Bad Squiddo Undead Things

Well, I've been busy today! I was up before 7 a.m because the dogs were being loud and excitable and I've been at home all day waiting for a parcel delivery, so I thought I'd paint some things that have been lying around for ages. 

All four are Bad Squiddo 28mm figures, and I have to say that they are terrific figures to paint.

First, there are two renaissance skeletons; a Landsknecht Doppelsöldner and a fine gentlewoman, maybe a countess or duchess.

I really love these. They are so animated and full of character.

I decided to try and get a few hints of rust on the Landsknecht's armour and double-handed sword and I think that it has worked pretty well.

Both figures were undercoated in black and given a top-down zenithal blast with Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray. I then used a combination of paints and drawing inks to build up the colours. I am really happy with the end results.

The other two figures are Mummies.

These were given the same black undercoat and skeleton bone zenithal treatment and I then built up the finished effects with dry-brushing and dark brown drawing ink. They were pretty quick to complete but I think that they will work well on the table.

These will be good for all sorts of horror and pulp games, as well as 7TV Fantasy and Pulp. I cannot recommend these figures highly enough. They are excellent.

Anyway, even after all the painting, basing, spray varnishing and photography, my parcel still hasn't arrived.

Bah!

 

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.

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.

7TV Fantasy - some evil characters take the stage

Having completed a few characters who we can broadly think of as "good", here are some of the villains of the series, in the form of two evil sorcerers and some skeleton warriors raised from their graves.

First, the two sorcerers;

On the left is Tartaro the Necromancer, once a living human being and now an Undead Liche, a sorcerer whose entire existence depends now on the incantations and rituals he learnt long ago in the Lands of the Dead in the far North. Tartaro lusts for a legendary arcane treasure, The Black Skull, which he believes will allow him to regain the form of a living man without losing his mastery over Death, but this has always eluded him. Many believe that this artefact no longer exists but Tartaro is featured in a number of episodes searching for it, but without success.

The wizard on the right is Morgos the Dark, who is described in one episode as a Master of Thelemic Magick and the possessor of the Book of Abramelin the Magus. Clearly one of the writers was plundering the works of Aleister Crowley, which may have accounted for the popularity of the series with a lot of far-out hippy followers of Crowley.

Morgos is often portrayed as the great adversary of Pandolfo the Celestial Wizard and this struggle is played out in a few episodes, especially in Series Two, but Morgos is also the sworn enemy of the Grey Elves of the Great Forest who, long ago expelled him from his mystical fortress on the western coast of the Enchanted Kingdom, forcing him to find a new home in a Dark Tower in the Mountains of the East.

Morgos works his evil schemes in many different ways, using different intermediaries from the different communities of the Kingdom, but most often employs the avaricious and cruel Goblins of the Mountains or various members of the Guild of Torturers.

Tartaro, on the other hand uses supernatural beings such as Ghosts and Banshees, as well as raising long-dead warriors to carry out his bidding. Here are four such Skeleton Warriors.

All of these figures are from the Oathmark Undead range, available from North Star.

7TV Fantasy - the first five characters

Yesterday, I unveiled my new fantasy project and said that I'd do a series of posts about the various recurring characters who featured in the now-lost Anglo-Italian TV series "Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom". 

Right from the first broadcast, each episode was introduced by a sarcastic and bad-tempered blue-skinned Genie named Ozymando, who would emerge from his brass lamp and, often mockingly talk about some of the characters who could be found travelling around the Enchanted Kingdom and "meddling" in the affairs of the mighty rulers of the Kingdom. Over time, he explained his origins and how he had become a trusted advisor to the Great Emperor, Sigismondo, a character who we never actually got to see at all.

Ozymando also acted as the narrator during episodes, generally commenting directly to the audience about the stupidity or avarice of characters, or as a link moving the action from one location to another, which was clearly done to avoid lengthy or costly shots of ships sailing the seas, caravans crossing the land or similar. Later, on towards the end of the first series, Ozymando began to appear as a character in some of the episodes.

