EVEN MORE Conan Art by Rodney Buchemi!

One of the blog's favorite artists, Rodney Buchemi, who's work was showcased HERE, was kind enough to drop me a quick note and send us a couple of new pieces of art for us to share here on CROM!

Rodney is one seriously top-notch artist as clearly evidenced in these two pieces. Have a look and see for yourself!

 

 

Thanks for sharing Rodney!

Conan Lego Minifig!

Here's another cool little custom I spotted on eBay. This custom Conan Lego minifig wins for cutest Conan custom ever!

 

Conan And The Songs Of The Dead - A Review

Conan And The Songs Of The Dead from Dark Horse Comics by Joe R. Lansdale with art by Timothy Truman is, as you have guessed, another Conan story. But Joe Lansdale writing a Conan story?!!! How awesome is that, and he's a Texan to boot. Who better to understand Robert E. Howard than another fellow Texan!

Conan meets an old aquaintance, Alvazar the thief, who was hired to find a particular magickal tome known as "The Book Of Nameless Cults" (Ring any bells)? On their quest they join forces with a female warrior named Ohala who is also looking for the book. Husbas, an evil sorcerer and student of Thoth-Amon, is also looking for the scroll so he can use it to call forth the Elder Gods. Conan and his companions fight their way through mummy warriors, Picts, demons and even The Worms Of The Earth to obtain the scroll.

Joe R. Lansdale's writing style has been described as "Gonzo", and this story is no exception. The story itself was decent but at times the anachronistic language got a bit old. And it is a bit risque in parts, just incase you were planning on letting your 10 year old read it.

Timothy Truman's artwork is superb! He's well known for illustrating Grim Jack. His depiction of Conan is spot on! He's a battle hardened roque, not a hollywood pretty boy.

Over all, I really enjoyed the graphic novel and would highly recommend it to Conan fans. Some of the anachronistic language and situations seemed out of place.

The Great White Barsoomian Ape gives it 3 thumbs up!

Conan The Cimmerian miniature

Here's a mini I did a while back using parts from historical wargaming miniatures. I wanted to do a mini of young Conan to go along with my Crusader Miniatures dark age irish miniatures (which I was using for Cimmerians). I decided to use Wargames Factory's Numidian bodies mixed with ancient Germans arms, head, shield and sword. Then I used some Pro-Create to make the cape and the hair.

I wanted him to look like a basic rank and file character, but still very Conan like. So I gave him plain, drab colored clothing that a Cimmerian tribesman would probably have worn. After all, he didn't become a king until his late 40's.

I think it turned out pretty decently.

Royal Armies of The Hyborean Age: Army List (Argos)

(Image used from The Hyborian Age)

Striaght from the army lists from Royal Armies Of The Hyborean Age.

Argos 1500 points

Banner: Purple Field with three gold balls up and down center of flag.

Most units in the army of Argos are hired from Ophir, Koth and Shem as there are very few native units. These Mercenary units should be treated as native as opposed to hiring Free company Mercenaries which could be up to 20% of an Army for Argos.

As all cavalry was hired abroad their uniforms would be similar to similar units in their countries of origin. The same applies to the infantry with the exception of the Royal Guard, which was seldom used in battle. All units use the banner of Argos.

The Royal Guard was a unit composed of members of nobility who favored the use of gold armor and shields. Their golden shields would have three purple balls as a device.

Cavalry is all hired and is B class heavy cavalry in units o ftwelve figures. Cavalry was 25-33% of the army.

Infantry is broken down as follows:

Unit Designation-----Type----Class--No. of Figures-----% of Infantry

Hired Spearmen ------HI-------B--------24-----------50-90
Shemite Archers ------LI-------B--------18-----------10-25
Royal Guard ---------HI-------A--------30-----------1 unit

Conan Mego!

I spotted this minty carded vintage Conan Mego figure and just had to post the pics. You can practically smell the 1970's coming off this thing...

Royal Armies of The Hyborean Age: Army List (Aquilonia)

The following is directly taken from the rules of Royal Armies Of The Hyborean Age by Lin Carter and Scott Bizar. A lot of the specifics of coats of arms and some of the make up of the armies were purely creations of the authors. I presenting them here as they were written. I'm currently researching the original Robert E. Howard stories and will be making adjustments to the rules, just to keep it more in line with the Conan stories.


(Image used from The Hyborian Age)

Quoted from the rules:

Aquilonia - 3000 points

Probably the major power of the Hyborean Age. An Aquilonian army in the field could include up to 20% mercenaries. The following descriptions refer to the native portion of an army.

The Poitanian knights were the levy of Poitain and were known for their use of a two handed broadsword. These mounted knights would carry the heraldic device of Poitain on their shields and banners. This is silver leopards rampant on a red field.

The Aquilonian knights are the barons of Aquilonia and their mounted men-at-arms. These men would have their own coats of arms or would be in the coat of arms of a unit sub-commander who would be their own baron. They would use the aquilonian banner.

