Looking ahead to 2022

I've been thinking about my projects for the coming 12 months and I've made a list.

 I am planning the following;

15mm WW2 Soviets for Chain of Command (these need to be a priority in January).
28mm Soviet Women, also for Chain of Command (from the Bad Squiddo Kickstarter)
28mm Austrians for Napoleonic Sharp Practice 

28mm Bloody Miniatures 17th century troopers
28mm 17th century Bicorne Miniatures Pikemen and Musketeers for Pikeman's Lament and maybe Donnybrook too (these will augment my existing Bloody Miniatures figures)
28mm Perry plastic Longbows and Bills for Never Mind The Billhooks, Lion Rampant etc
28mm Pulp figures for all sorts of things (I have too many of these in my leadpile)
28mm Spanish for Sharp Practice (I haven't bought anything for this yet)
Silver Bayonet
Stargrave
Building up my scenic collection in 15mm and 28mm
1/285 scale 8th Army and DAK for O Group

A couple of 15mm Sci Fi armies for Alien Squad Leader

15mm 18th century heavy cavalry for my imaginations, also some grenadiers and additional Freikorps stuff

28mm Late Roman skirmishing and armoured cavalry, and cataphracts too.

15mm Romano-British "Arthurian" army for Sword and Spear Fantasy

I also have lots of other odds and ends sitting around that I ought to get round to working on. I am also expecting to get sidetracked with various as-yet unknown flights of fancy, depending on what I read or how the mood takes me.

How much of this I actually accomplish is open to conjecture, but I do have three or four that I am thinking of as Must Do items.
 

_._,_._,_

The last of my Elizabethans - six men with guns

I didn't think I was going to get these done, but happily I did. First, three arquebusiers;

As you can see, these have been painted using my green theme, because I think they ought to look like members of someone's retinue. These certainly look like they are reasonably well-trained in the use of their weapons.

Next, three less regular-looking types, armed with what I am calling blunderbusses, although I am not sure such things were available in the 16th century. Even so, Wargames Foundry think they were a Thing, so I'm happy to go along with it.

As you can see, two out of the three have my alternative blue colour theme.

One point about these chaps; two of them, plus one of the halberdiers were bare-footed, presumably because they are sea dogs, but I didn't want them without shoes. Therefore, I gave the three concerned shoes made from green stuff. After painting and basing, it is almost impossible to tell which ones were originally shoeless.

So, this is my final piece of painting for 2021. I have packed my paints away and will be spending the rest of the year with my partner, our dogs and lots of food and wine.

Six Elizabethan halberdiers

Getting close to completing this little Foundry project. Here are two groups of three men armed with polearms;

The three above have continued the green theme and have a more regular appearance than the second group, I think.

 I particularly like the central figure of the second group. He looks like he's been around a few battles in the past and would be perfect as the Gatekeeper for a household or manor.

The final six figures are all equipped with firearms. I will post them tomorrow.

Four grizzled veterans

Here are the last four of my current bunch;

These guys are definitely my idea of how grizzled veterans of many battles, boarding parties and dubious missions into hostile towns and cities might look. They have the air of desperate hard men who might consider anything, so long as the price is right.

I've moved away from the unifying green theme, except for the third one from the left, because I also wanted to use a blue/grey palette to create a second colour theme.

I love the character in these sculpts. There is so much to enjoy when painting figures as good as this. I especially like the figure with his arms folded and with a bandage across one eye. The blob of grey paint under his nose was a mistake I didn't notice until I'd photographed him. I've fixed it since then.

I have six more figures to finish off and that will probably be it for 2021. I am planning to have these all out of the way by Thursday.
 

Today sees four more Elizabethan arrivals

Four solid dependable sorts from Wargames Foundry. First, two well-equipped grizzled veterans;

And now two armed retainers, obviously based upon the same basic armature;

I've used various shades of green as a unifying factor here, because although I don't want this project to look like an army, I do want the figures to have something that brings them together.

All four look like the kind of chaps you would like beside you when things turn nasty, and I think of these as being the core of an armed band who might be deployed as Border Reivers, a nobleman's retinue in the fighting in the Low Countries or against the Spanish or even on Witch finding expeditions.

Four more swashbuckling Elizabethans.

