In
the meantime I have been digging on this great little article from Gary Gygax about fantasy Chainmail battles in 1972. As I wrote on Google Plus, I
love the whole playful DIY ambiance of the article. At the time there
were no little metal fantasy figures commercially available and you
had to make do by kitbashing your own.
Reading through that piece you see
Gygax joyfully talking about converting plastic giant sloth toys into
balrogs, 1/72 (that's 20mm) Airfix “Robin Hood” figures into
hobbits, plastic toy 54mm Indians into trolls, and 40mm Elastolin
Turks into menacing orcs.
All day mad notions have been plaguing
me about outfitting my own kitbashed retro array. Fortunately Ebay
auctions on Elastolins are sky-high, so I can resist the urge to go
fully bonkers on this, but scanning through my shockingly large
amount of small plastic children's toys I have some interesting
little mini-projects.
And wouldn't you know it out of some
little Hobby Lobby value pack of Ice Age critters, I even have me a
giant sloth! Pictured here next to a 28mm Norman archer, I reckon him
to be around 35-40mm. This “Slothrog” (name appropriated from
Chris Hogan)
will be kitbash retro fantasy project #1.
So what to do with him to take him from
that to something like this?
Perhaps drill in some metal pins and
putty for horns. Maybe use some dark wash and firey red undertones.
Not sure how to make myself an appropriately menacing blade of fire
and nasty whip. Green putty and twine?
The Slothrog
No. Enc: 1-2
Alignment: Chaotic (Evil)
Movement: 40'
AC: -1
Hit Dice: 8
Attacks: 1 (sword, whip, or teeth)
Damage: 1d8+3, 1d6, or 1d10
Save: F8
Morale: 10
XP: 1,820
When raised from its demonic stupor,
the Slothron can be a formidable foe. It can elect to use either its
firey magical bastard sword +1, nasty barbed whip (save vs. paralyze
when entangled by a hit) , or sharp incisor-like teeth in a combat
round. The Slothron can cast Slow twice per day and can only
be hit by magical weapons.
Hey Cake. Saw you pop up on my blog roll. Happy reading tonight. Cheers and boogie boogie.
ReplyDeleteHey Whisk, good to see you here in the hills. I have been lurking on your blog, should comment more sorry.
DeleteHope things are going good your way. Just got back from the movies. Now to dig up some supper.
DeleteChris, you are one lazy bastard and I tip my hat to you.
ReplyDeleteI know that is not news to you. As Mack noted long ago, you encounter a large amount of white-painted creatures.
DeleteAh yes, lots of achromatic opponents in the Hill Cantons: Skeletons. Ghouls. Ghost Minotaurs. White-clad amazons. White apes. Giant albino rats. Alabaster warriors. Pale riders. Chalk elementals. ...
DeleteIt moves toward with menacing slooooowwwwwwnnneeessss.
ReplyDeleteThat would really change the tone of the later Moria scenes.
Delete"Amble you fools! Amble!"
Wiring wing framework, and green putty skin over, with paper "skin" in between. Likewise for horns. For making the sword, you could consider milliput or plasticard. The whip would be wire again.
ReplyDeleteChris, you are brilliant. Many thanks.
DeleteI'd guess the giant sloth that Gygax used was one of the Marx toys from the 60s-70s. I have a few from then.
ReplyDeleteHere's a pic from Google Images:
Megatherium
love that article.
ReplyDeleteIf you're not making stuff up as you go along you're not necessarily doing it wrong--but you're definitely having less fun.
Sir, you are mistaken...or have you not had a chance to read some of the various D&D blogs out there?
DeleteThere is definitely going to be a Slothrog lurking in my Warband sandbox. Great stuff Chris.
ReplyDeleteUsing the sloth as is would be more gonzo. Then you could fall back on the evergreen proposition that the wings are just a metaphor for darkness zones, and what's more, he's a broke hippie Balrog in search of a whip, sword and haircut.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I love how people are taking that article as evidence against Gygax's Tolkien influence when he is discussing how to model orcs, elves, dwarves, hobbits, trolls, balrogs, and then apologizes to "Tolkien purists" for daring to throw in the odd elemental.
Wait, balrogs don't have wings!
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, orcs = Turks is one of my dearest pet theories about LotR - good to see the connection being reinforced there.