Bob Naismith

[Grungebob]

I’ve been a Naismith fan long before Heroscape. I love his sculpting style which is easily recognizable, a little comical, but cool and stylish. It started with HeroQuest and after that I would seek out his miniatures. I have quite a collection. My favorites are his hobgoblins and trolls which I have a bunch

Bob Naismith’s miniatures are very much a big part of why I love Heroscape.

In 1997, I found a game called Deadlands The Great Rail Wars. It was loaded with cool weird west miniatures all sculpted by Bob. Here’s an example:



I’m going to gradually add pics to this post of cool Naismith sculps I love. I should also mention that Bob has a website. https://www.bobnaismith.com/

[IAmBatman]

[orgsbane]

I can’t believe that after all this time of playing the game, I had no idea who sculpted on these wonderful and iconic minis. Thank you so much for giving him a shoutout here, I look forward to seeing pics of his non-Heroscape minis.

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by orgsbane

I can’t believe that after all this time of playing the game, I had no idea who sculpted on these wonderful and iconic minis. Thank you so much for giving him a shoutout here, I look forward to seeing pics of his non-Heroscape minis.

Yeah, I mean if people wanted to make customs for Heroscape that totally look the part, they could totally grab some of Naismith’s old minis and they would fit right in, especially his weird west Deadlands stuff.

[Sherman Davies]

Wow, this pic takes me back...

[Arch-vile]

Very cool. He’s got a distinct style for sure, those minis would fit in right alongside classic scape. Those cowboy skeletons are great!

[Grungebob]

Originally Posted by Arch-vile

Very cool. He’s got a distinct style for sure, those minis would fit in right alongside classic scape. Those cowboy skeletons are great!

His new stuff looks like it would fit right in with the new scape.

[Grungebob]

It appears to me that Naismith has changed his style, and is now also working in digital. It wouldn’t surprise me to discover that the new Heroscape minis are all sculpted by him.

[chas]

Thanks for the great pics! He sure does neat stuff.

[mee likey]

Grungebob,
I was searching on the site for "Bob Naismith" just to see if anybody was going to mention Bob's contribution to classic Scape, and I'm happy to see that you started this thread.

Much of the "classic Heroscape look" was due to Bob giving the figures action poses that add to the sense that they are swinging, lunging, shooting, and running across the battlefield and not just standing still, upright with legs together like they are posing for a photo, as is the case in many other prepainted miniatures lines. Even those who are standing still (i.e. Alastair MacDirk, Taelord) have unusually wide stances and look intimidating.

And the Heroscape figures' quick-and-dirty paint jobs (simple, but with a thin paint wash to bring out details) contributed to Heroscape's unique style. That is why some of the other games Bob Naismith sculpted for, like Havok Skirmish/Nexus (designed by Stephen Baker) and Battleball (credited to Baker and Craig Van Ness) had miniatures that looked like they'd fit right in with Heroscape, and several resourceful Scapers made customs out of them.


(example from Matt Helm's HavokScape customs).

Just found these sculpts that I'm convinced were by Bob, from an old Kickstarter project, Going Native:Warpath. I wish Hasbro had gotten these as Heroscape historical units!





And there are some more on that Kickstarter's webpage . . . the "Polynesian Adventurers" squad of three definitely look like his, and possibly the "Samurai Shogun"

[Good Pig]

Originally Posted by Arch-vile

Very cool. He’s got a distinct style for sure, those minis would fit in right alongside classic scape. Those cowboy skeletons are great!

Love those cowboy skeletons too.

Maybe the chunkiness or cartoon quality of the earlier work was due to the medium he was working in versus an aesthetic choice? It's cool either way.

Thanks for sharing GB!