Opening the Cupboard Door

Like most wargamers, I have a cupboard (well actually several cupboards, cabinets, chests of drawers) in which I keep my collection of games, books and figures both painted and unpainted.

After my recent post about My First Metal Miniature (and thanks to all you commented there or on the TMP thread ), I started to get a wave of nostalgia about the early days of my gaming hobby. So I opened the door of one of my cupboards and took out these

This box of figures are from the very early days of my wargaming hobby and include some of the figures that Santa brought in 1979. And, as is pretty obvious from the photograph, they haven't been painted.

Amongst them you have

"Goblin of the South Swinging Axe" from Ral Partha's "Wizards, Warriors & Warlocks" range.

And his buddy

"Goblin of the South with Spear"

The date on the bottom of their bases in 1976, so they were already 3 years old by the time I got them. The WW&W range were clearly intended by Ral Partha for use in Middle Earth, although for copyright reasons they couldn't say that but it was pretty obvious who this guy is supposed to be

"Guard of the Citadel"

For their generic Fantasy Range, Ral Partha had their "Personalities and Things That Go Bump In the Night" range

ES10 -"Large Hill Troll Attacking with Club"

This was an early Tom Meier sculpt. Pretty basic by today's standards but it wasn't long before he started producing figures like these

"Giant Goblin with Sword"

"Sea Elf Striking with Axe"

These were from Ral Partha's "Collectors Series" range and were some of my favourite figures. I even managed to paint a couple of those!

From Citadel Miniatures, I have a number of these guys from their Fiend Factory range

FF23- "Goblins Advancing with Spears"

I always thought these were based on the guards from the Wicked Witch of the West's castle in the "Wizard of Oz". Actually I think these were redesigned figures as I'm pretty sure the original "Goblins Advancing with Spears" carried their spears in front of them and they were like naginatas than the bill hook type weapon this guy carries.

One of my favourite early Citadel models, FA24 - "Anti-Paladin"

I've always been fond of Dwarves, probably because, I'm vertically challenged myself. In addition to Dwarven models from Ral Partha and Citadel, I have a number of these stout fellows

"Dwarf with Long Pike" by Asgard Miniatures

I really liked this pose and had visions of painting up a phalanx of them. Never happened. Although Asgard have gone bust, these guys are still available from The Viking Forge in the States. I wonder if they ship to the UK?

Then a new company came on the scene, Chronicle Miniatures, owned by a certain Mr Nick Lund.

"Orc with Sword and Shield"

"Hobgoblin with 2 handed weapon"

"Kobold"

"Ogre"

Citadel, obviously recognising Mr Lund's talent for sculpting, quickly bought the Chronicle range and Lund worked for the Citadel Design Studio for a while, but then he left to join Grenadier Miniatures and the Chronicle models soon disappeared.

In 1983, Warhammer appeared. This, I think, changed fantasy wargaming forever and though it has been through many changes is still with us today. I, of course, jumped on the band wagon and got the rules and with it the poster boy from the front of the box art, "Harry the Hammerer"

Harry - looking more hammered than "Hammerer"

My parents, showed only a cursory interest in the toys that I was buying and didn't pay much attention when the little card boxes from Citadel appeared at the house. Maybe it's just as well when this figure arrived

Oh this one caused a few chortles by having her boobies on display.

Teenage boys, what are we like?

I don't have the heart to count just how many figures are in that box, but I do have a deep sense of regret that they have nothing more than a white undercoat on them (and they were lucky to get even that). Oh they got used, many of them appeared in  the Dungeons and Dragons campaign that I ran for several years, but somehow, I just never got the get up and go to get them painted.

But I want to turn back the clock. If nothing else, they have made me realise that while I like historical gaming, fantasy wargaming was my first true love.

The figures may be a bit small for use with the modern sculpts but I have this hankering to go back to the old D & D days and start doing dungeon adventures and there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't use these figures to do that. So I've decided I'm going to start getting them painted up. I'll strip off the old paint from those that have any on them and give them a new lease of life. And, of course, I'll post some pics up on the blog to show how, I'm getting on.

As all dungeon adventurers need transport for all their gear, the first model that I'm going to tackle is this one

Have cart - will travel!