A LOTR Cave Troll and a Mordor Armoured Troll

I recently finished the last book of 'The Lord of the Rings' and so am quite jazzed with all things Middle-Earth. So, for the Gallery of Ancestors I did up a venerable Cave Troll and his beefier, younger cousin from Mordor.

This fella GW produced upon the release of 'The Fellowship of the Ring' back in 2001. Yep, twenty years ago folks, can you freakin' believe it?! 

This guy's old, grumpy and all metal. Bless 'im. 

He's a repaint from a 'move failure' I had when we relocated across country. He originally has just the hammer and chain, but I've given him a nasty long hafted glaive to make him extra fearsome. While I wax nostalgic about him, he was a bit of a b@astard to put together, with more than a few pins and some green stuff required to make him presentable. Still, I quite like him.

Next is his even larger cousin, an armoured Mordor troll from the 'Battle of Pelennor Fields' boxed set. He comes as a fairly simple plastic kit. While I'm usually not a big fan of plastic models, seemingly always shaving down seam lines or filling gaps, I have to say that this guy is quite well engineered, with lots of nifty build options.

Everyone seems to do up this brute with the huge war hammer, so, ever the contrarian, I went with the big honkin' spear instead. I kinda like this pose. I think he has a bit of a Greek hoplite look to him (if a hoplite were to weigh 800 pounds, have three fingers, and carry a Buick's worth of sheet metal on him). 

'This. Is. Mordor!!'

Sure, this guy's cool and all, but I don't think he's as interesting as the older, metal version. The venerable cave troll has more surface texture, and his 'I'm going to clobber ya' pose seems far more dynamic to me. That being said, the two of them provide a neat contrast in design and production over the past two decades. 

Next: Hmm, I think I need a teleport to The Tomb. Time to rustle up another female figure for the Sorceress.

- Curt

The Yellowjacket vs The FemmeBots of Venus

'The Yellowjacket' (known affectionately by his friends as 'The Flying Codpiece') feathers his jetpack and quietly lands on the strange mountain. He descends into its depths, following an ancient map which promises to lead him to the Altar of the SnowLord.

He makes good progress, but as The Yellowjacket begins to softly pad trough a darkened chamber, he steps on a flagstone which shifts tellingly under his foot. He rolls his eyes and draws his pistol, 'Damn. I knew this was too easy.' He hears the faint click and whir of activating mechanisms, as seven lithe figures emerge from niches in the wall.  Their alabaster skin seems alight with an unknown energy within. They all draw pistols and their purple-haired leader says in a soft metallic voice, 'Who passes the Threshold? Name and password, please.'

Yellowjacket adjusts his codpiece nervously as he faces the FemmeBots of Venus...

The Yellowjacket is a figure from TinMan Miniatures. A great casting in a classic comicbook pose.

My FemmeBots of Venus were from Statuesque Miniatures. I say 'were' as they don't appear to be available anymore, which is a pity as they are really lovely castings. 

As simple as they seem, the alabaster white on these gals was complete swine to paint (and no, I don't want to talk about it...).

Next Up: The Gallery of Ancestors!

- Curt

Amelia of Mars

 

This is Amelia, the famous female aviator of the 1920s and 30's. On July 2nd, 1937 she mysteriously disappeared in the south pacific attempting a round-the-world flight in her twin engine Electra. She, her navigator Noonan, or her aircraft were never discovered. Conventional wisdom says she flew off course, ran out of fuel and crashed into the ocean, never to be seen again.

Of course this is not what truly happened. Earhart, nearing the end of her fuel reserves, flew into a strange lightning storm over Howland Island.  Attempting an emergency landing, the Electra was hit by a nexus of eldritch arc lightning. The aircraft, along with Earhart and her navigator Noonan, disappeared into thin air. 

They may have disappeared on Earth, but they reappeared somewhere else. Yes, somewhere else entirely. 

Indeed, the Electra, and its passengers reappeared on Mars, or more correctly, Barsoom.

What adventures await Amelia on Mars? Will she survive the denizens of the Red Planet? Will she find her way home? If she meets the mysterious John Carter, will she want to?

Amelia encountering some of the denizens of Barsoom.

I believe this figure is from Eureka Miniatures' 'Maximillian 1934' range. Oddly a little hunched in her pose, but still a great mini, and a joy to paint. 

Hmm, pulling out the John Carter stuff really makes me want to add some more figures for for that setting...

Next: Some more Pulp Adventure!

- Curt

Work Servitors from the Grim Dark Future

For 'The Golem's Haunt' I have six tireless (or is it forever tired?) work servitors for my 40K/Dark Heresy collection. 

