From TeemuL: New Wave of British (and American) Heavy Metal [Rare and Antique Books] (142 points)

Snowlord being the avid fan of heavy metal music (including Anvil from Canada) he asked me to dig up some old metal minis from my collection and paint them as the Rare and Antique Books entry. And here we go, starting with the rather fresh British metal minis. Warmaster was released in 2000 and these minis are from that time, they are not necessarily antique for some, but they are quite rare as the whole game and the miniatures have been long gone without new prints or reprints or relaunches. Which is kind of strange, because I have heard that the ruleset is generally quite well liked, being in the top 3 ruleset by GW with Blood Bowl and LotR.

Two Challenges ago I painted some archers and cavalry, this time I decided to paint the rest of the bowskeletons. I had minis for three command bases and for one regular base (I painted three regular previously), but that's what you get when painting second hand minis. I followed my recipe from the first batch, painting mainly with Citadel Contrasts. The red bows were of course a must and as green goes well with red, it has been used in banners and shields (and bases, naturally). What clothes they have are purple/pink.

There are quite a lot of skulls, both sculpted and painted. There are 32 skeletons in total and 29 have their head visible enough to claim it as a skull. There are six more sculpted skulls in the banner poles and shields, that's 35. And then 14 hand painted in shields and banners. I decided to paint 1, 2 and 3 skulls in the banners to differentiate them. What other symbol would the skeletons use other than skull? 49 skulls in total.

Some skulls

Let's get to the real era of NWOBHM, the 1980s! Here we have a Roque Trader era Space Marine Dreadnought Deredeo class from 1987, when they were modestly priced at £3,50. I paid a bit more when I bought this one in January, but I still consider it as a bargain.

I decided to paint this one as Howling Griffon to join my small force of 2nd Space Marines (I know some like to paint them as Blood Angels, but I decided to paint something more colourful). It was rather easy to paint (to this level), just blocking the base colours and then Reikland Flesh Shade wash before one or two highlights. Yes, it is basically just red, yellow and black. I could have gone wild and paint every detail in different colour, but I wanted him to be recognized as a Howling Griffon so decided not to.

The base is a "modern" size 60mm MDF base from Warbases, so I could actually use him in the modern games. I just need to find out what his guns are before devastating the enemy units. :)

The early design shows, the model is very round in every way and there are not really any places to add chapter heraldy. I found a small plate on his left shoulder and painted a logo there and another Roman 1 on the front to give him some details. I'm quite happy with the eyes, too. And no skulls...

Then we move over the pond. Grenadier miniatures was an American company, producing a wide range of minis. Here I present two oldies from their collection. First Grenadier Julie Guthrie's Personalities II 8120 Berserker in Wolf Skin, which I investigated, tracked and recognized after painting him, so he is wearing a brown spotted yellow wolf skin, typical for the fantasy land he is from...

Berserker and prince

Next one is a prince, who was available at least with two different codes, Grenadier A301 King and Princes Prince or Fantasy Lords Second Series 010 King & Princes Prince. A Prince nevertheless. I went with quite colourful outfit for him, a stylish prince.

Fighter, Thied and Third One

Ral Partha was another American miniature company, they made a huge range of RPG minis for AD&D and others. Here is a modest selection of them. The first two are Ral Partha AD&D Player Characters and I suspect the third one is as well, but I haven't found her anywhere from the online catalogues. The ones I did recognize are 11-001 Fighter with 2-handed Sword in Banded Mail (female) and 11-005 Thief with Shortsword & Sling in Leather (female). The third one is very similar in style, has similar base etc, but I haven't found her true identity yet.

Knight

And the last one for this entry is a Ral Partha knight, there's 1984 on his base, but unfortunately I have not recognized him either, although I'm quite sure he is a knight of some sort. I guess swords are quite popular weapons of knights in entertainment industry, but he has a mace. Probably quite handy bashing other knights in full armour. I chose a simple yellow cloak for him.

Six adventurers, very inexperienced - no skulls!

The problem with this entry is that I'm currently in the Sci-Fi section, so one of the three ladies needs to guide me by Lady Sarah's Library Cart from unfinished section to Rare and Antique Books.

32 10mm skeletons 32 points

1 28mm vehicle 20 points

6 28mm humnas 30 points

Sarah's Cart 20 points

Rare and Antique Books location 40 points

Total 142 points

49 skulls

The second to last map

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Haha! Brilliant work for your Rare and Antique challenge, Teemu. 

What's not to love about this post? Old school Warmaster, vintage metal 40K Deredeo dreadnought,  Grenadier stuff from Julie Guthrie and Ral Partha no less. Wow. It's like a walk down memory lane. So awesome. I have to say that of all of them I have to go with the Warmaster skellies - their riotous colours are just terrific (and I love the hand painted banner).

Well done, Teemu. 

- Curt

PS: BTW, I quite dislike Anvil... ;)