The most frequently-recurring character was a Wizard of Celestial Magic called Pandolfo. It is rumoured that the writers had originally wanted to call him Gandolfo, but lawyers advised that this was likely to infringe on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, so the name was changed. For the same reason, all the orcish characters in the series were described as Goblins.

Pandolfo featured in around half of all the episodes ever produced, often in a supporting role but sometimes as the main protagonist. His magical expertise was concerned with controlling the weather, conjuring up fogs, winds, outbreaks of rain, thunder and lightning etc but also in making predictions based upon the movements of the heavenly bodies. His predictions often tended to come true, but not necessarily in the way that might have been expected.

The next three characters always appeared in supporting roles, generally providing assistance to move the plot on or to resolve apparently insurmountable problems.

From left to right, they are Mercator, an itinerant seller of obscure books and scrolls, potions and ancient objects, Chung Lin, a warrior monk from the faraway land of Xanadu and Pankrates, a mercenary master of unarmed combat.

All of these figures are from the North Star range of Frostgrave miniatures, the MDF bases are from Warbases and the tufts are Gamer's Grass from Bad Squiddo.

7TV Fantasy - a fun new project

I bought 7TV Fantasy a while ago as a pre-order, because I thought that it looked like it would be a fun game to play and also because I really like painting fantasy figures. 

I already have figures for Frostgrave that I thought I could use for this but I also wanted to use other figures that I either already have, lying around unpainted, or like the look of but don't actually own.

So, I plunged in and looked around at what interested me. I had some metal Oathmark Elves that I wanted to use, so they went onto the pile and thought that both the Oathmark and Frostgrave ranges stocked by North Star would come up with suitable characters. They didn't disappoint and I bought a dozen or so. I'll dip back in later for some of the Rangers of Shadow Deep figures too. I've also got some Bad Squiddo figures for Ghost Archipelago that I can use as well. Annie Norman is also planning a smallish Fantasy Kickstarter, which is expected to arrive quite soon, so there is going to be another range of options available too.

So lots of nice shiny new toys.

Anyway, 7TV always needs a nice backstory and I do love a backstory, so I have dreamt up a setting for my figures, so Laydeez and Gennulmen, I present to you a long-forgotten Anglo-Italian co-production "Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom". 

This ran for three series at the end of the 1960s and early 1970s and was set in a mysterious mediaeval land where magic and enchantment was real and a range of good and evil characters, together with a few of dubious and shifting morality regularly clashed and fought to gain advantages over their enemies and rivals. Filmed in a variety of locations in Italy, the UK and Yugoslavia, the programme drew heavily on existing fantasy tropes, plundering the likes of J.R.R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, E.R Eddison, C.S Lewis and others to create a series of adventures which featured a recurring group of main and supporting characters, villains and magical beings whose main aim was initially unclear but which, in Series Three, later turned into a Quest for a magical item, The Crown of Ouroboros. Unhappily, this Quest was never completed as the planned Fourth Series was never made, the programme being cancelled when the production company went bankrupt.

Cast regulars included;

Pandolfo the Celestial Wizard
Ozymando the Genie
Hengist the Executioner
Landulf the Pitiless, a torturer
Mercator, an itinerant cleric and bookseller
Morgos the Dark, an evil Wizard
Tartaro the necromancer
Chung Lin, an oriental warrior monk
Pankrates the boxer
Anastasia and Irina, twin adventurous sisters from icy Novgorod
Ivar and Sveyn, two warriors from icy Novgorod
Oberon, Lord of the Grey Elves 
Artemisia, Lady of the Grey Elves and Elven Sorceress

Vanozza the Fearless, a female pirate captain 

There were also three "goblin" brothers (derived heavily from Tolkien's Orcs), Gomba, Banda and Munga, who were regular baddies for hire, female pirates, assorted Skeleton warriors, Elven warriors and a shifting cast of humans, dwarves, ghosts, demons, giant spiders and other standard fantasy creations.