MikeF scooped me on this theme (good one Mike!), but I thought I'd stick with it as I needed to complete these models as they've been balefully looking at me for the better part of a year.

These rather dolorous chaps are from Wargames Exclusive, an eastern European miniature company, whose products I've always really enjoyed. All their figures are made from resin, quite delicate and beautifully designed.

For those not savvy to GW lore, servitors are essentially cyborg slaves who's biological bits have been harvested from criminals, dissidents, and those poor souls thought to be undesirable. 

The reason for creating servitors rather than just building robots is that, in the distant past, the Imperium suffered a long, nasty war caused by rebellious machines with artificial intelligence (or 'Abominable Intelligence'). So now, they manufacture 'thinking' machines using repurposed cerebral cortexes and other bits grafted to machine parts. Yep, pretty horrific. In the grimdark future, mankind has become a big supporter of 'social recycling'.

I really like that these figures are not combat orientated, but rather designed to dress a domestic scene on some Imperial ship, or perhaps a compliant world. I especially like the fellow furiously polishing, perhaps the shoe of some dignitary, or maybe drying off a worthy's favourite pet; and the other servitor, pale in 'hand', cleaning a window, admiring his reflection: deus ex Machina indeed. 

Next Up: Hmm. Not sure. Either a teleport, or a peek into the Chamber of Darkness...

- Curt

GRR Martin and a Patiently Waiting Fan

I was thinking hard on what to do for 'The Pit of the Pendulum' theme. This one Adam had developed, and I was stumped at first, but then the 'torture' aspect resonated with me and I had an idea. 

I remembered I had a series of models from Dark Sword Miniatures depicting characters from George RR Martin's 'Game of Thrones' books. My enthusiasm for the figures had soured over the years, matching my growing irritation in waiting for him to finish the series until I finally ignored both.  That is when the idea struck: The torture of a fan waiting for him to finish his work. Perfect.

I used to be a big fan of Martin's series until he transitioned from a writer to essentially a celebrity grifter. I don't want to get into the long story of GRR Martin's inability to deliver the goods, but I'll provide a brief synopsis to explain my entry.

I, along with many other readers, waited for years after Martin's third book ('Storm of Swords') for him to complete the series. Updates on his progress turned into excuses, excuses to obfuscation, and obfuscation to, well, pure fiction, I guess. 

To put this in perspective, his first book was published in 1996, with the following two being published over four years. Pretty good pace, right? But then it took him 11 years to write the next two books (really, it's 1 and a half books). It's now been another 10 years and his suckers for punishment fans are still waiting for the next book in the series. Yep, 25 years for 5 books. Martin says there will be at least two more to complete the series. Riiiight. Suuure there will. I hope his afterlife provides for a typewriter...

As a counterpoint, JRR Tolkien completed 'The Lord of the Rings' over a 13 year span (1937 to 1949) while also working full-time as a university lecturer (and throw in a world war for good measure). Proper work ethic there.

Anyway, as everyone knows, HBO bought the rights to Martin's work and just plowed along to complete the series. They ended up filling-in the yawning gaps (over 3 seasons) which Martin had yet to complete, knowing full well that they couldn't count on him to give them the goods. After this, he has the temerity to say that the HBO ending was not 'faithful' to his vision. Wow, and what vision would that be precisely?! Gee, let's see. Oh, a blank page! So you have no vision Mr. Martin - how shocking... What an egotistical, tone-deaf git. 

So every time I hear about GRR Martin's pathetic excuses for his delays in completing 'Game of Thrones' I just roll my eyes and wonder what new torture he's putting his fans through.

Dark Sword Miniatures did a special vanity vignette depicting Martin as (get this) a Maester writing on some scrolls. *eyeroll*

The irony was just too great, so this is why I've left the sheets of parchment on the table completely blank. It seems fitting.

Oh, and I also did up a cobblestone base with a new roller from Greenstuff World. Fun!

Modeling clay and rolling pin - it's like being in preschool...

...and these ones to still try out...

The gibbet is from Reaper and is a very nice little model (though I almost snapped my crayons getting the rope rigged through the guides and tying it off). My only real criticism is that the bars on the cage are a little too beefy, making it very difficult to see the figure inside. 

The 'fan' is a little ropey, but I like the overall pose. I popped the whole thing on a 60mm base and added some groundwork to blend it in (there's even three skulls tucked away in there Barks!).

