Lone Wolf or Strider - Citadel Strider from BME1

This is a fairly common miniature on eBay, but a nice one: it's the Aragorn - or, as the tag on the miniature says, Strider - from the Fellowship of the Ring set made by Citadel in 1986.

Image courtesy of Solegends

The sculptor seems to be unknown but it looks to me as something made by Aly or Trish Morrison. Does anybody have better information?

Strider represents an archetype - just like the Evil Warrior and the Necromancer, the Ranger appears in countless stories. Strider is possibly the first of its kind, the one who established the stereotype separating it from the Hunter: the Ranger is something more, a true hero of good with supernatural powers linked to his harmony with nature and the world. D&D classified the Ranger as a class, and so many other RPGs. In Dragonlance Tanis Half-elven was a ranger and in the Forgotten Realms Drizzt Do'Urden was. But one of the most famous, and personally my favourite, is Lone Wolf.

Lone Wolf is in many ways similar to Strider: he belongs to a small, secretive and selected group of individuals, the Kai Lords and the Rangers of the North. He is special and unique even among them: he is either the last survivor of a purge or the last heir to a line of Kings. He has a mission: defeat the Dark Lord or the Dark Lords. He has supernatural powers derived part from training and part from his predestination to be a hero, but he is not a spellcaster. He has a magic sword that flames with golden light and burns evil creatures. 

The two are in fact so similar that this miniature can represent both of them, and it will in my games. About this miniature, I really like the dynamic pose: the character is advancing, possibly running, and he holds his sword forward: his back is covered in a flowing cloak and it looks like he has just unsheathed his weapon and he is holding it like a talisman, both as protection and challenge against his enemies. The sword is clearly the focus of the whole miniature and the source of power of the character - call it Andúril or Sommerswerd, that is an archetype, too, and a very good one.

Leo the Swordsman - Citadel C01 Fighter (1983)

I am not a huge fan of pre-slotta miniatures, but I must admit that some of them are really excellent. This is probably one of the best I've seen around, for the detail and the dynamism of the sculpt. Unfortunately I don't know who is the sculptor for this.

Image courtesy of Solegends

The earliest appearance of this figure seems to be the December 1983 Flyer, adding a few figures to the original C01 Fighters series. Look at the third warrior from the right, on top row - that's him. Let's name him Leo the Swordsman, for convenience.

What I like about Leo is his flowing mane (which I painted dark blonde like a lion's) and his rotating movement, captured in the moment before the swing of his two-handed sword. Leo carries a second sword at his left side, for some strange reason.

This fighter is covered in heavy armour, chain mail with plates on legs, arms and belly. The lack of helm and the screaming face communicate fury and bravery, as if he was about to strike the killing blow against a mortal enemy.

My first WFB game

I grew up in Milan as a city boy, living in a flat. I was lucky enough, being a single child, to have my own room, but I never had a large gaming space or table, like people with a house do. As a result, even if I had miniatures to play as a teenager, I wouldn’t have had the space to play games with them.

This all changed when I was 39, on 8th November 2018. Last summer I closed part the roof turning it into a veranda, and the other day I received the table, which I promptly set up as a gaming table for my first ever real game of Warhammer Fantasy Battle.

Let me stress this:
MY. FIRST. GAME. OF. WARHAMMER. FANTASY. BATTLE.

Here I need to explain two things: first, I’ve been an Oldhammerer since 1995, but I always played WFRP, not the Fantasy Battle. Second, in 1996-ish, I actually bought two units of High Elves from a friend, and we spend an afternoon setting up a game of WFB, but being young, inexperienced in wargames and not really strong in interpreting photocopied English-language battle manuals, we never really got beyond the shooting phase of the first turn, so that doesn’t count.

But now I am playing, even if solo, and I feel like a happy teenager, overly excited about his toy soldiers and cardboard buildings, jumping up and down as he sets up the table.

This of course deserves a battle report, for obviously historical records. The battle was between two small forces of High Elves (those High Elves, yes, waiting for actions for 23 years) and Undead, with the fluff going more or less like this: Thelenor the Vengeful, Knight of Caledor, was at the command of a small force of High Elves aboard the ship Sunsail, which was docked near the coast of Bretonnia, north of Mousillon, to monitor piracy and smuggling, when he received a plea from the villagers on the coast. A Necromancer, Jacques Prévert, was half a day away with an army of undead and heading for the village, with the aim of increasing his forces. Thelenor, bored with the long inactivity and longing to ride on dry land, immediately mobilized his forces. He ordered the evacuation of the village of Sablont and as the inhabitants boarded their boats, Thelenor’s forces took defensive position around the village and especially its graveyard, where the Necromancer would probably be heading.