The Black Dragons are the mounted portion of the Aquilonian Royal Guard and would be characterized by black uniforms and plumes, silver armor and shields, and by a regimental device of a black dragon on their shields. They would have this dragon on a white field as their banner unless Conan is serving with the unit, in which case they would use the Aquilonian national banner.

The Bossonian Archers are the elite border guard from the Pictish frontier. They would wear green or brown earth tones and plain steel. No banner for this unit.

The Gundermen are pikemen from the province of Gunderland and would all be blonde. They would tend to wear dull colors and plain steel helmets and armor. Their baner would be the Aquilonian Lion.

Aquilonian foot is the bulk of the infantry and it is made up of the men-at-arms of the various barons. There might be contigents from more than one baron in a given unit. These troops would wear the coats of arms of their baron and carry his banner. In those units composed of troops from several barons the Aquilonian banner would be carried.

The Black Legion is the Royal guard on foot and would have uniforms like the Black Dragons.

Cavalry is 25-40% of the army . It's composition is as follows:
****A note on the abbreviations H,M,L=Heavy,Medium, Light; C=Cavalry; I=Infantry, P=Pikes****
Unit Designation -------Type -----Class ------ No. of Figs. ----% of Cavalry-

Poitainian Knights ------HC-------- A-----------12-----------0-50
Aquilonian Knights ------HC --------B-----------12 ----------40-100
Black Dragons --------- HC --------A ----------12-----------1 unit

Infantry makes up 60-75% of the army. The following is a breakdown of the units:

Bossonian Archers ---- - MI -------- A -----------24 ----------0-25
Gunderman-----------HIP--------A-----------30-----------0-30
Aquilonians -----------HI---------B------------24----------40-100
Black Legion ----------HI---------A-----------30-----------1 unit

I'm currently converting some miniatures to fit into what I think that an Aquilonian army would look like. I'm using Medieval Spanish knights, but I'm removing the heads and adding Russian Knights heads in it's place. These give it a more "other worldly" feel but still remain true to the book descriptions. I'll have some pictures up of a command stand. One figure will represent King Conan, with a standard bearer and a Black Dragon Guard. The conversions are complete, I just need to sculpt shields and paint them.

Introductions

Hello fellow Hyborians!

My name is Chad Thorson and I'm a new blogger here at Crom! My posts will mainly be focused on posting wargaming ideas for Conan's world. For the most part I'll be using Fantasy Games Unlimited's "Royal Armies Of The Hyborean Age" (Hyborian being intentionally misspelled for copyright reasons).



I'm currently working on converting some 15 mm historical miniatures to look like Aquilonians, pictures will be forthcoming.

Thanks for having me, and I can't wait to start posting on Crom! more regularly!

Chad Thorson

CROM! Wants YOU!

Hey! You! Yeah, YOU! I'm still looking for more contributors to our blog and if you think you've got some stuff to say about Cimmeria's wandering son, then email me at reisobrien@gmail.com and let me know what you're made of. A sample blog post will go a long way, so be sure to include a link or at least a paragraph or two of your writing.

Maybe you have a specific angle you'd like to cover? Maybe you're an expert on Conan the Destroyer. Maybe you're an actual sword maker. Maybe you're fascinated with the Conan cartoon. Whatever! I wanna hear from you!

Now for your moment of zen...

(Sorry for the lack of a credit on the above artwork. It was emailed to me ages ago! If anyone knows where it's from, please let us know!)

Vikor!!!

Hail fellow Cromites! I'm slowly getting back into the swing of blogging again and I wanted to take this time to hip you all to an upcoming release from Mattycollector in their Masters of the Universe Classics line of a character called "Vikor", who is the spitting image of a certain barbarian we all know and love.

Vikor is based on a original concept sketch from back in 1981 when Masters of the Universe was still being developed and was highly influenced by the Conan image and mythos. (And don't you all start that "He-man was supposed to be Conan" shit again. It's been dis-proven a thousand times over.)

But looking at Vikor, we can clearly see the influence.

Check out the figure... (click the images to make them barbarian sized)

 

And here's the original '81 sketch the figure is based on...

Pretty rad, eh? You can bet your Hyrkanian ponies that I'll be buying one of these figures and displaying it proudly along with my other Conan swag. Vikor is scheduled to go on sale in December (I think, I'm too lazy to check).

Been a While, eh? How About This Kick Ass Conan Custom Action Figure to Make it Up to Ya? ;)

So, yeah, I haven't posted in a long time, but that's how it goes for me in the world of Conan fandom. But I'm coming back and have some cool stuff to post and I thought I'd dip my toe back in by posting some pics of this killer Conan custom action figure that I stumbled upon on eBay.

I didn't bid on it (it was a little too rich for my blood), but the next best thing to owning it, is to swipe the pics and post them on my blog!

Enjoy... (click the pics for full size)

This badass custom comes with some sweet barbaric gear! And I especially love that shield. Basically, this all adds up to the heartwarming fact that Conan fans are still going strong out there, making killer Conan stuff and keeping the torch alive. I imagine that this will only increase as we get closer to the release of the movie.

More Conan stuff to follow!