The ship’s doctor…

 So, The Silver Bayonet rules came out and it’s perfectly what I’ve been looking for… black powder, gothic horror and solo play (on account of me being so antisocial). Plus it can move to my ECW Folk Horror setting perfectly (just remove the vampires - there is no vampire in English folklore at that time, very much a European thing), and vice versa a lot of what I have already fits the Napoleonic setting.

With that in mind there was no harm in getting some splendid chaps to form my unit of British monster hunters (6 nations are covered in the rules, with scope to adapt those lists to any nation of the period, but I already had some Nappy Highlanders for an abandoned project). Plus an excuse to have some excellent Perry sculpts again.

This is from the Perry Royal Navy Landing Party set, which gave me some nice options for the more specialist troop types. This chap will do duty as a doctor, so can stay in A Roysl Navy uniform. 

Mostly in contrasts, which are helping me overcome a severe loss of mojo…

Blood On Satan’s Claw

 

I couldn’t deny this… a beautiful looking hardback edition of my favourite film… pledge here - https://unbound.com/books/blood-on-satans-claw-or-the-devils-skin/?fbclid=IwAR1fcl4FAOE6y2FZ7FbefnKSQQzW8Ak_hv3-3JjD79ja99OfokdTdWi4Ha0

Hondo Hottie House

 Just a quick pic of something almost finished.

Years back I was planning a Judge Dredd game, but the Mongoose mini range was shockingly bad, but I still collected stuff that I could use, including the very useful Plasticville train scenery. Stuff moved on, but knowing how hard it was to get the Plasticville stuff, kept all of that just in case… And along comes the Warlord Games range. So a bit of paint and a custom sign…

This is the Frosty Bar (sitting on the roof of the bank), the design kind of dictated the colour scheme and both lent themselves to being inspired by Hondo City in Dredd’s world.

Mud, mud, glorious mud...

 I’m not normally one for blood splatter or mud (Angel’s demon had a dry brush around the base of his cloak and that’s about it), but the bulk and weight of the daVinci tank did call for it...

I wasn’t going to buy anything just for this, so just stippled on Vallejo earth texture and gave it a dark wash. Probably better ways to do it, but worked and serves to hide the sins of wonky handmade wheels...

Tank Commander

 As he won’t be as visible as I thought once the lid is on...

As there appears to be a decent amount of space in the cupola, I’ve  started a second crewman to peer out on one side, just waiting for greenstuff to cure. I’ll see if it looks too crowded before committing though...

More WIP on the daVinci tank

 

Life as ever takes it’s toll and my six month in job is still leaving me pretty dead at the end of a day, so progress is sooooo slow... but hey...

I have, however, discovered the joys of those makeup ring lights and that has helped my painting no end... next, I need to work on converting the tank commander...

Paint WIP

After a few botched attempts to get my head around the contrast paints flesh range, I returned to the tank. Aiming for a linen/leather covered wooden shell effect. I had tried to carve in some tears and dings, exposed wood beneath, but getting that right was a little beyond me for some reason so I moved on and made good . The repair work is again not perfect, and in fact I’ve kept a couple of marks and tried to go with that.

 

Almost there...

Some awful quick photos, but I’m plodding along... 

So, rear doors done, although I started undercoating before realising I'd not shown it. The roof could have been detachable allowing a figure to be placed, but the roof has a solid cross beam in it that is just to painful to remove and I'd have to sink the platform i made as well. It will get a crew man permantly attached and the roof glued in place.

 

Heavy duty wheels

 So the wheels on the tank are wagon wheel thin and I wanted something a little more heavy duty to roll over the zombie corpses... now the fact this was a clockwork model also means the original wheels have lovely medieval cog teeth on them (which would have been very handy when I did the Watermill interior) and the model has a lovely wide slot for the wheels to allow for the teeth. So, inspired by trench gun wheels I went thick...

Because the interior (at least that bit) won’t be visible, I don’t need full replacement wheels which meant less work. I cut two circles about the size of the original wheels from 5mm foam pvc, then added another 3mm just to fill it out more. Carved some wood/plank texture and smoothed off the outer curve with some thin card. I then cut a series of plates to give the heavy duty feel. In my head the wheel itself doesn’t need to be solid and the plates (if damaged) can be replaced from inside the vehicle.

And a dry fit, the extra width and the plates fill the gap nicely. A lot of effort for something not really visible, but it works for me...

The Water Carrier

So this is a thing and I love it... no idea if it will be playable as it would be way over powered I assume, but it’ll make a fun project... may just end up as scenery.