Thelenor’s forces were so composed (for a total of 845 points):

• Thelenor the Vengeful, lvl 15 High Elf Hero, Mounted on Warhorse, armed with a Blade of Piercing
• 4 Caledor Knights (Heavy Knights) mounted on Warhorses
• 10 Elven Spearmen
• 10 Elven Archers
• Tordael, lvl 10 Elf Archmage

As dusk neared, the forces of the Necromancer appeared (for a total of 692 points):

• Jacques Prévert, lvl 25 Necromancer, equipped with Staff of Intelligence, Will and Impunity
• 20 Zombies
• Théophile Gautier, lvl 15 Undead Hero
• 9 Skeleton Warriors

The Undead approached the village divided in three units: Théophile with his Skeletons from the South, trying to draw Thelenor’s Knights out of the village. On his right 10 zombies were ready to support him. Prévert marched with other 10 Zombies from the East, heading directly towards the graveyard, only protected on that side by the Elf Archers under the command of Tordael.

Turn 1

Théophile manoeuvred to draw the knights out of their defensive positions, while Prévert marched at full speed towards the graveyard, opening hostilities with a volley of fireballs that engulfed three archers. Thelenor took the bait and ordered an immediate charge on the Skeletons, hoping to vanquish them easily but only destroying three and wounding lightly their leader. Behind him, the Elven Spearmen followed up to protect his rear. The archers turned to face the Zombies and fired at them, but only felled one: Todael bravely fired his only Fireball at the enemy, burning three more Zombies.

At this point it was already midnight and, to my surprise, I heard a bird singing on top of the veranda - what could it be? A quick search on the internet through bird songs informed me it was probably a robin, possibly confused by the unusual light. Sorry little friend! I’ll try not to disturb you too much in the future!

Turn 2

The knights of Caledor, to their horror, found themselves bogged down in the fight with the Skeletons, fighting until the very last of them was destroyed. On their rear, the Elf Spearmen met with the charge of the Zombies, resisting valiantly but only putting down 3 of them. Meanwhile the Necromancer was reaching the graveyard and casting a Fetid Cloud on it: Tordael, having lost another Elf, showed great leadership in executing a complex manoeuvre to march backwards, out of reach for the enemy and the Fetid Cloud, while shooting and casting (Destroy Undead) at the Zombies. These were badly hit and, by the end of the turn, Prévert stood alone in the graveyard.

Even a 1'' Fetid Cloud can be quite deadly

Prevert stands alone in the graveyard, all his creatures destroyed

It was quite late now, and I decided to go to bed and continue the following day…


Turn 3

Prévert was now standing alone in the centre of the graveyard: in spite of being faced with so many enemies, he smiled a mad smile, while he chanted a spell... and all his fallen zombies began to rise, and the tombs opened to let out old skeletons. In but a few moments, he was surrounded by new undead warriors (he cast Raise Dead, getting 21 between Zombies and Skeletons).

Unnerved by this development, the elven archers retreated some steps back in order to avoid the Fetid Cloud moving in their direction; they shot their arrows and Tordael cast again his curses (Destroy Undead) felling 6 Zombies on the spot. Meanwhile Thelenor and his knights, having vanquished the Skeletons to the south, turned their steeds and came to help the spearmen. Their charge hit the Zombies hard, but still they carried on fighting, unable to feel fear.


Turn 4

Prévert separated Skeletons from Zombies and ordered the latter to charge Tordael and his archers, confident that they would not resist, but he underestimated his own Fetid Cloud: out of six Zombies who entered it, only two survived. One was impaled by the dagger of Tordael, while another was pushed back into the Cloud and killed by it.


But the Necromancer was not overly concerned with the archers, and made to turn against the other Elves. As the last Zombies were butchered by Elf Knights and Spearmen, the Skeletons left the graveyard and advanced through the swampy terrain next to it. The Elves accepted the challenge and, after killing the last Zombie, they prepared to charge.


It was at this point that Prévert cast a volley of fireballs against the knights, killing two of them on the spot and sending the others into an inglorious flight, along with their leader who could not restrain his horse. The Elf Spearmen, showing great discipline, charged the Skeletons, pushing them back towards the graveyard.

The outcome of the volley of fireballs...

The spearmen charge through the swamp

Turn 5

Prévert was now exhausted: he had no more strength to cast any spell and had to rely only on his Skeletons, pushed back by the Spearmen and targeted by the Archers. In his panic, he forgot to make use of the Fetid Cloud, which could have helped him against his foes, and he simply tried to break fight and flee the battlefield, but he could not control his own forces and was delayed, as the Elven Spearmen destroyed his Skeletons and gravely wounded him.


