The rest of my completed figures, six in total.

All rephotographed in better light. First, two Copplestone female archaeologists (yes, I know I already have these, but I wanted them in more tropical attire;

And here are their armed companions (who I also already have);

Next up is a Bad Squiddo Community mini, Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. You can read about her HERE;

And finally, here is a Steampunk version of the Marvel super baddie, Doctor Octopus. He is from Ironclad Miniatures;

He is a suitable colleague for another Ironclad Miniatures bad guy, who I pained ages ago and called The Mad Inventor. I'm going to assume that this chap has been given these extra limbs by the former. The pair of them, plus their Automata should be a real handful in Steampunk, In Her Majesty's Name and Pulp games.

So, that is me finished with painting until I get back from holiday.

A few more finished figures

These would have been finished a week or so ago but an arthritic flare-up in my right wrist made painting difficult and painful. Anyway, here are two angry Yetis from the Copplestone Back of Beyond Adventurers set.

Blue skin and white fur seems to be de rigueur for a Yeti these days, but I wanted mine to be more naturalistic colourwise. I thought that a Yeti living in the woods or below the level where everything is covered in snow would need to blend in with its surroundings, so I chose a brown palette. I think that these are terrific figures which could fit into many different games and locations. I am particularly pleased with their reddish skintone.

The next figure is from Bad Squiddo. It is a Forest Spirit.

I've had this figure for absolutely ages, maybe as long as three or four years and it has been undercoated for most of that time. I thought I really ought to get it finished. It is a resin figure, cast by Ristul and is a sort of manifestation of the forest in animal form. I think it is a lovely piece, a spirit inhabiting a body that is both tree and creature combined.

I've got a few more figures finished, but I'm not happy with the photos, so I'll have to redo them tomorrow.

By the by, I don't recommend having arthritic wrists. It is not only very painful but it really limits what you can do.

Anyway, I won't be starting anything else off because I'm off on holiday soon.

A few more recently completed figures

All of these figures are from Bad Squiddo. Scroll down to see them all.

First, a rather sinister-looking Jester;

I wanted him to have burning red eyes, which look a bit messy on close examination on a blown-up photo but which are fine on a 28mm figure. I'm not sure that he is very full of jolly japes and witty comments. I certainly wouldn't trust him to do a children's birthday party gig.

Next, we have Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, eldest daughter of King Alfred the Great of Wessex and ruler of Mercia from 911 until her death in 920. She was buried in the now-ruined St Oswald's Prior in Gloucester. She is accompanied by a female warrior.

Her companion's shield design isn't particularly of the period, being a late Roman one but I rather like it.

The remaining four figures are from the Bad Squiddo Community Minis range. Firstly, Eleanor of Aquitaine and Harriet Tubman;

And secondly, Julie d'Aubigny and Ching Shih.

I'm sure that most people have heard of the first two, but maybe not the second pair. 

Sci fi trees

Well, to pilfer from Radiohead, Fake Plastic Trees, loads of 'em (27 actually). The Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is for scale purposes.

There isn't much to say about them. They are disassembled IKEA plastic plants stuck onto MDF bases with blobs of green stuff, coated in ballast and given a blast of varnish to fix the ballast in place.

I think I may have to weigh the bases down, probably with metal washers or something, but I think they'll do for science fiction landscapes on distant planets.

The backdrop is one of the Jon Hodgson Handiwork Games sci fi ones.

Another little diorama

 Strange lights had been seen in the ruins of the old abbey on the hill. A woman from the government and a group of armed ATS women went to investigate. German agents were suspected.

No one expected alien beings. The big questions now were "Why are they here?" and "Were they allies of the UK or Germany?"

The ATS group all all by Bad Squiddo and the aliens are Radon Zombies of the Ionosphere by Bob Murch, available via North Star.

This was a fun idea and I think it came out OK. 

The Ruins are from Renedra and the background is by Jon Hodgson.

The technical (ha!) details are the same as in previous posts of my dioramas, i.e. the camera was a Pentax K-70 DSLR and Pentax  DA 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WR standard zoom lens, mounted on a tripod. The picture was shot using aperture priority with an aperture of f25 and an ISO 400 film speed. I used a JJC TM electronic remote shutter release to prevent any camera shake. I staged the picture in my lightbox, which has variable brightness LED lights.

