Monday, November 12, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Interloper Miniatures - Cast in Ruin

The Interloper Miniature - Cast in Ruin Campaign is going into its final hours - and what better way to finish this (perhaps a bit overlooked) campaign by showing the (almost) finished "Smart Bug" by John Pickford:

Concept Art by Toren Atkinson


John's WIP

And then Legion McRae has confirmed that John - also - will be sculpting the "Lurching Lizards" range. No greens yet, but we have seen these promising concept pieces (again done by Toren Atkinson):

Shooty Lizard
Netty Lizard
Grabby Lizard

Should be very suitable for most retro Sci-Fi gaming, I think ;-)

Friday, November 9, 2012

Clam's Minis: Grenadiers

And finally, found time for a bit of painting myself. Brush Slave League, Season 1 (@chaos-dwarfs.com (CDO) is coming to an end - and for the final round theme was "Thank you, CDO".

CDO has been kind enough to let us (the painting-o-holics) borrow their forum for our first season - and thought what better way to say thanks then dedicate the last round  to our beloved Chaos Dwarfs. So for this final round I choose to do the 3 Grenadiers that I've sculpted myself and cast up when I started the Ewal Dvergar-project.

And here they are:

Clam's Minis: Ewal Dvergar Grenadiers



And here is a few more shots of them, that will probably find it's way into the Ewal Dvergar-blog some day, too - should they ever return ;-)





Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Impact Miniatures Star Player - part 2

As promised a few days ago, I'd post pictures of my metal fantasy football Zoat variant (done for Impact! Miniatures) when it arrived.

Arrived today and here is the pictures

Impact! Miniatures: Zoat the Bibbisaur






The sculpt is as great as the Sci Fi version and the new pose is fantastic. And as the shoulder guard and knee pad are all separate pieces it will be so easy converting it into a traditional fantasy miniature. Think I might try that :)

And a little side bonus ...! When John did the changed to the Zoat, "Axiom" had him turning the original carried Eldar casualty into a separated miniature. Meant for his own private use - but he has - kindly - let me have a copy of it.

Cast in resin and looks like this:

The Gaming Cantina: Eldar Casualty, helmet variant




Wonderful :) - and thanks, Axiom - that was very kind of you :D

Collecting John Pickford: Otherworld Giant Ants

Oterworld Miniatures has just posted pictures of new Giant Ants on their forums.

The pre-view shows work in process shots of two ants in a range of five.

Otherworld Miniatures: Giant Ants


These two are Warrior-class ants and are approximately 30mm long. Now thats some big monsters that will be very useful in lots of different settings and genres, I'm sure.

Also to be found in this range will be 3 smaller Worker-class ants - approximately 20-25mm long. John is currently working on these and hopefully we'll soon see some WIPs, soon.

No release date yet, but I would expect to see them in store early next year.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Impact Miniatures Star Player and Interloper Miniatures

Yes, I'm finally back and today I have a few announcements to make :)

First, ..

Impact! Miniatures: Zoat the Bibbisaur

About a year ago, I posted pictures of a certain Sci-fi Lizard Centaur (aka an Eldar bodyguard Zoat) done for the Gaming Cantina ("Exoditejon"/"Axiom"). The miniature was originally a limited edition miniature for an annual Gaming Event held by the Gaming Cantina, but afterwards John has been converting it into a Fantasy Football character.

The FF Zoat version has now been picked up by Impact! Miniatures and cast in metal. The miniature is available from the Impact! Miniatures site - and can be found in their "Pro Player Minis"-section, under the name: Zoat the Bibbisaur.

There aren't any pictures of the finished and painted model on their site, yet! Nor have I got hold of my copy yet, so I can only share the picture that was posted in the "what's at Tom's desk" thread on the Impact! forum - but that's better than nothing, right ;-)



Wonderful version of the Zoat that easily can be converted into a classic fantasy settings, I think.

