A very strange and unsettling graveyard

This is a project I started about 18 months ago, although I'd bought the various bits and pieces months before I started work on it. I finally completed it last week. Here is the overall piece, looking down from above;

 The model is around 40cm by 30cm, based on a sheet of MDF. The perimeter is made of Renedra railings and gate pieces and the pieces inside are all from Fenris Games with a couple of extra gravestones from Bad Squiddo. Below are some closer views of the graveyard, with Jon Hodgson backgrounds.

Now, this is clearly not your common or garden graveyard and who knows what kind of people, if people they are, might lie under the ground in such a place? Those gravestones seem to be slowly sinking into the ground and some of them a clearly very old indeed.

The various obelisks and columns hint at some very unusual religious practices and one really has to ask "Why is the water in the pool bubbling?". Of course, another relevant question might be "Who lies here and why are all the interments carried out at night under the baleful light of a gibbous moon?".

I'm really happy with how this piece has turned out. I think it is the perfect place to carry out some investigations into the practices of the locals and examine the sacred books kept under lock and key in the crypt of the local church.

From 2024 into 2025

Well, this should have been a review of my achievements in 2024 and a list of my plans for 2025. However, as regular readers will know, I suffered as huge flare-up of arthritis in both hands last year, which pretty much threw all of my plans way off course. When I was able to paint again, I concentrated on some quick wins by painting stuff that I wanted to paint and not things that were long-term projects. So, really, my 2025 plans are pretty much based around a few of the things I was supposed to do in 2024 plus a couple of new ideas. I'm not going to bother listing anything. Just getting various stuff done will be a win as far as I'm concerned.

I will be trying to focus on Midgard, though. This is because I already have two or three armies that might easily be repurposed for Midgard without much effort. These are Principate Roman auxiliaries, a force that is almost complete but just needs some archers, a Dominate period Roman army that really just needs a couple of mounted leaders and maybe some skirmishing light cavalry and, thirdly, a fantasy Norse army based around my Bad Squiddo shieldmaidens and some jötnar and other mythical beings. 

I do have a fourth fantasy Midgard project, which will be a Warhammer Old World Empire army with human foot and horse and some ogres, all based around the Wargames Atlantic conquistador sets of foot and mounted troops plus the Landsknecht ogres. I think I'll need to find a suitable Battle Wizard from somewhere, too. 

I do have one small urgent addition to my 18th century Syldavian and Bordurian imagi-nations, too. I won't say what it is, because it will be required for Winter Wonderlard V at the beginning of February.

So, that is pretty much all I have to say about future plans. 

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. 

The Battlezone scatter stuff....

 .... and this really is the last of it!

Below is a big piece of Battlezone pipework, which will fit in anywhere, seeing as one end rises from below ground and the other end has a couple of closures. The piece at the back is a length of 2cm plastic plumbing pipe stuck on a couple of little legs capped shut at one end and with a connecting piece at the other. It is designed to come out of the side of a building. Why might that be? Who cares, but it'll look good.

Here are a couple of large generators with attached pipework. These will fit in anywhere, ideally with a building at the end of the pipes.

There is also a platform made up from a few odds and ends and a pallet of some kind of cargo.

Finally, I've made a few barricades/roadblocks from a few odds and ends of doors and wall sections, held up with braces. These are bound to be useful. Everyone and everything needs to hide or shelter from getting shot at. In all of these pieces, I've chosen a grimdark colour palette, especially for the generators. Maybe how they work is an obscure and arcane secret, but so long as the initiates/operators chant the correct prayers the things will keep on generating whatever they generate?

Once again, my Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is here to provide a sense of scale.

So, that's it for the Battlezone stuff.

Mantic Battlezone sci fi buildings

Ages ago at the club's tabletop sale, I bought a big box of Mantic Battlezone plastic buildings, which I never got round to assembling until now. Here are the first few pieces. Scroll down to see them all.

The Bad Squiddo Ghost of Gaia is for scale purposes.

I'm showing two views of this final piece for today. This is because there is some nice detail on in interior. The down pipe in the interior photo isn't Mantic. It is a piece of 2cm diameter plastic plumbing pipe cut to fit.

