Salute 2021: Iron Gate Scenery

 

I'm going to be posting the photos I took at Salute on a (hopefully) weekly basis so you can see a bunch of the cool stuff that was there. There was a lot, so it might take a little while!

A lot of the new companies this year were taking advantage of the advances in 3D printing over the past couple of years. There really was an explosion of them! First up is Iron Gate Scenery, whose stand caught my eye with a really wide range of useful set dressing and scatter terrain pieces.

They are also producing miniatures for RPGs and Wargaming, but the scenery seems to be where they've started out and have the biggest range. It's all nicely affordable stuff with a solid tabletop level of detail to them. Definitely well worth a browse through their webstore, or their stall if you see them at a show!

Work in Progress Wednesdays: Oldhammer, Heresy Miniatures and an Out of Production Mini

 

I've been finishing up the prep on an assortment of models I sent off a while back, and it's a bit of an eclectic mix. First up is Aenur, the Sword of Twilight. He was an Elf Ranger for Mordheim who came free with White Dwarf many years ago. He's a lovely sculpt, and I need to look at what he could be in Age of Sigmar before I decide on his paint scheme.

This dwarf berserker was originally made by a small company I found online called The Miniatures Apprentice. I think they're now out of business, sadly. They mostly did sci fi things, but this dwarf was their (only?) fantasy offering. He's a bit chunky, but I love him.

I've had this liche from Heresy Miniatures sitting around for a while. I've had a few miniatures by Heresy assembled over the years but rarely finished them. It doesn't help that a bunch of the older ones I had done on square bases, and I now much, much prefer rounds. I'll probably sell off the square based models and buy a new one from Heresy in those cases. In the meantime, I want to get paint on this creepy boy!

Shasvastii Gwailo

 

This Gwailo has been sitting part done on my desk since before the Corvus Belli painting challenge in June. That painting challenge required you to start from unpainted models and as he was half done, I needed to pause.

I've got a few hundred points of Shasvastii painted now, which makes me really pleased. They're technically a playable force, if not massively optimised. The next few models I'll paint for them will likely be the cheaper "filler" units who provide orders and support to the main attack pieces, and the fast moving warbands who create the skirmish screen that helps them work optimally.

Work in Progress Wednesdays - Oathsworn Miniatures Heroines in Sensible Shoes

 

Ages back, I got a bunch of models from Oathsworn Miniatures through their Kickstarter. The concept was to do a bunch of old school style female adventurers, and they really knocked it out of the park.

On the left is a Halfling Rogue. On the right is a pregnant lady who was a freebie with the Kickstarter.

Here's a human magic user and a gnome ranger. The models are relatively "low fantasy" - I can just see them scrabbling to fight kobolds and goblins, with death a real possibility.

The human bard on the left here is a good example of the low fantasy. She's not got super flashy clothes - she's got practical armour and slightly nicer clothes. Her lute is stowed, her sword is out and she's holding up her torch to see in the dungeon.

She's joined by a human cleric with solid scale armour and a holy symbol visible. She's not very visibly different to a fighter, but you can make out some visual cues to the equipment concepts of early D&D.

The dwarf fighter looks like she will absolutely mess you up with her warhammer, held two handed - with practical, simple clothes and chain, not ornate warhammer style plate. The elf ranger peers into the dark, scimitar out, but has a short bow ready in case of an emergency . . .

Dragonborn are a much more modern concept, and I'm not sold on the giant bone. She's intended to be a sorcerer, the bone being her sorcerous focus rather than a weapon. Her ragged clothes indicate that maybe her magical talents haven't rewarded her.

Meanwhile, the Half Orc barbarian is wrapped up against the cold and will absolutely mess you up. She doesn't fall into the trap of a barbarian showing all their skin like a lot of classic fantasy illustration.

Finally, with have the rogue and the fighter - both holding up lanterns, with the rogue having lighter armour and a shorter sword, while the fighter carries a shield and wears chainmail.

I'm super keen to get a bunch of these painted. They really make me excited to try something in the old school RP style at some point.

Finally, here's an nest with some eggs that was another Kickstarter add on. I love these smaller Kickstarters where you don't get a ton of models extra, but a couple of little bits as a thank you.

