Everything Old Is New Again

Recently, Reaper Miniatures announced that they were sort of reviving the old Dungeon Dwellers line that they took over from Heritage. This has piqued my interest, as, when I was a tiny troll, my collection was primarily made up of Heritage and pre-slotta Citadel miniatures. Their first offering to the line is a new skelly sculpt named "Rictus the Undying" which does rather recall those old Heritage sculpts. In a wave of nostalgia, I managed to remember that I still had these old fellows:

Yes, five "Denizens of the Dungeon" plastic skellies from Heritage, in full '80s paint job glory. Sadly, (sort of sadly, anyways - these minis were pretty awful, but cheap) I only have these guys left, where once I had all four sets that were made. I especially miss the ogre that came in one of the boxes.

This nostalgia got me to digging around in the oldest of miniature vaults, in search of all the metal Heritage minis that I still have. Surprisingly enough, there are still quite a few lurking around so readers might be subjected to old "Eh" sculpts with my current painting skills in the coming months. Not these skeletons though - they get to stay this way forever.

But that's not the only reason I'm posting tonight...

While digging in the Deep Vaults, I came across an old conversion that I did in the late '80s or early '90s that I had somehow forgotten about. I remember that Warhammer 3rd Edition was fading out, but still the current ruleset. I believe that I was putting together a Khorne army from Slaves to Darkness, and wanted a unit or two of chaos dwarves. As I couldn't source any of the excellent metal ones that were out at the time, I decided to convert my own from the dwarves in the plastic Warhammer Regiments set (yes, the shockingly white plastic ones). Well, me being an ADD doofus, I only managed to convert about six or so (mostly head swaps, although I do recall giving one a skaven head and tail), and of that, only painted one.

But what a one he is.

May I present the standard bearer of "Da Bugeyez" - the best conversion of the lot:

Quite a sight, isn't he? Let's see - Warhammer Regiments dwarf with RTB01 space marine combat attachments in place of horns (why not), the ends of the cross piece of an early space marine back banner pole for eyestalks, and the lance of an early Roughrider for the banner pole (I think these pulled double duty for High Elf knight lances, as well).

God, I still love this little freak.

What the rest of the unit sees. Yes, that IS his picture on the back - he's a bit full of himself.

I don't think I ever got too far with the army overall - 40K kind of overshadowed Fantasy pretty quickly with the local gaming group. This guy still had work though - I had need of cultists, and at least one friend fielded Chaos Squats. 

Ah nostalgia! I think I'll put him in the display box for a while to scare the cats.

"Watchoo lookin' at?"