Orc champion

I painted up an old orc champion, originally released around 1992 when I started playing WHFB. The shield design was hand painted. I have found that orange is the best colour to use as a contrast on green skinned orcs. I tried a square base on this one, but really I much prefer round, two pence coins in fact are my go to base of choice.

More green skins to come maybe in the next few weeks and months, if I can find the time.

Prize Draw - Win a Painted Figure

 The fine folks over at Mierce Miniatures are helping out with the Philippines disaster relief fund. You could win a painted figure just like one of these, or choose your own from their vast, wonderful range. All you have to do is make a donation on the gofundme page, then email them to let them know of your entry. The draw will be made on Monday, 10th January. Every donation makes a huge difference on the ground, so please give it some thought. And please share the news about the draw as far and wide as you can. Thank you.

Oh yeah, and Happy New Year to you all, it’s a bit late I know, sorry about that, I have been a little pre-occupied of late.

MOM Miniatures dwarf wizard

Here’s a little something to add to your Yule festivities. A dwarf wizard, from Mom miniatures, wandering through the rocks and standing stones. Absolutely perfect for the dwarf loving, owl loving nerd in your life.

A Christmas plea for goodwill

Usually at this time of the year I will post something festive and frivolous. This year, however, it’s a bit grim and depressing. You might not know, as it has been grossly under reported in the west, typhoon Odette ripped through the Philippines last week, killing around 400 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. 

My son, Ben, has lived in the Philippines for the past few years, in a little beach town called Moalboal on the island of Cebu. With his partner, Nadine, and his daughter, Ehra, they started a little restaurant called the Three Bears, which slowly grew and became popular with backpackers and travellers. Encouraged by the success of this new business, they opened Crazy Bears, a hostel for travellers. The paint on the new hostel had barely dried when COVID struck and they had to lockdown. For 18 months they have barely survived, relying on local patronage and the occasional donation from the Bank of Mum&Dad. Finally, things looked better as restrictions ended and custom trickled back to life. But then Odette came.

Thankfully, they and their friends are safe. The hostel suffered some damage from falling trees and fences blowing around, but they are still standing. Some of their friends have lost their houses and belongings, blown away by the tempest. Power poles were blown over, uprooted or simply snapped in the ferocity of the storm. The government and local authorities say the power will be restored in 4 to 12 weeks. During that time they have no way to cool their properties, no refrigeration, relying on those lucky enough to have a generator. Gasoline and water are limited, prices have inflated and queues for water of 5 hours have been reported.

We want to help Ben and his friends and neighbours. Ben’s brother Tom has set up a gofundme page. The aim is to provide income as they have no government aid whatsoever. Ben and Nadine want to help their friends and neighbours to survive the coming weeks with no power, no income and no aid. And longer term to rebuild their homes and get back on their feet. Please take a look. Any donation will be a big help, for example ten dollars will buy around 70 bottles of water. 

GoFundMe page

I realise that this is not a particularly cheering or festive post. If you read this far, thank you for your time. I hope you can find some seasonal goodwill to your fellow human. If you can make a donation, please do. 

Just as importantly, please share far and wide, this is currently an unreported story. The more exposure gained, the more help received. Thanks again for your time and attention, now back to those mice pies!

Dwarf Comparison

Somebody asked if I would post a photo of the Crooked Dice dwarf alongside others from my collection. Thinking that others might find this useful, and to spread a little beardy love, here is the result. As you can see, I have lined him up with old GW dwarfs from the 90s, since these are the ones that fit best in my collection. In height, they are all similar, the GW figures are bulkier in the body and facial features. A finer band of stout adventurers I cannot imagine.

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.