Crom’s Anvil

Well, the writing isn’t going so well (see last post, two months ago!), although I have got a RuneQuest Glorantha campaign underway since then, so some writing has taken place. I will return to Tales of the Reaching Moon soon, honest...

In the meantime, I have been painting, as ever, but recently my wandering eye has landed on a sparkling gem I have been eyeing for quite a while now. Crom’s Anvil, run by Michael Stockin, formerly of Angel Barracks fame.

I remember the site going live almost two years ago and since then the range of Hyborian Age style buildings has grown, and is still growing, into a most impressive range. There are some great adobe buildings, walls and general tabletop ‘clutter’ for a desert town, the town of Simurgh,  some mud huts and wooden palisade style fencing for the village of Utuseb and general open steppe type terrain elements such as camps, oases, rock formations and a ruined temple.

All of this is beautifully realised and I still covet it all, but there are also figures. Wonderful little 15mm people that dwell in the places described above. I had to buy them all because 15mm is very affordable!

Aside from the characters, there are the town guard, resembling some pseudo-ancient-middle-eastern types as you’d expect to find in Shem or perhaps Turan, and some tribesmen, more akin to Howard’s “Black Kingdoms” than his Picts.

Some priestesses, a priest/monk, a sorcerer, a merchant and his bodyguard are also available and stunningly realised, but perhaps the icing on the cake are Erland and Eydis. A pair that are as close to Conan and Valeria as you’ll find in 15mm. It was this latter pair that I had the urge to paint late last night, and they paint up very nicely. There is a surprising about of detail on these figures, but they’re not overburdened with fiddly bits that can make some smaller scale models awkward to paint.

The products Michael has in his site (and I believe he makes the buildings himself) really evoke the Hyborian Age, to the point where I have had to go and get the books out and start re-reading. As well as his own skirmish game Burnings Sands, the range will be a perfect compliment to the Conan rpg by Modiphius.

I’ll leave you with the url to the site and a photo of who I shall be calling Conan and Valeria.
Go and have a look at the site. And when you’ve had a look treat yourself to it all.

https://cromsanvil.co.uk/shop.html