Killer Rabbits Kickstarter is Live!

Mischief Managed- My Killer Rabbits Kickstarter is up and running since this morning- but I haven't had a chance to post about it till now!

KILLER RABBIT KICKSTARTER

It funded in the first 45 minutes and in the first day has already unlocked the first stretch goal, the Rabbit noble on dog- with hunting snail!

If you get a chance, please check it out!
Cheers!

Hippity Hoppity- Twhack!

Killer Rabbits Greens!

Got to review Drew's sculpts for our Killer Rabbits KS before they went to the caster and take some pictures. These guys are 28mm scale- erm rabbit scale, which means roughly 20mm to the head and another 3-5 for ears, depending on the pose. 

Hopefully I'll have some back in a week or two in metal to share.

Triumph of Death Kickstarter Launch Date!

I'm very excited to announce my upcoming "Triumph of Death" Kickstarter launches Friday May 12th! 

A true legion of undead.

Every idea or mad scheme starts with a back story...

The first miniatures wargame I played in was an epic battle between a Renaissance skeleton army and Romans run by the notorious Alan Lucien. The miniatures were old Minifigs models from the late 70's or early 80's, with stylized Romans and a fantastic undead/skeleton army. They were possibly the first skeleton minis ever made and modeled after Hans Holbein's Dance of Death, or "Totentanz" renaissance wood block prints from the 1500’s. They weren't the best sculpts, but man - did they catch the essence of the period. Those skeleton hordes and that "Totentanz" style stuck with me like a first crush. Older than Oldhammer, my bell had been rung!

Hans Holbein's Death and the Landsknecht

I've always wanted to recreate an updated line of minis in the Totentanz style, but never had the sculpting chops to pull it off. Last year I became friends with an amazing sculptor, Drew Day Williams, who shared my passion to create a range of 28mm skeletons in the vein of Renaissance artists like Holbein, Dürer and Peter Breugel. This is how the "Triumph of Death" (or ToD for short) range of miniatures came about.

A detail from Breugel's " Triumph of Death". This is what we are making!

The goal of Triumph of Death is to create a line of Renaissance-inspired 28mm white metal undead skeletal miniatures for collectors and for use in RPGs and table top wargames. In a word, Skeleton Landsknechts!

skeleton marching open hand, with javelins and coffin lid shield

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that I've whet your appetite! 
Cheers!

Triumph of Death: First cast sneak peak

Front rank shields are coffin lids, like in Breugel's painting

Say, what are those unpainted fellows in the background...

And the inspiration from Breugel's Triumph of Death.

 Got my first casts for review today of the 9 figures currently sculpted for my upcoming Triumph of Death 28mm line of models. Couldn't help myself to quickly get some paint on one. Really fun (and easy) to paint up. Maybe next one I'll even let the primer dry. :)

Oldhammer: Dwarf Organ Gun

" Don't fire till the see the yellow of their teeth!"
~ Snorri Grimbash, gun commander in the second goblin wars.

Perfidious Boomage

With all the Oldmaster bubbling to the top of the gaming world these days (and yay for that) as well as my group jumping into Kings of War with an "old school" passion, it's gotten me excited too. Out came my war boxes, and I started cleaning up and adding to my much beloved dwarf army. This organ gun was a piece I started a couple of years ago and decided this week to finish up and get some shots.

The carriage is a plastic version that came with the Empire plastics troops. I built up the breach, added the wings from a banner pole, then set the barrels, which are from my own Pirates! miniature battles on the high seas cannon.  The crew are a mix of Maurader Miniatures and GW; the engineer is more "modern" , probably from the 2,000's.

I'm excited about playing with these toys again.

Old Hammers - New Paint!

 “Brushes are the single most important Item in the painter’s armory…”
- pg 16 Warhammer Fantasy battle 3^rd ed.

 

Maurader miniatures "pike"

 Old Hammerz!

Feeling a bit of a wall flower on this retro craze, but in truth I’ve been a fan of the old hammer style of gameplay since- well since it was just the new 3^rd edition! Even cooler, the lads I met over playing warhammer on Friday nights are still my close friends 20 + later. There was a lot of bonding over the battlefield and jealous pride when someone would be able to eek out a new unit over busy work and college schedules- and on a student budget!

 

The battles were small, and full of stories provided at first by an appointed GM for the night, but later the stories grew into the armies and visa versa.

 

Back then ( and sometimes now) we played for keeps-that meant that if you defeated the enemy general or captured the army standard- you actually got the keep it!  I lost a couple of white dwarves and a nice banner, but also gained a gorgeous orc commander and a banner or two. Trophies we still wave in each other's faces!

I havered on whether or not to create a whole new blog dedicated to Oldhammerz, but knowing myself, one blog is enough to keep up with- so from time to time I'll be cataloguing and adding  my old hammer stuff for your perusal. 

many a goblin impaled upon those pointy bits!

  Over the years I’ve been slowly hoard- Erm- collecting my favorite Citadel, Games Workshop and Marauder (especially Marauder) miniatures for dwarves and empire and undead. Well, the bug has bitten me again, so I’m dusting off my old armies and giving them a new coat of paint.

 

 

Maurader Pike Block

I remember eagerly buying this unit in it's hard plastic slider box at my local hobby store in San Francisco when it first came out- like it just got put on the shelf! The memory is strong because that damn box was so hard to open I split the plastic and sliced my hand - and still have the scar!

I didn't care because I scrored these awesome Trish and Aly Morrison sculpted landsknecht dwarves before any of my crew did. They originally had fat boar spears, but I converted them to pike, along with a few helmet swaps to "up armor" them. The uniform design/colors is inspired from the guard in the 4 Musketeer's movie- they guys that bet the musketeers they couldn't have breakfast in the hotly contested keep in the middle of the siege of La Rochelle. 

A sleeve of Shotte

 

More Maurader minis- handgunners painted up like Scots border reivers. They even have a "hot Trod" banner for the unit. The officer is a foundry dwarf, I think. These fine fellows guard my baggage train (read beer wagons) providing supporting fire as they can. I've recently scored a few more of these models and look forward to expanding the unit.

 

  That's all for now- thanks for sticking around- and I look forward to your comments and own Oldhammer memories!