Miniature Spotlight: Mirliton Priestess

If you've been following this blog closely,

and really there is no excuse for doing otherwise, you will know I started a Lord of the Rings campaign a while ago.

We have only fought the first battle  so far, which saw the cowardly orcs flee at the rise of the sun and the remaining wild men of the Etenmoors slain by a band of Elves, Rangers and a

dwarf (boo, hiss, etc).

As the good guys follow the trail of the orcs into the forest they came across the rest of the Etenmoors Alliance, including a Black Numenorean. Which is where the second battle will begin.

All this is a rather long winded way of saying I needed a Black Numenorean here.

miniature. I generally prefer an old-school style to my miniatures, something with a bit of character. Mirliton produce a lot of the old Grenadier stuff and I'be bought a few bits and pieces of theirs before, including most of my orcs. Sure enough they had a suitable candidate, sold as a priestess and found

As you would expect with sculpts as old

as Grenadier's there is a bit of variety in

terms of quality. Whilst they all have their charms, some of the orcs I've bought in the past have been a bit lacking in facial detail, or slightly awkward in their stance. Not so with the Priestess, she really is a lovely sculpt.

I've painted her up in muted greys, with white hair, hopefully giving her a sinister aspect which will strike fear into the hearts of children of Rivendell.

Size-wise she is smaller than a lot of modern 28mm heroic sculpts, but not massively so, and being a non-warrior type I think she can get away with it. Below are pictured, from left to right: a Wargames Foundry knight, a Reaper Chaos warrior, the Priestess, a Wargames Foundry/ex citadel ruffian and a hasslefree strumpet.

Miniature Spotlight: Bolt Thrower Snail

Before I start eulogising about how wonderful the new Bolt Thrower range is, I probably should make you aware that I am at least partly responsible. You may have guessed this, after all the shop is on this blog. I supply the ideas, people with actual talents then turn these into awesome sculpts and bad-ass artwork.

 

'Anyway I think I was talking about snails. At first glance you may think a snail is a rather left field idea for a line of fantasy miniatures. Not so. If you are familiar with medieval manuscripts (and if not, why not?) you will know that they appear all over the place. Seriously, everywhere. No one is quite sure why this is, but if you want to know more I suggest you read this blog that gave me the idea in the first place: Rab's Geekly Digest.

 

This little critter was sculpted by George Fairlamb, darling of the Oldhammer set, and weighs in at 15mm to the top of his shell.

 

Like all our miniatures he was cast up by Ainsty Castings to a pleasingly high standard, and comes in one piece.

 

In the bottom picture he can be seen terrorising a poor 28mm knight from Wargames Foundry.