Finally! A few more completed figures.

This doesn't mean the arthritis has gone, just that I've had enough time to get these few done, a slow and infuriating 10-15 minutes of painting a day.

 

These are all Copplestone Back of Beyond British troops. Above is a Lewis gunner and an ammunition carrier, who make a nice two-man team and below are two more Lewis gunners, who really need a couple of ammunition carriers to make useful teams, but unfortunately North Star don't sell those guys separately.

I'll probably swap the gunner in the top photo with the one on the left in the lower one in actual games, so that they are both in shirtsleeves order.

I'm probably going to have to buy a couple more of the Riflemen packs to create a platoon of three sections of 10 men (7 riflemen, 2-man Lewis team and NCO) and then use existing figures for a platoon HQ (lieutenant and sergeant, plus a couple of runners). A source of spare Lewis magazines would be great to add to the webbing of two ordinary riflemen. I shall have to look online.

A complete platoon would be great for some 1920s and 30s Chain of Command in Central Asia, but would also be fine for other settings too.

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.

The perils of adventuring in the Badlands

Here's another little diorama I shot using my Renedra ruins;

I think that all the minis here were from North Star, including the plastic Ghouls and Zombies who are part of the Frostgrave "Undead Encounters" set of originally Mantic figures. The Grey Wizard is a Copplestone figure, the Elf warrior an Oathmark one and the rest are all Frostgrave minis. The evil Necromancer is a resin cast that was the subject of a North Star painting competition a couple of years ago (I took part, but didn't win).

Clearly, the Necromancer is a powerful spellcaster, seeing as he is able to unleash his foul underlings in daylight. Let's hope that the mysterious Grey Wizard has a few useful spells up his voluminous sleeve.

The camera and other details are the same as in my previous diorama post, in case you are interested.

I shot a few more similar scenes that I'll post every now and again.
 

My last 15 figures for Black Ops games

Well, the last for the moment, who knows what the future holds? 

First, here are three somewhat ambiguous "good guys";

The two on the left and in the middle have a definite Royale With Cheese look about them, but I'm not sure who the guy on the right reminds me of at all. Still, they could quite easily be detectives with an unorthodox way of investigating things or maybe unscrupulous operatives of a secret government agency. They could fit in with these two I painted back in 2020.

Next, I have police officers from some kind of authoritarian one-party state who will make suitable opponents for Special Forces or clandestine intelligence operatives. There are five with pistols and batons and four with shotguns.

They could be border guards, security police or maybe just even your average jackbooted street cops.

Here are some leaders for these police. One uniformed officer and two plainclothes ones, who might equally work for the State Security Bureau. The guy in the middle is definitely the Big Cheese.

So, that it it for the Black Ops scene for now. It has been a lot of fun painting them.

I shall be looking again at the Copplestone range of figures to see what else might be useful in the new year.

A few more Black Ops figures

These are, once again Copplestone Future Wars figures and are described as "Sewer Scavengers". The whole lot are all very post-apocalyptic and will work well as fanatics or similar.

This first set above have a definite leaders and characters vibe about them and the remaining ones below are more rank and file .

Some of them have a kind of Army Surplus look about them and others look more like down and outs. I used a nice mixture for their bases that I bought at Colours a while ago. It is called battlefield rubble, I think and looks very much like waste ground or urban ruins.

As with the whole range, these figures were a joy to paint. The detail is crisp and there are some nice little details.

More Black Ops figures

I've already posted a couple of times about my Black Ops small project using Copplestone Future Wars 28mm figures, so here are my latest eleven figures;

These are described as "Partisans", so I think that these would work for various different kinds of irregular militia, armed insurgents or paramilitaries.

I could see these working well as the kind of far-Right Survivalist or White Supremacist nutters who want to overthrow democracy and are therefore a target for Special Forces anti-terrorist operations. They could also be the People's Militia in some kind of authoritarian state. There is a definite former-Soviet Union vibe about them. Their SMGs have a definite PPSh-41 look about them, but with a more enclosed barrel.

A detour into Black Ops

 I've been working on painting Austrian Napoleonic Grenzers, but I am waiting for their bases to dry. While working on them, I've also been painting some Special Ops troops on the side.

