TAG Industries Chimps and Apes

Unfortunately, I don't have any painted minis to show this month, but I thought I would share what I'm painting next: some apes and chimps from TAG Industries' Children of Fantasy Line.  These minis are from the early to mid 80s and have been in my collection and have remained unpainted since that time.  It would appear that they are fairly rare as I haven't found any pictures of them on the internet other than those on the Lost Minis Wiki, and some of those pictures, I provided.  (I know that at some point Raven's Forge Casting bought the TAG Industries lines but I'm not sure how many figures they produced and they appear to no longer exist.)  I'm also unsure how they were sold, but I'm assuming I purchased these as a set and not individually (or rather as a kid, talked my mom into buying for me. Ha.)

After years of sitting in my "lead mountain," I finally decided to paint these to use as a group of more war-like Pakuni for a Land of the Lost/Lost Civilization game.  I figured they would go well with the Sleestaks I recently painted.  They don't look all that much like the costumes/make-up from the show, but it won't matter, as I'll need something more threatening any way. You'll notice that the two figures on the ends have broken weapons that I will need to do something about.

Here's Chaka, a Pakuni, for comparison if you are unfamiliar with the show.

Chimp with Spear-that needs fixing.

Ape with Club

Chimp with Axe

Ape with Rock- and I am assuming he used to have club

Chimp with Club

Ape Beating Chest

Now to get these fixed up, based, and primed...

Ral Partha Gnome Illusionist - Deep Gnome

Here is stage one from Ral Partha's 3-Stage Player Characters Gnome Illusionist set.  I painted him to represent a deep gnome aka Svirfneblin.  I really enjoyed painting this little guy.  His face is really well sculpted considering how small it is.  I went with classic gnome colors for his clothing, i.e. red cap, blue shirt, brown pants.  

 

I took this comparison shot, with a typical Reaper figure to show how small this figure is.  

I picked up a Heritage gnome and a Grenadier dwarf archer (that I might use as a gnome) as well.  Although these may or may not be the next figures in my painting queue.  Stay tuned.

Thundarr the Barbarian

I present you three awesome miniatures: Interloper's "Wasteland Warriors,"  clearly meant to represent the greatest cartoon ever, Thundarr the Barbarian.  I have wanted Thundarr minis for many years.  I even bought some sculpting dollies once with the plan to create some myself.  That never happened, but thankfully these figures did.

From the post-apocalyptic future of 1994:

Gonzo post-apocalypse is my favorite genre for gaming, if you couldn't tell from my previous Gamma World related posts, so I'm very glad to add these to the collection.  I'm also relatively pleased with how their paint jobs turned out.

Thundarr:

Princess Ariel:

Ookla the Mok:

Next up will be something not tv-nostalgia-related and probably vintage, so stay tuned!

Enik the Altrusian

Finished off my Sleestaks with Enik the Altrusian.  I took one of the weaponless figures and sculpted a tunic and medallion out of green stuff.  My crude sculpting made the tunic difficult to paint and make it look good, but I did what I could.  On the original Land of the Lost, as an Altrusian, Enik was shorter than the Sleestaks too, but I think this figure works well enough.

"Trying to capture me? Your actions are...not logical. I seek only to return to my own time."

Sleestaks!

With a little time off for the holidays, I was able to finish up 5 of my Sleestak miniatures, aka Hissing and Lurching Lizards from Interloper Miniatures.  I just have Enik the Altrusian left to paint, since he has a different palette.

These are fun miniatures that I enjoyed painting and I've got some gaming ideas for them that I'm excited about as well.  I expect to post Enik soon.  Stay Tuned.

In-Progress Sleestaks 2

I'm sorry to report that it's been another slow month painting-wise, however I can assure you that my squad of Sleestaks are very much still in progress...

I hope to finish them soon! Stay tuned.

In-Progress Sleestaks

I like to post to this blog at least once every calendar month, unfortunately I have no new finished minis to show off.  So instead of that, I'm sharing what I currently have in progress: Interloper Miniatures Lurching Lizards, and Hissing Lizards.  These are clearly not-Sleestaks from Land of the Lost and I love them. 

If you are familiar with Land of the Lost you may notice that I have added a green stuff tunic to the figure in the middle to turn him into Enik (pictured below.)

 

 As I noted in my last post (featuring a grey primed fig,) I nearly always prime my figures in white as I generally prefer brighter color or at least the possibility of brighter colors, but for these Sleestaks I went with Army Painter brand "Greenskin" primer.

As soon as I finish these little creepers I will share them here for you enjoyment.  Thanks again for following along!

p.s. Just today Interloper put out a trio of not-Thundarr minis that I am super excited about too!  If you couldn't tell from all of the Gamma World love on this blog, Thundarr was my favorite childhood cartoon.

Stone Giant from Grenadier Troll

One of the miniatures that I recently painted was a cockatrice.  One of my faithful blog readers, Jay, suggested that it would make a good pet for a giant.  I liked that idea and since a cockatrice has a gaze that can turn someone to stone, I figured a stone giant would be the best choice.   I wasn't able to pick up an ideal stone giant miniature, but I found this figure from Grenadier's second Fantasy Lords line, that was meant to be a troll.  I guess he might be small for a giant, but I thought he could make an interesting stone giant with some type of visor in case the cockatrice had any other gaze attacks.  He's not taking any chances. 

Here he is with his "pet."  Should make for a fun encounter.

Here's how he looked when I bought him.

And after soaking in Simple Green for a while:

I primed this figure in grey which I rarely do, and it reminded me of why I generally prefer a white primer.  It really has a dulling effect on colors, which I think worked fine here, but most of the time, it's not for me.

Thanks to Jay for reading and for the idea!

Alpha Centauri from Doctor Who

I bring you Alpha Centauri that squeeky-voiced hermaphroditic hexapod alien delegate from Doctor Who.  This character appeared in the classic episodes Curse of Peladon and Monster of Peladon.

This miniature is from the Harlequin/Black Tree Design line of Doctor Who miniatures.  The sculpt of the arms/claws isn't very defined and they were kind of hard to paint, but otherwise I like it.  A fun little figure.

Alpha Cenaturi and the Doctor.  I need an Ice Warrior, Jo Grant, and maybe a miniature stand-in for Arcturus, right?


I also rebased and touched up some Heroclix minis that I might use for any number of different gaming purposes.

 A vintage grenadier miniature should be next up.  Stay tuned...
    

Hiro's Shadow Scout / Cyclops Heroclix Repaint Etc.

As I have mentioned before, I don't know the first thing about Yu-Gi-Oh, but I grabbed a handful of Yu-Gi-Oh Heroclix because I thought they were cool looking.  Here is one them: "Hiro's Shadow Scout." I re-based it, and used the factory paintjob as a base coat and repainted it from there.  I like how this weird little figure turned out.

Here's a stock photo to give an idea of what it looked like beforehand.  

I also re-based these three other heroclix minis: 2 Yu-Gi-Oh Kinetic Soldiers, and Remac, a DC Comics Heroclix.  The Kinectic Soldiers I slapped a couple of washes on and changed their "eye" color.  

  I figured all of the above would work well for Gamma World or Sci-Fi types of games.  Really, Hiro's Shadow Scout could be used in almost any genre or setting that includes weird creatures.