The Firmament

Mole people seem to have been fairly popular in the media of the 1950s (maybe due to the widespread belief that people would be living in underground bunkers in the aftermath of an atomic war).

In more recent times, the term has been applied to the semi-urban myth of underground tunnel dwellers beneath places like Manhattan and Las Vegas.

I envision mole people as being bipedal moles, along the lines of the talking moles of Narnia, or the Diggeries of Amagi Brilliant Park. As such, the perfect representation of these creatures are available from Microworld Games.

There is no particular background given to the Firmament on the Microworld site, but the army consists of molemen and their stoneman allies/minions. The typical pack consists of ~40 figures for US$10, which gives a per figure cost that is probably a bit more than that of a box of 1/72 plastics.

The molemen shown below (from left to right) consist of a mole commander, two geomancers, two moleman drillspears (FIRM01), two moleman delvers (FIRM02), and two moleman scrappers (FIRM03).

When used with 1/72 scale figures, the molemen would be even smaller than hobbits, which is just as I imagine them to be.

The stonemen are what I would term [Paracelsian] gnomes. They come in three sizes: stonemen, greater stonemen, and earth giants. Below are the earth giant (FIRM10), and two poses from the stonemen warriors pack (FIRM05).

The stonemen warriors are too small to be useful combatants in my opinion, so I modified them to be foundry and metal workers by cutting off the shields, and resculpting the left arm. Additional tools and sundries will be added as required. I will order some of the greater stonemen at a later date to serve as auxiliary warriors.

Gremlins

Jermlaine?
Gremlins originate from the realm of aviation mythology, with the earliest references coming from the RAF in the 1920's. They became a part of popular culture during the WWII years through Roald Dahl's book The Gremlins.

Gremlins never appeared in 1^st Edition AD&D, but a number of small nuisance creatures from the Fiend Folio were later grouped under the category of "gremlins" in later editions. Two of these creatures are the Snyad and the Mite. I'd put the Jermlaine in this category as well, though in recent editions they seem to have turned into some sort of little rat-men.

To represent these creatures in proper 1/72 scale, I looked at various 6mm and 10mm miniature lines to find figures suitable for conversion.

For Jermlaine, I went with 6mm ancients from Rapier Miniatures. The two strips to the left are Celt slingers (CEL004), and Libyan infantry (EGY007). For Snyads and Mites, I selected 10mm Orcs (TM1) from Copplestone Castings represented by the strip on the right.


I find it difficult to believe that it's possible to be knocked unconscious by sap wielding Jermlaine, regardless of the number attacking you (the equivalent of being knocked out by being hit with dozens of half-filled hacky sacks), but I went ahead and made one for the sake of appearances. I also made some Jermlaine holding a tripwire. Other conversions I'm planning will be missile weapon troops and some rat riders.


The Snyads (left) and Mite (right) were modified 10mm orcs. The shields had to be removed from all of the figures.


In the case of the Snyads, the weapons were cut off and replaced with loot made from Kneadatite. I also went ahead and added a long hooked nose. I couldn't quite achieve the look of Russ Nicholson's illustrations, but I think the figures look decent.


The Mite was pretty much a stock 10mm orc with the shield removed and the arm re-positioned. They should be a bit shorter than Snyads, so I shaved the base a little to give it the appearance of being shorter. I tried making a sharp jutting chin on this conversion, but it's not readily apparent even on close-up, so I think that I won't bother for future conversions.