Aghh! Not the bees...!

So, September pretty much disappeared - I’d been retiling the Manor House for a better finish which wasn’t very exciting and ended up being redone again anyway. Plus the whole pandemic, redundancy, lack of jobs and stress didn’t help much. October nearly escaped me, but did manage to get these guys finished - medieval bee keepers and hives from Midlam Miniatures (they do some halfling ones as well).

Mix of male and female, lovely minis - possibly a little to early for the 17th century, but beggars can’t be choosers and I doubt bee keeping technology advanced that much (the alternative is modern square hives). Besides, if it’s creepy enough for Nicholas Cage...

some better pictures...

So, some vastly improved pictures of the churchyard and as I got the board out added on some other bits that were to hand. I’ve not shown the fields before, there nothing fancy and you can find plenty of tips on doormat wheat fields elsewhere... I was quite lucky in that I found a company on eBay that did sample squares for 99p each, perfectly sized for small fields.

Angel’s playmates...

“Dreadful things are commonplace and mere children commit the foulest deeds.”

Quick paint jobs to finish figures started years ago, Angel’s followers from Blood On Satan’s Claw - a mix of the village children and the elderly that played her games and sacrificed toward the construction of the demon.

First up, the elders and the young lad - three Warlord Games figures (two from the ECW Clubmen set and one from the Ancient Celts range with a greenstuff apron and bonnet/hair if memory serves - it was a long time ago) and the old man from Hasslefree with g/s puffling pants loose hose and untucked shirt. The older clubman woman had a bit of a miscast hand, so in keeping with the sacrifices made, I lopped it off and g/s some bandages...

And the children, these three are from Hasslefree, again with g/s puffling pants on the boy.

And then three from Reaper, again g/s puffling pants on what is otherwise a generic medieval fantasy look. The nightshirted boy and the baby are personal favourites. Silly little figures.

These were painted in the heatwave a week or so ago, quite pleased that was even possible to paint them, but couldn’t varnish or flock them because of the same heat, so they had to wait and then got side tracked by the churchyard...

The family portrait at the top included Angel, her demon and an old druidess figure that I painted yonks ago and has migrated into this project as she kind of fits. I think she’s from Warlord but not completely sure, I just like the naked old witch vibe that fits Angel’s followers.

Finished Churchyard preview pics

Just a couple of quick pictures of the finished churchyard. Planning a proper photo session but this is not going to fit in the light box.

Had a bit of a problem with the grass. Initially I had the usual dirt tracks and bare patches but it didn’t look right, especially as the tracks were around the edge of the inset footprint as opposed to the edge of the church itself. I also discovered after I’d flocked it that I had the dirt recipe wrong and the soil in the yard didn’t match the soil around the church. Some sepia wash on the exposed dirt on the church levelled out the contrast a bit better, but I reflocked anyway and covered some of the exposed dirt so it matched the yard better. The grass is not brilliant, but if I don’t leave it alone I will fuck it up even more... sigh...

May Queen...

And another recruit for the Mad Mummers, the May Queen - one of several lovely minis from Crooked Dice... it’s very en vogue to go chiffon with these, but, although chiffon existed (just) in the 17th century, it was silk and bloody expensive. It would also date the mini if I go Ancients or something...

The Red Right Hand

A completion of an old thought... started these guys years ago as additional hunters - my thinking was a  rival government group to the more freelance hunters. They are all Warlord Games minis with varying degrees of green stuff to vary the single pose soldiers. The leader is the Warlord Games Cardinal Richelieu with extra hair. They are a bit quick and sloppy admittedly with an overall dark colour scheme, but the pictures aren’t doing them any favours...

EDIT: And some better pics:

housekeeping

I figured a bit of an update to the banner was needed, as the old logo dated from 2014 or thereabouts. As Who has been on the back burner for sometime, I figured something a bit folky would be appropriate. Quick and dirty, found a woodcut of a giraffe though which was nice...

Churchyard WIP

OK, so the church needs a yard... I’ve been working on this off and on for a while, mainly staring and planning and changing my mind... this is the one I’ve settled on...

It’s foampvc for a base (although it feels a tad softer than the normal stuff I use), with insulation foam for the raised ground. There is a footprint for the church at the back. I cut up the Petite Properties lych gate so it was smaller by removing the centre sections and scratch built some walls for the gate. Gravestones are from Renedra and a couple from Fenris Games for a slightly more macabre feel. The facing of the graves was dictated by the church, as graves and altar face east as is normal for churchyards (although not compulsory). 30mm slotta base for scale (as that is what the ghosts are based on).

 

The arch of the gate will remain loose, slotting into the walls. This means it acts an anchor point as the yard is in two A4 pieces for storage, the seam hidden by the edge of the path and the church itself.