Over the next few posts, I'll talk about the various characters and put up photos of the ones I have completed so far.

More 7TV figures - evil cultists

My latest finished set of figures are these excellent Crooked Dice Cultists for 7TV. There are twelve figures in total.

First, here are the basic cult members, both male and female, some with firearms and others with clubs or knives. As well as being Initiates into the Dark Mysteries, they are also the muscle, used to keep prying investigators away from discovering exactly what goes on in that ruined abbey in the woods.

Now, here is the Magister of the Cult, together with his female counterpart and what appears to be a statue of the eldritch daemonic entity they worship, here shown in my Fenris Games Summoning Circle.

Next, here is the Magister and his Magistra again, together with the rest of the Cult's Inner Circle of Adepts and that Daemonic Entity again. The woman with the arcane book and the man with the chalice are Celebrants and the other woman is some kind of Seer or Prophetess, or maybe she is just struggling with mental health issues? Dabbling in the Dark Arts is fraught with all kinds of dangers.

Here are the senior Adepts worshipping Cthulhu. I mean, why stick to one terrible Dark Entity when there are so many available?

And here are the Celebrants invoking some Dark Powers, monoliths from Fenris Games.

I am really happy with these figures. I originally started painting a test figure with scarlet robes, but I wasn't happy with the results, so I went for this darker, more wine red shade, with purple for the Magister and Magistra. 

Hopefully, once lockdown and social distancing are a thing of the past, these will feature in a few games of 7TV.

Another day, another group of figures.

I've been working on these since yesterday morning and now they are done. These are from the Copplestone Castings "Back of Beyond" range. I bought them from North Star.

They are listed in the catalogue as "American Adventurers", which I'd say was a pretty accurate label for them.

The guy on the left with the bullwhip and automatic pistol is, I have decided the famous archaeologist and treasure hunter, Dr. Jackson "Idaho" Smith. Next to him is grizzled former Texas Ranger Captain Ezekiel Hardiman, with his sidekick, ex-Agent Wes "Browning" Westerley. Finally, on the right is Jimmy "Hot Rod" Lincoln, so-called because of his love of fast motorbikes, automobiles and aeroplanes.

These are going to be great when I finally get a chance to put them on the table in some actual games of 7TV Pulp.

I must admit to being increasingly drawn to the Copplestone Back of Beyond figures. They offer up lots of possibilities, not only for Pulp gaming but also for In Her Majesty's Name scenarios, especially those from the "Sleeping Dragon, Rising Sun" supplement. The Chinese Bandits are particularly appealing.

Crooked Dice heroic characters

As the lockdown continues, perhaps we all need heroes to look up to? Apart from the real-life ones working in the health service, emergency services, the food supply chain and the essential retail sector, who else is there? In the miniature world how about four heroic stars for 7TV and 7TV Pulp games?

First up, here is a robust no-nonsense chap who sorts problems out by direct means, and his equally no-nonsense female companion. Is there a problem with Nazi treasure hunters seeking out occult objects? These two will soon put a stop to that sort of thing.

Next, a couple of more exotic heroes. An occult investigator and a masked crime-fighter with technology on his side. Step up and take a bow, Dexter Ward Phillips and Captain Infinity.

Here they are from behind, which is clearly the view most commonly seen by the Gribblies. "Behind you!" "Oh, no, they aren't." "Oh, yes they are!"

And two more shots of our intrepid crusaders for justice and a universe free from tentacled horrors from another dimension.

"Did you hear something, Captain?" "Yes, if was coming from behind you!"

"Oh my God, Dr. Phillips! What is that?" "I dare not utter its name, Captain, but I have seen a picture of it in the Book of Abdul Alhazred!"

"

Lockdown painting continues

These two badass ladies are from Bad Squiddo, where they are described as "Action Heroines", which seems pretty self-explanatory in a Ronseal way.

