Mom Miniatures Dwarfs review

Mom Miniatures are a Spanish company with a fair sized range of resin fantasy miniatures. I was particularly drawn to the dwarfs, so made a small order to get an idea of their quality and suitability. The photo above I grabbed from their website, showing the unit I ordered fully assembled and ranked up on 20mm squares. On placing the order I received a confirmation email telling me I would receive another email when they had been shipped. Eight days later, the postman delivered them. That’s quite impressive given the current circumstances. I am UK based, there was no hassle with VAT, import duties or such like, I am still unsure what is supposed to happen in the brexit set up?

Here’s how they look out of the blister pack.There are ten unique head sculpts on one body pose, five axes, five hammers and ten shields. The shield arms have a slot to receive the back of the shields, which you can see at the bottom of the picture. You could, of course, use your own shield here.I have not assembled them as yet, so here’s another photo from their website to show how they would look.

The quality of the casting is good. There are no holes or bubbles that I could see. There is a mould line but it was easily removed with a craft knife. I would be tempted, maybe, to paint them without the shield fixed, to allow access to face and beards.

How do they compare with other minis? I have lined up a selection of my own minis and put them into height descending order. The metal GW slayer is probably tallest due to his big hair! The next figure along is a modern GW plastic hammerer/iron breaker. Then we have the Mom figure, and the next one along, the mystery ivory coloured specimen, is a resin Iron Crow dwarf by Durgin Paint Forge. Finally, a couple more metal GW dwarfs from the 90s.

In size and bulk, the Mom Miniatures dwarf is probably nearer to 35mm than any other scale. Stylistically, it’s a good match for the Iron Crow dwarf, with bigger flatter nose, similar styled beards and a slightly less serious aesthetic. I will certainly be happy to mix them into my collection, I base on rounds and tend to play skirmish games so scale issues are less of a concern to me. There are bigger difference between my older and newer GW figures who happily fight alongside each other. Stylistically, it’s a personal opinion of course. I absolutely love them! So much so that I am hoping to build a new warband using the Mom and Durgin figures together. Just a small band of course, a few clan warriors, some handgunners maybe, the berserkers of course are a must, maybe some miners to dig up the salt, and a handful of characters. And maybe a war machine for good luck. Yeah, that’s definitely a small warband.

Hobgrot Slitta Conversions

It’s summer time, so there’s a new Warhammer box set in town. I thought that the new hobgrot slittas looked promising as conversion fodder, so I grabbed a set of ten from eBay. I wasn’t sure on the size, from the pictures online they looked bigger, but they are a perfect match for my Lord of the Rings collection. 

Here’s a picture of a converted hobgrot alongside a Mordor orc and a Morannon orc. As you can see they are a perfect match to the Morannon figure, or could easily be played as a Mordor orc. Or you could paint them in dark armour and use them as black orcs. I would think you could easily fit them into a Uruk hai tribe too. Good news if you are looking for some variety to your collection.

The conversions were relatively easy. I used plastic bits from the oathmark goblins set, with a few random historical plastic shields too, probably viking  in origin. You could swap with Lord of the Rings bits too I would guess. On the hobgrots, I trimmed away a lot of the extra bits, especially the ropes dangling from their armour, and I removed as many of the “grenades” as was easy to do, though I did keep one as a club. 

There were a fair few options available on the hobgrot figures. They are obviously a new incarnation of the old hobgoblin figures, and there are options to give them all helmets or keep them bare headed. The latter, in conjunction with the two dagger options, would give you a reasonable version of the old hobgoblin sneaky gits.

I originally bought the figures thinking they would make a good addition to my Warhammer goblins force, and I might still do this. But seeing them next to the LotR figures has given me a dilemma. One to ponder for a couple of months, as the annual summer hobby hibernation begins.

Contrast Paints review: how to paint using glazes

A new project is a good opportunity to try something new. I decided to try Contrast Paints, having read both good and bad things about them. They seemed to my eye to be very thick glazes, and as I use a lot of glazing in my painting I thought it was high time I put them to the test. 

A good undercoat is essential when glazing. A glaze is translucent, so you will see something of what is beneath. With this in mind I prepared a unit of little goatee men by priming grey all over, then white from above. Then I applied the first glaze, apothecary white straight from the pot, no thinning. When dry it gives a good starting point, a neutral base to work on.