First up; three unit commanders;

And then two Fire Teams. First, one with a Designated Marksman;

And the second with a grenade launcher;

Both teams have a leader with a PDW, i.e a new generation sub-machine gun, two grunts with assault rifles equipped with UGLs and one with a Minimi-type LMG.

These are all Copplestone figures from the Future Wars range of military types.

I decided to go for a fairly muted, grimdark colour palette and also give them gravelly bases. They will make a good backup for my Infiltration Team I painted a while ago.

Like my Grenzers, these still need to be spray varnished but the weather is pretty damp so I don't want to risk fogging, so the varnish will have to wait until we get a dry day.

It will be nice to see them on the table at some point. I just need to paint their opponents.

Black Ops Special Forces

This was a rush job, because I wanted to be able to use them at the club tomorrow (31st July).

 These are from the Copplestone Future Wars range. Five of them, the ones with hoods are the Hostage Rescue Squad and the other two (the commander with a cap and the trooper with a helmet and assault rifle) are from the Assault Troopers sets.

I want to use these as the kind of Special Forces stealth operatives who can infiltrate secret bases, armed compounds or clandestine installations, do the job and get out quickly. 

Their paint job is essentially all about shades of grey which make them hard to see in the dark or in the kind of tunnels and passageways beloved of film and TV whenever Black Ops are part of the plot. Even their weapons are matt grey.

Anyway, I hope that they will work for the game that Clive, one of our club members is running tomorrow. 

I will also be able to use these for the Black Ops rules written by Guy Bowers, which are published by Osprey.

Wizards and Apprentices

 Over the last week, I've managed to finish off two wizards and a pair of sorcerer's apprentices. First the apprentices;

The one on the left appears to have been inspired by a certain literary schoolboy wizard who has become a star of the silver screen and the older one on the right looks as though he might take a darker path if given the chance. On the other hand, he could just be harbouring Hamlet tendencies.

Like the wizards below, the apprentices are by Mark Copplestone and they are really nice minis. The wizards, however, are even better, really superb sculpts.

The taller, more threatening-looking wizard definitely has a strong resemblance to a very famous Grey Wizard, variously known as Olórin, Tharkûn, Incánus, Mithrandir, Stormcrow, Láthspell and, to most of us, Gandalf. In the Fellowship of the Ring, when confronting the Balrog in the deep places of Moria, Gandalf described himself as "a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor". He is probably even more famous than the schoolboy wizard above, well he certainly ought to be. 

His companion is a charming figure, a wise old chap with a book of spells, clearly about to wreak havoc upon some unruly and dangerous opponents, or maybe just lecturing a class of apprentices at Wizard School. Perhaps he is one of the Istari of Middle Earth, most likely one of the two Blue Wizards, Alatar and Pallando, who Tolkien also called Morinehtar and Rómestámo elsewhere in his Unfinished Tales. Who knows? These two wizards are only mentioned in passing in the Lord of the Rings books, suggesting that they travelled far into the unknown East of Middle Earth.

Of course, all four figures have a lot of possibilities; Frostgrave, Rangers of Shadowdeep, Saga Age of Magic, Dragon Rampant, 7TV Fantasy etc

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.

OK, so what exactly have I been doing since my last post back in December?

Well, we did have the Christmas festivities, so I will own up to eating and drinking too much 😋 and watching a lot of stuff on Netflix, Prime and the actual telly channels.

I got some wargaming-related presents too; the second edition of the Frostgrave rules, some Artizan 28mm Wild West gunslingers, some Copplestone Back of Beyond Chinese bandits, a couple of Copplestone Future Wars figures in power armour (which I intend to use as combat droids for my ROTOR sci fi skirmish rules) and a couple of the Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia that I didn't already have. I now have most of the range, which is one of my favourite sci fi ones around.

I also bought some 15mm figures for my first project of 2021. I expect that you are asking yourselves what did I buy?

Well, the figures are to go with a set of rules which I found on eBay together with the accompanying source and reference books, as I referred to in my previous post, which were originally published back in 1993 by a rather well-known gaming company.

I have now undercoated and started painting the figures, making reasonable progress with them. I am hoping to have at least a few of them finished by the end of the week, at which point I will reveal all regarding the project.