And will - of course - post pictures of the metal version when it finds me.


And secondly, we have...

Interloper Miniatures: Termites/Bugs

The first crowd-funding project involving John Pickford's sculpts has seen the light of day. Would have loved to see his name in the Otherworld Dungeon Adventures-campaign, but that was unfortunately not going to happen.

But then came the Interloper Miniatures project along .......

"Interloper Miniatures - Cast in Ruin" is a campaign to fund a dozen 28mm scaled metal miniatures for use in post-apocalyptic role-playing and tabletop skirmish games. Not really that exciting until you actually see the concept arts for them - as they are certainly one of a kind - and no way they can be called typical (post-apocalyptic) miniatures. The range will consists of ..... Rabbits, Lizardmen, Fowls and bugs/termites - most of them armed with guns :-)

Here is the conceptual art piece from the opening of the campaign - and it gives you a good impression of what you can expect from their campaign:



The project involves quite a few famous sculptors - and in here you'll find names like Bob Olley, Paul Muller and then - of course - John Pickford.



And it can't really come as a surprise that monster specialist John Pickford will be doing the bug-creatures/termites seen here on the right hand site. Certainly the type of miniatures that you would expect to see John do - especially after the many Otherworld Creepy Insectoids/Monsters.

Here is WIPs of one of the three bugs John will be doing:



The different campaign-perks will give you set of 3 miniatures from each of the races. And should you like getting the Pickford's - the $15 "Buuuuugs"-perk is the one to aim for.

And while there don't forget to check out the Fowl sculpt - done by Mr. Bob Olley. It's certainly worth a look (and some spare cash), too.

Darn, don't you just hate crowd-funding's? ;-)

Friday, September 7, 2012

The first painted Ewal Dvergar

And finally ...... I've finished the first four of my Ewal Dvergar.

Life has been hard on me and there really haven't been any time for painting last 3-4 months, but hopefully things will soon start changing and things will get back to "normal".

But I did finish these for - and three of them was entered in the Brush Slave League @CDO

Ewal Dvergar with hand weapons and shields






And all together:



Now I really need to start painting more of them ... :)

Collecting John Pickford: Zealot Miniatures Classic Demon (close ups)

As announced a few days ago Zealot Miniatures has released their first Pickford - a Classic Demon. Their flash player-site leave a lot behind, so now that my copy has arrived I've made some new and more detailed pictures of the beast.

Almost a 360 degree view :)

Zealot Miniatures: Classic Demon







From these pictures all the wonderful details really shows. Another great example of how fantasy creatures shall look like :-)

And last, a scale shot to show how big a beast he really is. Here he is next to a standard 28mm human (Spyglass Barbarian) miniature. His so massive ...!




Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Zealot Miniatures Classic Demon

August has really been the month for new Pickford Sculpts - and it ain't even over yet :)

This time it's a huge Demon done for Zealot Miniatures

From their announcement 13th August 2012 about their two big releases:

"..... Secondly, the classic Demon is available in resin, sculpted by the awesome John Pickford, and standing 55mm tall! Perfect for any worshipper of dark powers or for a boss in your dungeon."

Pictures where a bit tricky to get from their Flash Player page - but here is a screen dump of the beast:

Zealot Miniatures: Classic Demon


Another great example of how to sculpt skin and muscular structures. Looks real good, but guess that many people will now come asking ask for a winged variant.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Duck Season


Nothing we haven't already seen, I know - but will let you know that the new Pickford-stuff from White Knight Miniatures are now up for purchase.

It's a rather significant release he has this time with all the new Kev Adams releases (Goblins and Halfling Upgrades) - but in this huge pile of new stuff you'll also find the few new Pickford's:

WK Minis: Zweihänder Sergeant

WK Minis: Dwarfs Light Cavalry Command Set

WK Minis: Hors Série Rubber Ducks

Time to spend some money - again :-)

Friday, August 24, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Foundry Halflings review

As announced previously on this very blog the Foundry's Halflings is now out and today my little set arrived.