I then dry brushed white to emphasise the details. Next I mixed gryph charger grey and wyldwood, hoping for a mid grey to use on the skin, but the brown won. Still, not a problem, I used this brown on the hairy bits. I also thinned it with flow enhancer and Matt medium to glaze face details, horns and a fade on the lower leg. By the time I had finished the tenth model, the first was dry and I went back in for a second coat of this brown mix on the areas I thought had dried pale or needed stronger shading.

I wanted the skin to be pale but have some variation and definition. Thinned gryph charger grey was applied, trying to keep it on the lower areas and wiping off on the upper sides of arms, chest, head. It’s subtle but you can now see the muscles better defined, especially on the little goatee six packs.

Next phase was the bow and arrows. I used skeleton horde, which is a pale sepia maybe, with some wyldwood added to make a yellow-brown. I applied this on the bows, then thinned it for the arrows.

So now on my palette I have wyldwood, which is a dark brown, the gryph charger blue-grey, and some skeleton yellow. These can be mixed together to make various browns and can be used to finish all the fiddly bits left on the model - the leather bits, bones, loincloths and the like. I used burnt sienna as an undercoat for the darker leather areas. Some areas I just glazed with the murky browns. Finally, if any bits had become too dark, I applied a thin white highlight, to emphasise the pectorals mainly and tidy up any splashes on the skin. I would say the models are 95% contrast paints. 

Elf

 

The full title of this post is Zorn Silverhair, an elf from the Golden Realms. Maybe that works for an old school RPG character, but there is a slightly more esoteric reason for such a mouthful. Let me break it down for you.

The elf part is simple enough, this is an elf figure! It’s by the company known as Statuesque Miniatures and now available through Crooked Dice. It was originally sold in a set of four adventurers though they are now available as individuals. You can see the elf’s painted companions below, a dwarf and a wizard, with just one more to paint to complete the band - free cookie if you can guess the unpainted figure. 

On the palette choice, I was originally thinking of classic green wood elf, inspired much by the old Talisman artwork. But recently I have been replaying God of War and was really struck by the beauty of the light elves, which I have tried to replicate here. White robes, pale skin and even white hair, punctuated by grey and brown leathers.

The name Zorn is not particularly elvish and was chosen for his palette rather than his race. The Zorn palette is named  after Swedish painter Anders Zorn and comprises four colours - black, white, red and yellow. From this apparently limited set it is possible to mix up many colours, not surprising if you know colour theory. Add in a blue and you have all three primaries and an almost infinite palette available to you. The figure was painted using just these four colours, though I did also also use a little silver and a brown ink.

And that brings us to an explanation of the Golden Realms. I have been painting acrylic on canvas recently and have come to appreciate the much higher quality and pigmentation of artist paints. I spotted this set on sale and so have bought a set of acrylic artists paints manufactured by Golden. These are a high fluid set rather than the thicker stuff usually used painting on canvas. I thought they would be suitable for painting minis and from my limited test to date (one elf) they are showing great promise. The four colours I used were black and white, yellow ochre and burnt sienna in place of red. I will blog more about them in the future when I have experimented more.

Victrix vs V&V vs Drabant vikings

Viking miniatures comparison pictures!

There are a lot of viking miniatures available out there, in metal, plastic or resin, with many different styles to choose from. These three ranges are my personal favourites.

On the left is Drabant Miniatures, metal figures sculpted in Russia. There are about twenty figures available in the range. There are also a range of Rus (Eastern or Varangian vikings). In the UK, they are sold by Old Glory. A good choice if you prefer metal figures.

In the middle is Victrix vikings, plastic miniatures made in the UK. A vast range of armoured and unarmoured figures, twelve different bodies and enough parts and weapons for almost limitless poses. This is the range that most wargamers will go for, cheap, plastic and good quality. One packet includes 60 figures, enough for a warband.

On the right is V&V Miniatures, resin figures from Ukraine. There are about 60 sculpts available from the vikings range, including a few less common types such as shield maidens and ulfhednars. These are top quality miniatures, a little bit larger than the other two ranges. These are my favourites of the three, though the most expensive. In the UK, they are sold by Mezzers Minis.