The Bordurian menace grows ...........

Here are some more figures for my late-19th century Bordurians.

Once again, these are Copplestone "Back of Beyond" Bolsheviks, this time representing two rank and file members of the Second Directorate's Security Police, the Sekuritat.

Members of the Sekuritat such as these can often be seen on the streets of Bordurian cities, particularly guarding important state buildings but also patrolling the main streets. They have far greater authority than those local militiamen and women who comprise the Watch patrols in towns and cities across the country, and they operate the Customs posts and entry points around the borders of the country. They have a large barracks and prison complex, housed in the former Orthodox monastery on the island of Zodastrum in Lake Poliszchov, where political prisoners are held, many never emerging again once incarcerated behind the grim walls of the prison.

These two will join my Bordurian active service unit for In Her Majesty's Name but will also be useful as Bolsheviks for Pulp games.

A Return to Borduria - bringing my imaginations into the late-19th century.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am a huge fan of the figures produced by Mark Copplestone. I've long admired his Back Of Beyond range, but I've never really wanted to buy large armies of the figures. However, it occurred to me that I could use his Bolsheviks for a band in games of In Her Majesty's Name and also in 7TV Pulp games. So, I need a setting for them, and where else should that be except in Borduria? So, here is a brief account of what happened to Borduria during the 19th century.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars, during which both Syldavia and Borduria found themselves on the same side in various coalitions against the Emperor, things slowly began to change for these small nations. I shall come back at some future date to discuss Syldavia in the 19th century, so this will be all about Borduria.

The beginning of the 19th century saw the coronation of Autokrat Constantine III on New Year's Day 1802 He was the grandson of Constantine II who ruled the country from 1747 until his death in 1782, when he was succeeded by his son Demetrios I Cantacuzene, who was assassinated by an unknown hand in 1801.

Constantine III was very much under the influence of the Russian party in the Bordurian court, which had gained an ascendancy over the pro-Prussian faction in the last decade of the 18th century. The leader of the Russian party in the Samovar (the Bordurian assembly of boyars and de facto royal council), Count Pyotr Strabomytes of Kardouk (the son of the Count Strabomytes against whom Sir William Huntley-Palmer fought a duel in Trieste in 1765) began to push Constantine towards a much more pro-Tsarist position.

Following the Congress of Vienna in 1814, Constantine III began to consolidate his position by purging the army of Prussian influences and beginning a period of Slavicisation of the organs of the state and the oppression of Roman Catholicism. Constantine promoted the most conservative elements in his court and during his reign, which ended in 1838, the country became more and more authoritarian. Following his death, his son Alexandros I continued his father's policies, with strict censorship of the press and a tightening of control over the country's education system, at one point closing all of the country's four universities for five years.

Alexandros I was assassinated by an Anarchist faction in 1851, without leaving an adult male heir. This led to a period of instability for a few years, with the Samovar appointing Count Michaelis Bazarov as co-regent with Alexandros' widow Elizavetna Romanova. Bazarov became unpopular with many boyars and landowners once his relationship with the Dowager Empress became clear and he was removed from office and imprisoned in Peshod Castle, where he died in mysterious circumstances. His removal allowed the young and ambitious Count Georgios Cantacuzene, from a junior branch of the ruling House to raise up an army and overthrow the Samovar in 1858. Refusing the title of Autokrator, he was acclaimed by a faction of liberal landowners as Voivode, adopting a traditional pre-Autocracy title for the ruler of the country. At first, the reign of Georgios seemed to herald a new dawn for Borduria, with a relaxation of the repressive laws of Constantine III and Alexandros, but liberalisation coincided with a renewal of war with Syldavia, leading to a succession of military defeats. Conservative elements in the Army and amongst rural boyars, supported by Tsarist agents in the country, launched a coup against Georgios, who was deposed and murdered in his palace in the capital, Szohôd in August 1865. Alexandros' son, Constantine was brought back from exile in Saint Petersburg, where his mother had taken him in 1859 and crowned Autokrator in October 1865. The return of repression was inevitable, but this time there was much opposition inside the country and civil disturbances, strikes and violence spread until it was necessary for Constantine IV to declare martial law in 1868. 

