Alu-Fiend

The alu-demon or alu-fiend is the offspring of a succubus and a human, they are always female.

In the official description they appear as beautiful human women, except for their very small bat wings. In my world they are black-skinned...mostly because I forgot that they looked like human women when I was painting this one and decided she'd look great with black skin, purple hair and red eyes. Which, she does. I will compensate for the discrepency by saying that in my world they are capable of creating an illusion which makes them appear as human women when they are not on the Lower Planes, but for some reason they are unable to disguise their wings.

This is a scratchbuild figure, but I can't recall what I used to make her. I think the base mini is a Reaper miniature and the wings are from some really old lead miniature I had. Again, I can't remember what it was.

Pleased, however, with the results.

When I was at ReaperCon, everyone laughed at me for using glossy varnish instead of matte on my miniatures. I realize that matte photographs much better, which is probably why the industry switched to that...it is very difficult to even find glossy varnish in a hobby store these days...but remember that I harken back to an earlier age.

When we were painting minis in the 70's and early 80's almost all of us used Testor's enamal paints, because that is what you painted metal with. That was a very glossy paint. Then, when we discovered acrylic paints and how much easier they were to work with than the enamals, almost all the companies providing paints for the purpose of miniautures had glossy varnish. I was using Polly S acrylic paints and the spray primer and varnish I used were by a company called Armory, I think. If you wanted to have a flat finish, you generally hat to get a spray can of dullcote, made by Testor.

As a result...a miniature that doesn't shine a little on my gaming table doesn't look finished to me. So, pardon the glossy, shiny monsters here. Blame it on my unwillingness to change...which, given the name of the blog, is the whole point.

Reaper 02644: Boar Demon

Bob Olley's other demonic offering is the Boar Demon, which is Reaper's answer to the Nalfeshnee. I really love this sculpt. Someday, I might find a good figure of a kangaroo and use the head from this miniature to replace the head of Skippy to make the male version of a Catoblepas. Didn't know that the male catoblepas looked like a kangaroo with a warthog head? Well, its true. There was a Dragon magazine with an ecology of the catoblepas in it and I have to say...if the male looked that silly and the female looked that ugly...no wonder they are so rare.

One of the best things about the reaper figure is how well the wings fit into the back of it. The slots fit perfectly with no need for filing or filling. There was a little bit of a gap where the head glued on, but that wasn't much of a much. I have two of these, so for a little variety, I cut the sword off and replaced it with a diffferent weapon from one of the Warlord Weapon packs Reaper puts out. A really nasty mace. I had to clip the pommel off as well, but it looks nice. I'll post pics when I get it painted....sometime in 2044.

I've talked about the nalfeshnee in the past, and told you that I think that Reaper's version is hands down the most frighteningly demonic you can get, although I will always have a soft spot in my heart for the Minifigs Dungeons & Dragons line Type IV demon.

Minifigs was the 1st company to have the official TSR license to make minis for D&D & call them as such. They went out of poduction at the beginning of the 80s. Their Nalfeshnee looks nearly identical to the old 1st edition illustration...except that it has batwings instead of feathered wings. I'm not changing mine, though. These minifig versions are super rare. They are very fragile and if you find one, 9 times out of 10 the legs will be broken. This one is a really prized gem in my collection...even if he is more silly than scary compared to the Reaper Boar Demon.

Reaper 02532: Skalathrix Vulture Demon

Bob Olley's version of a vrock is about the best one there is. I'll be embarrassed to ever put the WOTC one up on my shelf, partially because their vrock is so awful and partially because of what I'll have to pay for it since I didn't get one in the Archfiends case I bought. Oh, the woes of being a collector as well as a gamer...

On most things, the Official AD&D Ral Partha line is my gold standard for what monsters should look like, but Olley's vrock is so much more demonic looking than the Planescape one done by Ral Partha.

The only thing that is a little tricky about this mini is that the wings don't go on the way you expect them to...they lean back at a steep angle and don't go straigh up like a lot of the batwing demons Repaper puts out. If you try to put them on the way you intuitively think they should, you'll think the piece doesn't fit and you need to clip and fill in with putty. Don't. Play around with it before you put the glue on until you see the way it should actually fit, and then you'll probably need to bend the base a bit to get it to balance correctly.

I liked it so much I got two. They are a little pricey at $12.99 each, but, man, are they worth it. They are super cool, super detailed, and super scary.

I offer the other two choices for comparison.

The Ral Partha Vrock. I remember when I got my vrok in the Planescape boxed set. It was missing the tail feathers, so I wrote to Ral Partha and told them I was missing the part...and they sent me both the tail feathers and another vrock...which was great, but now I still have a vrok on my shelf with no tail feathers. As my friend Scott Taylor used to say, "Aw, you'd cry with two loaves of bread under each arm."

DDM Archfiends Vrock

There is no comparison. It would be nice if the Rreaper one were holding the kind of weapon (what is that thing? Scythe?) described in the Monstrous Compendium on the Outer Planes, but you can't have everything...and you might be able to cut the sword off and replace it without too much trouble.

I"m not going to bother, I think they look pretty freaking cool as is.

Save yourself a lot of dough, take what you'd spend on eBay trying to get an Archfiends vrock and just download the stat card and use this fig. There won't be any official DDM 1.0 tournaments anymore anyway, so if the game is what you enjoy, why bother getting the official figs?

And yes, I said "fig".

:)

Nabassu, Pazuzu and Nalfeshnee, just another Demonic Sunday!

Ok, as promised, here is the Nabassu demon that I cobbled together from some Reaper parts and green stuff.

I'm pretty pleased with it. The main body is a Reaper mini called an Attercop, which is their version of the Ettercap. It really fit the look of the old TSR artwork for the Nabassu, except that the ettercap is fat with a big butt instead of bony with protruding hips...still, the three fingered talons and legs were just about perfect for what I was trying to re-create.

For the head I used one of the Reven heads. This image calls them orcs, I'm not sure if Reven are orcs or what, as I've not yet had the time to really explore Reaper's Warlord materials. They're pretty cool, though. Anyway, the head had the right kind of evil eyes and tusks for a Nabassu and after adding a thick mane of green stuff it was very easy to attach the head. The green stuff also helped to attach the large feathery wings, which again came from a Warlord mini, but I don't remember which one. An angelic paladin of some sort.

I thought about using black primer, but went with white instead so that the white hair of the beastie would be more brilliant. I think it turned out pretty well.

As you know, I've been on an obsessive quest to try to get figures to replicate the artwork from the old TSR manuals, especially the demons and devils.

One of the demonic lords is Pazuzu, and while the Reaper miniature for "Pazzuzu" isn't exactly like it, it is close enough for jazz. The TSR description has Pazuzu with four feathered wings, but I like the way this one looks, so I've changed the description in my own Monstrous Manual. There was no scratch building on this one, but I do like the paint job. I'm a long way from being anywhere near as good as the expert painters around, but I'm making some progress and all I really want are painted minis to play with, not to compete with.

Lastly, the Nalfeshnee. I've had this mini for over ten years, and I bought it painted from a much older guy I worked with in Iowa City, who had a lot of minis in his basement he was willing to sell. I got it dead cheap, but I have never seen another one and have no idea who made it.

Other than the Reaper "Boar Demon", this is the only nalfeshnee miniature I've ever seen. The Reaper mini is much more detailed and demony, but this figure is a nearly spot on perfect rendering in lead of the artwork from the TSR Monster Manual (except for the bat wings instead of feathered wings), and thus, one of the brightest jewels in my collection.

Anybody know who made this? Leave me a comment.