On the other side of the battlefield, Thelenor at last managed to ease his steed and turn it to face his foe. He rode like the wind, alone and last of the Knights of Caledor, to meet his enemy.

"I should probably go back... "

Turn 6

The Necromancer finally managed to retreat from the fight, marching backwards towards the edge of the table. He attempted to move the Fetid Cloud and use it as a barrier, but his power was now too weak (having rolled 1 on a d6, he moved the cloud only 1''). The Spearmen charged him once again, joined by Thelenor, and Prévert at last met his end from the tip of an elven spear. Thus the battle of Sablont ended.

The Aftermath

Thelenor returned to the Sunsail with a heavy heart. Although he was hailed as a saviour by the villagers, many valiant Elves had fallen against the Undead, and he had marred his reputation by fleeing the spells of the Necromancer. At least Prevert was now dead, and his accursed staff was held on the elven ship. Tordael would study it, hoping to increase his basic skills of Necromancy that had allowed him to keep at bay a much stronger Wizard. He was the true hero of Sablont battle, having defended the graveyard and delayed the Necromancer until the arrival of reinforcements. The villagers were grateful to the Elves and would remember the event for generations, telling the legends of the Death of the Necromancer.

The battle was immense fun. WFB 3rd edition is a bit slow but in my opinion strikes a nice balance between fun and realism. The best part was seeing how the battle evolved into an epic story. Can't wait to play again, possibly against a human adversary!

Wormtongue - Mithril M181 (1990)

The early '90s are my favourite period in Mithril production and this piece clearly confirms the rule: it is just lovely. Sculpted of course by C. Tubb, it is part of the Isengard range. The figure conveys perfectly the characteristics of the character from the book, Gríma Wormtongue:

"At his feet upon the steps sat a wizened figure of a man, with a pale wise face and heavy-lidded eyes."

"He looked at them with half-closed eyes. Last of all he scanned Théoden's face and opened his mouth as if to speak. Then suddenly he drew himself up. His hands worked. His eyes glittered. Such malice was in them that men stepped back from him. He bared his teeth; and then with a hissing breath he spat before the king's feet, and darting to one side, he fled down the stair."

TT, The King of the Golden Hall

 Wormtongue is short, slightly hunched, working his hands and looking with half-closed eyes in front of him, ever calculating, ever playing his words like cards in a game. Dressed in rich garb, he looks far from noble - quite the opposite.

To do the miniature justice, I painted it in pastel colours drawing inspiration from High Middle Ages miniatures. His robe of sea green is trimmed in silver and he wears a shirt of dark purple, light purple trousers and gaiters of nice yellow leather. He is, of course, pale and blonde, like most of the Rohirrim.

Yes, blonde. It doesn't say anywhere that he was dark haired. People just picture him dark haired because he's evil.

Ralph Bakshi's version

Brothers Hildebrandt

John Howe

Peter Jackson's version

 

Seriously, what's up with him? If he's the only raven-haired person, dressed all in black, among a golden-haired people dressing in green and white, how did they not figure out he was evil? So much for subtlety XD

Change of Blog Name

Right... I must admit that "Of Tiny Men and Big People" was never a good name. A friend once told it could have been a blog about homosexual fetishes, were it not for the initial "Of". It was supposed to be clever, but it was in fact awful. As aware as I was of that, no other good name came up and I generally refused to call the page "Kuang Biye's Den" or something like that.

A lot of things have happened in the meantime - I moved to a new house - a top floor apartment full of light - I built a veranda on the roof and turned it into a space for playing wargames. Playing on the top of a building is nice, not only for the light, but also for the view and the relative quiet one can enjoy. One can imagine to be on top of a tower, a wizard's tower maybe. A tower could be a good name, but a tower of what? Around here, by day, there are only loud crows, but none of them actually nests here as far as I know. In Summer there there are plenty of lizards, but Tower of Lizards sounds like a ruin.

The illumination came to me a few days ago, as I was playing deep in the night, trying the rules of WFB 3ed by myself. Around midnight, a robin started to cry and as I went outside, I found there were several of them merrily chirping in the night. Apparently they live here, but they only come out by night - during the day, traffic and crows possibly disturb them.

So here it is, the new name of the blog, the Tower of Crows and Robins. I hope you like it better than the old one.

Enjoy!

Bull Slann with Scimitar - Diehard Miniatures Eru-kin (2017)

I'm starting to like these. This is the second Eru-kin I paint and I enjoy it. It's a nice miniature with the right proportions and fun to paint.

I went for a black and yellow pattern, on a green skin. The shield came out particularly well, and I especially like it since it's a homage to this picture by Paul Bonner - in my opinion, one of the best Slann images ever.

