Jetbike Jackal
A short post this week – just one miniature which I finished at the very end of 2022 (but which had been half-painted on my hobby table for a few months before that). It’s another reinforcement for my genestealer cult, Tertii Imperatoris Cultus, and my third limited edition mounted hybrid.
Read MoreThese Seem Familiar…
After last week’s modern genestealers, I’m back to familiar territory (see what I did there?) this week with two old genestealer cult magi and their tiny psychic shadows. I painted all of these over Christmas 2022 and January 2023, choosing them partly for speed – the familiars especially were quite quick to paint, taking less than a day each – and partly for their quirky, old-school charm. So without further ado, on to the miniatures:
Read MoreHocus Locus
I’ve had a few difficult months – successive family emergencies, jury service, a new job, and (touch wood) soon I’ll be moving house. So there hasn’t been much hobby time recently, and the thought of sitting down and writing has filled me with existential dread. I did, however, have a productive couple of months in December and January, focused entirely on my genestealer coven, Tertii Imperatoris Cultus.
Read MoreThe Dead Will Walk My Blog
Continuing to upload some old (2021) photographs of even older (circa 1986-1988) miniatures – more Night Horrors for my collection, which I’ve been working on – in an on-and-off way – for about 20 years. I have about half of them, and they’re getting harder to find. Like my Chaos Beastmen, Hippogryph and Zoat from a couple of weeks ago, I painted these about a year ago, then completely forgot to upload them.
Read MoreAnd My Axe
If you’re one of my handful of regular readers you’ll know that I mostly blog about old-school fantasy and sci fi miniatures, interspersed with very occasional pen-and-ink drawings of creatures from folklore and mythology. It’s probably no major surprise that someone who’s into dragons, drawing, and dwarfs would also be interested in traditional crafts, though – and that’s my topic for today.
Read MoreThe Hippogryph
Begin, my flute, with me Maenalian lays.
Virgil, Eclogue VIII
Nysa to Mopsus given! what may not then
We lovers look for? soon shall we see mate
Griffins with mares, and in the coming age
Shy deer and hounds together come to drink
With the head and wings of an eagle, forequarters of a lion, and hindquarters and tail of a horse, the hippogryph is (perhaps surprisingly) not a creature from myth or heraldry, but a somewhat more modern creation. Rather, the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto was the first to describe the hippogriff, in his 1516 epic poem Orlando Furioso.
Read MoreForest Guardian
After a few days of uncharacteristically consistent posting I find myself coming more-or-less back onto the main topic of this blog: collecting and painting old lead fantasy miniatures. Today’s offering is something I’d been keen to do for a long time; one of Games Workshop’s mostly original creations, the ‘forest guardian’, a Warhammer Fantasy zoat.
Read MoreThe Shin High Terror
I suppose today is as good a day as any to take this on. About a year ago I did some work on the overall design of this blog, including (some of you regular readers may have noticed at the time) a hand-drawn banner at the top. That banner features none other than the ‘Shin High Terror’ himself, my beloved dachshund Loki.
Read MoreWee Free Folk
Over the past few years I’ve bought a lot of miniatures, from a lot of different sources. I try to support small or new companies, because I want them to do well (and I like having a variety of different things to paint). And sometimes, they’ll throw in a freebie – often something small; possibly something miscast, overstock, or just to encourage me to start a new collection. Here’s a couple (and one that I bought, that kind of fits with the group).
Read MoreReturn to the Blinded Halfling
While I was living overseas – I’m not sure if this was in 2018 or 2019 but I think mostly the latter – I whiled away the evenings planning a return to my D&D campaign ‘The Blinded Halfling’. I drew maps using pen and ink and digital tools, sketched out character motivations, and chronicled world events. Since then things have fizzled – a lot of my friends have had kids recently, little halflings of their own. So here’s some maps from a campaign that might never be finished – you’re welcome to use them in your own.
Shin High Terror! 