Victrix Vikings as fantasy figures

Following on from the previous post, a review of the new Victrix vikings, I thought that some gamers might be interested in seeing how the new figures compare with some fantasy figures. Clearly, the scale is nearer to 28mm or 30mm than some of the bigger fantasy offerings, which makes them a good match to systems like Lord of the Rings.

From this first photo you can see that they are a very good match to plastic uruk hai, while the Gondorian looks small featured. Bear in mind the slight difference made by the different bases.

In the second photo, the Mordor orc (left) looks quite a bit smaller, while the Morannon orc (right) is a far closer match in height and head size.

In this final photo, the vikings are up against Oathmark goblins, which are plastic and scale well with Mordor orcs. The vikings are slightly taller, though the goblins do have hunched over poses - they are fairly similar in height if you look to the shoulders.

Hopefully that will be useful to some players. Perhaps they could be used as wildmen of Dunland, or the armoured figures used as Rohan or Dunlendings? And of course, they could also be used in any of the many games rules available these days, such as Frostgrave, Erewhon and others.

Victrix Vikings Review

I have been waiting for these figures to release since the day they were first announced about a year ago. I pre-ordered a set a few weeks back, and now here they are. More details on the contents are on the Victrix website, these are my thoughts.

The figures arrive in a plastic bag with a card stapled along the top. On the back of the card are some basic instructions, which bodies are compatible with which heads, that kind of thing. As you can see, I also ordered a couple of sets of transfers and received a free flag for pre-ordering.

The warrior sprue, containing eight figures, with lots of head and weapon options and other bits. There are six of these per pack, making 48 figures.

The command sprue, containing eight figures, again with lots of options to play with. There are two of these sprues per pack, another twelve figures. In total, sixty vikings per pack - enough to man a longboat!

I assembled four figures and glued them to coins, as I do with all my figures. Note that there are no bases included in the pack. The photo is filtered to better show the details. And now some comparison photos with other vikings I own. I do not have any plastics to compare with, as to date I have never seen any that I thought were good figures to collect. These comparisons are therefore the Victrix plastics against metal and resin figures - worth bearing in mind when you see them side by side.

From the command sprue, Victrix on left, V&V (resin) on right

Standard sprue, Victrix and V&V (resin)

Standard sprue, Victrix and V&V (resin)

Victrix and Drabant Miniatures (metal)

I tried to build the Victrix Miniatures to match the poses of the comparison miniature as best I could. In each case, it's a simple matter of attaching two arms and a head to a body. I also added knives and scabbards as appropriate. In one case I trimmed the neck down a little as it looked too long to my eye. I also had to remove a sword hilt from the scabbard to make it empty. Other than that, they were very easy to put together and mould lines were easy to clean.

I am impressed with the level of detail and the quality of the sculpt, the proportions are very good. In terms of plastics, there are no others around that come anywhere close to this quality. I reckon they come very close to the metal figure in the last comparison picture - once painted, it will be hard to separate the two. The resin figures have a slight edge in terms of detail and sculpt, though of course the plastics are far cheaper and have more adaptability. 

If you are in the market for vikings, you cannot really go wrong with the Victrix vikings. At £38 plus postage for sixty figures, they are a complete bargain. Even factoring in extra spending on bases and shield transfers, they are well under a pound a figure. With all the options available on the sprue, you should easily be able to ensure there is no duplication in your collection. 

How To Draw a Fantasy Map

Over the past couple of years I have been painting dwarfs, undead, vikings and goblins with a vague idea in my head about how they would all live together. Names and backgrounds come to me, mostly from my local surroundings or from my travels, from reading history and mythology, occasionally from popular culture such as Skyrim. I have jotted a few of these ideas down in previous blog posts, as a little bit of flavour to accompany the miniatures. There's a lot of stuff whirling around in my head, so I wanted to get it down on paper before it disappeared. I thought a good place to start would be a map.

I have been studying different map styles for a while, and came across a book dedicated to this very subject. I am a bit wary about How To books, as in my experience they never seem to convey the subject as well as, say, a youtube video would. However, we all have to start somewhere and so I thought I would give it a try.

