One 72nd Fantasy Figures: giant rats

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

1/72 Giant Rats (Nuisance Monsters) Completed

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Name:    Rat Swarm, Rat Swarms

Manufacturer:    Splintered Light Miniatures

Poses:    2 poses, (the single rat figure can be repositioned to give variety)

Figure material: metal

Ability to Take Paint:    excellent

Pose Quality:    it looks quite rat like and the tail and front leg can be bent to create different poses

Sculpting:    excellent, for such small creatures the detail is well done

Mold Lines:    little to none

Created:    2009ish

These models were fun and easy to paint. The rat swarm proper has a lot of character, and the single rats can be used as separate models, as I chose to do, or around the swarm model to make it larger and add some variety. I think these models could be used from 10mm up to 28mm, I mean a giant rat could be anything from a foot long to the size of a small car. All that is needed for fantasy figures to work well is to match the pictures in your mind.

You cannot go wrong with large numbers of easy to slay monsters to slow down adventurers and maybe give them the creeping crude. The creeping crude will force them to seek out Cedric the Cleric leading to even more problems and/or adventures.

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As usual, Friar Tuck (an Airfix Robin Hood set figure) and Conan (a Caesar Miniatures Adventures set figure) make their appearance for scale.

Next up will be articles on Splintered Lights Giant Bats, the number two batch of different nuisance monsters I have completed.

Thanks for reading...

Saturday, April 28, 2012

1/72 Giant Rats Construction

I purchased three Splintered Light Miniature's Rat Swarms. A rat swarm comes in five pieces, a big swarm of rats and 4 single rats to customize the swarm or use how ever you see fit. I decided to base these single rats individually so that I could use them as nuisance monsters with the rest of my 1/72 fantasy figures.

I started by using # 10 washers and filling the empty spaces with pieces of plastic card. Except for the smaller size washer, it is the same same procedure I always use when basing with washers.

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The next step was to glue some cork to the washer with PVA/white glue. I allowed the glue to dry and then shape it into a hill with an razor blade knife.

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I then covered the cork with sanded latex grout(fancy caulk). I simply smeared on enough to cover the mound and bring the caulk out to the edge of the washer.

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After the caulk had dried, I drilled a small hole in the mound. The individual rats came with a spike or pin sticking strait down out of their undersides and their tails were designed to be poseable. I put super glue on the pin and the hole on the base. I then forced the pin into the previously drilled hole. I then held the figure in place and adjusted the tails to add some character.

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Here is a view of the rats from the other side so that you can see the posing of the tails from the other side.

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They are now ready to prime and paint. I will be showing pictures of the completed swarm and individual rats in my next post. Questions and comments are always welcome. Thanks for reading...