Wednesday, 8 February 2023

Vampires of great age…

A couple of ancient vampires for Silver Bayonet.

First off, a board game piece I got off eBay, I forget the game. Obviously based on Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I didn’t notice until I was painting the face that mini was lacking a defined nose. Rather than add a greenstuff nose midpaint, I remembered my folklore and painted it as a missing nose and open nostrils, as suspected vampires would be buried face down so the nose would rot first and prevent them walking unnoticed amongst the living.



And a lovely mini from Statuesque Miniatures (sadly no longer on their website) of an alien Egyptian god with definite fangs. I forget which novel I read had the origins of vampires going back to Ancient Egypt (I think it was part of the Supping With Panthers series), but this fits perfectly. The figure has some wonderful delicately sculpted hieroglyphics on his chest, thigh, forearms and spine - and they were a bugger to make pop, I was really happy with the strange skin tone, but had real difficulty making the glyphs stand out. The spine especially just wouldn’t pop and after too many attempts, I realised I was loosing the detail. I could try and strip the whole mini or just admit a lost cause and filled what remained of the spine glyphs with liquid g/s. Annoying, but it worked better than the crappy painted glyphs I’d inflicted on it.



They are both tall miniatures, the alien god because he’s an alien god and old man Oldman because he’s a 32mm game piece. The towering alien god works as is of course, and in my head I imagine Vlad hovering slightly as he does his dark bidding.
 

 

A bandit leader

I love this Eureka Miniatures figure of the French general Marshal Ney. The cold weather gear is wonderfully bohemian, so combined with the fancy uniform (looted no doubt) he will pass muster as the leader of the band of deserters and bandits (which I need to do).



 

I’m a fickle beast…

 This may be my third choice for hobgoblins for Silver Bayonet. I was going through some 3D prints I’d ordered from Etsy and found these fellas having put them in the (no longer mostly) lead pile. The exposed skulls, extended limbs, protruding horny growths and bones so fits the fluff of corrupted humans I’m annoyed I’d forgotten about them.



They are more suited to 32mm as that is the fantasy standard nowadays and I should have asked them to printed undersized to match historicals, but the spindly otherness works for me.

 

A veteran hunter

A veteran hunter for Silver Bayonet, being the vampire hunting Major Sharpe from Black Pyramid Gamings Regent Z range.


Possessed

A Possessed for The Silver Bayonet, a Madman from the Carnevale range of miniatures. A smidge bigger than a historical Perry Miniatures figure, but with the pose and arms restrained, it’s not really noticeable unless you compare his feet, which would be Sasquatchian in proportions.



The straight jacket was invented in the mid-late 1700’s, so that confirmed my figure choice with attempts to restrain the possessed soul.