From Curt: Fire Ember Kobolds for D&D

In my previous post I introduced our original party of D&D adventurers from 1980. From that, my friend Gary and I have decided to amuse ourselves by playing a small campaign which will serve as the prelude chapter for our doughty heroes.

So, for their first adventure, I thought I'd start them off with some classic, old-school, low-level dungeon villains in the form of, yes, you guessed it, Kobolds!

So, with Kobolds in mind, I had to find some figures that could fill the ranks. This was a little difficult as I didn't really like many of the dog-faced versions, preferring the more draconic look.

To the rescue came this boxed set from Epic Encounters aptly titled the 'Shrine of the Kobold Queen'. 

With this set, not only do you get a good sized batch of Kobolds, but you're also treated with an additional monster (a Basilisk!), an excellent adventure and a two-sided play mat - a terrific value! (I say in my best car salesman voice)

Out of the box, they came in bright red, moulded hard plastic. The sculpts are pretty characterful, well-defined and a pleasure to paint. Below is a sampling of the twenty miniatures from the set. 

Kobold warriors with bow and spear & shield. There are eight of these in the box, giving a nice base for the mob.

Fire Ember Snakes with Kobold rider. There are four of these in the set - Giddyup!

As I wanted to get them on the table for play, I didn't shilly-shally around with a lot of fine detail. Lots of contrast paints and a few highlights - Bam! Done.

Kobold Kleric

Kobold Champion

One of the two Kobold Assassins

Magma Belcher Basilisk(!) and Kobold handlers

Yep, a poster-child for mirrors and Pepto Bismol, this guy barfs lava AND can turn you to stone. So, definitely not recommended as a house pet.

Mother Krangor

As to points, I'm scoring the 14 rank and file Kobolds as 20mm foot figures and the Basilisk as the equivalent of a 20mm gun. Mother Krangor and the Fire Ember Snakes I think are around 40mm. So, that gives me a grand total of 99 points. This, added to the 30 points of my other two posts, will give me 129 points, enough to exceed my 120 point target. Hooray! This is especially good, as scuttlebutt has it that my age group is getting called up for the jab soon.

That being said I hope to have another couple of entries up soon!

- Curt

From StuartL - An Imperial Guardsman

Hi All,

I haven't posted anything for a while, so first off I'd like to apologise for that. Sorry. After AHPC XI, I thought that I was ready to get back to the painting desk straight away, but as it transpires, I needed a little time to refresh. Having previously painted up a single marine for the Vaccine Challenge, I have now painted up a single Imperial Guardsman. 

I started painting up a bunch of minis a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn't seem to get them looking right. In frustration I gave up on them and decided it was time for a break. Over the winter holidays, I had downloaded a bunch of PC games, so I figured that they would provide a bit of a distraction from the old painting desk. I got really into a game called Wargame: Red Dragon, a cold-war tactical simulator with US, Chinese, and Russian armies among others. I spent every free minute for the past week or so playing it until I finally got bored. I finally went back to my hobby room on Friday evening and started looking over the models I had started previously to see where I could pick up from.

There are a few more models in the works, but I did get this one guy finished and ready for photographing. I'm trying to avoid batch painting for a while, so there is just one lone guardsman here. I've added some insignia to the shoulder pads as well as some weathering on his armour and gun.

Hopefully you'll be seeing a lot more of my posts over the next few weeks. I've got my head back in the game and a stack of minis to paint up.