Veteran miniatures

[Rob Dean 14732]

I finally finished the basing and got some varnish on some vintage figures.

 

These two are the veterans of the crew; they are Minifigs ME (Mythical Earth, AKA Lord of the Rings) figures from about 1974.  The ME34 Ithilien ranger is masked in the sculpt; some of the Minifigs faces were a bit rudimentary, but not that much!  He's from an eBay lot, since my brother retains (and uses) the originals that we had.  The ME56 heavy goblin is one of our original figures, from Rider's Hobby Shop in Ann Arbor, ca.1975.  I had some fun with his shield.  I've got seven of them, and want to paint all the shields differently, but the rest of the goblins will probably be jealous of this one.

 

 

I finished these two Heritage figures on a recent business trip, with my travel paint kit.  On the left is a movie Boromir (catalog number 1750), which is actually a Classic Miniatures modern casting.  He's the last of the nine Fellowship characters to be finished, not being my favorite. (I never liked Bakshi's depiction of Boromir, representative of the last great civilization in Middle Earth, as a horn-helmeted barbarian...) The figure on the right is a vintage cleric (1101), part of a pack of four expansion characters for the Dungeon boardgames, as best I can tell.

 

Here's a group shot of the Fellowship, now that they are all finished...short people to the front!

[Pingo 109314]

Ah yes, Bakshi's Latino Aragorn.   

 

For 1974 figures those first two look great!  I'm thinking it must be your paint job because I've seen raw Minifigs.

[Glitterwolf 201849]

Nice!

[Rob Dean 14732]

25 minutes ago, Pingo said:

For 1974 figures those first two look great!  I'm thinking it must be your paint job because I've seen raw Minifigs.

 

 

Thanks!  I've been working on techniques to make the most of what is there on the old Minifigs. My near term intention, since a bunch of them have fallen back into my hands, is to build Dragon Rampant war bands with them. The next challenge (as in, I primed them recently) is going to be a group of the hobbits from that range, which are both tiny and primitive.

[Pingo 109314]

5 minutes ago, Rob Dean said:

 

 

Thanks!  I've been working on techniques to make the most of what is there on the old Minifigs. My near term intention, since a bunch of them have fallen back into my hands, is to build Dragon Rampant war bands with them. The next challenge (as in, I primed them recently) is going to be a group of the hobbits from that range, which are both tiny and primitive.

 

Yep.  I possess a couple of identical old Minifig hobbits carrying polearms, still connected at the base.  They are tiny and their faces seem to be little more than gouged out eye sockets and smiles.  Definitely a challenge!  Good luck.

[Tjrez 1117]

love the old minis, nice job on the painting

[72moonglum 14756]

3 hours ago, Pingo said:

Ah yes, Bakshi's Latino Aragorn.   

 

For 1974 figures those first two look great!  I'm thinking it must be your paint job because I've seen raw Minifigs.

I never really thought of him as Latino (until now) but rather craggy and sun-baked. 

 

Beautiful job on the figures Rob!

[malefactus 53632]

MiniFigs have a certain charm all their own. The Valley of the Four Winds & their Eighteenth Century are the ones with which I am most familiar, but these are also fine examples of their style.

AND you have made THE MOST of that style & brought out all their charm WONDERFULLY. The little Folk are all BEAUTIFULLY  painted & based creations. I am especially fond of the Hobbits...I'm normally not a big Hobbit Fan. VERY WELL DONE!

Edited May 28, 2017 by malefactus

[Clearman 11576]

These are awesome.  I really love the old school figures.  My collection only goes back to the mid to late eighties Grenadier and Ral Partha. 

[Thes Hunter 43784]

Ah yes. Rider's Hobby's in Ann Arbor MI. It was my store, and were most of my hard earned allowance was spent growing up. Though the Meijer's across the street took some of it as well, back in the day when they sold D&D (1st ed, books and modules). 

 

(Though I wasn't in the habit of going to Rider's in 1975... I was only 2. :lol:)

[Glamberry 1028]

It's very strange to think of these minis as older than me...and by 13 years! You did a wonderful job! I actually really like the mask, and the shield looks like something a goblin would totally fancy xD

[Rob Dean 14732]

22 hours ago, Pingo said:

 

Yep.  I possess a couple of identical old Minifig hobbits carrying polearms, still connected at the base.  They are tiny and their faces seem to be little more than gouged out eye sockets and smiles.  Definitely a challenge!  Good luck.

 

I recall helping with the ID at one point. I think you have the D&D Hobbits. I have a few, so here's a comparison with two of them on the left, and the strip of three hobbits from the ME range.

 

The sculpting is similarly primitive, but the D&D hobbits are better fed.

 

15 hours ago, Thes Hunter said:

Ah yes. Rider's Hobby's in Ann Arbor MI. It was my store, and were most of my hard earned allowance was spent growing up. Though the Meijer's across the street took some of it as well, back in the day when they sold D&D (1st ed, books and modules). 

 

(Though I wasn't in the habit of going to Rider's in 1975... I was only 2. :lol:)

 

I was an undergrad at Michigan from 1978 to 1982, so the Rider's I usually visited was the original store on Liberty just past Main; I only visited the outlying stores later. In 1975, Rider's meant convincing my father to make a special trip to Ann Arbor, since we lived in Dearborn Heights, 25 miles away.

[Rob Dean 14732]

19 hours ago, malefactus said:

MiniFigs have a certain charm all their own. The Valley of the Four Winds & their Eighteenth Century are the ones with which I am most familiar, but these are also fine examples of their style.

 

Thanks! The VFW figures weren't much seen in my local hobby shops, and I didn't have any of them back in the day. I'm much attracted to them now; the whole Bosch thing is pretty unusual, even today.

 

18 hours ago, hdclearman said:

These are awesome.  I really love the old school figures.  My collection only goes back to the mid to late eighties Grenadier and Ral Partha. 

 

...which is about where mine ends, at least temporarily.

 

1 hour ago, Glamberry said:

It's very strange to think of these minis as older than me...and by 13 years! You did a wonderful job! I actually really like the mask, and the shield looks like something a goblin would totally fancy xD

 

I'm glad that young people are still coming into the hobby.

[Pingo 109314]

13 minutes ago, Rob Dean said:

 

I recall helping with the ID at one point. I think you have the D&D Hobbits. I have a few, so here's a comparison with two of them on the left, and the strip of three hobbits from the ME range.

 

The sculpting is similarly primitive, but the D&D hobbits are better fed.

 

I have two of the one on the far left, standing on one long strip of lead.  I am half tempted to paint them up as Brian from "Knights of the Dinner Table".

[malefactus 53632]

The round face & more robust build is the way Mini Figs evolved. It's their own signature style & the style I came to love.

I still have a couple of the Valley of the Four Winds minis kicking around in The Vault...now I'll have to find them.