It's been a while since my last post

...But what can I say in mitigation? Well, I've been painting stuff but not completing things. I've also been on holiday in Normandy for an extended week, which was lovely. Here are some bronze Americans, exiting a Higgins boat to liberate the Le Roosevelt bar and restaurant just across the road behind me.

Here are our two Westies, Dora (furthest away) and Ralph examining Utah beach in detail.

And for those of you who like this sort of thing (I know that I do), here is a close-up of HVSS suspension on a M4A1(76)W HVSS (followed by a photo of the whole vehicle).

Of course, we did lots of other things in Normandy that didn't involve D Day, mainly because we have been there more than once in the past, but I shall have to leave a photo of the famous Café Gondrée at Pegasus Bridge.

And another of some colourful baskets in the weekly market in Sainte-Mère-Église, where we bought some terrific Calvados from the producer and pork sausages from the farmer who raised the pigs.

Normandy is well worth visiting. There is so much to see, do, eat and drink, even if you aren't interested in D Day.

Two Steampunk/Victorian Science Fiction vehicles

Both of these are from Ironclad Miniatures excellent VSF range.

The vehicle above is a steam-powered armoured car with a Gatling gun in its turret. This can also be made up with a Nordenfelt gun, which is also supplied. I decided to paint this in a neutral grey and rely on washes (Citadel Nuln Oil), dry-brushing and AK Terrains Dark Earth basing gunk to give the thing the appearance of being a hard-used workhorse. I also used a wash of diluted Vallejo Orange Brown to add a few patches of rust, particularly on the prominent bolt heads.  The figure (also from Ironclad) is there to provide a sense of scale.

The second vehicle is a steam-powered tankette, painted in a slightly more military shade, courtesy of Army Painter Army Green primer. Once again, wear and tear have been added with Nuln Oil, Vallejo Orange Brown rust and AK Terrains Dark Earth basing gunk. The tracks were given an initial coat of Vallejo Gunmetal Grey, which I've also used on both vehicles for the barrels of the weapons and the vision slits.

Both vehicles are cast in resin with additional metal parts, i.e wheels, guns, funnels, and are pretty easy to assemble. Now they are finished, I am looking at the rest of the Ironclad range to see what other vehicles I fancy buying. Hopefully, Ironclad will be at the club's Reveille show at the end of November, which will allow me to buy a couple more of these delightful vehicles.

These should be huge fun to use in a Steampunk/Pulp/VSF setting, probably using The Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare's In Her Majesty's Name rules.

A final five Bob Murch figures

Well, final until I get some more!

These are called "The Daughters Of The Empire" in the official Pulp catalogue and are, like the rest of the range available from North Star.

I like these five, they have plenty of variety and ought to suit a variety of different settings. They have a definite Back Of Beyond vibe. One problem with these excellent Bob Murch figures is, for me that I just like them so much that I buy them without actually having a plan for them. I expect that they will get used at some point, but knowing that I have them makes me happy.
 

More Bob Murch Pulp figures.

These five are the "Rugged Adventuresses" set.

This set is rather interesting, I think, because they definitely have a kind of Back Of Beyond/Indiana Jones female villains vibe going on. The figure on the front right is carrying what looks very much like a Degtyaryov DP-27 light machine gun, which came into service in the late-1920s, and the woman on the far left has a Mauser C96 pistol, and has a somewhat Eastern European look to her uniform. The pilot, rear centre looks pretty Germanic to me too and the other two figures could either be heroic or villainous.

All in all, another great set of figures from the excellent Bob Murch Pulp Adventures range, available in the UK from North Star.

I recently found this figure half finished.....

.... and left in the bottom of a box. So, I thought I'd finish him off.

I started him off ages ago, when I was working on my Roman auxiliary cohort for Infamy, Infamy. I intended to use him as a character who could feature in certain scenarios, maybe as the cohort's Prefect being escorted by his troops or in some other context. You can just see the dark red vertical stripes on his tunic under his armour. Known as a tunica angusticlavia, this signifies his equestrian rank. The stripes on a senatorial tunic would have been wider. The roles of praefectus cohors was the first step on the tres militae, which was the career progression available to members of the equestrian class in imperial Roman society. To be honest here, I think that I have painted his red stripes a little too wide, but it is too late to change them now.

My Romans are the only figures that I have based on coins. The original reason for that was because during the 2020 lockdown I ran out of 2cm round MDF bases and used pennies instead. For some reason, this guy ended up on a 2.5cm MDF base, so I've glued him to a 2p coin under the MDF base, which makes him stand out if nothing else! I don't really like basing on coins, but I might as well be consistent for these Romans.

He needed basing properly and having various details picked out. His cloak also needed highlights. So, now he's finished and I can put him away with the rest of my Romans, who haven't been used for anything since 2021. One day, I'll get them out again, I hope.

 

Some Bob Murch Pulp figures

One of my aims for this year is to reduce the lead mountain. One specific target is to paint up as many of my backlog of Pulp figures as possible.

This group of five are called Count Casamir's Trans-Siberian Renegades and comprise Count Casamir, Blotsky his Chief of Secret Police, his wife the Countess, Misha the faithful bodyguard and Yolanda his daughter. 

They are incredibly full of character, a hallmark of the excellent work of Bob Murch. His figures are available from North Star in the UK and I recommend them to anyone who likes the Pulp genre.

I decided to go with a different colour palette to the one chosen by Bob Murch, because I like to give my toys my own interpretation. They were fun to paint, mainly because they are so well-sculpted and cast, but also because they just look so good. The one I found the trickiest was Misha, the sailor bodyguard. I tried my best with the hoops, but I'm not sure I've done him justice. Oveall, though, I think they have turned out rather nicely.

They clearly have lots of possibilities for gaming and I really hope they will get some action at some point.

Sixteen 17th century musketeers finally completed.

You'll need to scroll down to see the lot. First for the Blue Regiment;

 And now the Green one;

These are all from Bicorne Miniatures and they match perfectly in terms of size with the growing range from Bloody Miniatures. Below you can see these two groups augmented to form two units of 12 figures by mixing them with some Bloody Miniatures figures;

I see the Blue regiment as being some kind of "elite" unit, maybe the lifeguard of a general or maybe the guards of a major town or city. The Green (and Brown) regiment is clearly a lesser formation, maybe a trained band, a regiment raised by a local landowner or a unit of militia. They have a much less uniform appearance but as we all know appearances can be deceptive. They could equally be experienced and battle-hardened mercenaries.

I've been working away on these for ages, but I kept putting them to one side to work on other things and, finally they are finished and I am really happy with how they have turned out. I think that they are of a reasonable gaming table standard and easily pass the "how do they look from a metre away test".

Anyway, I am now one step closer to have a small force for The Pikeman's Lament or some other Pike and Shot period set of rules. I have three units of Bicorne pikemen to work on now.