Showing posts with label RAFM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label RAFM. Show all posts

Saturday, June 10, 2017

We Few. We Infernal Few. We Band of Demons.

As has been noted before, 30 plus years of collecting has left me with more skeleton models than I could ever hope to field in any one game. Unfortunately, games are rare these days with me traveling the world over. But in the ever renewed hope that I may actually have to field a bunch of these figures on the tabletop at some point, I've started an organization scheme that divides my Legion into smaller specific armies. For example, I have my 5th century BCE Classical Greeks - which I've just about put the finishing touches on. I also have my 1st century CE Imperial Romans, my 15th century CE Sengokku period Japanese (samurai) army. I have a New Kingdom Egyptian army (Tomb Kings...duh). I have probably about three Medieval European fantasy armies. I also have my 17th century CE pirate army (probably the least useful to me). With those wonderful Mierce Miniatures Jutes now coming online I think I have enough for a small Dark Age Anglo-Saxon army - well at least a brigade. Plus I have a brigade's worth of demi-humans (orcs, dwarves, halflings, skaven, lizardmen, elves) - although not enough of each. I probably have almost a brigade worth of undead orcs. Elves I can't even field a unit without some conversions.

The latest army I have been putting together is my undead Chaos Army. Granted the line between regular Chaos and undead is sometimes a little iffy to begin with. A lot of chaos models can do double duty. But I have been able to put together, without "counts as" models from Chaos and just a few conversions, a large Chaos army that is specifically undead.

Chaos armies are interesting because they are comprised of a lot of different elements - each of which could have an army based around them on their own; beastmen, chaos warriors, and the element we will be looking at today...demons.

Demons are a staple of Chaos forces, and in at least my experience, generally classified into two types; Greater Demons and Minor Demons. Greater Demons are the large, super powerful, super dangerous creatures who represent the actual fallen angels and lead the armies of chaos across the battlefield. Then there are the Minor Demons who, while still very dangerous to know are less powerful than their masters and usually fight in recognizable units.

Minor Demons

Right now I count 23 Minor Demons in my Chaos Army, just short of the 24 needed for two bands of 12. Mounted on skirmish trays and fighting in a war band formation, these "minor" divinities are the rock solid elite troops of Chaos. Expensive points-wise in Piquet, they are six slot creatures that have extraordinary abilities like "flight", "toughness", and "cause terror" balanced by "formed troops" (so they can fight as a unit) and "weapons skill" (so they can use weapons).

First up is the beautiful, if somewhat diminutive "Judgement" from CMON sculpted by Pedro Fernandez. This is a really detailed and well proportioned sculpt, although it can look a little dainty next to more robust figures.


Dark Sword Miniatures "Death Knight with Scythe" sculpted by Dave Summers.



















The following are not produced as demons, but rather conversions. I don't like to field conversions much, as I like to play figures as they're advertised. But I saw these figures which had been converted to act as winged reapers for the 9th Age project and thought that I had rarely seen a simple head swap work so well. They're Mantic Elohi (angels) with the heads swapped with GW Vampire Count Armored Skeleton skulls. They look pretty sweet.



Greater Demons









Thursday, August 6, 2015

Trolls!

These guys don't live under a bridge! They are lean, mean and dangerous to know. Seriously. I use trolls to tie down super-strong creatures like Ents. They are extremely powerful and can regenerate. In Piquet terms, this gives them the Extraordinary ability of "Invincible" which means you need 5 hits to effect a stand loss instead of 3. Add to that the natural toughness ability of undead and that means you need to to beat the roll by 6! You roll up against one of these guys and you are not going anywhere.

The biggest thing I remember about watching the Hobbit is walking out of the film muttering to my wife, "Trolls are NOT to be played for comedy!" Verily, they will fuck up your day.


 RAFM RAF03726 Skeletal Troll. A venerable favorite.

 Fenryll FM092 Zombie Troll. Rather small, and I find the sculpt to be too "cartoony".

 Mirliton UD058F Undead Troll. Recast of an old Grenadier sculpt. Just grand.

 Ilyad Retours Des Dieux BLMV09 Grotesque. Perhaps my favorite troll model. Lovely detailed sculpt from the sadly now defunct french company. Fortunately I have their entire undead line, all of which are marvelous. Made from resin and a good example of how good resin can be.

RAFM RAF03719 Plague Troll. 

RAFM RAF03724 Undead Troll. Another of RAFM's awesome troll scuplts. 

Reaper 2680 Undead Troll. Reaper's foray into undead trolls. It's a nice sculpt. 

Chainmail Ahmut's Legion Bsttered Skeletal Troll. Meh. Very small. More like a hobgoblin than anything else.


Titan-Forge Drakskull's Menace Undead Trolls. Two sweet zombie trolls from Titan-Forge to fight with their undead greenskin horde. 

Mantic Dungeon Saga Hoggar, Zombie Troll Shaman. From Mantic's upcoming Dungeon Saga game. Finally, an undead troll magic user!

Mantic Dungeon Saga Zombie Troll. An undead troll from the upcoming Dungeon Saga game.

Mantic Zombie Troll Regiment from their Kings of War line.

Mage Knight Sinister #68 Troll Zombie. Meh. Small, pre-painted plastic.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Here Be Dragons!

A post detailing all my dragons or dragon-kind.

During the time I've been collecting miniatures, I've picked up quite a few skeletal or undead dragons (large creatures being an exception to my "nothing but bone" rule). One thing is for certain, sculptors love undead dragons. I keep having to add to my collection. At this point I have what would essentially be one army of simply dragons or dragon types. I loan them out as assets to my other armies, but I'd like to fight a battle once with nothing but my Draconis Legion.