I've been looking forward seeing these in person, and wasn't disappointed.

Castings are of the usual Foundry standard - so you have the usual flash to remove (from air vent and injection points) and some cleaning on some vague mould lines. All in all great casts.

Being packed as sets they have obviously been bent a bit. Mainly the long/thin and pointy bits - like fork, spear and other weapon bits - has suffered from be packed. But all these was gently stretched out and put back into shape. Two miniatures was bent by the ankles (they come with the usual solid bases). Those joint are extremely fragile as the legs are very thin, but I managed to make the stand up, without breaking them by the feet.

So here is how the look:

Foundry: HF001 Halfling Adventures

Foundry: HF002 Halfling Villagers

Foundry: HF003 Halfling Militia

Foundry: HF004 Drinking time at Old Bold Bullmoons Bar
also includes a Bar

Really like all of them and they are so full of personality and character. Really like how John took on this project, and how close he got to the original artwork. And they are a worthy alternative to the various halfling ranges out there.

So how do they mix with other ranges ...?

There is a slightly size difference within the sets, but nothing of real impotents. Here is a picture of the size variation across the foundry sets:


You might find them a bit on the big side compared to older halfling ranges (and a few new ones to), but nothing you can't go with.

The are, however, probably a bit more "cartoony", than some ranges and that might not please all. But I like them a lot, and they are exactly in a style that I can use and love painting.

So for all the scale fascists out there (myself included) - here is a comparison  across various ranges (I could find):

Old Citadel LOtR Frodo, Hasslefree, Heresy, Foundry, Old Citadel
C-Range, Darkling Games, White Knight Miniatures
I think most of them will work rather well with existing Halflings :-)

The only bad thing I can think of was the little handwritten message on my invoice. The note said: "at present we have no plans to release more Halflings. We hope you enjoy these four packs, though" - such bad decision, if you ask me :-(



Thursday, August 23, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Footballing Beastmen by Beast Face Miniatures


Not John's usual genre, but certainly worth a mentioning here.

"Axiom"/"Exoditejon", the guy behind the Gaming Cantina event miniatures (like the Bodyguard Lizard Centaur and Howling Banshee), has started his own little venture into the mysterious Fantasy Football Miniature World. A venture named: Beast Face Miniatures.

The project is still very much WIP, but he has just given a first pre-view of his coming Footballing Beastmen sculpted by John.


These here are the set #1 miniatures and this first set includes a Beastman Thrower, a Blitzer and a Lineman. These three here are the first of a planned set of six. After mastering, these will be basis for a converted set no. 2.

The miniatures are based on some cool artwork/designs by Roberto Cirillo.

It's been quite a while since we last saw John working on some prober beasts, but he certainly not forgotten how to sculpt them - just take a look at the muscular structures and the dynamic poses, I'm so impressed. And the will certainly stand out on most gaming pitches.

You can follow the project here: http://beastfaceminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/



Thursday, August 16, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Clam Minis Ewal Dvergar set #1

Shamelessly plugging my own line of miniatures: the Ewal Dvergar. Monday, the long awaited "production" casts arrived and I now have multiple sets of the core warrior - set #1.

What a great set of miniatures all due to the great work from John and Griffin Moulds:


Check out the Ewal Dvergar-blog, should you like getting some ;)

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Collecting John Pickford: Foundry's Halflings are here

The wait is over :) The long awaited Halflings from Wargames Foundry are finally here, or "there" but should be "here" within the next couple of days, I hope.

I made an enquiry regarding these on sunday, and yesterday I got an answer back from Foundry (Marcus Ansell) saying, that the Halflings have appeared to be listed as unreleased on the website which was rather strange since they were on the shelves in the shop! That "problem" should have been fixed by now.

And when login in to their store I found these wonderful four packs of Halflings:






Can't hardly wait to get them.