 First, two swashbuckling young ladies;

I see the somewhat dishevelled young gentlewoman on the right as the sister of the dashing swordsman in black, here. The young lady with lilac hair and the blunderbuss is her companion. The Celtic Cross between them is a simple MDF kit from Warbases. It doesn't look much when it arrives, but once glued together and painted it comes alive rather nicely. I decided to give it an aged appearance, which will make it useful for all manner of settings.

   

To gain sufficient expertise and experience with a blade, a young lady needs an expert teacher, so here is her Fencing Master, accompanied on his left by his manservant, a rogue who carries out all manner of nefarious deeds for his master. The fencing master looks like a bit of a rogue himself. He's clearly someone with a chequered past. The pair must have spent some considerable time fighting in the wars in the Low Countries and the German lands, maybe even against the Turks in eastern Europe.

These figures are all, once again from the Foundry Seadogs and Swashbucklers range.

Annoyingly, the photo of these two shows up a couple of small errors, which I may have to correct at some point.

Overall, though, I am really enjoying working on these figures, which I will have completed before the end of next week, because I need to get the dining table cleared and ready for the seasonal festivities.

More Elizabethans

And a bit of a background story. 

Once again, these are Foundry Seadogs and Swashbucklers.

The interesting thing here is that one of these figures is a monk, something quite odd, seeing as there were no religious orders in post-Reformation England.

Anyway, I have decided that the guy in  the robes isn't actually a monk. Instead, he is a scholar, known only as Brother Johannes, a fanatical enemy of all witches, warlocks and members of secret cults, and also a spy who has infiltrated a number of secret Catholic cells operating in England on behalf of the Spanish king and the Papacy. The central figure is Doctor Frans van Helsing, a Hermetic philosopher and alchemist and reputedly a scholar of the Dark Arts, and the figure on the right is Willem Bocq, Doctor van Helsing's manservant and assistant. He is carrying a chest containing various important items that van Helsing might require as part of his investigations into unexplained phenomena. Doctor van Helsing has long been an associate of the famous Doctor John Dee and has also carried out secret work for Sir Francis Walsingham.

I am now thinking about how I might use these characters in games with a supernatural aspect. 

Elizabethan Swashbucklers

I bought these figures about a year ago and put them to one side, having more urgent things to paint.

These are Wargames Foundry figures from their Seadogs and Swashbucklers range. I bought five packs of figures in all, with the aim of putting a couple of bands together for games using the En Garde rules. They hopefully might work for the currently unreleased TooFatLardies sword fighting rules, although I think that those rules are more aimed at the France of Louis XIII and the Three Musketeers.

These are the first three I've photographed and I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The sculpts and casts are excellent, with loads of crisp detail. I am generally pretty pleased with how they have turned out, although, typically, the photos show up a few tiny mistakes which are annoying, but won't really show up on the table.

I really like the guy in the middle a lot. He has something about him that says "swaggering swordsman", and his companions also look like formidable characters. Perhaps they might be veterans of wars in the Low Countries or privateering voyages against the Spanish? The chap on the left looks like one of those Elizabethan gentlemen of letters, equally capable of knocking out a sonnet or two or running through a few ne'er do wells in a seedy tavern brawl.

I've got another nine ready for varnishing and photographing, so I'll post them in separate posts later on.

Since finishing these, I am now thinking how I might use them for supernatural settings, with Master Hieronymus and Red Samuel as adversaries. I'm sure I'll think something up.

I haven't got names for these three Flashing Blades yet, but I can work on a backstory later, once my ideas are all worked out.

Some dastardly evil magic users

These three figures are from Antediluvian  Miniatures.

First, a flying Sorcerer;

I bought this chap because I wanted a flying magic user for my Saga AoM Otherworld warband. I've suffered the effects of attacks from flying wizards in the past, so I decided that I'd give one a try myself. I intend to use him in my next Saga AoM game, so he'll probably die almost immediately he gets used.

Of course, he has other possibilities too. All in all, he is a really nice figure.

Next, a Magus and his Familiar.

I've stuck to a similar colour palette, mainly because I think it really works for practitioners of the Dark Arts, but also because I was painting all three at the same time.

I am sure that some of you might recognise the inspiration for the magician. I have decided that his name is Master Hieronymus, a Natural Philosopher and Master of Magick and he is accompanied by his familiar, a small homunculus known as Red Samuel, noted for his eerie glowing red eyes and an uncanny ability to appear and disappear at will.