They look like classic hard-boiled crime fighters, the kind with a set of dodgy attitudes when it comes to following the rules. That pretty much says "hardcore TV crime-busting series" to me, and therefore makes them ideal for 7TV. Here is a rear view of them, possibly heading down a Mean Street in pursuit of a perp, after screaming to a halt in their 1971 Chevrolet Camaro and leaping energetically out of the vehicle.

I wanted to give them a beaten-up, tough, streetwise feel, so the colour palette I chose was muted and only used a few colours.

Anyway, they have to have names, don't they? 

So, meet our heroines, Mary Beth Lagney (with the blonde hairdo that needs her roots done) and Christine Casey, who NEVER takes off her mirror shades. They are former NYPD detectives who were kicked off the force for breaking the rules, using excessive methods and having a few too many suspects ending up deceased in suspicious circumstances. Now, the two are available to take on those dirty jobs where no questions are asked and getting the "right" result means they get paid handsomely, with no strings and no audit trail.

Aftermath post-apocalyptic Kickstarter figures

I backed this Kickstarter ages ago, and I've had the figures for a fair old while too.

The figures were inspired by the box art of the original 1980s game.

Now, I've never played the game, but I thought that the figures were nice, with a fair degree of retro cool about them, and I also thought that I'd be able to do something with them in other settings.

However, I wanted to give the male figure are much more classic 1930s space opera film appearance, so I decided on a red/gold colour scheme for him, because I saw him as being a character in Pulp games, using the Crooked Dice 7TV Pulp rules. The female figure also looks like someone who could happily sit within a 7TV world.

I am really please with the pair of them, nice crisp sculpts, no flash and great to paint.

I have vague ideas about maybe using the pair as time-travelling characters for sci fi pulp, with the male character being some kind of futuristic space lawman and the woman as a 20th century Earth scientist he has hooked up with on his journeys through the dimensions of the space time continuum. I've even got a name for him; Star Marshal Solarion.

Some more resin scenic bits and bobs.

Following on from the Fenris Games resin scenic items, here are a few more pieces for Horror and Pulp games. These are all from Crooked Dice. Once again, the intrepid archaeologist is only there for scale.

Here is the complete set; three monoliths, a statue of Cthulhu and a pile of skulls.

The monoliths have a lot of detail and therefore, here is a view of them from behind. Are those green things creepers growing from a crevice in the rocks, or might they be tentacles? Just don't get close enough to find out!

Next up, everyone's favourite tentacled abomination from the stars;

Now, here is a statue of some obscure amphibian deity on a blood-stained plinth;

Or is it just a statue? Might it be some kind of unknown inhabitant of the reefs and caves near one of those fishing villages where the locals have an odd, vaguely batrachian appearance? 

Here it is again, off of its plinth, showing the nice carved effects on the surface. This could be used stand-alone as a sacrificial altar.

Scarecrows!

These three scarecrows are from Bad Squiddo Scenics, sculpted by the incomparable Ristul. Annie used to sell them under the banner of Ristul's Extraordinary Market, but bought the line in 2018.

I bought these at Colours last year and recently painted them as a change from painting figures for 7TV. Of course, these would be perfect for 7TV games, especially ones involving strange goings-on in one of those inward-looking villages somewhere in rural England.

Anyway, I've photographed them from front and rear, to show off the truly splendid detail on these gorgeous resin pieces.

Worzel Gummidge would never have been allowed on children's TV if he'd looked like this.

I wanted to paint these up looking old, tatty and faded, so after undercoating in Army Painter leather brown, I used mainly pale brown and tan colours, with bits of green and dark red well diluted to act as washes on some parts of the figures. I wanted the orange of the pumpkin heads to look quite faded too, as though these scarecrows had spent too long out in the weather. There is so much detail in the figures that I did a fair amount of dry-brushing, both before and after an ink wash. I made up small mounds from blue foam, covered with mixed ballast. After finishing the figures, I used the same pale browns and tans to dry-brush the bases before finishing them with a mixed flock.