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.

La Milice Canadienne

 These are intended for the French and Indian Wars. There are 29 figures in all. First three groups of eight.

And now some leaders and musicians.

Now, the sharp-eyed amongst you will note that they aren't really very accurate for the period, and that is because they are really Warlord Games plastic American Militia for the War of Independence and their clothing isn't really right at all, assuming that they should be wearing the items that French regulations mandated. My only defence here is that they are a bunch of rapidly-raised militiamen who are just wearing whatever was available.

These are going to be used for FIW Sharp Practice games at BIG this coming weekend, using David Hunter's Saindoux Campaign troop rosters, which allows for Milice Canadienne in line groups of eight figures.

These took me ages to get finished, mainly because I fell out of love with the figures while I was painting them. They were all from the free sprues that Wargames Illustrated gave away ages ago and I really didn't much like the poses of some of them, nor the fact that too many are equipped with Pennsylvania "long rifles" rather than standard muskets. I think that they have turned out OK, but at some point I think I'll replace them with some more appropriately-equipped metal versions.

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.

Five more gunslingers.

 Here are the next five figures for my Wild West project. Again, these are all Artizan Wild West minis.

I really like this guy on the left. He's got the look of a saloon bar piano player about him, but possibly one with a bit of a hot temper, always ready to settle an argument with a pair of six shooters. He's definitely got a bit of an attitude in this pose. A really nice sculpt.

This figure is my only female gunslinger, at least so far. She isn't going to take any nonsense from anyone. A tough and uncompromising woman in a tough male world.

Next, here are three useful generic gunfighters who will find work in whatever posse or gang needs new recruits. They could also represent a rancher and two of his ranch hands, protecting the herd from rustlers.

These are the end of my Artizan figures, but I have two gangs of minis by Great Escape Games in my Dead Man's Hand starter box set, one of lawmen and the other of outlaws. I will get them done at some point, but now I fancy a break from the Old West.