Against The Giants, Part II

As promised, I'm back. The image hosting issues have been thankfully resolved, so here is part deux of Against The Giants (on the cheap).

After the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, intrepid heroes who survive are expected to take on frost giants (and yetis, and white dragons, and a remorhaz) in the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl. I had an ancient Ral Partha frost giant, at this point about 15 years in my possession. It was sculpted in Ye Olde Days of true 25mm, and whilst a bit old and clunky, I really liked it. I've stripped it and repainted it twice, always with blue skin and blonde hair. Still, I'd need more than that. Surfing the web, I came across a Russian company called Tehnolog. You can get some of their stuff on eBay, for what seems like pennies, especially if you're a hardened war gamer. They had some promising 54mm figures (1/32 if you cut your teeth on old Airfix). Cost including shipping came to roughly £1 per figure, which was exceptionally reasonable. I ordered some to use for both frost (Vikings) and fire (undead and paladins) giants. Allowing 6-8 weeks for delivery, this is what I got:

Whereas they won't win any prizes, and they have the occasional ejection pin marking, they are highly serviceable. The Vikings soon got based, primed and block-painted. This is what they look like:

They most definitely look the part. There is a Varangian set available as well, and that should give me enough miniatures and poses. Let's face it, if the players are facing more than 10 frost giants a time, it usually results to lots of Wish and Raise Dead spells. In other words, It Does Not End Well (and I know at least one reader of this blog who will get this reference).

Defeat of the Jarl gives the players the opportunity to travel to the Hall of the Fire Giant King. The fire giants needed some more work; namely beards. I've only finished one, as a proof of concept. I originally dallied with the idea of painting them red-skinned and black-bearded, like the fire giants in the Rules Cyclopedia. I went with the classic AD&D black skin and fiery beard instead. Why mess with perfection?

Ok, my lava painting skills leave much to be desired, but these are impressive miniatures. How do they scale up? Pretty darn well.

They even scale up well to my old Ral Partha figure, which works well for 15mm.

So, is that all? Yes for now. There are lots of other giant-kin seen in the G1-3 series. Cloud and stone giants, even a Titan. There are female giants as well; some of the Tehnolog sets include females that can be utilised. The only other giant I could find was an ettin. Actually two, a Reaper Bones one, and a MageKnight one.

Both look the part, and I'm happy with them. I also did myself a small conversion of one of the least known kinds of giants, using two MageKnight minis and lots of green stuff. I really liked the athach from Rules Cyclopedia, so here is my 15mm rendition of one:

That's all from the Greek Geek workbench for now. 

Against the Giants, Part I

Yes, I'm alive and still painting (and as usually, overworked). So, if this comes up on your feed, rest assured, the Greek Geek is still well and painting in an undisclosed location in London.

So, Against the Giants. For me, running the G1-3 series has been a Holy Grail of sorts. My normal gaming group never got to the levels required to run it, although I had converted some of it for third edition D&D. My son visited the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, and then decided to adventure in other parts of the Flanaess. But like all Holy Grails, a good portion of the fun in the chase.

In planning for it, I had to find giants, and lots of them (and in 15mm no less). Oh, there are some in the market. Ral Partha has some in their old 25mm line and in their Demonworld series. Alternative Armies has several frost, hill, and stone giants. Older sculpts, but I'm not bothered much by it. Splintered Light has them as well, but shipping from the U.S. plus taxes would be a killer. So, what to do? Research, improvise, and overcome (the thrifty gamer's motto).

So, Hill Giants. Lots of stuff there. Almost any 28mm ogre would make a passable, if not excellent, hill giant. Reaper Bones comes to mind, and they have some lovely sculpts.

These are properly semi barbaric and primitive. Almost like giant humans, but different, and menacing . Next stop was my MageKnight collection.

Not quite the same level of sculpting, but they are even cheaper than Bones (merely gathering dust in the old Bunker), and easy to paint. I don't even bother stripping the Chinese paint jobs. Prime over them and just crack on.

So, how do they look next to a 15mm human?

Suitably scary. Maybe a tad on the large side, but they are giants after all. That is all for now. Expect Part II soon. Sooner than two years that is. Keep on painting! And gaming!