This is weird kit, snap fit and clockwork apparently, but I’m leaving all the gubbins out as they are handy medieval cogs that would have been cool with the water mill, but hey... I’ve removed the outer lettering for the on/off switch (to be filled) and some arrows on the cap (the purpose of which is beyond me), the cap itself rests on the clockwork mechanism inside, so that will need raising a little to allow for the view slot. Not sure how I’ll have them get in and out, will need to think of a hatch on the main shell or have the cap hinged somehow. In my head there is a horse or something in there, so that would need to be a factor. It’s smaller than the real thing would be, but looks ok alongside minis. I’m seriously thinking of an interior... 

Size Comparisons

 Ok, so I do love the Bloody Miniatures range. Lovely sculpts. But... I’m torn on the size. They work with some figures, not so much with others... they make Angel Blake look more childlike which I like, but she’s nude which is wrong on sooo many levels. The old woman is minute and looks odd, but the blacksmith just looks stout and solid. The bishop looks small, but he did against the Mantic ghouls anyway. The Cardinal is shortish, but not terribly so... but the Warlord cavalry men are tiny, even against a Warlord plastic infantry (which is the witch hunter base figure.

Decisions, decisions... sigh...

Bloody Miniatures

Some splendid 28mm minis from Bloody Miniatures, a project from Captain Blood on the Lead Adventure Forum. I absolutely loved them and, despite budgeting, bought the swordsmen and dismounted cavalrymen packs. I’d not been that keen to paint anything for a while so was not put off by the larger 28mm advisory - the range is designed to compliment Renegade Miniatures range I believe. Sadly, when compared to my existing minis and scenery, it’s noticeable and I knew I’d never use them. But I wanted to paint them and so I did. They will probably end up on eBay which is a first for me.

And alongside the Warlord Games miniatures I've got.

Bath time

A resin bathtub from Thormarillion. It’s a lovely little piece, but is bigger than looked right for the historical 28mm minis I’m mainly using, so I cut it into three, removing two vertical planks from the middle of each side and glued the ends together. They fitted back together nicely and a some liquid g/s helped fix the banding. Job done...

Furnished something else...

So I’ve been busy doing stuff... including starting a new job which has jollied me along a bit. I’ve had these for an age, tables for the Manor House/Inn and other buildings. They are from Ainsty Castings, but I have altered these though, making each table narrower by removing some planks - I did this for space when in a building and also think it fits better with the slighter historical minis I’m using over dungeon crawl type minis. I also removed some more fantasy elements from the full tables and added a couple of tankards in places. The tankards are white metal and I have no idea where they came from.

As I’d trimmed the table tops, the resin legs didn’t work, so I made some legs from plasticard and plastic U beams, wood grain was carved into the plasticard end pieces and job done...

Carts before horses...

A cart and a wagon that have been kicking around for far too long... so long in fact the two wheeler from 4ground was actually a hooped covered cart, but they broke, so I did some trim in thin card to clean it up a bit. The four wheeler is from (I think) Irregular Miniatures, it’s white metal and I’d forgotten what a pain it is to paint that sort of thing. It’s not especially detailed either compared to the mdf jobs, I had to add planking to the bed of the wagon, but even still it’s oddly dull looking and I’m not that impressed with it. It’ll do...

 

Meats back on the menu boys!

A dead cow from Warlord... not much to say about this to be honest. Nice model, done with contrast paints in various layers and blended... mainly Darkoath Flesh, Apothecary White and Gulliman Flesh. Hooves in an off white.

Change, as good as a rest...

 Something a little different, and it really helped - I genuinely enjoyed painting these, first time in ages. Still not decided on basing and they need varnishing when the weather improves... so quick crappy photos...

Don’t play Legion, but bought these on clearance about three years ago and I guess it was time to shit or get off the pot... lovely models, brilliant in fact - save for the missile launcher guy who I had to paint with the arms separate so I could do the face ok and the left shoulder joint seems to sit too far out and I think there is a slight bend in the launcher as well. If I play, I doubt I’d ever field him as anything I do would probably be onscreen stuff only anyway.

Avalon Bleeding

OK, so I've not been overly productive, lockdown(s), unemployment and no money has sapped me, but I'm still interested, if not motivated. Which brings me to the old Avalon Burning range, of a fantasy ECW, but never had much in it. Well the range has a grown a bit and been renamed Avalon Bleeding. More cannibal cavaliers and fairies is no bad thing... http://www.eurekamin.com.au/news.php?newsid=EyEEykllykWMuufkfT