I have to say that the separate components are tricky to put together and I eventually resorted to using model glue to ensure a nice strong bond. I didn't want my buildings coming apart in gaming use. In hindsight, I should have used greenstuff or Milliput to fill the more obvious gaps, but it is too late now.

Having said that, I am really pleased with the painted and based results. These pieces could be used in so many settings; gang warfare in the depths of a hive city, scavenging the remains of an abandoned mining base on a forgotten planet, post-apocalyptic survival against mutant or alien hordes, Games set in a wretched hive of scum and villainy or just on a battlefield between implacable enemies. The possibilities are endless.

I decided to go for a grimdark, worn-out and run-down feel to everything. That kind of look and feel appeals to me when it comes to science fiction gaming. There is plenty of rust on the walls, grimy floors and a general appearance of a civilisation fallen on hard times or outposts on hostile planets or moons.

I've finished everything off - a couple of weeks of hard slog, I have to say, and I'll post everything over the next week or so. 

I am planning to use some of these pieces with my Jon Hodgson sci fi backdrops to create some nice little dioramas. They will obviously have lots of uses in Xenos Rampant and with my own Reivers Of The Outer Rim rules, which I am currently planning to simplify and re-write.

More Wargames Atlantic giant spiders

About a year ago, I posted about the excellent Wargames Atlantic Classic Fantasy Giant Spiders. Back in January I decided that I really had to assemble and paint the rest of the box, and here are the results. I've taken two pictures of them. Firstly a simple shot showing the spiders against a plain backdrop and, when you scroll down a second picture set up as a small action diorama.

As you can see the six big spiders are absolutely huge posed with a Bad Squiddo Freyja's Wrath female Berserker (who I use as my Barbarian character for D&D). The smaller spider is the Barbarian's latest acquisition, Fluffy the giant wolf spider.

I wanted to use a simple but menacing dark palette for these spiders. After assembly, a tricky job,they were glued to 5cm MDF bases which were then covered with a mix of PVA glue and calcium sand (which is used in reptile vivariums). 

I undercoated the spiders in Halford's matt grey spray primer and, once dry, gave them a wash of Nuln Oil. Next I set about a series of dry-brushed layers in dark, medium and pale grey and then set them aside.  Once dry, I then finished off the spiders with a wash of diluted W&N Indian ink and, when that was dry, I picked out the fangs and eyes in a pale grey. The Indian ink had dripped down onto the bases, which was what I wanted and I finished the bases off with a simple wash of lightly diluted Agrax Earthshade

I should have made seven giant spiders and one large one, but somewhere over the last year, I seem to have lost the head/thorax part for one of the big guys, I might have to look at some kind of human/arachnid mutant at some point.

Anyway, as promised above, here is the diorama;

I'm pretty happy with this picture. I think it has come out really nicely.

The scene was set up in my lightbox, using a Jon Hodgson backdrop, a selection of my 3D printed ruins and a floor made from my Warbases dungeon tiles. I took several shots with aperture priority using different light intensities and different apertures, shooting at an exposure range between ISO 100 and ISO 800 with my Pentax K-70 DSLR. 

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.

My plans for 2024.

A few days ago, I looked back at what I had planned for last year. Now, I am going to look forward to the coming 12 months and look at the things I want to work on as my main projects for 2024, as well as note down a few things that I can work on in between if I'm feeling a bit bored with the main job in hand.

I have three big 28mm projects (the first two being the most important);

An Elven Army for Midgard which will also work for Sword and Spear Fantasy. I have all the figures for these. They are the excellent Oathmark Elves from North Star. I have Heavy and Light Infantry and the recently-released Cavalry. I've probably got more Heavy Infantry than I really need (I went for the original High Elf army bundle North Star released when Oathmark was first launched) but I'm sure I'll find a use for any leftovers.

A 1940 French Infantry platoon with various support options for Chain of Command. These are all Warlord Games. I've two boxes of infantry, a M1897 75mm gun and a Hotchkiss MMG. I'll have enough figures for an extra Groupe de Combat, extra crew members for the gun and MMG and probably a sniper team and some engineers. 

More 28mm Bloody Miniatures 17th century figures. These will be two more of the Foot releases as well as the recent release of Horse.