The Menhir

Experimenting with terrain... pretty happy with the first results.

The base is thick, double-layered cardboard, originally the base for a cake. The stone was made with Das clay and then drybrushed in black and greys. The base was sprinkled with sand, drybrushed, and then I glued some static grass.

I need to do another one of this, where I actually engrave some symbols in the stone. I think they'll look good. Also, proportions work well with 15mm scale, but on 25mm it looks small.

GW Zombies (1999)

I've decided to take a very big step in my Warhammerer career, that is to jump from single miniatures to units, and that's because I want not only to use them in my WFRP games, but also try and play some WFB and Mordheim (Age of Sigmar not sure frankly).

I already painted some Goblins and it went good, so now I purchased a box of zombies.

They were an interesting set, quite iconic and recently replicated in the mobile game Mordheim, of which I'm a frequent player. They have a funny look at first, very unrealistic and disproportionate, but overall very Warhammer-y.

However, what I really liked about them is the degree of customization that is possible, something that convicned me to paint each of them separately. This took several months, but it was fun playing with poses and washes to represent blood, bruises and rot. The specimen above is particularly funny, as it's wielding another zombie's leg as a weapon.

With minimum effort, it was possible to add some extra detail like gowns for those zombies that looked more feminine.

This is probably one of my favourites, holding a severed limb in his mouth.

And this one is holding two severed heads, possibly elven.

For the skin, I painted all of them in Zandri Dust, and washed with a selection of colours: Seraphim Sepia for old, dried zombies; Athonian Camo for the younger, still rotting ones; and Reikland Fleshshade for the recently dead, still holding some blood under the skin. I also experimented with Drakenhof Nightshade for a drowned, bluish look. After the first wash I applied plenty of spots of Agrax Earthshade, Carroburg Crimson and Druchii Violet. It was very time consuming but it paid off in terms of dead look.

Fantasy Visuals: Jeff Jones

 

Jeff Jones, sometimes referenced as Jeffrey Catherine Jones, was a US artist that worked in the 1960s and 1970s, doing comics and fantasy art. Although not as famous as other of his contemporaries, he was a greatly talented and respected illustrator.

He was born Jeffrey Durwood Jones in Atlanta, Georgia, on 10th January 1944, the son of a US Army soldier. He spent his youth in Atlanta and then enrolled in Georgia State College: there he met his future wife, Mary Louise Alexander, and the two married in 1966, having a daughter, Julianna, the following year. Jones graduated in that same period, in 1967, as a geologist. His great interest, though, was art and soon he left Georgia with his family and moved to New York City where his talent was immediately recognized: in that same year he was nominated for the Hugo Award to the best fan artist. He started drawing comics and then covers for sci-fi and fantasy books and his career immediately took off. But things were not easy for the family, and in the early 1970s he and his wife divorced.

I wish I was there (1969)

Ceremony (1970)

From 1972 to 1975 the National Lampoon gave him a full page for a strip titled Idyl.

In 1975, Jones joined the Studio, a collective workspace in Manhattan shared with Bernie Wrightson, Barry Windsor-Smith and Michael Kaluta. This was one of the first experiments of shared space for artists, which ensured their independence from corporate constraints, and was soon imitated by many other groups.

In 1979 Jones left the Studio, after publishing a volume with their collective work. In 1980 he received a full page strip in Heavy Metal titled I’m Age. 

Yet at that time Jones was already developing an interest in Expressionism and gradually losing interest in comics.

In 1986 Jones received the World Fantasy Award as best artist.

Since childhood, Jones had not felt comfortable being a man and he secretly wished to be a woman. In 1998 he confronted these issue and started hormone replacement therapy and legally changed his gender, taking the name of Jeffrey Catherine Jones. The transition was not easy and in 2001 Jones suffered a nervous breakdown which brought to the loss of her studio and home. It took three years to recover, but in 2004 she resumed painting and drawing again.

Jones died on 19th May 2011 from severe emphysema and bronchitis.

Jones was a master of styles and during her career she experimented with many of them, notably pencils, ink, oil and watercolours. Reputedly Frank Frazetta called her “the greatest living painter”.

Jones’s style was heavily influenced by Frazetta in subject and form: she was fond of drawing naked bodies of warriors and amazons and great beasts, applying heavy light and shadow and using simple, monochromatic backgrounds. But Jones’s art was somewhat lighter, more playful and positive, especially on his women. He once declared “I am a romantic and a painter and I love women… The female form just reflects light so simply and beautifully,”. 

In her later years, her style veered towards more delicate and personal subjects, especially portraits of women.