,
I always  like imagining hordes of undead skeletons and zombies advancing agains a poor and scared human garnison..

From the very begining i bought several sets of Caesar skeletons and the whole brand of Redbox "Warriors of the Dead" and other zombie stuff

But i always wanted more variety.. I swapped some heads with armoured warriors from different producers and the result is quite good! Some armoured skeleton knights :)

I always liked a Games Workshop skeleton musician.. I tried to make the same "cheap" option; i added a skelly just a spare Cornu from Hat "Roman Artillery" set .

The rest; you can find heads and bodies from:
Strelets Order military knights: foot
Miniart italian knights
Miniart Burgundian knights

Some knight figures with some static or not very lively pose are perfect for undead with small conversion. I took samples with only "face modification" from:

Miniart Burgundian knights
Caesar XV c. knights
Caser XIII century foot soldiers

and  again from MArs BAltic Crisaders (this set can result a good source for fantasay conversions!


Finnally, I discovered Boardgame "Battlelore. 2nd Ed"
Figs are a little big (near real 25mm), but I think  they can match with 1/72 standard, when mixed. Here samples from expansion set "Heralds of Dreadfall", full with undead warriors (purple figures)

It is not ver cheap, but for around 35 eur you get more than 40 figs including cav and a big undead dragon"
I am consdiering buying more sets from this game.

Swordsman with some smaller colleagues and a worried roman 

Bowman, Nice pose

9 Wraiths are included. They look too big but tehy are very fantasmagoric

Finnally, the undead knight. Impresisve figure. It can fill a hole of lacking "evil armoured cavalry"which you could use for evil lords, nazgul, It matches quite nice with ither 1/72 cav (i added some for comparison) , even if bigger (he is suppossed to result scaring!) 

I almost forget the dragon!!!!

Greetings and some ideas for 1/72 dwarves

Hi all,
This is my first attempt to do a blog. Thanks to Mac from cheapfantasyminiatures I decided myself to start one about my main passion (after my wife and three children :) ), collecting, converting and painting 1/72 miniatures:   cheap, nice and very available worldwide from the 50ies!!

I collected from the 90,s every historical set, focusing in Ancients, Middle Ages , Renaissance and Medieval Fantasy

Last times I am trying to increase the existing available offer of Fantasy miniatures in this favourite scale (apart from the very known sets of Caesar and Alliance)

Here I present some easy conversions from Strelets Sets Normans and Anglo-Saxons before battle

Just shorten the legs and add a epoxy beard ;)

Tje not so beautiful Mars baltic crusaders also found a use here, so you can have dwarf knights with great helm as well

Here result with a Centurio as height comparison

Here an array of my different dwarves

Caesar and Alliance are also here. And pieces from some boardgames:
Arcane Legions
Age of Mithology
Battlelore 1st Ed
 War of the Ring

...they match quite  good with 1/72 !!