I love this pair and I am itching to use them for something. He could be the leader of a Cult in Donnybrook, or in many other settings. 

And the skies clear for long enough to get things varnished ...............

......... with no fear of fogging! Here are the first few (page down to see them all).

I've been sitting on a number of painted items from the Frostgrave Maze of Malcor supplement. Firstly, the Wraith of Malcor;

He is supposed to be accompanied by his Advisory Council, but I can see both him and his Council working for many different scenarios in other sets of rules;

I really should have photographed them all together. Maybe I'll do that for a later post.

Next, a bizarre thing called a Collegium Porter, perhaps a distant relative of Rincewind's Luggage?

I have to say that I really like this piece. I mean, who doesn't like a bit of angry animated furniture?

The last item from The Maze of Malcor ended up being painted as something entirely different. He was supposed to be a Coal Man, but I thought that he would be more useful as a generic Stone Troll;

I really like this model and I am really happy with the way he has turned out, especially with the tufts of vegetation growing out from various crevices and crannies.

I've got more things to photograph, but they can wait for another day.

And finally, the rest of the Volkssturm

Here are the last of my figures for this little project, three squads making up the core Volkssturm Zug.

The first squad, plus the Zugführer (slightly out of focus with the pistol);

Followed by the other two squads;

Each squad has a Junior Leader with a SMG and eight riflemen.

I have painted some of the figures in dark blue uniforms to represent members of the Hitlerjugend. This seems to be what they wore once they had grown out of their shorts, as far as I can tell. To be honest, I don't really want to dive into too many websites covering this unsavoury organisation.

I've also used the same vaguely military colours that I used for the guys with Panzerfausts, to give an idea of old soldiers getting a tunic or greatcoat out of the loft or maybe grabbing something left behind by retreating Heer units. I've also given one or two brown clothing, which seems to have been widely used by a lot of NSDAP paramilitary organisations like the Reichsarbeitsdienst. The colour seems to vary, but it is often a kind of diarrhoea brown, which seems appropriate. 

Some of the figures have helmets and others forage caps and they all have the Volkssturm armband.

The number of different figures in the Peter Pig Volkssturm offering isn't huge, so I bulked them out with rifle-armed figures from their Afrika Korps range. They are wearing a lot of military kit, such as gas mask cases, but I don't think that it matters that much. Perhaps this particular Volkssturm unit came from an area where kit was a bit more plentiful.

The problem with the Volkssturm is that regardless of any official organisational charts, the reality was always a lack of uniformity or adherence to what the regulations might state, due to all manner of reasons. However, to put something on the table which will work in Chain of Command rules terms, I've had to give the thing a coherent shape. 

Here is what I have gone with;

HQ: Zugführer - SL with pistol 

2 x MG42 teams (3 crew, gunner, loader, ammunition carrier). These can be allocated to a squad, deployed as a team without a leader or kept under the control of the SL. n.b the ammunition carrier doesn't use a rifle separately.

8 x men with Panzerfausts and no other armament, to be allocated as desired.

3 x Squads (Gruppenführer - JL with SMG, 8 rifles)

The Zug is rated Green as laid out in the CoC rule book.

More 15mm Volkssturm - Panzerfausts

The Volkssturm was supposed to be the mobilisation of the (male) German population into a huge army to defend the Fatherland against the allies. It never really turned out that way, though.

There was a shortage of weapons and uniforms and most of the available healthy manpower was siphoned off into the new Volksgrenadier units, many of which were wasted in the abortive Ardennes Offensive of December 1944.

However, Volkssturm units were formed and equipped with whatever was available, which meant a lot of obsolete rifles and even more Panzerfausts.

These are all Peter Pig figures, some of a more martial appearance than others, due to their military-style soft caps. I've used grey-green on some of the clothing to imply either military greatcoats dished out from a store somewhere or tunics that might date back to someone's service in the Great War. You will note that only two of these figures have rifles. The rest just have a 'faust. Again, I've attempted the red/white/black Volkssturm armband on them.

My idea here is that these guys will form a resource available to the Zugführer to allocate as he sees fit. I've even got an idea how they might be used in a game of CoC. They could be allocated to individual squads or be held centrally, either to be deployed as an Ambush, using a CoC dice, or as a one-man team which will activate on a 1 on a Command Dice. Once they have fired, if deployed as a 1-man team or an Ambush they will be unarmed and should be removed from the table. Those allocated to a squad will remain with the squad and will be able to replace a rifleman casualty (but not the Gruppenführer JL).

