Saturday, July 19, 2014

Clearing Out More Reaper Metals

It has been a busy week for me and I've not done much on my various projects. What I have been doing is cleaning out a bag of Reaper metal fantasy models that have been hanging around for a while. Not much to write home about, but here they are.

These are "vampire thralls" or something similar. Not a lot of detail on these models but they look suitably undead and evil. They come two to a pack.


Then I had a couple of crossbowmen, a model type not represented in my fantasy collection. So I put them on the painting table this week. These are much more detailed. The female is a Werner Klocke scuplt, and like all of his stuff it looks great. I'm not sure my paint job did it justice.


So there you have it. I also painted a giant snake but forgot to take a picture. It's really nothing to speak of anyway.

Up next are modern zombies, a whole new genre for me!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Copplestone Castings Cavemen

In my last update I mused about adding Copplestone Casting's Cavemen range to my tiny collection of prehistoric miniatures. I got inspired and placed an order. I was surprised at how fast the delivery was from the UK to the US, and it really wasn't all that expensive. I'll be ordering more from Copplestone from now on!

So here's the whole tribe. Click for a larger picture.


I decided that they were a little under-dressed to represent northern climates during the Ice Age. So, I painted them to look more "equatorial" or at least like people from a southern climate. I was thinking of going crazy with tribal tattoos, but decided I had neither talent nor patience for the effort.

The full range comes in four packages. Some of the models don't have their weapons attached, and so you can decided what goes where. For the most part, the poses dictated their weapons. Still, if I ordered more I could create a bit of variety by switching a weapon. The weapons were over-sized for the models' hands and have a tenuous bond with the models. One drop and the weapons will break off. That's my only complaint.

Here are details of the packages.


These are the Caveman Characters pack. They make suitable leaders or shamans. One is equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry, a bow! They're all single cast models.

For the unobservant, these are Cavewomen. They look a little too pretty for me, but at least they are solidly built. I really didn't think the bikini tops were necessary, but I guess it gives the models a pulp flavor with a nod toward modesty. Anyway, they're good models with interchangeable weapons.

Here we have the Cavemen pack. These guys remind me of some people I knew in high school. They all have swappable weapons, but I think in this case it's obvious what weapon should go with a model. This package provides the tribe with its hunters, so an extra pack might be worth it.


Lastly we have the More Cavemen pack. This is a cool pack because it give two more adult hunters, but also a range of ages. There's one about 18 - 20 years, one 14 -16 years, and a boy about 8 - 10 years who is throwing a rock.  That's a cool touch, and rounds out a "tribe" theme where everyone contributes.

So that's all of the cavemen I'm going to paint for now. These models don't all have to be from the same tribe, obviously. Combined with the Neanderthal types I painted last time, I'd have a good mix of prehistoric clans for some small skirmishes.

As a bonus, I dug into my bag or Reaper metals and found a large flightless bird I had once planned to use for my aborted World of Warcraft conversions. This was going to be a Plainstrider (WoW has tons of these large, flightless birds in the game). So I painted this up to go with my prehistoric stuff.

I don't know what it represents, but it looks stone age to me! Combined with the sabertooth tiger I have plus some wolves, bears, and a giant snake I need to finish, I have some animal enemies for my cavemen to hunt, too.

Not sure where I'll take this now, but I'm glad I scratched this itch. The models look great and can serve a lot of different purposes.