A few more Dark Sword greens

[Balgin Stondraeg]

I like two or three of these. I'm not so ruea bout the last one.

An old school warrior. Somehow he seems to have lost something in the rtansition from the artwork to the sculpt. His sturdy solid face seems to have become thin and horsey and he seems to be leaning backwards quite a bit. Despite that I like the battered and denetd look of his armour and shield.

A knavish rogue. That's a pretty hefty sword. He looks quite good.

A female warrior. She has a nice ambiguous pose. It's either about to launch into a charge or she's crouching low behind a hillock, spying on her prey. I actualy think she'd look better with a small shield instead of the dagger. However, with a shield it would look like a charging pose and the dagger helsp keep her options open.

A barbaric woman with a bow. I really like this one. She'll go very well with the other barbarians.

[Keeper]

I think this seem to be an improvement in my eyes, compared to the last few months.  I like all four of these sculpts - although I have reservations about the female warrior.  Something in her face reminds me of Sandy Toksvig (and in case you're not familar with minor British radio personalities: http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=Sandi+Toksvig).

[Balgin Stondraeg]

I think this seem to be an improvement in my eyes, compared to the last few months.  I like all four of these sculpts - although I have reservations about the female warrior.  Something in her face reminds me of Sandy Toksvig (and in case you're not familar with minor British radio personalities: http://images.google.co.uk/images?q=Sandi+Toksvig).

Bizarrely, the shot from the left makes her look like she's got a pretty major manface. Ilyad couldn't sculpt female faces either. All their female miniatures had men's faces. However from other angles the manface seems absent so it was probably abad angle, or just that one side. The face and hair was reminding me of someone. Thanks for reminding me who (at the time I was going "now who does that remind me of?). Should still be fun to paint 'though.

I know I didn't leave many comments about the fur wearing barbaric archer woman but the text had gone off the bottom of the box and was getting that horrible scrolling up bug so I decided to just leave it. I really like her. Dunno quite how to qualify that yet but I do.

Oh yeah, these have been up for a few weeks now otherwise I would've included them in this post too.

Somewhere Bonnie Tyler is singing about needing a hero.

A snarling/sneering villain. Perfect for facing off against the heroic knight but I don't reckon him very much on his own.

Elf girl with a spear and a dagger. This one's not really doing much for me. The plaits are nice but the rest seems pretty bland really.

Female thief type. I like the creative use of the left arm and hand held scabbard. It looks a bit short for the sword's blade but it's still  anice touch. That cloak looks like it'd be fun to paint too but the rest of the stripper outfit's not great. They've gone all strappy recently and it's not a big improvement on their former more classical style.

[Baldemyr]

I ended up buying the nude elf girl and the anti paladin right above her-  I love both.  The anti paladin reminds me of old Frazetta fantasy art somehow.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

They got released yesterdya and in some cases the paintjobs really don't do them justice. I'll probably order a few in a bit (since Dragon Age got pushed back afew weeks and Pathfinder sold out before it even got released and the next print run's not 'till November).

[Baldemyr]

I feel like a twit.  If I had realized you were a fan I would have got you the  Pathfinder books at Gencon. Plus the Darksword guy was giving away the lil minis of his daughter with big purchases.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

A few more spotted today on Dark Sword watch (they weren't up last night).

A big arse knight! Who said only chaos warriors got mutations?! He looks really cool and I think I want to paint him up. I don't like the face too much 'though so I'd be likely to go for the helmet option. Might go with the bare shield arm 'though. Both look good.

A spearman atacking upwards. Nice and characterful but the spear angle could be a bit less acute to make him more multi purpose.

A man with an axe. The helmet looks abit too high elfish for my taste. Also such a fancy helmet doesn't go with his ragged cloak that's basicaly hanging in shreds and tatters.

A druidy bloke. I like this one. Makes me think of Galadriel (and could make for some interesting diorama possibilities).

Also the two barbarian girls have been released so I might be placing an order sometime soon.

[Custom_Hobby]

This is the latest newsletter from Jim

Hello fellow miniature enthusiasts -

Well, after a really rough start to Gen Con Indy back in August on set up day (1 day before the show opened), all the way through the wild n' crazy DragonCon parties over Labor Day weekend, I am here and still alive. Gen Con was our best show ever by a longshot (I heard this from some other mini companies as well) and DragonCon was just good ol' fun and some of the coolest costumes I have ever seen (I do have pics and will post some of them up - the rated PG-13 ones that is). It was great to see everyone at both shows and also hang out with so many cool folks at Gen Con Indy/DragonCon at night over drinks & good food. Oh, I forgot to mention - I saw my first ever SteamPunk Band at DragonCon at a very surreal concert at 2am one night. DragonCon is literally going 24 hours a day with all sorts of wild n' crazy events.

