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.
 

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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.