More Lankhmar Goodness!

One of my rpg gaming groups is starting a DCC Lankhmar campaign on Sunday.  To say I am excited about this is a huge understatement.  The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser books are my favorite Swords & Sorcery stories, so being able to play a rpg campaign in the world I love so much with the characters that inspire me is a true gift and pleasure.  So of COURSE I had to make figures for the PCs!  The GM is turning pictures of them into tokens for Roll20 to use on the maps on that virtual tabletop platform, so it's the next best thing to actually using the figures on the real tabletop.

Here are two of the PCs, the one on the left is my character, a Warrior from the jungles of Klesh, and the character on the right is a Thief from one of the Eight Cities.

Not too much new construction wise from what I've been doing of late, especially with the figure on the left.  Standard upside down milk bottle for the body, bead for the head, tile spacer arms and feet, etc.  He has some cool equipment though.  He uses a blowgun (the bamboo rod hanging off his left shoulder), a small hand drum tucked into the front of his belt (he needs this to cast the one spell he can cast), and a huge two-handed scimitar on his back which you will see better in other pictures.  The bamboo rod is a toothpick, the drum is a toothpick handle with a tile spacer cut into a circle for the head of the drum, and the scimitar is made from tile spacers.  He has a loin cloth (can't see it well in this picture but you will in others) that is paper, and he has a togo/baggy tunic that is paper.  I put a lot of folds and creases in it to give it more visual interest.

The figure on the right is another one of my new action/crouching posed figures.  I'm starting to hit my stride with these figures.  This one is the best one I've done to date.  So as before with the Mouser, in this case it is the rear leg that is the small plug that serves as the bent leg and the extended left leg (on the figure) is a tile spacer.  What I did this time though was add a tile spacer on the bottom side of the extended leg to make it look like pants draping down and then gathering again at the top of the boot where they get tucked into the boot.  It came out really well, it's a shame it isn't very visible in these pictures.  Only other new construction thing with this figure is I did my first "sabre" sword.  Just a toothpick for the handle and blade but I cut a tile spacer in the shape of the hand guard and glued it on after the toothpick had been added.  Came out well I think.

I did a cool scabbard for the sabre as well, you can see it sticking out the back.  Just a tile spacer.  The buddy whose PC this is gave me a picture of a Reaper figure he liked and I used it for inspiration.  I really enjoy making figures like that, using a picture or other figure for inspiration.

The cloak came out awesome!  Much better view of my PC's big two-handed scimitar that he is about to draw.

Can see the loincloth here in my figure a little better, as well as the hand guard of the scimitar in the other figure.

I really enjoyed these.  The builds were fairly quick and the painting was even quicker, especially the crouching Thief figure given it was just for the most part two shades of gray for everything.

I've got a few more on my painting table now, mostly NPC thieves and bravos, and a Mingol Wizard on my building table.  At the request of the player I am using actual pictures of Mongol Shaman for inspiration.  I'm halfway through the build and he is looking pretty cool. 

Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser!

Finished painting the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser miniatures I just constructed.  Of course this has spurred yet another idea for a game based on the story "Ill Met in Lankhmar."  Hey, why not?  Do a Conan game, and a Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser game.  Makes sense, right?

Here are the twain in all their glory!

Fafhrd, the barbarian on the left, hails from the Cold Waste, a rough and rugged land of ice and snow.  Trained as a skald, he has an excellent singing voice but is also a fierce fighter, especially when wielding his sword "Graywand."  He has ventured to the city of Lankhmar in search of civilization, adventure, and riches.

The Gray Mouser, the smaller man on the right, has unknown origins, but likely comes from lands to the south of Lankhmar (for some reason I always think Italy in both culture and people).  Originally a sorcerer's apprentice, the small man has taken up thievery and is an outstanding swordsman, his flashing blade "Scalpel" felling many foes.

These figures were fun to build (I already talked about that) but I have to admit, they were even more fun to paint.  One of the things I really like about doing my own figures is that I don't to paint a bunch of stuff on the figure that I honestly don't care about.  Reaper figures are awesome sculpts, but most of the details on them I have no desire to paint.  If I am not interested in painting it, it doesn't end up on my figures.

Now for Fafhrd up close.

You can really see his leg position here much better than standing on the base on the table top.  I let the paper tell me where the folds in his pants are and I think his legs really turned out well.  The figure is far more dynamic in its pose than most of the figures I have been doing for the last several years.  The inspiration for the color palette and the equipment is from my imagination, but also heavily influenced by the graphic novel that covers many of the original stories.

Table view from the rear.

Laying on his back on the table.  You can see the dagger scabbard a bit better on the left and on the right on his belt is his pouch.  I cut the dagger scabbard so the bottom has an interesting "lightning bolt" shape, just to add some visual interest.  The barrel bead seems to work well for the barrel chest of the barbarian figures, at least it is working IMO for this Fafhrd figure.

And now onto his smaller companion ...

Interestingly, the Fafhrd figure looks a little better in pictures than in real life, but the Mouser figure looks even better in real life.  The colors really came together with this figure and the rapier sword, although oversized, came out well I think.

Now, of course, I need to do some thieves and Hristomilo the wizard for them to fight ... off to the crafting table!

Mounted Serpent Guard

I was able to get these guys painted pretty quickly.  Having done the other cavalry unit before, I learned from my mistakes and had less "repainting" over mistakes this time, even though these guys are much more complicated than the other ones.

Here the are arrayed.

Now for some closer up shots.

And now from the rear.

Turned out pretty good, I'm happy with them.  This completes are the regular troops for the first Conan game.  What is left are the four heroes (Conan, Valeria, Subotai, and Akiro) and the main three bad guys.  For the two henchmen I'm going to do a mounted and foot figure.  For Thulsa Doom I am going to do four mounted figures of him in different positions.  I'll describe what my thinking is about that when I actually get around to doing them.

Now, off to paint Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser ... as well as about 40 metal figures.