Collecting John Pickford: Otherworld's Giant Stag Beetle

Otherworld Miniatures have just released their latest Pickford sculpt. This time it's the Giant Stag Beetle added to their Wilderness Encounters range. It's a multi-part model of 6 part and approximately 6½-7cm long.

WE30a – Giant Stag Beetle

©Otherworld Miniatures

You'll find the beetle here: http://otherworldminiatures.co.uk/shop/wilderness-encounters/we30a-giant-stag-beetle/


And you can even buy a convertion kit for it and have it turned it into a huge flying beetle :)

Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf Skiers from the OS Miniatures Company

After a successful Kickstarter for Alpine Gnomes (sculpted by Byron Harmon) the OS Miniatures Company is now planing their next Kickstarter - and an exciting one it is.

Their next Kickstarter will be about Skiing Dwarfs - a set of multi-parted dwarf skiers - all sculpted by John Pickford.

Here's a pre-view (taken from Facebook, courtesy Jamie Loft) of what we can expect seeing, later this year:

I can't wait - can you?

If you want to learn more you should keep an eye on their Facebook-page - here: https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolMinis1985

Maggie, Leader of the Miner's Guild

As I've been afraid of being accused of interfering with the election process in a sovereign state, vote manipulations, misinforming the people, hacking campaigns, planting fake news or what-ever seems popular these days, I've waited posting this till after the Brit's have had their General Election. It's done and dusted. Can't comment on the result, but I'm glad to see that 69% actually cared voting

I've waited with this cause I'm sitting on some news. The braking news is, Maggie is back :) Yes, I've heard that "the Bitch is dead" but I can present you with some alternative facts. She is most certainly alive. She might not be running for Parliament, no - but she has now taking the role of Leader of the Miners Guild at Mount Doom. If not in the real world, then in my alternative miniatures world. Cause my DTB-Mags has now been painted

Dear Tony Blair: DTB2 Mags

The miniature is beautifully sculpted by Bob Olley and is available from awesome Dave Woods @Dear Tony Blair-blog

Ask not what your Hold can do for you, but ....

When going through the lead pile I found this Dwarf Wizard - but judged on the pose he seems more like a missionary, town speaker or even an agitator.

So in these times of great fear, mistrust and isolation I found it most appropriated doing him as an agitator call the world to order.

You can almost hear him say: "My fellow Dwarves, ask not what your Hold can do for you, ask what you can do for our mountains, our sea, our air and the inhabitants of our world".

Unknown: Dwarf Agitator/Wizard

And yes, this agitator bears great resemblance to another unknown dwarf I did back in 2011, but this one is slightly different, though - but his origin as mysterious :)

Collecting John Pickford: Dwarf knights of the Great Bear on foot on Kickstarter

Just a quick message to let you all know that the previously unreleased - but most awaited - Dwarf Knights of the Great Bear by John Pickford and made for White Knight Miniatures Imperium is now on Kickstarter.

The Assault Group (TAG) is running a short 4 day kickstarter campaign to found the final moulding and casting.

So pledge now to help TAG add these two new additional packs (8 miniatures) to the Dwarf Empire range.

You'll find the campaign here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/584137481/tag-28mm-dwarf-empire-bear-knight-miniatures/description

A lady in red

Or is she...? Cause a rather disturbed looking lady she is.

The miniature here is an early John Pickford miniature. I don't know exactly when she was made, but my guess would be in the early 2000s and she is probably the first human John did - and picture a female druid - but a druid with some necromantical abilities - and would easily go as a Necromancer in my games.

It's rather interesting seeing a human from this early period where most of John sculpts seems to be goblins or goblinoid inspired miniatures sculpted in a classic heroic fantasy style. So, quite nice to see him experimenting with the tiny female proportions spiced with some slightly large female attributes :) And I'm very happy having her in my collection.

That said, I'm not that keen on painting female miniatures. Females rarely suits my painting style, but I've tried hard keeping the transition subtle and the skin as light as possible. Worked to some degree but I definitely need more practise on this subject.

Female Druid (Private collection)

For those who might like to see the original unpainted miniature you can find her on the Wikia - here: http://collectingjohnpickford.wikia.com/wiki/Other_unreleased_and_promotional_Miniatures#Female_Druid

Mornegueule Brisedent

And back to fantasy and something more dear to me. Yes a chaos dwarf but not one of my own, no - this one is a bit special as this one is an event model created by the chaps on the french Oldhammer scene.
Last year (2016), they gathered together in Metz for their second event and for that occasion (in association with Bruno Galice from Via Ludibunda) they have produced a model to give all attendants on the day.

For obvious reasons, I didn't attend this event but afterwards Bruno offered the surplus off and I was lucky to secure myself a pair of these beauties.

The miniature is a conversion of a miniature already in Via Ludibunda's nice range. The base for this conversion was a dwarf miniature originally sculpted by Mark Evans, called Spiky, but a lot of work has been put into it, to set them apart. And the end-result is a magnificent little evil stunty that fits my old school collection very well.


The French Oldhammer event model: Mornegueule Brisedent

A big thank you goes out to Bruno for giving me the opportunity of getting this master piece - a fingers crossed, that we might see more stuff like this coming years.