Just waiting for the walls to set... hoping that curve will stay, but I may leave the pins in.

Roads done...

So, roads are painted, grey stone with dabs of green and mud wash, and streaks of sepia wash. I added some earth and grass on a couple to represent a lack of maintenance.

I also did a some horse dung that hasn’t been cleaned up yet...

Quite happy with how the junctions look, they work without the additional road as well.

Roads...

Some roads for a more built up rural area. These are actually designed for the 15mm Sword and Sorcery range from Crom’s Anvil, designed to be a long abandoned ancient roadway ala Conan, but the size meant they would work for my 28mm Folk Horror stuff as narrow lanes (going too wide would not be ideal either with my small skirmish table and they are by coincidence the width of the gateway on my Manor House). Plus they’re good value and Michael is a decent bloke. 28mm slotta base for scale. 

So, they are available as straights, curves or road ends. I sanded down the underside of the road ends and added a bit of 1mm plasticard so I could extend a broken trackway and dirt carriage ruts to run into the grass of the table. I took a quick press mould of some of the kerbs and slabs, and added some green stuff kerbs and slabs further into the grass. The greenstuff was the end of a roll and not very fresh, so not sure if it’s as good as it could be, painting will tell.

One of the straights was actually shorter than the others, not sure why (EDIT: turns out there are two different straights, I just happened to get one of the shorter ones and the rest the longer ones) but as I planned a T-junction anyway, I cut that up and pondered long about how to attach it. The sanding down and adding plasticard trick is a major pain so ended up ditching that plan and figured I’d just replace the kerbs in a stretch with flatter stones as a sort of pseudo gutter. Luckily I had a bag of architectural freebies from Fenris Games that included flat stones, some of which are perfect for the kerb width (I also used a couple of the road ends).

I’ve kept the cut down straight section to allow for a bit of variety on the layout. Ideally I’d also like to add some squat Romanesque corner stones at junction, but waiting on new greenstuff.

The Mad Mummers

Part of the Mad Mummers for my Folk Horror project... crazed performers and morrisers...

The first chap is the King/Fool, a Warlord Games Agitator with a head from Statuesque Miniatures asylum inmates (there are so few smiling heads out there - annoyingly my rusty paint skills has kind of lost the maniacal grin and given something a bit more gentle, still mad, but more deluded). Fools bladder from greenstuff and a wooden crown from plastic tube, with spiky bits filed into it. Very chuffed with him.

Next is the Strawbear from Crooked Dice, simply a delight to paint, simple and clean. Lovely mini.

Finally a masked fellow, a Redoubt Miniatures figure that I’ve had for years. He got a new head and a greenstuff mask added. He had a comedy hump for while, ala the Wicker Man, but I think it’s better without.

So, these and the ghosts are the first minis I’ve painted for a few years, these chaps came out a bit dark I think, compared to my usual style... probably a bit heavy with the washes...

A little piece of scatter

Nothing really fancy, just been sitting waiting for painting far too long... GW stump and ace, matchsticks for logs... and getting a decent clean cut wood colour took far too much effort.

Phantasmagoria

Like many I’m sure, I got the first two issues of Mortal Realms part work from Games Workshop, the shitty Sigmarines aside, I was definitely going in on the spooky stuff offered by the Nightgaunts. These were the banshees from issue 2, but I didn’t go full grim dark and just wanted floaty sheet types, so the bodies and the overly done bases went in the bits tray...

The observant amongst you will notice they are only two of the set of four that comes with the set (of course I got two issues at that price)... I had tried converting some to get some variety, but that wasn’t very successful and mistakes were made. In fact the one travelling through the gravestone was the only successful bit of fiddling I did, wish I’d done that with the others rather than having the ground contact thing on the others. The tail end of the sheet through the stone is from one of the bodies, that one was quite badly cut up by the conversion efforts, but quite pleased that I managed to Frankenstein him back together with some greenstuff. 

Church finished...

Well, I’ve noticed a couple of irksome things now it’s done, but I’m probably being over perfect and will just mess it up trying to correct a couple of things. So, done...

Trying the camera on my phone and it seems to be an improvement, as with most buildings it’s too big for the light box and I probably need a flat paper background again at some point...

The wallpaper has worked really well for the flint effect. Very grateful for the donation from Paul at the Wargames Terrain Tips & Talk Facebook group.

Doors made from scratch, following my usual design of pop in and pop out as open or closed. 

 

The altar is removable, the grave isn’t... might do a font, but for now that’s the interior. The altar was redone completely from my original one, just foampvc and plasticard on a blue insulation foam block. Quite pleased with that.