THE GREMLINS OF THE TCHANKIN TOWERS

Another unit of Ral Partha oldies flapping onto the table with the dry rustle and creak of leathery wings . The Gremlins live in tall windowless towers in the howling deserts, south of Vassago's realm. They follow his armies in the hope of plunder in the form of iron which they carry back to the towers to rust and form what they call "tchankins" corroded items of the human world , which are valued highly in the Gremlin community.

In the pic below from the left

Ral Partha PATTGBITN 01005 V1 Winged Gremlin with sword

Ral Partha PATTGBITN 01005 V2 

Ral Partha PATTGBITN 01028 Gremlin War Party V1 (3 FIGS)

The gremlin war party was one of the first packs I bought in 1979ish, and they struck me then as particularly sinister and appeared in a dungeon adventure I ran at school . My original figures were painted thickly with Humbrol enamel Flesh and Gold if I remember correctly.

THE HARPIES OF TRANTALUS

Swooping out of the steamy caverns of Trantalus come the fiery harpies, bound by Lord Vassago to do his bidding, and bearing the Vile Rune on their shields to show their allegiance to him.

Another unit of fliers for my Dever Wars project. Ral Partha winged demons from the Personalities range.

MORE TROLLS

More trolls stampede through a hamlet. Another batch of underbridge dwellers to go with the previous ones I painted. This lot were done with washes rather than hightlighting which is much quicker. A mix of Citadel Fantasy Tribes and some great Asgard sculpts by Nick Bibby (his trolls are scaly which is good).

Below they muster with the older paint jobs.

IMP WAR PARTY

Having finished a few undead units, I thought I would move on to some aerial bods. Ral Partha Imps, looking suspiciously like the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz film (how they used to scare me).

The leader is Ral Partha demon

SPIRITS OF THE BEDSTAFF

In the M R James story "Two Doctors" reference is made to "the affair of the bedstaff", which is left unexplained to the reader (in cunning Jamesian style). A bedstaff seems to have been a wooden pin for securing the bed linen in times of yore, to stop the sheets slipping off.

These bedclothes seem to have acquired a life all of their own, as well as some gardening implements. More lovely Ral Partha figures from 1977, this is one of my favourites, later copied by Citadel in their Fiend Factory range. I decided to stick to the traditional sheeted phantom colour scheme.

I love the way the cloth hangs down over the face, and the hands (or whatever things worse than hands) are covered, so you are not sure if there is anything or not under there.

HOW DOES AN EGYPTIAN DOORBELL WORK?

Just toot and come in. Here we have some well wrapped warriors from 1977 by Ral Partha. The faceless pose is the standard Mummy figure from the Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night range, but the chap with his face showing I think must be from some boxed sets Ral Partha released in the late 70's, if I remember correctly each box was a little game in itself. I must look them up in White Dwarf when I get a chance.

Very easy paint job....just coat d'arms linen washed with Agrax Earthshade...... 

EARLIEST PICTURE OF A FANTASY BATTLE?

I came across this wonderful picture on Playing at the World blog showing a fantasy battle put on in 1970 at a Miniature Figures Collectors of America convention. The fort (Minas Tirith in the game) is a converted Airfix Roman fort and I can make out Airfix Robin Hood figures there as well. Isn't it splendid?