Ron & Bones - a pictorial viewpoint.....

As many are aware I am a miniature collector, not a gamer. I love the whole thought of gaming but my D&D buddies went off to university back in the 70's leaving me to plod on alone...I had a few attempts in the early 80's but it was always lead that got my muse. Pirates are a topic that seems to whet everyone's appetite from time to time and I thought it would be nice to have all the miniatures from the now out of production Ron & Bones series pictured in one place...so that is what I have done......

The 2 below were included in the starter set.....

The busts..........

Very much a card game apparently....

Expansion decks..........

Tale of War Miniatures were responsible for the game and the miniatures however Cool Mini or Not are taking up the reigns with Rum & Bones...a website under construction here and the Facebook page here.

As always; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Lord of the Rings......Bakshi style 1978.....

Back in 1978 Ralph Bakshi created an animated version of Lord of the Rings....never finished but well loved. Heritage Models Inc got the licence for a range of miniatures and, for me, history was made. Max Carr sculpts.....they so capture the cartoon it is incredible.....

A couple of blisters to capture your imagination.....

1750 The Fellowship

 Trade catalogue listing......

Painting guide for the range......

2 paint and play sets containing miniatures from the range.....clever marketing would have made some exclusive figures for the sets........

  

Application form to join The Fellowship included in most blisters....

Magazine ad from January 1979.....

The 75mm range was sculpted by the late Cliff Sanderson..one of the most talented sculptors of his generation.

My half-painted Bilbo............

The larger scale range is listed here along with the complete listing, including many unreleased sets, here on the Lost Minis WIKI. Separately listed diorama sets here.

Poster art for the movie..........

Interesting snippet courtesy of TheOneRing.net

Lots more information about the film here and here plus there are some incredible storyboard / concept art sketches here. Fantastic find of some newly restored parts here.

Michael over at Classic Miniatures has the rights to some of the models. Tell him I sent you.......

As always enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Perry Twins teach Peter Jackson to sculpt.....

Just came across this when searching old files.......wonderful. It was off the Perry website a few years back but appears to have been removed.....

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

A Visit to Games workshop.......May 1979

I hope you will forgive me as some of these have been posted before however, I thought I would scan the advertisements from an old Military Modelling magazine as perusing them gives me so much pleasure in my dotage... I was seventeen years old back then... still at school taking (and failing) 'A' levels, as they were then  known. Women and alcohol kind of set the seal on my path to financial obscurity.....the miniatures had been doing that for a few years already...

I had hoped an enlargement would show the contents of the cabinet better but alas twas not to be....

Better shot of Bryan Ansell, the man behind so much of the early industry.

Asgard Miniatures were still going strong, not sure of Bryan's involvement at this point though?

The late Peter Gilder designed all the Hinchliffe wargame figures and his fantasy has great appeal to me with the old style sculpting. Not sure what happened to the moulds. Duncan  McFarlane of Wargames Illustrated fame had them in the 90s I think it was and did sell the castings but since then even he doesn't know.

Edit 25/02/2022 - Mike over at Broadsword Miniatures now has the moulds and is doing an excellent job of getting them out (along with Geoff Solomon-Sims).

http://broadswordsandbeasts.blogspot.com/p/broadsword-miniatures.html

Tell him I sent you!

15mm Jacobite Miniatures. The moulds have been purchased and some of the figures are currently being sold on ebay. The ones on the advert below are the early designs...they went through a couple of makeovers. 

Edit 25/02/2022 - now on;

 https://elitewargamesandmodels.com/product-category/15mm/15mm-fantasy/ 

Or, for pics; 

http://glynrr.blogspot.com/2015/11/15mm-fantasy-figures-by-elite-wargames.html 

Tell them I sent you!

And of course a much loved shop for many....

You will find pictures of most old miniatures on the Lost Minis WIKI, a favourite haunt of mine and one which I contribute to mercilessly. If you have models that aren't illustrated as yet please get the camera out! Posterity waits for no man.........

As always enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk