Well 2019 has come and gone and there were lots of highlights to remember. We had the end of the Star Wars trilogy trilogies, Avengers Endgame saw the stunning sacrifices of Black Widow, Iron Man and Cap and I think there was an election! In terms of the miniature painting hobby some highlights included the Clone Wars coming to "Star Wars Legion", the superb "Warcry" from "Games Workshop" and the great new "Marvel Crisis Protocol" game from "Atomic Mass Games".
It also means I get the chance to review the miniatures painted on the "Fantorical" blog for the year. And what a year it was too, with a huge output making my choices very hard indeed. My choices are a personal opinion based on a variety of factors, such as the painting, the imagination used and of course the rule of cool! So, without further ado onto the list, in reverse order of course!
No. 10 - Borg by "Modiphius Entertainment" - August 16th
These Borg are part of a much larger force painted over the course of the year and these ones just stood out to me. I think the paint scheme has done a great job of capturing the menace of these iconic "Star Trek" villains and the collective as a whole has been a great project for the year.
No. 9 - Punchline by “Kitbash Games” - January 10th
This miniature is from a "Kickstarter" project and uses several superhero/super villain tropes to come up with a great looking figure that has been painted very well in my opinion. I like the paint scheme of this one enormously making it an easy choice for the Top Ten.
No. 8 - Imperial Royal Guards by "Fantasy Flight Games" - February 7th
These stunning miniatures are from the original "Star Wars trilogy" and are the personal bodyguards of the Emperor himself. I chose these because, a) they are from Star Wars! And b) they are a great exercise in painting red. I find red quite a tricky colour at times and these miniatures are an example of how to paint the colour effectively!
No. 7 - Deinonychus by "Copplestone Castings" - December 15th.
These miniatures are great sculpts and I just adore the painting. The colours used are very natural (if we can say natural for a species that is extinct and we don’t know what the colour of their skin was!!). I just think these look really great overall and would look awesome on any dinosaur themed game!
No. 6 - Skeleton Swordsmen by "Lucid Eye Publications" - December 8th
The whole "Toon Realms" range has featured quite heavily on this blog but I just adored the skeletons. A simple enough colour scheme but done so well they just stand out as the pick of the bunch for me. The bone colour has been painted superbly in my opinion and looks fantastic. Just a cracking group to look at!
No. 5 - Romulans by “Modiphius Entertainment” - September 27th.
Another "Star Trek" entry in my Top Ten. I just like everything about these: the sculpts look great, the paint scheme really captures the look of these enigmatic villains and overall they look great! The skin and faces have been painted really well on these miniatures and the colour scheme really reflects how they look in the television series.
No. 4 - Drathro by "Black Tree Design" - July 25th
I just really like this miniature. It is from the "Doctor Who" television show and has a look about it that I just adore. The paint scheme looks deceptively simple but the metallics have been painted superbly in my opinion and make the whole thing so memorable. I think Simon has really mastered painting metallic and I am jealous of the way he paints them as they look so realistic. A great looking mini!!
No. 3 - Iron Golem Armator by "Games Workshop" - October 4th
The whole "Warcry" series of miniatures has really caught my imagination this year as they are well sculpted and really capture the different facets of chaos in the Warhammer universe. There are eight Iron Golems in the warband who are heavily armoured in a really distinctive style and this duardin (dwarf in old money!) is my pick of the bunch. The metallics and the red armour are just great on this mini. I know that the painting process on these particular miniatures has been a bit of a trial but in the end they have turned out great.
No. 2 - Wookie Warriors by "Fantasy Flight Games" - January 18th
Another "Star Wars" entry in the Top Ten. The wookies are one of my favourite alien races in George Lucas' universe and these miniatures look awesome and capture the “walking carpets” brilliantly. The paint job on these minis is really good. The fur has been painted brilliantly and the accessories and weapons have been picked out so they don’t get lost in the vast amount of hair!! Great looking unit.
No. 1 - Hexgorger Skulls by "Games Workshop" - April 19th
These models are from "Age of Sigmar" and are prayers summoned onto the battlefield by the followers of the Blood God, Khorne. They look awesome in my opinion. All of the elements have been painted brilliantly: the bone looks tremendous, I really like the shading and the way it gives the appearance of aged bone, the blood flowing from them looks really effective and overall they look stunning. They are a real centre piece model that will be a stand out in this army. A great bit of painting that has resulted in a fantastic model that has stuck in my memory since I first saw it.
Well that concludes my Top Ten and the reasons behind them. Happy New Year to all the readers of “Fantorical”.