I have returned

Sergio Osmeña, Courtney Whitney, Carlos P. Romulo, 
Douglas MacArthur, Richard K. Sutherland, 
William J. Dunn, Francisco Salveron

Whatever you may think of Douglas MacArthur, his return to the Philippine Islands in 1944 was a major event in the history of WWII. Sgt Major Miniatures makes a set of 20mm figures (MAC1) that commemorates this moment.

The figures from left to right, represent Major General Courtney Whitney, General Douglas MacArthur, Lieutenant General Richard Sutherland, a photographer with a Speed Graphic camera, and a war correspondent. I don't think that any of these figures are represented elsewhere in the 1/72 world.

I'm not sure if the photographer is supposed to be Gaetano Faillace who took the iconic photo of the landing, or just a generic photographer, but the sculpt bears a slight resemblance to Carl Mydans who took a similar photo at a later date.

The identity of the reporter also remains mysterious. It doesn't seem to be William Dunn, but only the sculptor knows for sure.

The sculpts are a bit on the rough side, but I was pretty much able to determine who was who, so they get a pass from me. The photographer did not have any straps sculpted on his backpack, so I just carved some lines in with a hobby knife.

To make the figures 1/72 compatible, I performed my patented height extension surgery on them. I'd say their proportions look better in 1/72 than they do at 20mm.

The generals and reporter will be painted in khaki, but I'm not sure about the photographer. The way he's outfitted really makes me think that he should be in olive drab.

Army Signal Corps Photographer

CFPU photographer with Speed Graphic camera 

Carrion Crawler

The Carrion Crawler is one of the iconic D&D monsters, but there are almost no miniatures that accurately capture the segmented, worm-like appearance of the creature illustrated by David Sutherland in the AD&D Monster Manual.

The two miniatures that I have are both pretty difficult to find. On the left side is the Archive Miniatures Rotting Crawler (Dungeon Nasties 761). On the right is the MPC Carrion Crawler from one of the AD&D Action Scenes kits.

The MPC crawler is much harder to find, particularly with all the legs and tentacles intact (I have two MPC carrion crawlers - the one in the photo below, with a couple of broken off legs, and another one with all the legs intact, but most of the tentacles broken off).

The Archive crawler looks a bit like the OD&D carrion crawler, while the MPC crawler is much closer in appearance to the AD&D version.

Both miniatures only have a single row of nodules down the back. The LJN Carrion Crawler also shares this feature, so somewhere along the line, this seems to have become official. The illustration in the AD&D Monster Manual, however, shows that the monster has two rows of nodules down its back, although this is more apparent on the back cover of the book.

There is also a Citadel Carrion Crawler that is pretty close in appearance to the Monster Manual illustration. It has two rows of nodules down its back, but the legs are just too long and thick to look right. I'm also not sure how big it is, and am inclined to believe that it is probably too big for use with 1/72 figures.

Unfortunately, only the Archive crawler is suitable for gaming, as the MPC model is just too fragile for the table top. I just may have to try my hand at sculpting something up on my own.

Perytion

The Perytion inhabits the island of Atlantis, and is a creature half stag, half bird. It possesses the head and feet of the stag, and as for the body, it is that of a perfect bird, with all its feathers and plumage.

The most astonishing feature of this beast is that when it is struck by the rays of the sun, the shadow it throws upon the ground is not that of its own figure, but rather that of a human being...

- The Book of Imaginary Beings

The Perytion is the creation of Jorge Luis Borges, though he cites fictional sources for the origins of the creature. In the AD&D Monster Manual, the name is spelled "Peryton" and the monster does not have the feet of a stag, but it is more-or-less the same beast described in The Book of Imaginary Beings.

The illustration by Peter Sís in the 2006 publication of The Book of Imaginary Beings shows the creature as a winged stag.

The winged stag is sometimes used in medieval imagery, but most likely had nothing to do with the Perytion.

Anyway, the choices for 1/72 perytons is pretty limited, with the two candidates that I own both being released in this year.

On the left is a peryton from the D&D Fantasy Miniatures Icons of the Realms line (Elemental Evil #23), while on the right is a Reaper peryton (Dark Heaven Legends 03702), sculpted by Julie Guthrie.

The D&D miniatures peryton is a bit small, and is probably better suited for 15mm figures. The body and wings are nicely sculpted, but the head looks a bit weird (perhaps reflecting the new Brynn Metheney design).

The Reaper peryton on the other hand is a bit large, but since it has horns like that of Megaloceros, I'm going to give it a pass with regard to scale. I don't particuarly care for the long reptilian tail, so I'll probably try to hunt around for some proper tailfeathers to use as a replacement.

Reaper will be releasing the peryton as a Reaper Bones miniature later this year. I'm not sure how the antlers will turn out in plastic, since I had to do a bit of adjustment with the metal ones to get them looking symmetrical.