Another 28mm project I hope to get done is another Xenos Rampant force using the Wargames Atlantic Deathfields Bulldogs. I want to give these a real Weird WW1 vibe.

I've got things to complete from 2023 too. Top of the list are those 28mm Bicorne Miniatures pikemen.

At some point, I'll carry on with my 15mm Warhammer Empire themed army but I really needs to be in the right mood to work on this.

I will carry on working on scenic stuff too. I have loads of 28mm Sci Fi things to get painted and also some 28mm Renedra plastic buildings. I've also got various 15mm and 28mm odds and ends which I can work on in between the big projects. I also need to work on trees, river sections and other stuff. I might even get round to doing my long-planned but never started modular graveyard, complete with weird sculptures and other stuff. I've got all the bits I need. All I need now is the willpower and the time to make it happen.

I've also got the Bad Squiddo Community Miniatures figures to do. These will also be worked on when I need a break from Elves or French infantry.

Inevitably, I have Pulp/7TV figures to work on too, but that part of the backlog is slowly shrinking.

There are lots of other things I might get round too working on (late 19th century North West Frontier in 15mm, 28mm Bad Squiddo Soviet Women, various WW2 North Africa in different scales etc) but they aren't actual objectives.

I expect that this time next year, I'll still have things I never got round to finishing, or even starting! So it goes.

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.

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!

 

Still more Women of WW2

 These are some more minis from the Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 range.

As you can see, they are members of the Women's Land Army, and are going about various farming-related duties. 

They are fun figures to paint, and I've taken a few liberties with the colours I've chosen to paint them. I particular, the one on the left with the pig has a blue hat. Presumably she has lost her official one or maybe just likes the blue one better? I know that I've got the overcoat colours wrong too. It seems to have been a mid-brown shade, but I rather like the green better. The woman with the string of dead rats has a brown coat anyway. At least the jerseys and trousers are the right colours!

Not sure where these will fit in, gaming-wise, but they were a nice project to work on. I think that they'll have a role in my "Went The Day Well?" scenario, if it ever happens.

WW2 women War Correspondents

 These are three female war correspondents from the Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 range.

And here they are from behind, to show off more of the excellent details on these sculpts. Look at that Rolleiflex TLR on Lee Miller.

I actually painted these a couple of months ago, but forgot to post them here. 

I will let Annie Norman tell you who they are in her own words;

Ruth Cowen (left)

Her new boss’ first words of greeting were, “Get that woman out of here!”. Despite being the first accredited female war reporter (along with Inez Robb), Ruth had been a reporter for 19 years before she began covering warzones. She paved the way for over 100 who would follow her during the course of WW2, fighting her own side skirmishing against sexism. Cowen worked in North Africa then onto England and France, and enjoyed boasting about her she kept her blonde hair topped up by mixing the dye in her helmet!

Lee Miller (centre)

Probably the most famous female war reporter, Miller had an established career as a model and then photographer for Vogue. She switched as soon as the Blitz began, as she was in London at the time. From London, she travelled further onward to France and Germany covering many distressing events with her evocative photography. In this model I have shown her lowering her helmet while witnessing the aftermath of the Dresden bombing.

Toni Frissell (right)

Another photographer for Vogue and the stars, Frissell began volunteering for the American Red Cross, stating in 1941 "I became so frustrated with fashions that I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a real reporting job.", later she became the official photographer for the Women's Army Corps (WAC). As well as documenting the European front, her work covered the women and African-American men of the US army, who had been previously overlooked. 

I will add that Lee Miller, who was an amazing woman, had lived in Paris before the war, between 1929 and 1932, becoming a photographer and model working with Man Ray, who was also her lover and mixing with many of the avant garde of pre-war Paris, including Picasso, Jean Cocteau and Paul Eluard. In 1937, Miller returned to Paris where she met the Surrealist painter Roland Penrose, who became her lover, although she was married to someone else at the time. 

After the war, she lived with Penrose in the UK and became pregnant with their son, Antony. After divorcing her Egyptian husband, she and Penrose married. They lived in East Sussex until her death in 1977.

Of course, you can use these figures as any war correspondent you like and they could be useful in other settings than WW2.

Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 - Lumber Jills

Here are five more figures for my Women on the Home Front project, using minis from the Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 range. They are all Lumber Jills, members of the Women's Timber Corps.

First, two Lumber Jills with a big saw, cutting up a log;

I like this little vignette, so here it is from two other viewpoints;

I used a few pieces of pea gravel as a prop for the log to make sawing through it easier.

Now, here are the other three Lumber Jills. First a frontal shot and then one from behind. I have tried to get across the idea that they are a bit grubby from the hard work involved in tree-felling, hence a few dirty patches and streaks on their skin.

These are all lovely figures with the same high standards of sculpting and casting which we have all come to expect from Bad Squiddo.

The Women's Timber Corps (WTC) was a British civilian organisation formed in 1940 by the Forestry Commission to provide forestry and sawmill workers, replacing men who had left to join the armed forces. Women who joined the WTC were commonly known as Lumber Jills. In 1942, the administration of the WTC was transferred to the Women's Land Army, with the Lumber Jills adopting the same uniform as the Land Girls.

The WTC was disbanded in 1946.

I am hoping that I can use these terrific minis in some Home Front-themed games of Chain of Command.

It Ain't Easy Being Green

 In the case of these three, it leads to grumpiness, random acts of malice and turning princes into frogs;

These are 28mm Bad Squiddo witches, clearly following the example of Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of The West with her green skin and gothic wardrobe choices.

I bought these because they are fun minis, rather than for any particular rules or armies, but I am sure that I'll find a use for them at some point.

They were pretty quick to paint, mainly because I undercoated them in black Halford's spray and then just worked on the details and dry-brushing. The tufts are Gamer's Grass ones, again from Bad Squiddo.

Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 - ATA pilots

Two posts in one day! These are two more Bad Squiddo Women of WW2 figures, two Air Transport Auxiliary pilots.

The sharp-eyed among you will notice that I haven't painted the pilot on the right in correct ATA uniform colours, but there is a reason for that which I will explain below.

Here they are from behind.

The reason that I didn't use the right colours is that I want to use her for a range of different scenarios and games, maybe as a pilot in Pulp games or something else. Therefore, I didn't want to limit her to being just an ATA pilot. Also, I have some Wren signallers to paint and also some dispatch riders so I didn't want to have too many figures in dark blue.

Anyway, I think that they have come out pretty nicely. They are lovely sculpts and crisp casts, as we have all come to expect from Bad Squiddo minis.

Owl Woman

 I realised yesterday that I hadn't posted anything for ages. Anyway, here is Owl Woman.

She is a Bad Squiddo figure, part of the Amazons range that I painted last year, but she had been lurking in my To Be Painted box, not exactly forgotten, just slipped down the list a bit. She is a Sorceress or Priestess. On the website, she is called Aurelia the Oracle. Here she is from behind.

Having finished her, I'm not sure that I've really done her justice. I think the colours I've chosen aren't really "right", but maybe she will grow on me. Who cal tell?

Anyway, I am thinking that she ought to hook up with Basil the Bold a.k.a. Angry Cat Guy and head off to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

I am sure that she would work in Saga: Age of Magic games, or maybe in Of Gods and Mortals or Dragon Rampant armies too.

Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia scavenger gang

 I painted these seven figures in tandem with the ATS women I posted a few days ago. Scroll down to see them all.

First, three characters, a strange alien psyker who wandered in from the wastelands, the gang's leader in the middle and, on the right, the leader's trusted advisor and mentor.

Here are the same figures from behind.

Next, in front and rear views, we have the rest of the gang. First a close combat expert with a chainsaw weapon and a ganger with a grenade launcher.

And finally, two basic shooty gangers;

I think that as a basic gang it is a bit understrength, so I see these additional figures being part of the fun. I am sure a big armoured critter and a couple of crude electronic cattle prods will come in handy.

As it says in the title, these are all Bad Squiddo Ghosts of Gaia minis, and very fine they are too. I really cannot heap enough praise on this range. They are full of character, wonderfully sculpted and really well cast too.

I see these as being perfect for Stargrave, as well as my own ROTOR rules, plus almost anything else with a Sci Fi skirmish theme, such as Necromunda.