There were many Bordurian exiles living across Eastern and Central Europe and these had organised political and revolutionary movements, some with links to German nationalists, other with Syldavian elements and still more with Marxist, Socialist and Anarchist groups. As martial law bit deep and unrest began to turn into conflict, the leader of the Proletarian Alliance, the largest exile Marxist grouping, Eugenios Laskarios, agreed a pact with the peasant Agrarian League and the (illegal) anarchist Union of Workers to form the Bordurian Proletarian Party. Fomenting dissent in the Army and carrying out a wave of assassinations and acts of terrorism, the BPP led the country in a general uprising in 1869. Many regiments of the army mutinied and killed their officers and a short but bloody Civil War ensued.

The city of Szohôd was besieged and other cities and towns began to rise up and expel their local governments. By the end of 1871, most of the country was in the hands of the BPP and Constantine and his family fled to Syldavia, from whence he made his way to Switzerland and then Russia. Laskarios proclaimed the end of the Autocracy and the beginning of the Bordurian Republic on the steps of the Royal Palace on March 1st 1872. He assumed the title of First Minister of the People's Provisional Government and began the process of purging the country of the old absolutist aristocracy. However, the process of nationalisation and the redistribution of land didn't run smoothly. There were disagreements and ideological differences in the Parliament and before long Laskarios and his Proletarian Alliance comrades realised that to preserve the revolution they would have to purge the government of its opponents and rule the country as a one-party state. In 1874, Laskarios shut down Parliament and his secret police and party militia launched another coup which brought about the final act of the Bordurian Revolution.

Since then, the Proletarian Alliance has ruled the country, with its head being known as the Chief Commissar. After the death of Eugenios Laskarios in 1881, the Leader has been Chief Commissar Michaelis Ivanovich. The Bordurian Secret Police, the Second Directorate (also called the Sekuritat), controls the press and oversees state security, while the Third Directorate is a secret intelligence organisation that operates in neighbouring countries, as well as those further away who harbour émigré Cantacuzenist and aristocratic communities and factions. These factions are all grouped together under the broad title of Autokratians, after the old title of the Bordurian Crown. Bourgeois and Liberal democratic groups are also targeted by the Third Directorate, popularly called the Informat.

Informat active units are not only intelligence gatherers and spies. They also carry out abductions and assassinations, as well as building up links with revolutionary groups and even criminal gangs in capitalist countries. 

More painting! With robots!

I bought these a while ago to add to my collection for my Reivers Of The Outer Rim science fiction skirmish rules. They are all Copplestone figures from the Future Wars range. I bought these from North Star.

First, here are five Terminator Robots, which I really like a lot. They certainly have the right vibe for the Terminator film series but also have lots of other uses. I first thought of these as robot NPCs for my rules, but they could also be Combat Droids for the bands of Reivers to use. I've tried to give them a slightly battered appearance, maybe ex-military droids bought up by arms traders or perhaps robotic sentinels who have been guarding a lost installation for decades or even centuries after the owners have departed? Anyway, the muted metallic colour palette is nicely lifted by the red casings of their weapons. This was a deliberate nod to classic Warhammer 40K weapons. "Assimilated? Not a chance, puny humans. You will be exterminated. With extreme prejudice, of course".

This next figure is huge. It is described as a Bio-mech Alien, and there could clearly be something organic lurking inside that armoured carapace, but equally it could be the creation of a crazed scientist or an evil alien mastermind, who is represented here by one of my Bob Murch Radon Zombies.

I love the retro look of this figure. That huge gun is pure 1940s alien menace stuff. It really says "Saturday Morning Pictures" to me, so this clearly has possibilities for 7TV Pulp as well as other Sci Fi settings.

I decided to keep the colour palette simple. Brooding metallic threat is what I wanted to achieve here, and I hope that I've managed it.

A few quick scenic resin pieces.

I've had all these 15mm resin odds and ends on my painting table while I've also been painting other things. I always like to have something that I can work on while I'm waiting for the paint to dry. There is quite a lot here, so you'll need to scroll down to see everything. I'm really pleased with the last thing here.

These were all finished on Saturday, so I was able to use them for my games at the weekend. First some hedges and a gate, from, I think Coritani; The house, from Hovels, and the figures, Essex ones from my 18th century imagi-nations Syldavian army, are just for scale.

