Thursday 14 October 2021

Geriatric frostgrave band,hey guys one last tour!

 Never mind 25 years ago today for Sgt Pepper, these chaps were all painted  over 40 years ago! Painted in enamel by teenage me,although I recently based them on some more recent (1990s) citadel bases to give these 25mm chaps a chance against their more recent 28mm cousins on 1p bases. They're a mix of Citadel and Ral Partha and were previously used for dungeons and dragons and have lain dormant until relatively recently( 3 years ago!) when we played some frostgrave with my grand nephew's, their interest has waned but I quite enjoyed it as a game and wouldn't mind giving it another go some time. The paladin was one of the earlier paint jobs but I quite like the self sculpted milliput owl on his shield, the female fighters are still in the chainmail bikini territory, de rigure in 1979!



















I rather liked the thief figure, lots of character and the ranger. Quite a few religious types, including two types of druid, by the time I painted the elf archer I was starting to work out highlights and letting down the enamels with a little white spirit, these were the last figures I did eyes on, the female cleric isn't bad but I wouldn't bother again! I suppose I've treated these much like the pike and shot figures from the last post, already painted and in need of rebasing ,just this time I know who painted it a bit more! Nice figures and in the contemporary Military Modelling magazine article at 22p a throw not excessively expensive! The 100 years war types are on square bases so that they fit on some home made Impetus sabot bases,some of the archers actually had a game in my recent War of the Roses games, painted 1979, first game 2021!

The one purple aardvark is from Citadels Runequest game and was painted in acrylics when I was at art college in 1985,long ago and far away, well Nottingham anyway!

Obviously I could have stripped and repainted them but I'm happy enough with my slice of 1979 to keep them as they are and hopefully use them again soon!

I've left the ranger  next to a Perry plastic crossbow man,with the base I think they work well enough, two GW Khorne demons have managed to photo bomb the group shot,I suppose they have youth on they're side as they're from about 1987!

Probably more rebased pike and shot types. 

All the best 

Iain

36 comments:

  1. I think that's a great call Iain, leaving the original painting, as it's a slice of your painting journey and worth remembering. Also great you have another use for them now as well

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    1. Yes ,nice to reuse and not have to repaint!
      Best Iain

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  2. Great work, especially for forty years ago. I was thinking about this the other day, and how no-one I knew highlighted. Blacklining was probably the most advanced technique we put into practice back then.

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    1. Thanks, I was doing highlighting, badly, it's funny blacklining didn't come till much later ,I have a Khorne 40k army,excessively black lined!
      Best Iain

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  3. Leaving them as they are is a good choice. I have painted figures older than my children.

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    1. You have an extensive lead mountain in which to mine for them!
      Best Iain

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  4. Oh, wooow! What a treasures from the past!

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    1. Thanks Michal! Nice to dig them up!
      Best Iain

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  5. A nice set with huge vintage and nostalgic interest. I agree it is right just to keep them as they are. I wish I still had something from my teenage years, just to handle and admire every now and then.

    22p a figure! I’m not sure that figures were relatively any cheaper then. I can recall going into the local city game store as a collector of WWII 1/300 micro armour, during my lunch hour and I had a choice of buying a (ONE) model tank or getting something to eat ….. as a consequence, I was much slimmer in those days!

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    1. Food and hobby choices are something I remember from being a student, whilst paying £15 a week for a room in a shared house not that long after painting these chaps, so you are probably right, we have it all now!
      Best Iain

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  6. Love the oldschool look Iain!

    Best wishes,
    Jan

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  7. That is some OG hobby right there. I used to have a stash like this, but I think they were lost to the ages at some point.

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    1. I actually gave them away to my nephews and then years later after they had moved out my sister asked if I wanted all this rubbish that they'd left in the loft,including all these chaps!
      Best Iain

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  8. So many souvenirs...Superb!

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  9. A wonderful sight to see these figs again. Wish I still had a few of them knocking about (in a fit of nostalgia, I scooped up some old Ral Partha and "Fantastiques" on ebay--but not quite the same as having one's own vintage figs still in house).

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    1. Yes nice to have some mementos of a lost youth!
      Best Iain

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  10. It's fantastic to see such treasures. I was born precisely in '79, so these are making me get some perspective! I love them.

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    1. A year older than my nephew/godson, when we played Frostgrave he chose the older figures as his older brother wouldn't let him play with them when they were children!
      Best Iain

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  11. Very nostalgic, I have some Ral Partha figures that have stood the test of time surprisingly well.

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    1. I think a lot of the Ral Partha figures were ahead of their time,I have a big pile of landsknechts of theirs to paint, lots of detail!
      Best Iain

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  12. Nice Yesteryear figures Iain - you did a pretty nice paint job 40+ years ago! Maybe I will have a search through my boxes - I flogged off most of my 25mm figures from my youth, but I have a few commanders that I kept (Minifigs Napoleon etc). Once upon a time I had 10 or 12 Minifigs Blackwatch and I think they had the best tartan paint job I ever did... at age 15 or 16!..dont know where they ended uo...

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    1. I think/know I spent a lot of time painting individual figures as opposed to units,plus I saved time by not priming and just painting directly with enamels!
      Best Iain

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  13. I can’t believe that you have figures that are over 40 years old. Simply incredible. What the heck is enamel paint? (Just kidding). They don’t look too bad to me. And everyone likes a chain mail bikini. 😀

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    1. I am surprised I haven't lost/mislaid them,I thought you would like the chain mail bikini!
      Best Iain

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  14. These are fantastic! They look so much better than the minis I had of similar vintage. I've stripped most of mine and repainted them for use with Frostgrave.

    I still have one from each of the first three lots (Ranger in the first, dude with staff and crossbow in the second, theif with Sack and Dagger in the third) and the aardvark - I think the ranger was the mini I most used as player character in my D&D days. There are many others I recognize that I had at one point (sneak thief with dagger, cleric with mace, and the scantily clad lady with the diamond shaped shield), but are long since gone...

    Thanks for sharing these... they brought back so many memories of games and friends I played them with that I've long lost contact with!

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    1. Thanks!(on behalf of teenage me) that ranger was one of the figures I used most,he's a great sculpt and it's funny they do ooze memories!
      Best Iain

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  15. Good descision imho, leaving almost as they were, with just the new bases. It's a great bit of nostalgia to retain and be pround of and btw your teenage self was a better than my teenage self !

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    1. Always good to recycle and reuse, a dollop of nostalgia is pleasant every now and again too!
      Best Iain

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  16. Great blast from the past, Iain! I actually have a few Redoubt Mycenaeans that I painted with enamels (flat/matte). This us before I discovered quality acrylics. I also fondly recall ordering stuff with paper catalogs.

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    1. Thanks Dean,I just find acrylics more convenient and less smelly!
      Best Iain

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  17. So cool to see these golden oldies being repurposed and in their original paint jobs to boot!

    Hope to read some Frostgrave AARs in the future?

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    1. Yes,nice to dig them out for a new purpose, I wouldn't mind a game or two, but there are so many other games we like to play!
      Best Iain

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  18. Very late to the party, but a trip down memory lane, especially the Paladin figure, which I had, but sadly not sure what happened to it:(.

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    1. Yes he's good isn't he? I like the fact he's wearing sandals with his full plate armour!
      Best Iain

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