And double duty for Angel’s demon

 Not much more to say, in the interest of budget, going to use my Blood On Satans Claw demon for the demon in Silver Bayonet until I get a new job and find something as suitable.

Pseudo Peninsular Property

 New project means new scenery. A lot of my existing stuff will work, including the timber frame houses as necessary, but having watched far too much Sharpe lately, I wanted something a little more Iberian. First two of four all but finished…

Theoretically, these can do duty should I get into pirates or western games, but will do me for the Peninsular for now. These are the finished scratch builds, made using existing materials whenever possible, 5mm insulation foam and thick card, pantiles from Wills were the only specific purchase. The fountain is from Fenris Games, stagnate bubbles removed and  sans freaky fish sculpture - it needs something a bit in keeping… I also picked up a guillotine which seemed apt.

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...

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.

Hmmm...

Mayan bat god... and he’s a horseshoe just like Angel’s demon. The lovely meso-zombies from Antidiluvian Miniatures become more tempting...

https://antediluvianminiatures.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/shop-conquistadors-of-mictlan/

as it's May...

as it's the start of May, I figured I'd quickly get this finished... it's been a thought for a while and is a simple enough quick bit of scenery...

the Maypole itself is one of my Woodland Scenics trees which I decided to sacrifce as finding a straight and sturdy twig was not going well... the branches were removed and a bit of g/s added to give the stump look, not that you can see them well in the pic, there are also wedges at the base were the pole was stuck in the ground... the upper garland was an old Citadel plastic shield with the main shield removed leaving just the rim, wire keeps it hanging down from the top and loads of g/s was smothered over the shield rim to get a nice irregular shape... this was then covered in a mix of leaves and purple flower bits... I had tried several different ways of doing ribbons, using thin plasticard, g/s and paper but nothing looked right... the lower garland started life as a way of having some decorative ribbons against the pole... then I discovered something very strange... they didn't have ribbons - they are a Victorian invention, as are most of the dances, and even more oddly, an invention attributed to John Ruskin, the reknowned artist (and alleged paedo) that my former university and current employer is actually named after... turns out he thought it was good healthy fun and when he was training teachers, he taught them the dances and they went to schools all over the country and took it with them - so that really annoying attempt at synchronised dancing in primary school is his fault... on the plus side I didn't need to worry about bloody ribbons...

so, just an interesting piece that any good puritan witchfinder could take great objection to...

and as you may have noticed, the flowers from Salute have made a showing, I need to restrain myself...

Blood on Satan's Claw

a curious thing happened when I was watching Blood on Satan's Claw the other day... I'd always intended to do the demon to join Angel and had long identified a suitable figure in a Fishman from the Strange Aeons range... I'd always assumed I'd just be adding the hood to the figure as that is how it's seen for most of the film, but I figured I rewatch the end and really have a good look at it's face... as the finale rolled, I got sketching what I was seeing and was very bemused... this is one of my favourite films, I've seen it hundreds of times and continue to enjoy it, but had never noticed before that the demon is a horseshoe bat... now I've seen it, it's blindingly obvious, I had always assumed it was a mis-shapen face based on early demonic images... especially as they show a great example in the film and the glimpses you get throughout the film just add to that twisted face image...


but, a horseshoe bat it is... believe it or not... anyway, back to the figure... the Strange Aeons fishman was perfect, wrapped up in a tattered cloak, with a single hand visible, even if it is a hand rather than a claw, but you can't have everything... it was even the correct hand (oddly you do see one of the coven has given up their left hand to the demon, but you never see it's left hand, nor a right hand missing within the cult)... I decided to skip the hood and try for the full head, the wide head of the fishman was not a million miles away from what I wanted - I closed the mouth slightly, added the nose and ears with g/s and then added some fur to the head, neck and hand... it's not an exact match for the demon or a horseshoe bat, but I like it and it has the strange mis-shapen human nose in profile that is quite visible in a lot of the promotional material...


colours, of course, had to be black and black... and now Angel Blake has her demon...


and before anyone says it, it's not a vampire - there is no vampire folklore in England from that time as far as I'm aware and none will be appearing in my little world - but the fact that it is a horseshoe bat just adds to the feeling of darkness and corruption in bright sunlight that gives the film it's atmosphere...

Angel Blake again...

Angel Blake now with added prongs...

removed the old crown, losing the top of the hair in the process, and added a new one made from some etched brass cedar twigs from Hasslefree... replaced the missing hair with greenstuff, slight superglue accident and then was regretting my choice til it got painted... looks much better now... the heavy handling wasn't much good for the nipples though, so they got painted again and heavily glossed before the dullcote...

have noticed a few other spots of dirt now on the skin, and I've dullcoted, so need to have a worry at those... dammit...

and also been working on getting some of the Mantic ghouls upto the 17th Century...

Angel Blake...

another one for my vague Folk Horror project...

Angel Blake from Blood on Satan's Claw

one of the sub-boob shadows looks a bit heavy handed there, so that'll get touched up... but quite happy with the skin tones

not very happy with the crown of thorns (or hawthorn or whatever it is... any botanists in?), it was never going to be as fragile as in the film... (actually, is it mistletoe?)

but what looked ok when I was working on it (it's actually some 28mm scale barbwire), not so much now... has lost it's pronginess and pale grey wood I'd intended didn't really stand out very much against the pale hair and pale skin... am half considering some leaves to make it a bit more bramble-ish... not sure...

and got a bit more adventurous with my basing and added some purple heatherish touches...

UPDATE - new prongs here