From the dusty reaches of yesteryear

So I’ve pulled a few more monsters out to play with paint on. With the shuffle of things for Giftmas other models got dropped and a bit beaten so these were pulled away to get some love before I once again hamfisted the process of getting things in order.

I’ll do my best to try and repair the rest of what I have to show off. There’s no reason not to collect and appreciate old minis as a history of where this all comes from.

Finding more information about the minis I have, I’ve come to the conclusion that the figures came from Grenadier’s Wizzards&Warriors prior the licensing for Dungeons&Dragons.

Once again I have D&D Lead to thank for the info but a quick search to find a set on Worthpoint that showed enough of the minis to make up my mind. Pics… so it did happen.

I even have video from another collector who did an unboxing of his find.

So it seems the site ate the previous writing. Here’s attempt two.

The female fighter and chaos knight finish off the first lot of figures. I had issue with eyes at True 25 scale and still laugh thinking it works for a crazed lunatic in full battle rattle. Just look at that face and try to think otherwise.

The female figures have all their greenstuff and just need a prime. There also have been a couple of repeated figures that I’ll show later for comparison to the kind of rescue effort this is.

I have monsters on the way with an additional straggler from another box set. I’ll report on the stuff when I get more things done.

Much to report and photos upcoming amid other projects happening offline.

The final minis from my first set are done and just need to be sealed. I’m glad for the end of that batch to have a feeling of completion.

I’ve gotten the bases for my minis of the Female Adventurers box textured with greenstuff so they will be primed shortly. I’ve also found that I have extra copies of minis that were in that set.

The small trove I received had more treasure as I’ve painted up a few figures and gotten more from the Tomb of Spells box now sitting in Simple Green. All in all good progress for a short brain break and simpler demand of detail in painting.

Ok, not really s devil but close enough for government work in most instances. I’ve managed to save a effreet figure from remaining under old paint that did it no good at all. This comes from the Grenadier box set Tomb of Spells (SKU: 5004) and, according to D&D Lead, this would have been from the first of three releases of the box. I’ve found the Umber Hulk and Minotaur which weren’t included later.

Coming out in 1980 the effreet might’ve been a bit of an issue from the press at the time.

The third release material seems like it to was taken up by Mirliton

I found the druid with puma. As you can see she was in a bad state with dreaded enamel. There’s an old joke I heard from my grognard buddies that a man goes to a con and stands admiring a figure displayed in the competition case. He finds himself standing with the painter next to him and applauds what kind of detail and development there appears to have been put into the layering of paint he laid down to show such character for an ogre. The painter smiles slightly and comments “Thanks, I started with a halfling”.

Here I’ve stripped away the paint with a couple days bathing in Simple Green. I went back with a brass wire brush and dental pick to pull off what I could without destroying detail. Lead is soft and the one thing anyone of an age knows is “smoosh nose syndrome”. Dropped lead figures are well known to suffer this and there is no chance at rhinoplasty.

For the final act we see our heroine saved from the peril of a poor paint job and reborn to be seen with greater respect for the work done by the sculptor. One noteworthy bit of info is the amount of negative space on the model. It was surprising to find the undercutting beneath the arms resting on the cat and between the pair. The actual separation between the druid’s legs and the torso of the puma is surprising given the likely difficulty of the cast instead of creating a solid piece.

Taking a dive into the background of the collected figures I’ve found more box art and listings related to figures that I have been showcasing. From DnDLead I saw that there were was a listing for the 1987 Grenadier catalog which has SKU 6008 showing knights I recognize. The box art shows copyright from 1985 so all is good in the support doccos.

So far the Knight of Terror has been painted without knowing what it was. The Knight of Chaos is in the queue and about to be finished soon. The Knight of Blood, on foot and mounted, will be a little further down the line. I might add some support to the horse, in the form of a steel rod, as it is all lead and the legs are trying to bend a the rather thin ankles. This has been a rather happy accident I’d say.

Beyond that I sifted more dust and got images of other figures that I’ve painted thus far

I now also have a second set of figures from Grenadier that I had purchased after being moved by the love of lead and seeing these first start taking shape as a project some time ago. I think that I might have a few of the missing minis not included in my purchase in the small Pile of Overwhelming Potential I received.

In the hope of bringing more to bear with historical significance I dug into the Internet and pulled what images I could from original catalogs. Most notably my best reference has been DnDLead, that I will continue and repeatedly refer back to for the wealth of information, for things I’m putting into the project for original product material imagery.

With Mirliton getting the rights and molds to cast, sets like 2007  Female Adventurers can still be purchased as Children of Diana.