A is for Ant

If you have followed my project logs (or just check out my He-Man, Beastman, Yeti Giant in an earlier post) you may know I have a thing for using cheap plastic toys whenever I can. So I am loving my latest addition.

It reminds me of the make do and mend mentality I had to have as a youngster when I could not afford all the minis I wanted (and plastic zoo animals and toy soldiers stood in for all kinds of things) and then it just makes me smile to field a Giant thats bigger than everyone elses that cost me £2 on ebay rather than £30-£50 for a Giant made for gaming.

Well for my D&D games I need a Giant Ant. (Who doesn't? Right?)
I had a look on the interwebz and couldn't find anything very much but then I remembered my boy had a tube of cheap plastic bugs ... so on the off chance I asked him if there was an ant amongst them?

There was ... Here he is (Popped him on a 40mm base).





























And here he is with a nice new paint job (just needs a bit more shine ... some gloss varnish).

A is for Adventurers ... Fantasy Adventurer Cavalry

Citadel produced a range of Fantasy Adventurer Cavalry to match their Fantasy Adventurers.
I have painted a few of my favourites.

FAC 2 Mounted Wizard with staff

FAC 6 Mounted Bard withs word and Lute

FAC 8 Mounted ranger with sword and bow

FAC 9 Mounted barbarian with two handed sword

FAC 10 Mounted Paladin with sword

FAC 12 Mounted Ninja (Assassin) with sword

FAC 14 Elven Hero with sword

FAC 17 Mounted female theif with dagger and sack

 

FAC 29 Mounted Dwarf Champion

And here they are all together ... Hope you like them.

A is for Albion ... Giants of Albion.

I have been painting  a bunch of Giants over recent months and 'A' is a good excuse to get a couple more painted.
The Giants of Albion were released as one of the 'Dogs of War' units.
Like many of the minitures produced as 'Dogs of War' they are great sculpts, full of character.

Pictured here for an idea of scale:

and amongst the others giants I have been working on ...

A is for Adventurers ... Citadel Fantasy Adventurers.

A is for Adventurers ... Citadel Fantasy Adventurers.

In 1981 Citadel produced a range of Fantasy Adventurers. (FA Series)
It was just 14 sculpts.
These first Fantasy Adventurers were a strange mix of stuff and some of it was pretty dodgy TBH but one sculpt stood out as the pick of the bunch. (This opinion is rienforced by the fact that he was one of the only minis from the range to be included when the entire range was redone in 1982)

FA8 Ranger with Sword and Bow.
(Love this guys moustache. Tally-ho chaps)

In 1981 Citadel re-released the Fantasy Adventurers series. They replaced all the poor sculpts (which was most of them) with completely new sculpts (which were mostly vast improvemnts on the existing miniatures.

Two of my favorites from the first batch (August 1981) were:

FA 2 - 2 Wizard with Staff (August 1981)

FA 6 - 2 Bard with sword and Lute (August 1981)

FA9-2 Barbarian with Two-Handed Sword (mid 1982)

(This is a variation on the original ... That original guy had a silly hair do so he was much improved by the helmet ....
... and a really cool shield).

FA10-2 Paladin with sword. (Spring 1982)

FA12-2 Ninja (Assassin) with Sword (Spring 1982)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FA 14 - 2 Elven Hero with sword (Spring ‘82)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FA19-2 Female Fighter with Sword (Spring 1982)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FA 22 - 2 Evil Cleric (Spring ’82)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He had a great chaosy sheild.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FA 29 Dwarf Hero (Spring ’82)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FA31-2 Paladin in full chainmail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FA 33 Evil Hero (Spring ’82) (Bringing it up to 33 minis in the FA series at this time).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are ALL my Fantasy adventurers together.
Not so keen on the others ... for me these twelve were the gems of the Fantasy Adventurer series.

 

A is for Avengers Assemble

When I was a boy I used to love comics ... Super Hero comics. I used to read Marvel comics ... Spider man, The Hulk the X-Men and The Avengers.

This was my first comic. I still have it.

As you can imagine I have enjoyed the various Super Hero movies over the last few years.
But the best film of the year, in 2012, and without a doubt the best film in the genre so far was Avengers Assemble. (Joss Whedon really knows how to make a cool movies).

Now my boy is really into Super Heroes so I thought it would be cool to play a few Super Hero games with him.

Now as it happens, almost 30 years ago in 1984 Games Workshop produced a Super Hero Role-Playing game called Golden Heroes and in the same year TSR produced Marvel Super Heroes RPG. Now I have both of these along with the earlier Champions RPG. (I was into Role playing games in a big way before I really got into Warhammer)

So I am all set for rules ... I just need some minis.

Now as some of you may know Heroclix has been banging out Super Hero minis for years ... Some of the sculpts are not bad but the paint jobs (They are prepainted) are not that great.

So my plan is to pick up a bunch of Heroclix and see if I can't give them a nice new paint job to bring them up to my Table top standard.

So I thought I would make a start with Avengers.

Captain America:

Iron Man: (Before and After)

The Hulk: (Before and After)



 

The Avengers Assemble:

 

A is for Araby

Does anyone remember the Arabian Knights?

When I was a boy their was a saturday morning show called The Banana Splits.
Each week there was a cartoon segment ... Tha Arabian Knights:

 

 

 

  

 

The main characters were:

• Prince Turhan A young teenaged boy, a Prince and rightful heir to the throne of the Sultan he owns a magic scimitar that he can be thrown and returns like a boomerang.
• Princess Nida  A lovely teenaged girl, cousin to Turhan and daughter of the Caliph. She can fight, but her real talent comes from her ability to disguise herself and alter her voice to mimic others.
• Raseem A tall, muscular man, the token ‘strongman’ of the Knights; also called ‘Raseem the Great’, has the strength of thirty men. He also has a companion in Zazuum; a small donkey.
• Fariek A short, tubby little man who is a somewhat skilled practitioner of the mystical arts; His magic can cast illusions, make objects fly and change one thing into another, etc., He often provided the transportation (a flying carpet, etc).
• Bez A dark-skinned man who is often portrayed as wearing a turban and green clothing; he is also known as ‘Bez the Beast’, for his ability to transform his body into the form of any animal known to man.  He can also transform into mythical creatures like winged horse, Roc. His shapeshifting makes him a handy spy for the knights.
• Zazuum A small donkey with long ears, who was Raseem’s companion. Zazuum proved to be a bit of a secret weapon, because if one pulled his tail, it would make the little donkey go berserk; spinning and kicking out like a miniature tornado which can defeat any enemy or destroy any object struck.

I really fancy building these as a little adventuring party for some arabian adventure ...
These are the closest I can come up with so far:

I really need a better Prince Turhan and I am nowhere on the donkey.
(If anyone can suggest a suitable baby donkey miniature I would be most grateful).

Here is all the Araby stuff I have made a start on today and am going to try and get painted this month: