Old School FRP

Brought an AK to a swordfight (Bill Neff cover for Ral Partha's 1986 Fantasy Catalog) -- This picture is still used as the cover for the Chaos Wars rulebook PDFs, with the gun replaced by another crossbow

Knights of Nyrond do battle in the wake of the Greyhawk Wars. Dissenting nobles rebel openly against the ancient authority of King Archbold, while forces of evil lay their own plots in secret. (Eric Hotz, AD&D Greyhawk Adventures supplement WGR4: The Marklands by Carl Sargent, TSR, 1993)

I always assumed this was a swashbuckling goblin. Bob Naismith sculpted some dark elves for Grenadier's Fantasy Warriors line in 1992 that look somewhat similar, with long pointy faces, a long narrow strip of hair, dual weapons with basket hilts, and a mix of mail, plate, and leather.

This could be a good hook for an adventure. Unusual creatures are overrunning the land but the source turns out to be a wizard who has no evil intent. He's just bored and needs a different hobby, or maybe to be set up on a date with the witch in the neighboring valley.

Bonjour, je m'appelle Cthulhu. Où est la bibliothèque? (Ad in Casus Belli 29, 1985, for French language editions of Call of Cthulhu by Jeux Descartes, including the first edition of the classic adventure Masks of Nyarlathotep by Larry DiTillio and Lynn Willis)

Double threat: heavily armored lizardman with magic staff (Chris Achilleos cover art for Warlock 6, "The Fighting Fantasy Magazine," Oct/Nov 1985; originally used as the cover for some 1975 and later printings of the novel Swordships of Scorpio by Alan Burt Akers, a pseudonym of Kenneth Bulmer)

Most of these are from Ral Partha's "1200 AD" line, dated 1979. I added Bishop Odo's wooden club after the Bayeux Tapestry. The single commander on foot is a Ral Partha Imports figure in slightly larger scale, as are a couple of the mounted knights that originally were made by Citadel. One stand of javelin skirmishers are by Old Glory, a bit bigger than Partha but the closest I can get at the moment.

Before they wore the giant Mesopotamian hats, the Chaos Dwarfs were more individually varied and chaotic (sculpted by Alan and Michael Perry, ad in White Dwarf 78, April 1986)

I'm always drawn to the upside-down victim beneath a wolf. The same pose appears in Pat Hidy's 1980 cover for Death Test 2.

Our fashion-conscious merc, Randy, is sporting the latest organically grown body armor* from the fine folks at Gigerwear Ltd. BIO PLATE (R) comes in a variety of decorator colors -- black, flat black, glossy black, blue black, dark black, light black, not-quite-so-dark black (medium black), black with black highlights and fuchsia. Surfaces include the popular textures Slime Coat (TM) and Liquid Fur (TM). *Muscle tissue not included.

Two against a purple worm -- By Fangorn, aka Chris Baker, originally drawn for the UK publication of Holmes’ Basic D&D (Games Workshop, 1977) then reprinted in White Dwarf 6, April/May 1978. Like all of Fangorn's interior illustrations for Holmes, it was a reinterpretation of one of David Sutherland's images in the original US printings.

Old time religion: Warrior Priest for Warhammer Quest, GW, 1995

Aerial ambush on a remote mountaintop (Chris Beaumont cover art, White Dwarf 6, April/May 1978)