Next up: Something for 'The Golem's Haunt'

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

Saruman And His Fighting Uruk-Hai

For the past year I've been slowly re-reading (and in the case of some of the more esoteric titles, reading for the first time) the entire Tolkien oeuvre. I think I'm at six or seven books now, and am just finishing 'The Two Towers'. Gosh, they're just so darn good - it's kind of humbling to reacquaint oneself with the fountainhead of epic fantasy literature.

Reading Tolkien is a complete nostalgia trip for me as I have very fond memories of reading the trilogy while on a month-long family camping trip in the Prairies. I keenly remember burning out several flashlight batteries reading late into the night. So good. Anyway, here we have Saruman and four of his Uruk-Hai orcs (the nasty ones, you know, the ones with serious anger management issues). Such great models due to the fact that they are the old, rare metal ones which I adore. The colour scheme for the Uruks are from my good friend Nick who gifted a few of these to me a couple years ago.

Next Up: A Sci-Fi take on a Golem.

- Curt

Czech Paratroopers from 'Operation Anthropoid'

Here are figures representing the Czech paratroops, members of 'Operation Anthropoid', who were trapped and killed in the Church of Saint Cyril and Methodius in Prague on June 18, 1942.

My grandfather was raised just outside Prague and emigrated to Canada when he was a boy. In around 1940 he received a draft notice from the German-controlled Czech government  calling him 'home' to serve in the army. Being a new Canadian he pointedly ignored it. When I was a teen he told me of the Czech patriots that killed Heydrich along with its heavy cost. Being young, I really didn't know much of what he talked about, but I knew it made him very sad and yet proud. It wasn't until I watched the excellent movie 'Anthropoid' a few years ago that I understood what this event may have meant to him.

Poster from the 2016 film

As a bit of background, 'Operation Anthropoid' was a Special Operations Executive (SOE) mission whose objective was to assassinate SS Obergruppenfurer Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in the spring of 1942.  

Heydrich was the head of the SS security service and was the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. In addition to being soullessly ruthless (he was the chief architect of 'The Final Solution'), he was also regarded as a brilliant administrator and a savvy politician. His influence and position within the Nazi party made him an obvious target for the SOE, who wanted to make the point that any Nazi leader, no matter how powerful, could be found, targeted and killed.

In light of the despondency and acquiescence of many Czechoslovakians to the 1938 German occupation, the Czech government-in-exile was eager to show its commitment to the overthrow of Nazi Germany. They wanted to be seen as active participants in the war, and were enthusiastic to be involved in a bold strike to salve their national pride and bolster their credentials in any postwar reconstruction.

As such, a team of SOE-trained Czech paratroopers were dropped into Czechoslovakia, and after several setbacks and false starts, succeeded in fatally wounding Heydrich while he was being driven to work in his open-topped staff car.

Heydrich's staff car after the attack. Note the bomb damage on the rear running board.

The Czech commandos were given sanctuary in the Church of Saint Cyril and Methodius. Nonetheless, their hiding place was ultimately discovered by the SS through torture and treachery. 

Approximately 750 SS troops laid siege to the church. They tried numerous times to simply force an entry, but were bloodily repulsed. After several hours of fighting they managed to force the surviving paratroopers down into the lower crypt. The SS then used tear gas and then began to flood it from firetrucks brought to the scene. Recognising that their situation was hopeless, the last remaining paratroopers committed suicide rather than being captured.

Memorial plaque at the Church commemorating the Czech and Slovak paratroopers killed in the siege and the church's clergy who were subsequently murdered by the Nazis. 

As expected, the reprisals for the assassination were swift, brutal and without any sense of proportion. The Nazis arrested thousands, and the villages of Lidice and Lezaky were effectively wiped from the map. It is estimated that approximately 5000 civilians were murdered by the SS, with many being interred and later executed in concentration camps. The clergy from the church where the paratroopers were hidden were summarily executed. 

The believed necessity of Heydrich's assassination weighed against the resulting reprisals is something which is still debated today - it certainly isn't an easy question to rationalise or square with. Yes, 'The Butcher of Prague' and the architect of the Final Solution had been brought to justice. It did cause the Nazis to increase security in their rear areas, which meant less troops serving at the front, and it did steel the Czech's will against their occupiers, but the cost of these gains was so very high that it brings into question the decision to mount the operation in the first place.

__________________________________

The majority of the figures I used for the paratroopers are 28mm partisans from Artizan Design and Wargames Foundry. Nice, simple and characterful. 

I used fairly large bases with sloped sides so I had space to paint in the names of the seven paratroopers. My script is a little off here and there, but it serves alright.

Sorry for the rambling history lesson, but thank you for dropping in!

-Curt