The book cost me less than £10 on ebay and I have to say it has been a good buy. The author goes through the various stages with good, clear diagrams in a reasonably logical sequence. It's quite a short book, with lots of diagrams, which are useful. I did find that the suggested sequence of doing things did not always work for me, but maybe that's just me. The last chapter is probably the best place to start! This chapter is a bringing together of all the theory as the author moves through the processes he would go through in drawing a map (not all of it matching the sequence of previous chapters of course).

As I expected, theory is all very well, but the real value of a book like this is in giving you a starting point. You can get past the dreaded blank page by referring to the techniques, then practise them, then refine, then finally put them on your paper. And that's what I have been doing for the past couple of days - the ideal way to spend a typically British cold, damp and dreary bank holiday weekend.

The main thing I have learned from this process, and it's not going to surprise anybody, is that you have to practise, practise, practise. I have a few days under my belt now, and already I have learnt quite a bit on how to do things. Or more accurately, I have made plenty of mistakes and moved on from there. From preliminary pencil sketches, to inking and watercolours, I have had a little try at many things. I have designed my own icons to represent the dwarf holds. I have developed a very basic dwarf language and scratched out a dwarfish font of sorts, heavily influenced by viking culture.

It's starting to come together now and I have an almost completely pencilled map. I still have to add some features, when I have practised how to draw them. Then I have to move on from the pencil version, by inking in the whole thing. It's surprising how long these things take, but it will be worth it in the end. Hopefully, I can get it all finished in the coming week.

Flippin' eck....

.....these goblins are big guys. Yes, I did manage to fit in a pancake day pun.

These are black goblins from Knightmare Games, part of their Greenskin Wars range. I ordered them not realising they are bigger than your average goblin, but that's fine, I like size variation. As you can see, they are single piece metal sculpts, oozing with character and good levels of detail. The eyes have an iris and a pupil!

How big are they? Here's a comparison with a couple of plastic figures, a goblin and an orc. They tower over the little goblin, almost reaching the height and bulk of the orc. These are going to be the bruisers in my goblin force, either the bodyguard of the general or maybe an elite unit.

Just like their cousins the Black Orcs of the Warhammer world, or the black uruks of Tolkien's world, they are the biggest and toughest in the army. Conveniently, that suggests a palette to me - black skin with dark robes and armour. So here's a few examples of dark skinned orcs to act as inspiration.

Saga Age of Vikings First Impressions

As it's Thorsday, it's a good day to have a first look at the new Saga source book, Age of Vikings. As with the new rulebook, I picked this up over the weekend at the Vapnartak wargames show in York. I have had a brief flick through, looking particularly at my own two factions, the Danes and Vikings. These are just my first impressions, an overview of what you get for your hard-earned danegeld.

The book is hardcover, A4 size, 72 full colour pages. In addition you get twelve faction battle boards, printed on stock card, which is possibly a little thinner than the original dark ages boards. These follow the standard design of basic activations along the top, with more advanced activations below. They are clear and easy to read.

After an introduction, each faction gets four or so pages of commentary. This is usually one full page colour photo of some minis, then factions rules and force selection, followed by a question and answer page on the abilities. Coverage of the twelve factions takes up the bulk of the contents.

There is then a section on Friends and Enemies, in which more obscure factions are highlighted and how they should be used - for example, Germanic peoples can be included by using the Aetius and Arthur Saxons battle board. A one page explanation of War Banners follows in the section on New Equipment.

Swords for Hire is, as you might expect, a section detailing the mercenaries available to each faction. Here you will find units such as shieldmaidens, Breton cavalry and Flemish mercenaries. There is also a list of various personalities and  troops you might hire - scouts, a priest or a personal champion perhaps.

Finally, there is an optional section on relics and artefacts, detailing items such as the sacred banner, the ancestral sword or the famous steed.

At first glance, the battle boards have not changed drastically. I have mainly looked at the two boards I am familiar with, Danes and Vikings. On the whole, the abilities are named as in the previous version of Saga and work in the same or a similar way. It will take a few games with the new rules to see just how much (or little) this aspect of the game has changed in conjunction with the updated rules. I have a game coming up over the weekend so will be able to make a better appraisal then. In the meantime, here's how a typical faction is covered in the book.