By September 1944, the Panzerfaust 60 reached peak production but was slowly being replaced by the more powerful Panzerfaust 100. Apart from the longer range of the Model 100, both versions were of a similar size and both could knock out any Allied tanks encountered. They were most effective in urban combat situations, where tanks were vulnerable to such portable one-shot weapons.

The start of a much postponed new WW2 project

I have had this idea for quite a long time now, and actually bought most of the figures at Colours in 2019, but it just got put aside when the pandemic struck us in early 2020. All the figures in this project, except one are Peter Pig.

The project is a 15mm German Volkssturm Zug for late-war Chain of Command. My reason for doing this was to allow me to play games in the last months of the Third Reich when the Volkssturm were supposed to be Germany's last line of defence. It was also part of a bigger plan, which was to do 15mm Soviet forces for Chain of Command too. 

So, I've started work on these now, and here are the first fruits. These represent the heavier firepower for the force.

Here are two MG42 teams. These are actually late war German infantry in greatcoats, but you can't get Volkssturm figures with LMGs, well I couldn't find any. You'll note that I have attempted to paint Volkssturm armbands on them. 

Next, and this is for a specific project I have in mind is a Ranking Senior Leader (in CoC terms), a NSDAP Gemeinschaftsleiter (Community Leader), with a runner or bodyguard (this one is a Forged in Battle early war German infantry figure)

I also had some Peter Pig late-war German infantry with StG 44 assault rifles hanging around so, I decided that my project might have well have some Volksgrenadiers as a support option. I'll rate them as Green for CoC games.

This squad is a Junior Leader with an SMG (pointing, on the larger base) and seven men with the StG 44 rifles. 

My next post will be about the actual Volkssturm Zug once I have varnished and photographed them.

More Maze of Malcor - a Bog Man

This is one of the creatures from the Maze of Malcor Bestiary. 

According to the rules, a Bog Man is a kind of Undead creature found in bogs and marshes. They have no skeleton and are basically a human-shaped bag of flesh filled with mud and marsh gas.

I painted this one to look like he'd been rotting away in some smelly quicksand environment before emerging to do whatever it is that Bog Men do. My main aim was to make him look smelly and decomposing. I think I succeeded.

The figure is from the official North Star range of Frostgrave figures. 

Maze of Malcor - Four Wizard Shades and a Banshee

Ages ago, when it was first announced I bought the Frostgrave Maze of Malcor book and the associated range of figures from North Star. Sadly, our then-current Frostgrave campaign at the club came to an end and we all decided on a break from Frostgrave. I never painted up any of the figures, well not until now.

In the book, the Wizard Shades are portrayed as incorporeal but with a normal appearance. I decided that I wanted them to look more "ghostly".

As you can see, I've used a greenish palette for these figures, making them, hopefully, look a bit more like generic ghostly apparitions, or maybe even statues. Who knows? They could come in useful for all sorts of games with horror-based, gothic or supernatural settings.

I took a slightly different approach with the Banshee, giving her a reddish tinge to her flesh and hair. I wanted to make her look a bit different to the other apparitions. I'm not sure that I'm totally happy with the outcome, but she will have to do.

I'd be interested to see what others think about these.

Lincombe Barn Wargames Society presents The Return Of The Tabletop Sale

The last time the club held an open event was in 2019, when we ran our annual Reveille show. Since then, we have had to cancel our 2020 planned events due to Covid-19 and also had to rearrange our 2021 programme.

So, I am happy to announce that our much delayed 2021 Table Top Sale will finally be going ahead this month.

Normally, November would be the time for Reveille, but with both Salute and Warfare happening in November this year, we decided to cancel our show and run the TTS instead, in a slightly smaller format, i.e. we are only using the two main rooms at the Barn rather than spreading out to the smaller locations.

Please note that all tables have now been booked, so please don't contact me about booking a table, but obviously everyone is welcome to come along, browse what is on sale and hopefully grab a few bargains.

My final four 17th century skirmishers.

The final four figures are all brandishing pistols, although three of them are prepared to attack with their mortuary swords once they have fired;

There isn't really much to say about these guys, except that I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The figure on the right, with a plume in his hatband is giving off strong leader vibes, the other one in green is clearly a dismounted trooper and the remaining two are clearly foot soldiers, due to them not wearing top boots.

I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the next sixteen figures from Bloody Miniatures as soon as they are on sale.

My third group of 17th century skirmishers

Here is my latest group of Bloody Miniatures lovely 17th century figures.

Clearly, these are all carrying polearms of some kind, which would be more useful in a skirmish than a pike. Perhaps a couple of them are dismounted troopers who have decided to get stuck in with something lethal on the end of a stick? As can be seen, three of them are wearing boots and spurs while the fourth figure in green is clearly a foot soldier.  Of course, they could also be useful for sergeants in a larger unit of Pike and Shot. Anyway, regardless of that, they are definitely useful chaps to have around in a tight spot.

More 17th century skirmish miniatures

Here are four more of the excellent Bloody Miniatures figures, this time some dismounted Horse troopers;

Now, these guys are far more likely to be from the Civil Wars in the British Isles than from the Thirty Years' War, because the three-barred face protection was very much associated with these islands, with a single nasal bar being much more the standard across mainland Europe.

Three of them are armed with their carbines and the fourth is using a pistol and sword combination, with his carbine still slung from his crossed belts at his back. It is a lovely piece of modelling.

These are the kind of Horse troops that were the standard for cavalry for much of the 17th century, known variously as Harquebusiers, Ringerpferde, Reiters or simply just Horse. The Swedes used these troops a lot and in Sweden they were apparently known as  lätta ryttare i.e. Light Riders. The Swedish influence became more and more the norm by the end of the Thirty Years' War.

Originally, such cavalry used their carbines or pistols as their main weapon, often using the complicated caracole manoeuvre to maintain fire on a target unit but, over time charging the enemy with the sword became more and more the standard, possibly discharging one of more pistols before impact.

During the first half of the 17th century, this kind of cavalry became the dominant type on the battlefield, replacing the heavier and more expensive to equip Cuirassiers. 

These are really excellent figures and I am pretty pleased with how they have turned out.

A small side project: 17th century skirmish miniatures

I have a thing about the wars of the 17th century. I've always been interested in the Thirty Years' War and the various Civil Wars of the British Isles, which are popularly, but inaccurately lumped together as "the English Civil War". When I discovered the excellent small range of figures being produced by Bloody Miniatures, I had to buy them. Here are the first four out of a total of 16;

These are going to be ideal for skirmish games or swashbuckling games, but could also play a role in games like The Pikeman's Lament or Donnybrook. These four are equipped with the classic straight-bladed Mortuary Sword of the period. 

I really enjoyed painting these minis. They are lovely sculpts and cleanly cast with nice crisp details. 

I have twelve more figures to paint and post, so keep watching!

7TV Fantasy - eleven more figures, the rest of Vanozza's crew

Having recently posted a couple of Vanozza's most trusted lieutenants, it is time to reveal the rest of her crew of rogues, freebooters and outcasts.

All the figures above are originally figures from the North Star range of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, as are the next three. The figure on the left in blue was supposed to be a Storm Warden but, as she was cast with what looks like a quiver of arrows, I decided to give her a bow. This was cut from the Frostgrave Cultist plastic sprue. The hand is a bit chunky, but hey ho, it looks OK from a distance. The figure in the middle was originally a Heritor, but she looks good as some kind of renegade from a warship's complement of Marines.

The archer on the right and these next three are Ghost Archipelago female crew figures.

The last five figures are a mixture. I think the archer at the back was a free offering from a Wargames Foundry order ages ago. I am not sure what he is supposed to be, and the snake woman with the sword and buckler combo  at the bottom right is from Bad Squiddo. The other three are Ghost Archipelago figures, a tribal islander, a Drichean warrior and a snake man warrior.

I am a big fan of the Ghost Archipelago range, not because I play the game, but because the range offers up a lovely variety of figures that can be used for all manner of different things.

Anyway, I think that this crew is a pretty nice varied set of desperadoes to fight alongside Vanozza, her giant iguana, and her trusted officers Marozia and Theodora.

7TV Fantasy - a couple of pirates for Vanozza's crew.

At the end of September I introduced Vanozza the Fearless, Pirate Queen of the Perilous Islands. Here are the two most important members of her crew.

On the left is Marozia, a one-eyed former soldier (she served disguised as a man), who is the First Mate of Vanozza's flagship, The Grinning Skull. She still wears the uniform of the Marines of Albion, the unit in which she served for several years before deciding that freelancing would be more profitable.

Her companion is Theodora, who was born far away in the fabled lands of the Southern Deserts, where women are the equals of men and who was once a captain in the army of the City of Ulthar until she was captured in battle and enslaved by the Lizard People of the Great Desert. She managed to escape from captivity and became a freebooter on a pirate galley that sailed the waters of the Narrow Sea, eventually making her way to the Perilous Islands where she joined Vanozza's crew. She is now her trusted comrade and commander of the raiding parties that pillage the ports and inland villages of the Slave Coast.

Like Vanozza, these two are Bad Squiddo minis with all the crisp detail that makes Annie's figures such a pleasure to paint.

Resin McGuffins that I forgot I had

These were part of the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago Nickstarter that North Star ran ages ago, in 2017, I think. I bought mine from Bad Squiddo, because Annie had extra figures that I liked.

To be honest, I've never got round to playing the game, it had minimal interest at the club so I just packed all the figures away. I've used a few of the figures for my 7TV Fantasy project but I'd completely forgotten these little tokens. There are all between 2.5cm and 3.5cm in diameter and have some nice little details. The thing on the left is a weird skull, but I stupidly posed it the wrong way round.

 

7TV Fantasy - four adventurers from the Frozen Northlands

Here are four more good characters for the cast of Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom, my imaginary TV fantasy series of the 1960s and 70s;

These are Anastasia and Irina, twin sisters from the icy land of Novgorod. The sisters are adventurers with some special skills. Anastasia, on the left has some skill with the mystical arts as well as being a redoubtable swordswoman and Irina is a skilled thief and also rumoured to be a dangerous assassin. Exiled from their homelands following their father's unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the autocratic rule of Sviatoslav, the ruling Prince of Novgorod, the sisters swiftly found employment amongst the quarrelsome dukes and margraves of the Great Empire of Sigismondo before fleeing from imperial justice and finding refuge in the Enchanted Kingdom, where they now ply their trade for discerning patrons. 

They are always accompanied by their two faithful oathsworn retainers, Ivar and Sveyn, formerly warriors in the army of their late father, the Boyar of the Western Hills, who now act as protectors of the sisters. 

Ivar is a fearsome fighter with his bardiche, a great two-handed poleaxe and Sveyn is a formidable swordsman. The two warriors are feared and hated by the Goblins of the Mountains and they are also sworn enemies of all Undead things.

These four figures are all from the North Star Frostgrave range of miniatures and they were huge fun to paint.

More 7TV Fantasy villains

In my original post about my 7TV Fantasy project, I referred to three "goblin" brothers (derived heavily from Tolkien's Orcs), Gomba, Banda and Munga, who were regular baddies for hire. Here they are;

These are metal Goblins champions from the North Star Oathmark range and to my eyes they definitely have the classic look of Tolkien's Mordor about them. Of course, I had to give them green skin, a nod to the days of the original Warhammer Fantasy game, but apart from that, they could easily be part of the band of Orcs who captured Frodo after his and Sam's encounter with Shelob and took him to the tower of Cirith Ungol.

Anyway, they are, from left to right Gomba, Banda and Munga, three cunning and wicked goblins who will work for anyone who will pay them, as well as operating as bandits and slaver traders in their own right.

Back to 7TV Fantasy - two more villainous characters

After the diversion into 1/10 scale painting, it is good to get back to the 28mm fantasy stuff.  These two are definitely villains;

Both are actually Frostgrave figures from North Star, but I am using them as two of the major bad guys from my imaginary Anglo-Italian TV series, Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom. I have already alluded to the Guild of Torturers and these two brutal-looking characters are leading members of the Guild.

On the left is Hengist the Executioner and the figure on the right is his regular associate, Landulf the Pitiless, a torturer by trade but willing to do anything illegal for money.

I decided on a dark minimal colour palette for these and I think it works pretty well. I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't mistake these two for friendly assistance under many circumstances, although if you were willing to pay them enough gold they might do you a good turn.

A bit of an oddity

This isn't a wargaming miniature. It is the driver for a remote control (RC) vehicle and is in 1/10 scale, i.e. huge, as you can see from the 28mm figure next to it.

