Hi everyone :)
Next up in my series looking at small mini creators and how we can help them is Oathsworn Miniatures. More specifically I'll be looking at miniatures from their Burrows and Badgers Range. As ever, I'm not getting paid to write this content, and have paid for the minis. Pictures of the originals are taken from the kickstarter page (here) and thus belong to them and not me.
Burrows and Badgers itself is a tabletop skirmish game with rules by Osprey games. You can find more about the game here. Oathsworn produce the miniatures for the game and they already have a good selection here. The Kickstarter I backed was for an expansion to this range and I picked up the four minis pictured above (and looked at in more detail below.
Here you can see Tomas Crumm 'Town Watch-Mouse' (no town is complete without one!) and Captain Bertha Voss ' Shrew Heroine'. All I have done in these photos is remove mold lines, glue to the base and spray prime. The painted mini in the photo above is an example from the Kickstarter and not painted by me.
The miniatures are undoubtedly very cute but I think that they retain a level of grounding in a traditional fantasy world which makes them more than 'just' cute. Although not the system they are designed for I think that these minis would fit into a high fantasy D&D or pathfinder game, or look great in a display cabinet.
Here you can see the remaining two miniatures I received: a mole which was a free stretch goal, and a mist ghast (an undead mouse). I've put them alongside a close up of one of the minis before it was cleaned up and primed. The miniatures shipped with the bases in the photos.
You can see from the photo that there is a little bit of extra metal along the mold lines and there was some light flashing in a few places. This is absolutely standard with miniatures like this and is easily cleaned using a craft knife and some files, I just wanted to show how much there was. You can actually see it a little bit on the right arm of the mole above (left of photo) which I clearly hadn't completely removed before priming! There were larger chunks of metal underneath the base where, I assume, they had been detached from the molding sprue, but these are no problem at all to remove because they don't have to look pretty once you've done it because they can't be seen. I was a little surprised that they shipped with slotted bases when they have flat bottoms, and this required a little filling work, but nothing too bad.
So here you can see the finished mole. I haven't had a chance to paint any of the others just yet because I've been ill, but I think that this gives you a good indication of what the minis look like once they have paint on them.
I was really impressed with the level of detail on the miniatures. Where a miniature has too little detail sculpted in it can be really hard work to bring it to life with paint. I had no such trouble with this mini, and it really was fun to paint. The fur has a lovely texture to it which gives you lots of options when painting it. I enjoyed doing a little bit of object source lighting with the candle on the hat as well. These are the first minis I've ordered from Oathsworn Miniatures and I've been really impressed. The ones I haven't painted yet have just as much detail and character to them as the mole does, and I think that they will look great on the tabletop. The online shop for Oathwsworn is still open (here) and they are still shipping, so if you need some goodies and want to support a small business head over there and check them out. As ever, I hope that you are staying healthy and finding some hobby time to take your mind off everything going on. Goblin Squire :)
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First up in my series looking at some of the awesome small businesses in the world of miniatures is Fenris Games, and this Runed Pentagram Altar. Usual disclaimer - I’m not getting paid for this post and I paid for the piece myself.
This is the piece without any paint on it. It’s sculpted, moulded and produced by the owner of Fenris Games, as are most of the terrain pieces on the site (www.fenrisgames.com). It costs £8 and measures 80mm diameter and 27mm high.
The detail is very clean and defined. Preparing the piece for painting took very little time at all with minimal clean up required. I took a tiny bit of flashing off from the outside rim to make the base layer invisible but this took less than 1 minute and I didn’t need to do anything to the actual painting surface. The detail of the plinth and the rocks are excellent and make painting them a joy. Too little detail and you have to work very hard to paint the contrast in, too much and they don’t look realistic. For me, this piece got it spot on.
Most of the painting I do for myself is for playing D&D or other TTRPGs, and this would make a fantastic centrepiece for a fight against cultists or even devils or demons. If your flavour is more Warhammer or other tabletop games then this would work really well for a Chaos army (or, indeed, fighting against Chaos). I'm not a Lovecraft fan, but I think it would fit in that universe as well.
I have had nothing but good experiences with Fenris Games and, indeed, the only time I had a small issue with an order it was resolved before I even noticed! At one point I wrote a post after receiving an order, looking at the pieces in some detail. A few days later I received a package from Fenris Games as the owner had noticed that there was a small piece missing from a tower I had ordered and popped it in the post without me saying anything. Excellent customer service!
Fenris Games is currently undergoing a move, and there is a slight delay on orders, but the miniatures on offer are very high quality and I have no hesitation in recommending them. Now is the perfect time to buy a gift voucher to redeem once all this craziness is over. You can even buy a loyalty card which gives you more value than you pay. Check them out here. I bought one a couple of years ago (when finances allowed) and didn't regret it at all.
To try and do my bit to support the small businesses featured, I am going to sell the pieces I paint in this series. So, here's how it works: £50 (plus postage) gets you this piece and another of similar value from Fenris Games. Using that money I buy a gift voucher from Fenris Games. Once all this is over I use the gift voucher to get a second piece. I paint it and send it to you. Whether I send one immediately and one later or both later is entirely up to whether you want to pay postage once or twice :) If you're interested head over to the commission page where you can send me a message.
Initially this offer is for those who read the blog, but will go up on twitter if it's still available in a few days. As ever, stay safe and enjoy isolated hobby time. Goblin Squire
It can't have escaped anyone's notice that this is a difficult time for pretty much everybody at the moment. My natural reaction is to make a few jokes and try to smile at a time like this but before I do - do your best to stay safe, and I hope that you, your family and friends are doing as well as possible at the moment.
Among those hit hard at the moment are the small business owners. Income is way down, but costs are going nowhere. In the miniatures business all the conventions are being cancelled and they represent some of the biggest sales areas for companies. For most of us, miniatures are a luxury, but for some people their livelihoods depend on it and this is a very scary time. Unfortunately I'm not in a position to financially support these companies at the moment (I've been out of work myself for a number of months) but I wanted to do what I can - talk about what's out there and encourage others to support these companies if possible. Buying a gift voucher from them now to spend after the crisis passes is a particularly helpful thing to do! Please, whatever you do, don't feel bad if you are unable to carry on supporting companies. Clearly that is the position I am in, so I am absolutely not trying to make anyone feel bad. This post, and those to follow, are simply to highlight what is out there to those who are in a position to support the businesses. What will I be doing?
To put it simply, over the next few weeks (and possibly months) I want to highlight some of the amazing things which are out there. When it comes to miniatures I was stockpiling before it was cool and have many miniatures from smaller (primarily UK based) companies just waiting to get painted.
Before I go any further, I just want to say that I have paid for all of these minis and am not being paid to write this, so everything I write will be my unbiased opinion :) Here are some of the companies I'll be looking at (in no particular order):
I'm sure that there are many others out there, and I hope that eventually I will be able to shine a light on them as well. These are some of the miniatures I have at the moment, so they're a good place to start.
If you can, please do check out the websites of these companies and perhaps consider buying a gift voucher. Of course, if you would like some of their miniatures painted then I have commissions open at the moment. Goblin Squire :) |
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