Posts Tagged ‘Fantasy’

The Lords of Midnight(wargaming)

Posted: June 3, 2025 in 28mm, The Lords of Midnight, Wargaming
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Step back in time to year 1984 and a computer game called,”The Lords of Midnight” was released on the ZX Spectrum written by Mike Singleton. The game is an epic fantasy wargame set in a frozen world, with the forces of good verus the forces of evil.

You start the game with our hero,”Luxor the Moonprince”,”Morkin the Free”,”Rorthron the Wise” and “Corleth of the Fey”. With these four followers you need to raise an army and defeat the forces of the witchking. The game itself was groundbreaking using a 3D landscaping effect for the first time and allowing a huge gaming area to be played on. The game would see another successful follow up in the title,”Doomdarks Revenge” and a 3rd instalment was planed but sadly never completed. Fast forward to today a writer called Drew Wagar has brought the game to life again in a series of books based on the Midnight world which are excellent. You can also still play the game for free on platforms like GOG.

One of my all time favourite plans was to wargame this scenario on a board and to be honest I have been thinking about it for the best part of five years. Its taken me that long to focus my ideas and actually create two seperate board games. The first will be 28mm figures fighting on battle boards similar to Warhammer Fantasy and the second will be 6mm armies allowing a greater scope of map.

If you take a look at some of the original screenshots from the game you can see a number of things. The figures are all semi familiar(the game has serious echoes of the Lord of the Rings),dwarfs,giants,dragons,trolls,wolves and mounted riders straight of of Rohan so plenty of figures on the market to adapt or reuse to my purpose. I decided to take characters from both games and also try and copy some of the landscape. I also decided to use some artistic licence with some characters as the 1984 block figures(see below) and colours leave something to be desired.

So my plan begins with creating individual figures for each race and some terrain to get the ball rolling so to speak.

Basic terrain using a board with caulking Woodland Scenics snow flake on it and some foam carved mountains in the backgroud. Blue trees as well as per the game.

The bottom photo is the first attempt at a 6mm army with scratch built movement marker coming up behind.

Highland Miniatures Sons of Ymir Dwarfs(32mm)

Posted: November 23, 2023 in 28mm
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“And now for something completely different”. I have as of late been reading the wonderful,” Talking Miniatures” book about the early days of Citadel Miniatures and per chance spotted and bought an old Citadel “Warhammer Armies Dwarfs” book at a local car boot sale. This got me all nostalgic for my first adventures into the old world of Citadel back in the late 80s when I was lucky enough to have been working in the Nottingham area in the UK.

 Armed with these pleasant memories I decided to dig up the past and delve back into the fantasy world with a random selection of anything going cheap. So, first thought was dwarves and wow the prices these go for on fleabay are amazing. While I waited on numerous auctions to get a bargain, I stumbled on a thread on facebook dedicated to Warhammer the Old World and Dwarfs. I discovered that during the vacuum of models made after Warhammer abandoned the Fantasy world a new force had appeared on the scene. And no its not the “ Age of Sigmar” ,but a sideways move into the 3D printed world in an attempt to catch up with the creeping size issue as models get bigger and bigger.

I found a range of dwarfs by Highland Minatures called the Sons Of Ymir. These are beautiful printed 3D models printed in 32mm or 28mm. I choose the 32mm to deal with the size creep and as something a bit different. The range is still growing and covers most dwarfs and then some extras so plenty of options for a large army build. As 3D printed models go not a single bit of flash to clean off, just an arm and a shield to glue on and ready to prime. No bases included. One thing I have noticed about 3D printed models as a word of warning is that they can be a bit on the fragile side, so go carefully while handling( I have handled and dropped a few different 3D models from different manufacturers  and all fall into the same issue). Once based, painted and varnished they are a lot more forgiving.

Price wise, a group a 10 dwarfs group costs £18.40 plus £4 delivery. Obviously if you buy in greater numbers, you get a discount. I bought mine from Etsy Uk Print3dminiaturesUK which I can highly recommend. By contrast a Warhammer group of 10 dwarfs from Games Workshop would cost you £32.50 plus postage.

I decided on a green paint scheme for my dwarfs and basically followed a youtube guide by Miniature Realms (Warhammer Fantasy & The Old World | Dwarf Warrior Painting Tutorial | Highlands Miniatures – YouTube). My paint scheme did not follow the recipe to the letter, but I followed the basic ingredients of the guide and found it very useful, especially if you are trying to get models onto the table to a decent tabletop standard.

Everything was finished to a snowy theme as my playing boards will be winter themed as well. The dwarfs are stood in a basic laser cut movement tray that has had the snow treatment.

I also managed to paint up a seperate Ballista and crew as well.

So basically, these models kept me busy while I hunted out by ebay bargains from the Old World which can be found shortly in post coming soon.