Dragons


Black Tree Design FA77934 Zombie Dragon. meh.

Eastern Front Studios DVR-20 Gargantuan Skeleton Dracolich. A very nice model depicting the dragon as a true quadruped, which is rare compared to the biped models. They were supposed to put out a zombie version of this but I haven't seen it.
Fenryll Mummy Dragon for my New Kingdom Egyptians

Fenryll Skeletal Dragon. Very large resin model.
Fenryll Zombie Dragon. Small but nice sculpt.


McFarlane Models Dragon Series Six Dracolich. Pre painted plastic, but huge and imposing. Paint job is not terrible. I like the use of fire.

Gale Force 9's new Dracolich.

The old and venerable Grenadier 5502 Masterpiece Edition Death Dragon. My first super-beast.
Grenadier Dragon Lords 2516 Chaos Dragon

The one, the original Grenadier 9904 Skeletal Dragon by Julie Guthrie


A rare Grenadier zombie dragon from circa 1984. 

 GW Terrorgheist
GW Zombie Dragon. Yes I bought two of the same boxed set so I could make both variations. I'm the sucker GW has in mind...




GW 991 10207101 Zacharias the Everliving on a Zombie Dragon. Fantastic sculpt. I worked the ECKTM (easiest conversion known to man) on Zacharias and popped off his head to be replaced by a skull, turning him into a real Liche.


GW CIT-524 Zombie Dragon with Rider by Trish Morrison.
Grendel F0065 Zombie Dragon. Actually a very nice resin piece. Seeing the detail and easy construction sold me on resin as a medium.

Troll Forged Nightmare w/Necromage by Adam Grabowski. Made in some sort of vinyl/plastic, it's actually well detailed and an excellent model. I performed the ECKTM on the liche.


Mythic Articulations Asian Dragon. One of my faves. Not a miniature company per se, but custom prints anatomically correct mythical creature skeletons. For larger beasts it's just the right size for 32mm. This baby supports my undead medieval samurai brigade

Mythic Articulations Dragon. Another from MA. Very nice sculpt that is one of the rare true quadruped depictions.

Pathfinder Skulls & Shackles Gargantuan Skeleton Dragon. Sculpt is ok. Not really anatomically correct.

RAFM Necro-Drake Mighty Dragon Lich. Superb boxed set.

Ral Partha 10-375 Graveyard Dragon. Pretty large, but I never liked the sculpt.

Tom Meier's original Ral Partha 01-140 Undead Dragon. The memories...

The huge limited edition Ral Partha 01-505 Dracolich by Jeff Wilhelm.

A very small and rather unimpressive Ral Partha 11-582 Council of the Wyrm Dracolich 

Reaper 2705 Skeletal Dragon by Bob Olley. 

Reaper 3593 Akar Nakhal Pharoh Dragon by Kevin Williams.

Reaper 3644 Skeletal Dragon by Kevin Williams. Not impressive. Almost a skeletal wyrmling.



Reaper 10012 original Kaladrax sculpt by Jim Johnson. Tearing up the late 90's with this massive model.

The new Reaper 77190 Nethermaul the Undying by Julie Guthrie

The new Reaper 77192 Kaladrax sculpt.
Wizards of the Coast Attack Wing Red Dracolich. Meh. Like the flight pose.

Wizards of the Coast Lords of Madness 17 Fettered Dracolich. Pre-painted plastic. Meh.


Wizards of the Coast Death Knell 60 Zombie White Dragon. Despite being a pre-painted plastic and very small, it's actually a good sculpt. Would do well with a repaint.

Wizards of the Coast War of the Dragon Queen 31 Dracolich. Also another good sculpt, despite being a pre-painted plastic.


Zombie Dragon from Creature Caster


Finally! Vermis the Wyrm from Fenris Games has been funded through the Rise of the Draugr Kickstarter!

Zombie Dragon from the Battlelore Heralds of Dreadfall expansion

TMS' new Zombie Dragon now on Kickstarter!

Dragonkind

Ral Partha 49-091 Skeletal Hydra. A contribution from their recent Chaos Wars Kickstarter. You can thank me for this model. Yes, me. Personally. I backed the Kickstarter early and RP had as a stretch goal that if they got to $100K they would produce a skeletal dragon. I posted in the messages that if funding reached the stretch goal, that skeletal dragons were a dime a dozen. But if RP truly wanted to do something no previous company had done, they might consider making a skeletal hydra. Discussion ensued on the message board. In a few days, a "mystery stretch goal" popped up at $50,000 which was revealed to be - this skeletal hydra.

You're welcome.

Mythic Articulations Cockatrice. Gaze of Stone motherfucker!

Mythic Articulations Wyvern.

TMS' new Shrieking Horror (aka Wyvern) now on Kickstarter!

TMS' new Court of the Damned. It's a GW Coven Throne analog for the 9th Age wargame, but it's mounted on a skeletal wyvern!

The classic Grenadier Fantasy Lords 167 skeletal flyer. A bowman on a small wyvern.

The 1995 update. Grenadier Fantasy Warriors 51035 Undead Flyer.

Titan-Forge Drakskull's Menace Undead Wyvern. With a zombie orc rider. Sweet!



Blood Keep Miniatures fantastic new Varakai model. Maybe not a dragon per se, more bat-like but definitely undead.

Mythic Articulations Skeleton Kirin

Not Yet Procured


The upcoming Wizards of the Coast Icons of the Realms White Dracolich

Dark Art Studios Gothrac, Zombie Dragon