I will get to some Gen Con reporting and DragonCon reporting in the weeks ahead so stay tuned for updates/pictures on the site.

Onto minitures -

1. We have 4 new GRRM Masterworks Miniatures posted up on our site (as greens) for your viewing pleasure.

First off - we have two of the Greyjoys from Mr. Jeff Grace. He sculpted up Aeron and Victareon Greyjoy. Jeff has his sights set on another Greyjoy next.

Next up - we have The Mountain vs. The Viper by Mr. Tom Meier as he gets back into the swing on a regular Dark Sword schedule as he tackles the rest of the infamous Wave 2 hit list (which will be done in another few weeks with Robb Stark and Briene).


Coming down the pike -

1. A special Dark Sword Halloween mini from Mr. Jeff Grace. And something else from Mr. Grace that will make alot of folks happy (something to do with more clothes?).

2. More GRRM goodness from Mr. Meier and Mr. Grace along with helping of Dave Summers.

3. A Frog Minstrel from Mr. Dave Summers

4. And a new mystery sculptor is joining the Dark Sword team folks...I have been a big fan of this sculptor for many years and he is almost done with his first 3 Dark Sword pieces. I have seen two of them and I do love em folks! I am a big fan of many talented sculptors out there, but I try to keep a really close group of folks on the Dark Sword team in terms of sculptors and painters to keep the lines tight and consistent.


Please note - The Limited Edition CMON / Dark Sword Naughty Female Anti-Paladin is almost sold out and I do not think she will last the week. CMON is sold out and we have a handful of them left only. Then she is gone just like the Limited Edition Tom Meier Sorceress...Grab her while you can.


In other news -

- Really disappointed in Smallville Season 8 and the start of Season 9. The show lost its way it seems.

- Just started Sons of Anarchy on DVD. Really digging it.

- Picked up Joss Whedon's Dollhouse on DVD, and will watch that next. I am excited to see him back on TV.


Hey, I need some help. I am going to totally overhaul the Dark Sword site as it has been over 5 years since we built our V 2.0 site that you see now. I want to really streamline things and make the online store much stronger (smaller pics for easier scrolling). This will be a whole new site from the ground up. The mini gallery pages for each miniature will remain intact, but everything else will get overhauled from scratch. I will start a message on our messageboard asking what people like and do not like about our site. This way, we will know what things to stay the course on (except improve the look/feel) and what things to change. You can also drop me an email with your thoughts as well. The site was really cool and in balance until about 2-3 years ago when our catalog started to grow quite a bit each year. The site has gotten a tad bloated and is busting at the seams in certain areas and looks cluttered in other areas (in my opinion). Any feedback is appreciated.

Have a great week everyone and be sure to check out the Dark Sword site.

We have tons of new miniatures in our Online Store so be sure to keep your collections up to date with those minis on your want lists.

Wow, October is here in a couple days...where as the summer gone??

Regards,

Jim
www.DarkSwordMiniatures.com

[Balgin Stondraeg]

And 3 more for us. The propper version of that nasty lady (but with propper armour on), a fairly bland witch and this really cool guy! I like him a lot. The only thing I'm not entirely comfortable with is the sword. it looks blocky, short and chunky whereas he looks like he deserves something more like Striders sword from the first two LOTR films.

The sword looks like a separate part that's a part of the sword hand which will either join at the armpit, or at the end of the glove. I'm actualy thinking end of the glove because it would make it easier to get it into position.

Now ... I've had 074249/1E in my bits box for ages. Waiting to do something with it. It's almost perfect (but probably too long). And I'd need to carve into the cloak a bit to trick fit it so it wouldn't stand out too much. When they release him I'll hopefuly be ordering and holding the two up beside each other to see how feasible the convertion is.

I have posted a queery on their forum asking how the sword will attach and am awaiting a reply. I'm really psyched up about this knight!

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Hi there. The ******* sword is attached to the fig actually along the leg. His hand/hilt are a very small seperate piece that pops in there.

Thanks for the question on this piece.

Warm Regards,

Jim
www.DarkSwordMiniatures.com

Bugger. That's certainly going to make things interesting. Why make the scabbard integral?