It was advertised as a dragon nest, but I'm not sure if the eggs are a bit too small for a dragon, maybe? Either way, it will get painted up for use as an objective or something to investigate in a dungeon.

Infinity Livestream

I spent some of my Saturday playing a game of Infinity Code One on That Mr Shy's YouTube channel. If that's your sort of thing, feel free to check it out.

Work in Progress Wednesday: A few random models

 

These are the last assortment of models from this batch of metal assembly, and are things I couldn't really fit into any other category. Also, I'd finished assembling a couple of plastic models myself, so included those, too!

First up are these adorable geese by Northumbrian Tin Soldier. They produce a pretty eclectic range of quirky miniatures, and I'm a big fan. These Watch-Geese were something I just had to get and paint, I don't have a particular plan for them.

Next up are a couple of Leonx riders from the defunct Runewars game. I picked them up from the Bad Squiddo discount bin. They'll see a use in D&D or similar as big cat mounted elves is a nice unusual look that I don't think many people have done.

The plastic quality is closer to board game pieces than wargaming models, but they're fine. Particularly for D&D, and being heavily discounted, they should be a fun couple of miniatures.

The box they came in had four riders in two different poses. I've assembled two and am going to sell off the other two as I'm not a fan of duplicate poses. They were cheap enough that I don't really mind what I get for their compatriots...

Returning to metal, I'd picked up this Gnoll Chieftan from North Star Miniatures along with some other bits and bobs. I've grown to really like gnolls, both from an aesthetic stand point, and their D&D lore. In most settings, they're horrible fiend worshipping cannibals, which makes them excellent villains.

Meanwhile, in Eberron, a faction of Gnolls called the Znir Pact decided they'd had enough of the violence that being fiend worshippers brought them and swore a pact to accept no more masters, be they fiend or mortal. They work out their fiendish urges through mercenary work, and Keith Baker's Exploring Eberron has a suggestion for them as a PC species. I am really keen on playing one if I can find the right game...

Salute 2021 - What I Got

After all the problems of the past couple of years, I was a little apprehensive going into Salute this past weekend. We met up with some friends the night before for the first time since the pandemic, and it felt remarkably close to normal. After some ill considered life choices regarding staying up to late and nearly missing the last DLR home, the joy of finally meeting people again after so long was drowning out the anxiety.

My beloved wife had been volunteered to help with some stand set up so vanished off at some ungodly hour. I crawled out of bed, had my cereal and a huge mug of tea, and headed over to the show a bit later than planned, doubly so when I went via Starbucks to ensure my dearly beloved was at a safe caffeination level.

I didn't take any general photos of the show itself. It was, unsurprisingly, rather quieter than usual - both with fewer exhibitors in attendance and fewer attendees. Apparently there wasn't as much of a rush at the start as usual, and it seemed like a lot of people were dropping in throughout the day. I think it was pretty variable for the traders, too - some seemed to do pretty well, others didn't.

I picked up a Rubble City set from Fenris Games. These are some very generic stone walls that could be used for anything from the Bronze Age all the way through to modern day. With limited space at home I thought they'd be super good as terrain options for all sorts of games. I also might look at using them for photo backgrounds once they're painted up.

I also grabbed some new models that Bad Squiddo had as a pre-release at the show. They don't have painted pictures on the packaging just yet, so this is the best photo I could manage for now.

As always, there was a show miniature (still packaged as the 2020 show mini, calling back to original, cancelled plans). I often sell on show models I'm not interested in, but I really rather like this boy playing with a toy plane and am tempted to paint him up.

I ended up focusing a lot of my buying onto people who were new to Salute, or at least to me. First up was Iron Gate Scenery, who print a wide range of 3D models, both of their own designs and other, licensed properties. I was really tempted by their scenery ranges, but in the end went for a couple of turtle adventurer types who will work well as Tortles in Dungeons and Dragons.

I also picked up this lovely Griffin model, again for future D&D purposes. I'm not sure who the digital sculpt is by, as there's nothing on the packaging and it's not on Iron Gate's website yet.

I've been meaning to get Glomm from Monkstone Miniatures since he came out. He's a snail man merchant who makes a guest appearance in Forbidden Psalm, the Mork Borg skirmish game.

There's a bit of assembly that will need doing on him, but he's a gorgeous sculpt I'm really looking forward to getting to paint. I was also really tempted to get one of Monkstone's pig warriors, but I was trying to stay on budget and decided to spread the funds around a little wider instead. Once Glomm is done, I'll definitely be back to get one!