Four Renedra plastic 28mm huts (scroll down to see them all)

I've had these kits lying around for a couple of years, maybe longer. I thought it was time to get them put together and painted.

First, a simple wooden hut;

Next a stone hut;

A wattle and daub one. I think that this might be my favourite;

And finally, a Norse hut on a larger base. I added a few Gamer's Grass tufts on this base.;

Behind every hut is a nice Jon Hodgson backdrop (books available from the Bad Squiddo website).

These are very simple kits, generally three roof pieces and four walls, the Norse one being a little bit more complicated. It also comes with various accessories like truckle beds, a fire and various pots. I haven't made the beds and pots up yet, though. I'll find a use for them, I expect.

I did have to fill in a few areas with green stuff, no doubt my faulty construction techniques. They are absolute simplicity to paint too. I think that they look pretty good. All I need to do now is get them onto a gaming table.

My next task is some Renedra fencing to assemble and paint.

Here's a small diorama I've put together

I've been playing around with my lightbox, DSLR and tripod.

In this photo, a group of Pirates from Bad Squiddo and North Star run slap bang wallop into a mysterious masked figure and his Stone Troll. Intent on finding plunder in the old ruins on the hill above the bay, they didn't think that anything nasty might be lurking up there. Things may not turn out well for these intrepid, if impetuous adventurers.

The Stone Troll is actually a North Star Frostgrave Coal Man and the mysterious masked figure is Malcor from the Maze of Malcor Frostgrave collection, also from North Star.

The background for this shot is a scene from one of my Jon Hodgson books and a small scenic piece I recently made using Renedra plastic ruins on an A4 MDF base.;

I primarily made this to use in photos but it should also be useful as actual gaming scenery. The twisting plants growing around the ruins are model railway wire foliage branches. The grass, gravel and earth are from a variety of sources.

For those of you who are interested in such things, I took this picture with my Pentax K-70 DSLR and Pentax  DA 1:3.5-5.6 18-55mm AL WR standard zoom lens. The picture was shot using aperture priority with an aperture of f25 and an ISO 400 film speed. I've recently bought a JJC TM electronic remote shutter release (cheaper than the Pentax model) which makes slow shutter speed photography a lot easier. I'm thinking about using my Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro lens in future lightbox experiments.

A very odd miniature....

...... from Bad Squiddo.

He is called Turkey Man on the Bad Squiddo website and, if you click the link I've pretty much stuck to how he was painted there (by Warpfiend Studios). He is, I think you'll agree a rather disturbing figure, standing about 45mm high. 

He is definitely a creature of nightmares and therefore highly suitable for all manner of Pulp, Horror, Victorian Science Fiction and other associated Weird wargames. One can only speculate how such a being came into being.

Moon Goddess statue

OK, this is my first attempt at a photo using a background from one of my new Jon Hodgson backdrop books.

I got two books via a Kickstarter; one is a fantasy set and the other is sci fi. Both are excellent. They are available from a few different places, including Bad Squiddo and Handiwork Games.The figure is from Bad Squiddo, but she isn't available in the Shop. Originally supposed to be Genepil, the last Queen of Mongolia. Annie designed her as part of the Bad Squiddo Community Miniatures project but later withdrew her as it turns out that the source for her was actually a photograph of an anonymous Mongolian noblewoman. So, she is never going to be available and is therefore rather exclusive.

I didn't need a mini of a Mongolian noblewoman but I definitely wanted to use the mini, so I decided to turn her into a statue. I put her on a resin plinth from Fenris Games and then added a couple of MDF squares to create a set of steps. I added some textures to show that the status is of great age, both ballast and, after painting areas of moss and lichens.

For the photo, I simply posed her on one of my Warbases pre-coloured dungeon tiles.

My idea was to create an arcane statue of a Moon Goddess, sheathed in precious metals and with a prominent silver crescent Moon on her headdress. I have slightly overexposed the image to make it look like she is being illuminated by the light of the full Moon. Below is an alternative shot, which was taken without any exposure compensation.

I like both photos, but I think that the brighter one suits the purpose of making her look like she is absorbing the power of moonlight.

Now, all I need is to work out a game setting where she might come in handy. She could definitely be the objective in a Back of Beyond Pulp game.

