Stone Giants -- Basing Only

More old AD&D stuff -- this time some Stone Giants.  I think these guys are from sometime in the 1980s.  The figures were already painted.  I just did minor touch-up where there was some chipping.

The client wanted these giants put on rocky, 60mm square scenic bases.  I originally thought the bases might be a bit large, but maybe that's because I am used to Warhammer Fantasy and the like where the mini takes up almost all of the base.  In the end, the larger bases ended up looking like small dioramas, and I think they are really cool.

I started with plain, 60mm square bases (custom-ordered from Litko) and built them up with stones and filler so they bended seamlessly with the integral bases on the models.  The bases were brush primed and painted so that the original paint would not be compromised.

Gibberlings

Here are more old-school, Ral Partha AD&D minis I painted for a client.  They are Gibberlings--an obscure monster that originally appeared in the Fiend Folio.  They seem to be based on the idea of Morlocks from The Time Machine, and to my knowledge, they never had a starring role in any of the old modules.

Like all the old Ral Partha stuff, these guys are pretty small.  The arms did not come attached, but had to be glued on.  It's nice for purposes of varying the position of the models, but there is a noticable gap that had to be filled with putty.  The figures were glued to some 25mm square bases, which were then textured to blend smoothly into the integral bases on the models.  

Here are a couple shots of a single Gibberling:

And here are some group shots (there are 24 in all):

Vegepygmies!

I got to paint some 1980s or 90s-era Ral Partha D&D figures on commission recently.  It had been so long since I even handled such old-school figs that I had forgotten what they are like.  For one, they are so much smaller than the figs out there today.  There is still a lot of detail, but it's shallower and not as crisp as the current GW or Privateer press stuff.  As a consequence, trying to highlight with individual brushstrokes is basically impossible.  You need to use techniques like drybrushing and washes that let the paint to the work for you.

The specific models I painted are Ral Partha Vegepygmies -- a monster that first appeared ht the classic AD&D module "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks."  Painting these guys brought back memories of playing that adventure.  It was a was in intrusion of Sci-Fi in a fantasy realm, and I remember there was a separate picture book in the module for the GM to use and show the players pictures of what they were facing.  Good times ...

Anyway, the Vegepygmy models were in 3 poses.  There is a version with a club and 2 versions with spears.  Here's what they look like up close:

The models have integral bases cast as part of the figure.  The client wanted them on 20mm square bases, so I glued them on to bases provided by the client, and built up the area around the integral bases with texture to make it seamless.  Here's the whole set of 56 together: