Bad Squiddo Winter Soviet Kickstarter update

OK, so there is more news about the Kickstarter. It will now be happening on the 7th of April, for administrative reasons and will run for seven days.

Anyway, I have now finished the two sample figures Annie sent me.

We have an officer, with a pistol and a crumpled map, and a infantry figure with a PPSh sub-machine gun. 

Here is a rear view;

Lots of nice details on the two sculpts here, so plenty of scope for really going to town with textures and shading.

I decided to go for a nondescript grey greatcoat for the ordinary soldier and a better quality sheepskin-lined coat for the officer. The officer is also wearing a nice pair of leather gloves.

I didn't want to overdo the snow effects, so restricted it to a bit of frosty ground and frost on the dead grass around the feet of the two soldiers.

These were really nice to paint. Lovely crisp casts with plenty of detail and character to the minis.

I used Vallejo paints, Army Painter strong tone wash and Gamer's Grass tufts.

Here is the announcement for the Kickstarter;

A new Bad Squiddo Kickstarter is nearly upon us.

This is just a short post to let people know that Annie Norman of Bad Squiddo is planning a short Kickstarter, planned to open on March 31st.

The subject is one close to her heart, 28mm WW2 female Soviet troops, this time in winter uniforms with greatcoats and Ushanka fur caps, to add to her existing range of Soviet troops.

There will be a number of different figures, rifles, PPSh-41 SMGs, a LMG team with the obligatory Degtyaryov DP-27, an officer and other figures.

The picture below shows what will be available, and also shows some of the current minis too;

I have been sent two figures to paint myself already, they are currently based and undercoated and I am planning to get them completed over the next day or so, puppies permitting.

I am happy to report that they are up to the usual high standards we have come to expect from Bad Squiddo.

These will be perfect for Chain of Command, Bolt Action or any other set of WW2 rules.

I foresee a few difficulties ahead with getting much painting done.

I hasten to add that these are not negative difficulties. They are small furry white ones and their names are Ralph and Dora.

Ralph on the left and Dora are our two new West Highland White Terrorists, They are full of beans and getting into everything. I am spending much of my time keeping an eye on them and stopping them from chewing unsuitable things such as cables, the rugs and pretty much everything else.

They do go to sleep occasionally, though.

And sometimes they look really sweet when they fall sleep in a little furry heap. They like sleeping on the back of the sofa.

They really are lovely little puppies, or as we sometimes call them for obvious reasons, "pluppies". 

Hopefully, I'll be able to grab a few hours here and there when they are tired, because despite how it sometimes feels, puppies do spend a large part of each day asleep.

Daisy, our surviving 14-year old Westie sister seems OK with them, although they do seem to get on her nerves occasionally and there have been growls and the occasional flash of teeth. The puppies will learn that she needs her space. It was heartening to watch all three of them playing on Sunday morning, though. Daisy was doing play bows and being all waggy and playful with them. I think it's going to turn out fine.

So, fewer minis will be painted for a while, but we now have Westie pups which makes everything better.

The Shinobi Academy

When I was looking at my Bad Squiddo Onna-Bugeisha figures, I wanted a theme for some of the figures. It occurred to me that I could invent a Ninja (or Shinobi) training school, where young women could be schooled in all the disciplines and techniques of Ninjutsu.

Therefore, I decided to use the figures below as instructors and pupils at my fictional Shinobi Academy.

First, the Chief Instructor and two of her most experienced members of staff.

I decided that they would all wear a simple grey kimono with a pale blue obi, with the exception of the Chief Instructor who would be allowed to wear whatever she chooses, although I used the same blue as the obi of the other figures for her tunic to create a degree of unity.

Next, some students. First, the very youngest pupils, who are learning the basic skills and are not yet permitted to use actual weapons with sharp blades.

And finally a pair of senior students, who are trained to the level where they can be trusted to take part in a range of covert activities, generally, but not always under the supervision of those who have already graduated from the Academy.

Once again, the bases have been finished with the excellent tufts by Gamer's Grass, available from Bad Squiddo.

Ninjas!

 Bad Squiddo female Ninjas, to be precise.

I decided against a black colour scheme, and kept them pretty much to the way they look on Annie's website. I think that the grey colour scheme works pretty well, because, as anyone who drives at night knows, people wearing grey can look pretty invisible in low light, as well as in complete darkness.

Here they are from behind;

I like the poses of these two a lot, especially the one who is creeping forwards through the undergrowth waiting to strike as soon as her enemy comes into view.

Ninjas are also known as Shinobi in Japanese and, as we all know from live action films as well as from from anime, shinobi were deployed as assassins and spies. Their heyday was in the Sengoku period between 1467 and the beginning of the Tokugawa Shogunate in 1615. Most of what we know about them comes from folklore and popular fiction

They are lovely crisp casts, as one always expects from Bad Squiddo and paint up really nicely. The bases are finished off with Gamer's Grass Tufts, also available from Bad Squiddo.

These will be great for all manner of different game systems, I think.

Some more finished minis!

Two more figures painted. This time from the Copplestone Future Wars range. 

These are listed as Power-armour troopers but I see them as armoured combat droids for my ROTOR rules. They could, of course be suitable for any science fiction rules you might have. These guys are pretty big, around 4cm tall and have heavy weapons and powered fists, so a tough nut to crack.

My idea for these, apart from having one as a heavy hitter in a ROTOR Reiver team is that they have been hanging around for a long time, maybe as heavy security for an industrial complex or perhaps a scientific or mining location. Therefore, I wanted them to look a bit battered and battle-worn. So, lots of small areas of raw metal and a bit of rust around the lower legs. I also wanted them to look like decommissioned military droids so I painted on a ghosted dark green area where military insignia had been in the past.

You can see the rusty areas quite nicely on the rear view of the two droids above. When I painted them, my aim was to bring out as much contrast as possible, so plenty of dry-brushing and darkening the recessed parts of the figures.

To do this, I used some Army Painter Strong Tone (the stuff in the dropper bottles, not the tinned version) painted all over the models after an initial priming coat of PSC US Olive Drab spray before adding in the bare metal areas and the layers of dry-brushing with Vallejo Olive Green, Desert Yellow and finally Iraqi Sand, finishing off by adding on the rust glazing, using AK Light Rust Wash.

Finally, I finished the bases off with Gamer's Grass (available on the Bad Squiddo website) dry vegetation tufts and a mix of sandy and rocky ballast.

I am really very pleased with how these have turned out.