It's been over a month since my last post.

"Well, why is that?" you might ask, and the simple answer is The Dreaded Painter's Block. It isn't that I've done no painting at all, it is just that I keep losing interest and leaving things half done.

However, I have found a way to actually complete a few things, by painting things that are simple and have very few stages from undercoating to completion and here are some of them;

Firstly, above are eight Skeleton Warriors.  I actually really like painting Skellies. They are a quick win, which is why I dug these out from a box of odds and ends and got working on them. I hoped that they would kickstart me into doing a few more things, and they have. Below are a few more quick wins, a giant snake and two small dinosaurs;

I'm working on the basis that one day I'll need a giant snake and a couple of small dinos.

I bought all the above from Bad Squiddo. Annie occasionally goes through her stock and sells off odds and ends that she no longer wants to keep in the catalogue as sale items. It is worth checking regularly to see what she has in her Bargain Bin. Remember though that once these things are gone, they probably won't be restocked.

I've got a few other things nearing completion, so they will be another post.

Keeping the Spanish theme going...........

Here is the start of my next Sharp Practice project; Napoleonic Spanish Guerrillas.

I have started with four leaders. From left to right they are from Bad Squiddo, North Star, Front Rank and Perry Miniatures. What I like here is the huge variety of different styles of the figures, giving me an opportunity to paint them all differently. The Perry figure on the right is an actual Spanish infantry officer, but the guerrilla bands included members from all over the place, including from the Spanish armies.

I now have to think of suitable names for each of them.

I am currently working on 30 guerrilla figures, which will give me five groups of six to fit in with Sharp Practice rules. The first two groups are nearly finished and they are also Perry Spanish fusilier figures, all wearing a mixture of uniforms and civilian clothing. The others three groups will be a mixture of North Star and Front Rank and have a far more non-military appearance. 

Two Bad Squiddo resin historical figures - Jeanne de Clisson and Mata Hari

I've had these two for absolutely ages, but I only got round to washing and cleaning them up when I started work on the North Star resin Necromancer and Apprentice in early March.   

First, Jeanne de Clisson, both front and back. Her white coif doesn't show up well in the first picture;

Jeanne de Clisson was born in the Vendée in 1300. She was a member of the noble Montaigu de Belleville family. She married four times, but it is her third marriage to Olivier IV de Clisson that led to her fame. Olivier was executed by the French King Philippe VI, le Fortuné. As a result, she took up arms against the French Crown. She sold off the Clisson lands and raised a force to fight French forces in Brittany. She later took to the sea as an English privateer with a fleet of three ships, attacking French vessels and killing the crews.

I've chosen to paint her in green because I like the colour and I didn't want to just do another standard Jeanne de Clisson figure. In green, she becomes a more flexible figure for all kinds of gaming.

Mata Hari, born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle in 1876, is best known for having been executed as a German spy in 1917. She is portrayed as an archetypal femme fatale but her life was really terribly sad. Her marriage to Rudolf MacLeod, a Dutch officer serving in the Far East was a miserable thing. He was a brutal alcoholic infected with syphilis, which he passed on to his wife. Both their children were born with the disease, from which both of them later died. After divorcing MacLeod in 1903, Margaretha moved to Paris, becoming an artist's model and exotic dancer. She claimed to be a Javanese Hindu princess and became the mistress of a prominent French industrialist, Émile Guimet who was a devotée of Oriental Art. Mata Hari was a promiscuous woman and ended up as a courtesan rather than a performer. As a Dutch citizen, Mata Hari was able to cross borders freely during the war, the Netherlands being neutral, and she was recruited by the French Deuxième Bureau as an agent. She was charged with getting close to senior German military figures and she may, or may not have become a double agent.

In any case, the French government had her arrested, tried and executed as a German spy, although there doesn't appear to have been much in the way of evidence.

I've chosen to paint Mata Hari as a kind of generic femme fatale figure, who could quite easily be a Temptress in fantasy games, a seductive priestess, a mystic or something else.

I am pretty pleased with how she has come out, although I think that I could have done better with her face. I will have to do a spot of touching-up to improve that. I've stuck to green again but with lilac as a foil. Even her hair is lilac, which I think gives her an otherworldly feel.

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.

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.