Next up was Titan Wargames, where I picked up a couple of orc miniatures. Their orc monk is apparently based on a previous character of the owner / sculptor. For me, though, I feel like an orc monk is something I'd very much expect to see in Eberron, so I had to pick him up.

Titan also produce this lovely orc champion, who could work well as a D&D barbarian or Frostgrave fighter of some kind. As they were a bit smaller than Glomm, I decided I could get away with getting both!

The Cerberus Studios stall had a range of deeply pretty resin miniatures, ranging from character models to some larger models. They have ranges linked by a narrative - I'm not sure if they're intending to make a game in future or not. I picked up this "Emissary" to use as a villain in things like Frostgrave and D&D. I think there's some fun concepts to be had in home brewing villains based on a cool miniature you found.

Cerberus also produce some beautifully crisp resin bases, and I grabbed a blister of them to throw some of my fancier character models onto.

Two of the many grim-dark skirmish games that have sprung up recently are Brutal Quest and Planet 28. Their creator, Mammoth Miniatures, also 3D prints an assortment of interesting sculpts to go with that kind of aesthetic. I picked up a couple of interesting looking models to try out. I also really like their Mercenary Ogre, but he was out of stock by the time I made it around to the stall. These will have to do for now . . .

Goya Games are planning on launching a game in the future, but for now had a small stand selling a handful of models. I picked up an orc and human barbarian, and am interested to see what they come up with in the future.

Urban Construct have been Salute regulars for years and I've never quite worked out what to get from them. While I was waiting for a man from the Star Trek convention next door to finish his digital marketing pitch to the slightly bemused stall holders next to them, I spotted some lovely treasure tokens at a bargain price.

I then got to the stall I'd been aiming for, which was Tangent Miniatures. Another one of the new crop for this year, and again, focussing on the 3D printing. They had a lot of models based on old TV shows, which isn't really my thing, but had a license to print Novus Landing models, who I hadn't seen before and really quite liked. I picked up these two alien traders as I felt they were quite fun.

I also picked out this fellow riding a grumpy looking beastie, who I just adore. I sort of want to wuzz it and ask it who's the grumpiest little alien riding beastie.

I also grabbed a handful of prints from Encounter Terrain. They're all sculpted by other people but Encounter prints them out. The hag at the back was a little more than the others, and then the other three were super cheap. The detail on those three is much less crisp, but I'll just give them a basic table quality job and that's it.

I realised as I was writing this that I'd forgotten to mention Exit 23 Games and Turbo Dork paints. I'd spotted them while doing my first circuit of the show hall, then took my beloved wife over there as I knew they were her kind of thing. She got very excited and bought a lot of paints, and I kind of ended up paying for them . . . 

I also grabbed a handful myself to try out. They're all metallics, and some have colour shift effects on them. I have no idea what I'm going to use them on, but it's not like I have a shortage of models . . .

Anaconda TAG

 

This Anaconda TAG got painted by Thunderbrush Studio a while back, but her sword scabbard got knocked off in the post. I got it reattached last week, and thought I'd get a glamour shot done. I am not sure where her pilot is, I'll have to dig her out at some point.

I managed to scratch the paint job when applying the fix, and tried to fix it. The fixing didn't go well. If anyone has some advice on how to match an airbrush paint job with hand painting, please do shout!

Work in Progress Wednesday: Meridian Miniatures and Diehard Miniatures

 

I was complimenting a lovely paint job on this Amazon in a painting Facebook group, and Tim Prow of Diehard Miniatures sneakily mentioned it was a limited edition model that he had a few leftovers of, and he could sell me one. Darn it.

I also ordered Klint and his K9 unit at the same time, as I was thinking quite a bit about Stargrave. I don't have a particular colour scheme planned out for them, though.

I also sent these off for assembly as I was digging through the stash of metal models. They're "Steampunk Militia" from an old Meridian Miniatures Kickstarter. With a possibility that Starjammer might be coming back to D&D, I'm thinking that rather than use these for skirmish gaming, they might make some good baddies for either that or a homebrew campaign. Having some weird simple firearm wielding mercenaries working for the baddy is a fun aesthetic to work with.