BROADSWORD MINIATURES

Saturday 18 March 2017

TRILLS OR TROLLS?

These bods were sold as Trills. I'm not sure what a Trill is, but I like the figures from 1977. In fact I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion the very early Ral Partha ranges are some of my favourites. Tom Meier obviously had a penchant for classical armour, as many of his sculpts wear it, these guys being no exception.


There were 2 different figures in a bag. One with a naginata, one with a falcata. Amazingly I still had the naginata from the ones I bought in 1980, and I made another up using broken bits and pieces from the bits box. Again they sport the Vile Rune on their bronze aspis.

15 comments:

  1. I ended up with one of these chaps in an ebay lot - always wondered what he was! Nice work as always.

    I wonder if the Vile Rune here had any links with the Vile Rune Tribe of Orcs who feature on the Orc's Drift scenario pack?

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    1. Hi Thantsants. I borrowed The Vile Rune name from Thistlewood in WD45, one of Joe Dever's scenarios. I was getting into Cthulhu stuff by the time the Orcs Drift appeared I think (about 1985?). The Rune itself is from Runequest I think, but tickled my interest in Horned Gods and their symbols.

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    2. Quite a cross pollination of sources going on there!

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    3. Never seen these before, odd, but I like their mixture of brutish bodies and refined armour. BTW Vile Rune Orcs also appear in the 1977 AD&D Monster Manual.

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    4. Ahh Zhu, keeper of the annals of Orcdom. That's interesting about the MM. I still have mine, but I admit I haven't looked at it for a while, and gone are the days I used to know it off by heart. I really hoped to quiz Joe Dever one day about his early games, but sadly that won't be possible now (and hopefully not for a good few years).

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  2. These are great. I've always admired Tom Meier's work. In fact I have three Fantasy Tribe Trolls (FTT1-3) winging their way to me from the Netherlands as I write. Whilst I think about it, do you have any tips for stripping old lead painted with enamels? Ta!

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    1. Oooh goody, I like the FT trolls. I think everbody has different methods for stripping down figures. I tend to soak them in Dettol for 3 or 4 days, remove (gagging on the disgusting smell) and scrub with cheap washing up liquid (NO WATER). I then rinse in warm water. Invariably there is some residue left, so I then put them to soak in a jar of oven cleaner for a couple of days. Sometimes the oven cleaner is fine on it's own, especially with smooth castings like Minifigs. Hope that helps!!

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    2. I've seen our pjs on the FT Trolls in a previous post. Great stuff! Thanks for the advice re. stripping. I usually use paint/varnish stripper, but wasn't sure if this would be too harsh for older lead.

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    3. I don't think it's too harsh on the lead, just completely grim to use (I have used Nitromors in the past, but it's deadly stuff).

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    4. I usually move onto the Nitromors once the cooking brandy's all gone.

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    5. Whilst on the subject of Meier would you be interested in putting in a combined order from Thunderbolt Mountain at some point? I really want some of those Wood Elves!

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    6. I may be up for that, I quite fancy a 20 figure pack of their armoured goblins, plus a command pack. Let me know when you want to order and I'll send you the codes.

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  3. I do like the classical armour vibe.

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    1. Yes, it's a strange mix as Zhu notes. The RP crouching orcs have grecian armour on too.

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  4. I remember the first time I saw Tom Meier's work back i the day...couldn't believe the detail he put into his work. Often wondered if the Trill was a miss-type that stuck.

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