Saga 2 First Impressions

I managed to get my hands on an early release copy of the new Saga rulebook at the Vapnartak show in York at the weekend. I am a huge fanboy when it comes to Saga. It's the best skirmish game I have played - the rules are easy to pick up, but there are levels of complexity in how it can be played. If I could only ever play one game, it would be this one. Here's my first impressions on this update to my favourite game.

The rulebook is softback, 50 page A4 size, with good quality full colour pages. They get a bonus internet point from me for featuring Yggdrasil on the cover. It's certainly improved in layout since the first version. Everything is well laid out in a logical sequence. The contents progress from what you need to play, to the basic rules on orders and activations, more on activations, special rules and terrain rules, a scenario, a glossary and a reference section.

Each section is well explained, it's mostly very precise and unambiguous, with little waffle or history or fluff interrupting the explanation of the rules. If you have played before you will breeze through this book, purely looking for changes from the previous version. If you are new to the game I suspect you may well have appreciated more examples of gameplay. Like I said at the start, Saga is an easy game to learn, but explanations and walkthroughs for beginners are never a bad thing. Perhaps these will appear online at some stage.

Veterans will still have to read the book completely, there are plenty of small but significant changes from the original version. There is no summary of these revisions, maybe this will be released online at some stage? Reading through the lovely book is certainly a pleasant way to spend an evening or two, but if you want to dive straight in with just a cursory glance you may come unstuck.

There is one scenario to try out your newfound knowledge of the rules. It's a basic clash of arms - line up your troops, swing your axes and kill as many of the enemy as you can. I would have liked to have seen a little more than this. Three scenarios would have been nice, especially for completely new players. There is a Book of Battles mentioned, which will include more scenarios, so I understand the desire to hold back on this content. It keeps the rulebook clean and concise, but nevertheless one scenario seems a bit sparse.

That minor quibble aside, I am really impressed  by the new version of Saga. It's a nice looking book with great production values. From what I can gather on a first read through, the revisions make sense and will streamline an already good set of rules. An extra four pages containing two more scenarios would have made it an even better product, especially for newcomers.

I am really looking forward to trying out the new rules. I did also pick up the new Viking Age book in Yorvik (sorry, in York) - my Danes and Vikings are eager to test out their new battle skills. More to come on the new Saga, when dice have been rolled in anger.

Oathmark Goblins Review

I recently jumped on to the pre-order offer from North Star games and was happy to receive a parcel in the post just yesterday. For the uninitiated, Osprey Games are developing a mass fantasy game system and these goblins are the second plastic set to be released. Pictures are worth a thousand words, so here we go with a good number of images.

Box of toy soldiers just waiting to be opened

Lovely cover art by Ralph Horsley (I think)

Rear of the box shows exactly what you get

Box stuffed with sprues

Sprue contents - six of these in a box

I set to work on a single sprue, enough bits to make five miniatures. The sculpts are good, hardly surprising as the sculptor is Michael Anderson. Casting wise, the details are what you would expect from Renedra. Mould lines are easy to remove with a sharp knife. Glue the arms on to the body, then the head, then a shield or quiver as applicable. It's quick and simple - these figures took me 10 minutes each to clean and assemble.

Example poses

My initial idea when I bought them was to boost my Lord of the Rings Mordor orcs force. I thought I would assemble a variety of poses and then compare them with what I already have. Again, pictures speak volumes, but I think it's safe to say they are an excellent match to this scale. They will provide some useful variety to the single pose plastics. 

Moria goblin, Oathmark goblin, Mordor orc

Morannon orc, Oathmark goblin, Mordor orc

Morannon orc, Oathmark goblin, Mordor orc

Now a shot to compare the figures with some of their typical foes - men of Gondor, or stout dwarfs. Again, another good match on scale.

Gondor, Oathmark, Dwarf

Finally, a comparison with another species of fantasy goblin, very widespread. This is, of course, a Games Workshop plastic night goblin. 

Oathmark, Warhammer night goblin

To sum up, Oathmark plastic goblins are an excellent product. Well sculpted and well cast, they are very good value at £25 for a box of 30 figures. Of course, every gamer will have a different purpose in mind for his new figures, but if you are hoping to add to your Lord of the Rings collection, then these are just the ticket. Now you really can build an army worthy of Mordor.