So last week I picked up two gladiator miniatures done by Reaper Miniatures.  First off we have the Sandra Garrity - The Gladiator - 03267 bt Reaper.

Until I get it primered, the pictures are hazardously useless.  The sculpt is pretty obviously a Russell Crowe miniature based off the “Gladiator” movie by Ridley Scott.  The armor is slightly different, probably just enough to eliminate licensing issues (hopefully).  Sandra’s work on the embossing of the armor is a four star ranking (out of five).. For a miniature that only set me back $2.99 + sales tax.. I can’t complain at all.  The miniature had little distortion and came out of a pretty quality mold with limited mold lines to be filed off.  I do wish they would do a little more to the base though, the stippled surface is as plain as can be.  I’m not sure if Reaper suggests this, or if Sandra just figured anybody who wanted to customize it would just get out their snips.  I for one, spend way too much time rebasing my figures onto standard Warhammer (Games Workshop) square bases.  Sadly, I should probably find some hex bases that work well for these miniatures…. Hmm….

The other miniature I picked up was produced by Reaper Miniatures and sculpted by Werner Klocke.  Althea, Female Gladiator - 3067 is a pretty well done Werner Klocke sculpt (note I’m not saying an excellent Werner sculpt). 

The added cost for the seperate trident, works out because it certainly is more dynamic then the pose of “The Gladiator.”  There may of been some distortion in the molding process as her face seemed a bit oddly proportioned.  Her face appears a bit too long and actually too large for her torso.  Which, this could be easily overlooked but it does start to relate a little too closely to a Citadel (Games Workshop) miniature.  Which, I hope most Reaper fans prefer a little less of that stylised look.  The cast had little mold line issues whatsoever so it was not a case of a mismatched vulcanized rubber mold distorting.  Of course with vulcanized mold pressure it can always be tricky.  In regards to subject, she is the first Reaper miniature of mine that is almost 100% for sure of African origin.  Diversity should be key… Especially with gladiators who were pulled from any conquested area of the Romans could get their hands on.  Besides, in the fantasy realm there better be more diversity..

 I’m hoping this week to get their bases finished and primed.  Lately, with my house being built I’ve been lax about painting.. But my wife may appreciate it if I paint some more.. may…

Yesterday, I took the day off of work to relax and take care of some stuff around the house.  My weakness came when I was over near the local game store and remembered the Sandra Garrity Gladiator Reaper miniature I wrote about earlier.  I decided to stop by and pickup that miniature.  Then after thirty minutes of browsing I broke down and added another miniature onto my shopping list.

I’ll post pictures of the miniatures later and info about them.  There was one additional purchase I made along with the two gladiator miniatures, and that was Citadel Primer.  Yep, Games Workshop’s primer is expensive but definitely worth it.  My last can of primer that I mistakenly purchased was from The Armory.  The price was quite a bit less then Citadel Primer, however I found out their primer tends to be a bit unreliable.  I primered about thirty miniatures a couple at a time.  It seemed no matter what I tried the primer “dusted” the miniatures as if I was holding the can way too far away.  However, I was staying within the typical range that I’m used to when spraying a coat of primer with nice evenly smooth motions going past the miniatures before turning back the other direction.  I tried altering my spraying habits closer and still had little success as the dusting effect continued.  I decided to set the can to the side and spray some of the other miniatures I had that needed black primer using my Citadel black.  Using the standard technique the black primer was beautiful.

As a miniature painter I would have to say, stick with the better primer.  The only option I have with the “dusted” miniatures is to brush them with a stiff 1″ brush in order remove any of the loose primer particles.  Then paint hoping I can get the surface to smooth any of the uneveness by the primer.  So, I plopped down the cash recognizing my mistake.  Sure, maybe I had a bad can of paint from the Armory.. But, I’ll stick with Citadel primer for now, because making thirty miniatures a pain to paint is not worth $5. 

For some info on Primer Tests see this page that Maximus wrote up:
http://www.maximusinminimis.com/Primer%20Test.html

Reaper Miniatures ended up sneaking a Gladiator Miniature past me this past December.  They released a new Gladiator Miniature by Sandra Garrity:

03267: The Gladiator
Sculpted by: Sandra Garrity

I spotted this miniature while I was at one of my local game stores picking up a Cheapass Game for a friends birthday.  Sadly, I held back from purchasing it.. Which I regret…. and hope the crew at Reaper and Sandra can forgive me.  There’s a plan though so please don’t think I’m being excessively darn thrifty.  I’m waiting to see if my wife will remember it for my birthday that is coming up.. (HINT)

The miniature’s pose isn’t overly dynamic, however it does have some pretty excellent armor details.  Somehow this makes me think that Reaper may need to see if Sandra is up for sculpting some Andrabatae (horseback gladiators) miniatures.  Here horses are often some of my favorite.

As a special closing note..

A moment of silence for Gary Gygax and family.  We’ll miss what you helped to create.

So just when I thought I would be just eating my lunch, I turn around and check out Marike Reimer’s website (http://www.destroyerminis.com) and find that she just recently painted some minis by Dark Sword Miniatures (http://www.darkswordminiatures.com) for George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series.  Now that’s enough to drop the plastic fork and do some net diving!

 Yes, I’ve been a fan of George R.R. Martin’s lovely ASOIAF series.  My friends and  have been chomping at the bit waiting for the next book to come out.  Sadly, I’ve been so discouraged by the wait (which I know will be worth it) I have not checked out his site in a while.  Looking at it now, if I’d be up on things I would of noticed he announced the Dark Sword Miniatures back in November! 

Painted by Matt Verzani
Sculpted by Tom Meier  

Looking over these minis I’m holding back the saliva from dripping down my chin.  Ahh.. I’ve been wanting to have a serious Game of Thrones action in the miniature mayhem world!  The sick thiing, is I was looking to sculpt a miniature for my portfolio but stopped getting busy with building a house and commuting 50 minutes to work.  I better post my drawings and maybe some pics so that my mini can become something more then a fantasy in my mind.

Tom Meier did a pretty sweet job sculpting the miniatures!  Though it is alway kind of odd looking at miniatures of characters you arleady have built perceptions of in your own mind.  The cost of the miniatures is a bit high $9.99 each.  But you can tell the sculpting is nothing but high quality.  When I get a chance to have some in hand I’ll review the casts.  There’s nothing more nerve wrecking about ordering miniatures via mail.  What if the vulcanized rubber mold ripped?  What if there is a lovely mold line where the two halves of the arm slid and misalligned?  You know.. my kind of paranoia stuff. 

Take care!

Lanista