A thing a week 2020, week 32

This week we're back to minis but with a special theme!  As I've noted the last few weeks, I've got some larger projects bubbling under the surface and we'll hopefully be able to catch up with that stuff soon.

I purchased these ADnD Adventures 11-002 Clerics with Staff and Warhammer somewhere in the early 90s when I started playing RPGs (2nd Ed ADnD, if you're curious).  They were some of the first minis I ever purchased and they're older than many of my current players.  When these miniatures were released, gas was 90 cents a gallon.  The 80386 was the fastest Intel desktop CPU you could buy running at a scorching 12MHz and big hair was all the rage.  Yeah, it was a different time.

I went with a Clyde Caldwell color scheme to match the era in which they were sculpted.  This is pretty much what fantasy art looked like in the days before most art was done digitally and shared on the intertoobs and it's one of the few things I have nostalgia for.  I did make one significant change, though.  I'm pretty sure these were intended to be pantsless which I think is just plain dumb.  Sane people don't go traipsing through the wilderness sans pants and unless the climate is so super hot that wearing metal armor would burn, I can't imagine these folks wouldn't cover up.  A thing that I wanted to change but didn't was her awful boob armor.  I'm not an expert but I'm pretty sure boobs don't work that way.  At least she's not on stilettos.  

Despite my issues with her armor, I still think these are great sculpts faithfully capturing an all-but-forgotten age in the hobby.  There are a lot of details, many of which are quite hard to reach--a thing that modern mini sculptors try to avoid.  Despite intending them to be a speed-paint between other work I still spent six-ish hours on these two over a couple days with special attention to their faces.  I rather enjoyed painting these which helps explain the next two.

These two rogues were bought around the same time; maybe in the same transaction.  I don't like 11-005 thieves with shortsword and sling as much as I liked the clerics but these were primed and ready to go so I figured this was as good a time as any.  These are also highly detailed and probably also intended to be bare legged but I see no reason to give up on my "Pants For Rat Catchers" campaign yet.  Their armor is similarly cringeworthy but I didn't let that get in the way of doing what I could within about seven hours over a few days.

It's worth noting that these are in something approaching 25mm scale which means they're considerably smaller than contemporary figures which are usually done in 28mm or 32mm heroic scale.  This makes all of the tiny details that much harder to deal with.  Luckily, being made of metal, all of the details are still crisp which helps quite a lot.  It's a pretty stark distinction from Reaper Bones figs which tend to be soft and muddy, though the Reaper Bones Black figs are going in a better direction.

2020 finished mini counter:  68/50