Frank Frazetta - Death Dealer official sculpts!

David Sonderquist of Bronze Age Miniatures has finally been able to release pictures and details of his officially licenced range of Death Dealer miniatures. They are available through both David's site and also the Frazetta Art Museum. All pics are borrowed off David's site and remain his copyrite of course. The sculpts are due to be released around the 11th of July this year.

The miniatures are available as a pre-order through David here;

 http://bronzeagemin.com/frank-frazetta/ 

Also soon to be listed in the Pennnsylvania's Frazetta Art Museum here;

 http://frazettamuseum.com/

Frazetta painted the original artwork in 1973 (I was 11).......

Since 1985 The Death Dealer has been used as a mascot for the III Corps (United states). A wonderful full size statue sits outside their headquarters in Fort Hood, Texas.

Well worth a visit I'd say if you're in the area.

The Death Dealer has spawned many copycat sculpts within the hobby over the years.....those that I know of are below....if you know of any more please get in contact.

Minifigs (Sharadan Lords of Darkness from their Aureolo Rococo Range)

McEwan Miniatures (from their Heros & Wizards range)

Barry Minot (from his Age of the Barbarian range)

Ral Partha (from their Personalities and Things That Go Bump In The Night range)

Couple of nice examples c/o Joe Videki.

Valiant Enterprises (part of a larger scale 54mm range that included occasional fantasy) 

(this one is still available via their own site or eBay)

.......and a (ahem) slightly risque one, looks to be out of production by Kabuki Models (thanks to Ajsalium of Frothers)

As always, any comments below or email me on enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Thomas' Tin Soldiers; 54th Massachusetts Collection for sale (Tom Loback sculpts)

I was contacted recently about the sale of a small collection of Tom Loback's old American Civil War toy soldiers. This is a section of the hobby I have never dabbled in due to the general costs......come the lottery win I will jump in feet first of course......photographs of the collections are below and if anyone in interested please contact me via the normal email and I'll pass your details along. I have no connection to the sale, just want to see it passed along to a willing hobbyist. 14 pieces in total; soldiers, some fife and drummers and Colonel Gould on his horse. All are in their original boxes.

More Tomtins posts here and, whilst I'm at it, here is the fuller catalogue listing that Tom sent me some while back. Still missed and never forgotten.

Comments or contacts; enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk

Painting mojo stalled on Superior Models wizard....

WL009 Merlin the Magician has got me stumped. I thought I'd go for a purple robe with gold symbols but it's completely stopped me in my tracks....I just can't get any feeling out of it. Normally I love painting a mini but this one has totally stalled my mojo....it's a Ray Lamb sculpt from the fantastic Wizards & Lizards range and I was really excited to pick a couple of copies up in a trade recently. Ray Lamb is a favorite old school sculptor whom I followed through the pages of Military Modelling in my youth with his large scale sculpting for Poste Militaire....stunning sculpts.

Black undercoat followed by flesh and purple robe....

Purple ink wash....

Chestnut brown undercoat for the symbols....

lightening the robes...

highlighting black with blue.....possibly not right for this figure....

as far as I got before the mojo jumped ship.....

I've had good suggestions of greying up the beard and lightening the robes along with more highlighting on the owl.........tonight's job sorted.

Slight update from Friday evening......lightened the robes and feeling better with it.....lots more to do....

Saturday evening in between painting TAG dwarves.....greying the beard and lightening the owl....loads more to do....not sure on the gold symbols now.....

A lot of the old Superior minis are still available from Perth Pewter including Merlin.

enquiries@deartonyblair.co.uk