Dreamforge Games Eisenkern Stormtroopers

Well....after watching Iron Sky the thought of Space Nazis has not left my thoughts......in a good way of course. Dreamforge Games has arisen from the 'ashes' of Wargames Factory.....a long sordid tale of mis-management and inscrutable Chinese operations. Almost worthy of a post in itself but the truth lies out there....not here. The box contains the parts for 20 Eisenkern Stormtroopers and they are very sculpted - I am becoming more of a fan of the computer generated sculpting than I thought I would be. The figures take some putting together which is a pain - I had forgotten about the youthful frustrations of Airfix kits. I picked my pack up on a pre-order from those nice guys at Northstar Military Figures. Tell Nick I sent you.......

The other sets available.....

The instructions are well laid out and the colour keys make it even easier....

The bases are a tad annoying as you have to clean the tabs up underneath the base.....not sure on the reasons for casting them like this.....although I'm sure there must be one.

Head shot......not an expression I use lightly....

The component parts for one figure.

Head, 2 piece torso and legs went together without too many swear words.....

The arms, rifle and ammunition magazine involved a few expletives...very fiddly and frustrating. There will be a good degree of flexibility in poses though which is a good thing......

I prefer them without the backpack myself......

A comparison shot with 2 Artizan Designs Panzer Bots also picked up from North Star at the same time. 

Overall I am very impressed with these figures and will certainly look at picking more of their releases up. There are mold lines which are annoying but something I think you have to live with in plastic releases.

A quick pic for a friend next to an attractive female resistance trooper courtesy of Statuesque Miniatures.....

Update - April 9th 2013 - more pics of forthcoming releases here.

Moving on to a few painted minis. This guy is from the old 80s Heroes Miniatures GH4 Professor- one of my favourite of the old school small companies. The sculptor, Tony Yates, still sculpts and has his own blog - link here.

A female pirate from Bronze Age Miniatures - David Sonderquist's own company that has been going for some years and continues to produce excellent minis. He also does a number of figs suitable for John Carter style gaming in his Sci Fi section. 

A fisherman from Black Cat Bases, a company with a most varied range including many suitable for Gothic Horror / Cthulhu type games.

Gorgon Studios has 2 packs for Gangster games in their 'Bootleggers' section. Steve Saleh sculpts, wonderful minis, a shame the postage was so high from the States. I think postage is trying its best to kill the small business. Link here to Steve's 'never updated' blog.

5 more gladiators nearing completion. 1 from Wargames Foundry and 4 from Crusader.....the latter picked up from North Star games in one of their 'Lucky Bags' that they release occasionally. Check out his 'Bargains' section when you pick other stuff up....well worth it! Nick at North Star distributes Crusader amongst many other companies. He is slowly taking over the world..........Just the bases and a few highlights to do before they join their colleagues.

Going to finish on an old mystery figure. that has me stumped....... more of a pewter type metal and very reminiscent of the very old TSR logo.....please let me know if you recognise it!

Not strictly speaking fantasy...... Perry Miniatures

I was trawling through various blogs, Facebook pages and related forums when I came across the Perry twins take on the recent find of Richard III's remains......

Classic rendition with a great sense of humour.....take note of the disabled sign on the toilet door.......the body being discovered beneath a public toilet at a car park  in Leicester, England. Apparently the remains had come close to being destroyed by the addition of the toilet foundations......a close shave Richard? Richard III, of course, died in the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, having gone down in history books as the evil murderer of the 'Twins in the Tower'. 

Anyway, I digress. The sculpt is a typically wonderful one from the hands of the Perry twins, both of whom I have been following for nigh on 35 years now from when they first started sculpting for Citadel Miniatures back in the dawn of time and pre-GW corporate involvement..... apparently they sculpted in the schoolroom under their desks during lessons....probably ending up with a 'could do better' on the school reports.......these are the same guys that gave us the 'Chicken Dragon' and the first real giant...........

Nowadays large sculpts are relatively common however at that time they were very rare.......although there was a similar sized giant sculpted by Nik Bibby for Asgard, Bryan Ansell's earlier figure company...pic courtesy of the Armory 'Buyers Guide to Fantasy Miniatures 1983' ...the ultimate 80's pic reference source for lead addicts.

The Armory Guide can be downloaded free from the Megaminis site here. Johnny Lauck of Megaminis is a great guy and very interested in all aspects of the hobby. He has uploaded a bunch of old catalogues on the site from various sources for everyone to get for free. Greater love hath no man....

Back to the Perrys...............I do look around their site on a regular basis and it never ceases to amaze me at the sheer size of the subjects portrayed. They have just released figures for Napoleon's disastrous retreat from Moscow in 1812......I often wonder why Hitler hadn't read his history books......

I then got looking around the various forges they do...I have a thing for blacksmiths...although only in lead miniature form mind...please don't get me thinking of large muscular men dripping with sweat...not an area I want to visit! 

  

Just incredible sculpting and I really need them all....no, seriously I do. 

Another few blacksmith types are available from Wargames Foundry......email Marcus with any queries, he is the son of Brian Ansell, the lynchpin of the old industry, and very helpful and approachable.

Any collection of course would be incomplete without the addition of this Blacksmith's beauty from Tabletop World

A snip at 88 Euros but a magnificent beast nonetheless......these are limited edition pieces due to the complexity of the molds and should be picked up before they go. They have an infuriating section of the old pieces on their site.....grrrrrrrr. Further to this post it is currently unavailable.....double grrrrr.........

In Germanic and Norse mythology, Wayland the Smith (as opposed to Wayland Games, the online game retailer.....who I like use occasionally) was a legendary master blacksmith who features in the Raymond E Feist novel 'Faerie Tale'.....possibly my favorite read ever. Wonderful story of modern man meeting the creatures of the Fae. If you haven't read it please do so soon with my wholehearted recommendation.

Anyway, that's enough babble for now.......keep the emails coming, I always enjoy the lead related conversations!