This is a nice miniature, even by Mithril's excellent standards. It belongs to what I consider the height of Mithril Miniatures and of Chris Tubb's sculpting skills. It was nice to paint, too - to be honest, the pictures don't do justice to the paintjob, which is better than my average.
I bought this miniature during a Kickstarter from Westfalia in 2019 or so. The moment I saw it I knew I had to have it - it was, after all, modelled blatantly on Martin McKenna's excellent illustration from the WFRP Drachenfels sourcebook.
When finally I got it I got quite intimidated by it and it sat in a box for a while. That is until February 2021, when fellow Oldhammerist @paula_she_creature launched a competition on undead. Martin McKenna had recently passed away at 51, and his death still made me uneasy. Martin was one of the essential Oldhammer artists to me. His work in the Enemy Within campaign defined it, and any new edition without his art is watered down to me. So to remember him I decided to give a go to this miniature.
The curse of Drachenfels still hung on anything connected to him: the miniature fell from the table (I almost never drop my miniatures, and this dropped twice), breaking index and middle finger and the horns of the helm. I was able to fix the latter, but the beautiful hand is forever gone.
Other than this, the miniature was easy and fun to paint. Here it is, in all its darkness. Drachenfels, the Great Enchanter, Warhammer's first and most insane supervillain.
Godspeed wherever you are Martin. We already miss your art.
This is a nice little miniature, which has only one fault: it lacks a shield. The rest is both beautiful and fun to paint. Chris Tubb deserves a good praise for this 2002 sculpt.
Gamling is an interesting character in LotR: he is an old man, leader of the warriors Erkenbrand left as a garrison of Helm's Deep. He seems to be a veteran of considerable age, but if his body is weakened by senility, his mind and heart are still strong, as he shows in many occasions when he leads the defenders against the forces of Isengard. He survives the battle and nothing is said about his again, so we must assume he dies of old age. He is a minor character, but one of those memorable enough to deserve remembering.
Not many depictions exists of him. By far the best I know is from Angus McBride:
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"If they come to bargain for our goods at Helm's Gate, they will pay
a high price,"
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Bakshi's animated movie ignores him as a character, and PJ's movies have him as a generic warrior guy:
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| "I'm actually fourty-five." |
I liked the idea of Gamling being a sort of Castellan of Helm's Deep, a vicecomes to Erkenbrand, so he would have a nice uniform even though he would not be heavily armed. I painted him in green and red, with a black leather jerkin and a white cloak. Incidentally his cloak came out really nice, and it might well be the second coat I paint that I don't hate. Good stuff.
I think my Rohan force is coming up well. I might even be able to play a mini-skirmish sometimes.
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| "Forth, Helmingas!" |
Digging into the bottom of the lead-pile here. These beauties came from over the pond something like 6 years ago, when I first got into the hobby. Khurasan is an excellent company and I did a sample order that sadly sits in a corner of my man-cave because most of it is 15mm and now I am more into 28mm.
Nonetheless, this Winter I returned to my passion for all things Manchu and decided to finish painting my bannermen, as members of the Bordered Yellow Banner. Here they are.
I could write a book about Manchus, and as a matter of fact I am. So I won't bore you with additional details. Just enjoy these armoured horse-archers spurring their steeds forward.
I don't post much about historical miniatures. Truth is that those very miniatures got me into the hobby, as one of the first posts on this blog attests. I like historical miniatures very much but the problem is that I don't get much chance to play with them. Yet, every now and then I distract myself with a set of them.
Out of all history, my favourite period is the Iron Century, that dark age between 888, the death of the last Carolingian Emperor, and 961, the crowning of Otto the Great, in many ways the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. Few companies do Carolingians, and I decided to test one, Artizan Design, now a daughter company of North Star Figures which is one of the best miniature companies out there.
So without further ado, here's three milites, that is knights, from the period.
Gaidwald is a North Italian miles, most probably of Lombard origin. He wears a spangenhelm of rather old design, with a nasal guard, cheek-pieces and a crest.
Folcuin is a Frankish North-Italian miles. He wears a typical Carolingian kettle helm. I am particularly proud of the grey steed he rides - it was a tough job to stipple those spots, but in the end the result is ok.