You'll notice that the gate is damaged. This was because there was a big blob of resin that I was unable to remove without making a hole, so I decided to make the hole a feature. I think that it works OK.

I was going to flock the hedges but they look OK just painted. I also did some walls. I can't remember who makes these. The figure is, once again just for scale.

These can be used to make a complete enclosure, unfortunately without a gate. I shall have to investigate options to correct this problem.

Next, a couple of gun emplacements and lengths of earthworks. I bought these at the club's annual tabletop sale a couple of years ago. No idea what make they are. I didn't use these at the weekend but they are perfect for the black powder era and also for more modern games. The cannon is a 15mm Peter Pig one from my ACW Union army.

Finally, my pièce de résistance; a fantasy barbarian encampment. I spent a lot of time on this, because I wanted it to look like something worth defending in a battle. The figure is again there for scale. She is one of my Copplestone 15mm Barbarica magic users for my Sword and Spear Fantasy Hyborian horde.

Note the campfire, which I made from ballast and tiny stones, glued to a 1cm circular MDF base, which I glued into an indentation I cut into the basing material, a rectangle of corrugated cardboard.

I really like these tents with their embellishments made from mammoth tusks. I bought them from a club member who had them on a Bring and Buy table back at the end of last year when we were running our Alien Squad Leader tournament.

Resin scenic stuff for Horror and Pulp games

Having started to paint my Pulp figures up, I decided that I really ought to give them some scenic items to explore and fight over.

These items are all from Fenris Games. They are very much suited to Cthulhu-themed Eldritch Horror games, but might also serve in other settings. The Outer Gods and Great Old Ones may well have had a presence in Felstad, for example.

First, here are two monoliths and a dais or altar with a statue (or is it?) of some unknown undersea horror, together with an intrepid 28mm Copplestone archaeologist to give a sense of scale. I've given the monolith on the left a green tinge to represent the remains of paint that once covered the carvings.

Here is another view of the strange altar, which has clearly emerged from the depths, seeing as it is covered in limpets. Of course, it might also be inside a coastal cave somewhere near the cursed seaport of Innsmouth and only revealed at low tide.

Next, here is a Summoning Circle, again featuring the intrepid archaeologist. This is definitely the sort of thing that might be hidden in the woods on top of a hill somewhere in the wild country inland from Arkham, where the whipporwills call on those nights when the Moon is full and hooded figures chant in unknown languages to certain constellations in the night skies.

Here it is from above;

I've tried to give the impression that the central circle is made from some rare mineral, probably from a meteorite from outside our solar system. It is surrounded by blood-stained basins cut into the rocks and the skulls of sacrificial victims.

Even more Sci Fi figures!

This is the last group of 28mm science fiction figures I am painting for a while. These are all from North Star and are sculpted by the excellent Mark Copplestone for the Rogue Stars rules from Osprey. I will, of course, be using them for my own sci fi skirmish rules. 

First, we have a figure I see very much as my gang leader together with his hirsute sidekick, obviously absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with a well-known film franchise set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.................

Next up are two sinister assassin types plus a rather grand military chap of the old school. I wanted to keep the colour palette simple for the assassins and saw no reason to differ in any real way from how they are painted on the North Star website.

I really like the segmented arthropod figure perched on the shoulder of the military chap, as well as the dynamic pose of the female assassin.

Next up, we have a psyker and a large grumpy alien with a big gun. I really like his segmented armour made from the shell of some large alien bug. Perfect! 

Strong is the froggy psyker. Powerful his connection to The Schwartz is. Clearly, he simply had to be brandishing a light sabre.

Finally, here is a female trooper in armour and a combat droid. Again, I wanted a relatively clean look to both of these, but I wanted to avoid white armour, as frequently seen in a galaxy far, far away on the trooper. As for the droid, I wanted a simple metallic appearance, but also a sense that it is a droid that has been around a long time, maybe a relic from some kind of long-lost Old Republic or similar. So, I painted it mostly bronze over black. I think it has worked nicely.

These figures were a joy to paint. Nice clean castings with very little flash to trim away and lots of nice details. Recommended.