As an item to paint it was pretty simple. The cast is quite crude and lacking in t he kind of fine detail you would expect to get in a 28mm miniature. However, that doesn't really matter because it is designed to end up inside a RC vehicle and seen from a distance.

The vehicle it belongs to is a kind of quasi-military light attack speedster, which is going to end up with a Mad Max vibe when it is finished. It is a project for my partner, not me, but I have agreed to do the modelling and the paintjob.

Anyway, the driver was a really quick and simple thing to paint. Big brushes and a bold and impressionistic approach to colour was the order of the day, with the aim of turning out a finished article that would look good from a distance. Job done, I think.

I gave him a camouflage finish because it just seems right for someone who is going to be sitting in a post-apocalypse vehicle.

Before long, I'm going to have to make a start on the actual shell of the speedster.

7TV Fantasy - Vanozza the Fearless, a Pirate Queen

In my introductory post, I mentioned Vanozza the Fearless, a pirate captain, and here she is;

She is a Bad Squiddo figure, originally intended to complement the release of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, but although I bought the rules and some minis, I've never actually played the game. As you can see, she has a pet, a very grumpy Giant Iguana. I like this figure a lot and I've given her a back story to fit in with my imaginary TV series, Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom. 

Vanozza was the illegitimate child of a one of the great Lords of the Enchanted Kingdom and his concubine. From an early age she rebelled against her father and ran away from home many times. Eventually, she was sent away to live with a community of priestesses on an island off the southern coast. She was captured by a fleet of slavers who had raided the island of the priestesses, carrying off valuable treasures and many captives. The teenage Vanozza was sold to a sea captain, who was later killed by pirates. Vanozza joined the pirate crew and rose through the ranks because of her almost insane fearlessness, her aggressive attitude and her ability to read and write (much valued by the largely-illiterate pirate crew).

Over the years, Vanozza became the Captain of her own ship and now commands a fleet of six large ships and three smaller sloops. From her fortress in the Perilous Islands, she raids far and wide. Because she wages an unceasing war against the Slavers, many of the rulers and governors of the islands and coastal communities see her as their protector and pay her a tribute to defend them and not plunder their shipping.

I am working on her crew, and I'll post them later in the week.

7TV Fantasy - A pair of Jesters for Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom

Here is something a bit different, a pair of Jesters from Bad Squiddo Games;

I have always loved these two, but never really had a handy niche in which to fit them. Now, with 7TV Fantasy, I can use them, or maybe just the guy on top as a Fool.

And here they are from behind;

There is so much wonderful detail in this sculpt and bags of character in the two jesters. They were an absolute joy to paint, superb crisp casting and no cleaning up required before priming them.

So, to fit them into the context of my background story, Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom, I'll need their story.

These two are Antonio (the agile juggler) and Decimo (the sturdy support), two travelling tumblers and jesters who have been known to attach themselves to parties of adventurers when funds become short and belts need tightening. Antonio and Decimo, it is said, used to be Official Jesters at the Court of the Great Emperor Sigismondo, who left under a large and threatening cloud when certain valuable portable items went missing from the Imperial Jewellery Collection. These items were stored in a sealed and guarded chamber but somehow disappeared one night. The mission was said to have been impossible but the presence of a rope left by an open skylight showed that the thief had been lowered down into the chamber, leaving in the same way. Anyway, the jewels were gone, as were "Ant and Dec" as they are known to many.

7TV Fantasy - Seven Elves for Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom

Here are some more fantasy figures for my 7TV fantasy project, once again characters from that legendary TV series "Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom". These are Grey Elves of the Great Forest.

First here is Oberon, Lord of the Elves, a great Paladin and Artemisia, Lady of the Grey Elves, a mighty Sorceress.

Next, here are three great Elven heroes, Achates, Pallas and Anchises. They appeared in the very first episode of the first series but were not given names until their next appearance several episodes later.  

These are the only other Elvish characters who were ever named in the programme. On the left is Juturna and on the right is Ascanius the Herald.

Their names were taken from the Aeneid, presumably because that work was no longer covered by copyright and therefore unlikely to incur any angry letters from lawyers, which was a problem that bedevilled the series throughout its existence.

These figures are all Oathmark Elves, available from Northstar.

I decided to give their weapons and armour a light blue effect, to represent their otherworldly magical properties. I think it has come out rather nicely. The design on the shield is a hand-painted tree. It is OK, but could have been better.