'Chaff' Light Infantry for Turnip28

Hellooo,

So, another small post from me for my T28 project. Moving on from the rank-and-file of the 'Fodder', we now consider the much-abused 'Chaff'.

As you can imagine from their name, Chaff are the light infantry of Turnip28. They're typically tasked to screen other units, nip around the battlefield to seize objectives, and generally be an annoyance. Similar to skirmishers from other systems, Chaff benefit from being able to deploy in a loose formation, making them harder to hit, and, as they sometimes clean their begrimed, rusted muskets, they are marginally less horrible shots than their comrades.

Here are two units of Chaff for my forces. One for the 'Rutabaga Brigade' 

...and the other serving 'The Fighting Fennel Fusiliers'. 

I wanted them to have a slightly different look than the Fodder, so, pulling from the artwork in the rules, I gave them each a pavise to lug around the battlefied (makes perfect sense, right?).  I had a bit of fun freehanding some unit heraldry on the shields. Granted, its pretty rustic, but I figure it fits with the overall setting of weirdness, decay and dissolution of Turnip28.

Next up for T28 will be the 'Brutes', or maybe the cavalry... or perhaps the artillery. No clue really. It'll sort itself out. 

Thanks for popping in for a look! 

- Curt

Adventurers for Mork Borg/Forbidden Psalm

Hi there!

In addition to all things root vegetable and vehicular, I've also been bitten by the Mork Borg / Forbidden Psalm bug, and so have here five hapless and homely mooks to fit that setting.

For those not in the know, Mork Borg is a Swedish designed RPG set in a comically grim, world circling-the-drain, Scandinavian death metal world (in fact, there is a mechanic in the rules to count down the game sessions to its doomsday). The small format hardcover is a real treat, whose cutting edge design and layout has allowed it to scoop up eight Ennies this past year.

The Mork Borg mechanics are VERY minimalistic (only 4 stat lines for characters, and probably less than 10 pages of core rules) and as such are a doodle to get into. Character generation only takes a few minutes (which is a good as they usually get chopped up and/or eaten in fairly short order), and if you're too lazy to put in the time, you can simply use their online character generator (aptly titled, 'ScumBirther') to do the heavy lifting for you. At its core, Mork Borg is an open system, where the GM and players are encouraged to fill in the narrative with their own creativity.

Another great aspect to the rules is that their licensing is very permissive. The creators actively encourage adaptations and spin-offs of their core system. This generous licensing approach has created several creative spinoffs already, including 'Cy-Borg' (cyberpunk), 'The Last War' (Great War horror) and 'Forbidden Psalm' (Mork Borg tactical).  

Both 'The Last War' and 'Forbidden Psalm' are not true RPGs, but rather figure-based wargame-adventure systems similar to 'Rangers of Shadow Deep' and the ever-popular 'Frostgrave'. These Mork Borg spinoffs are great rules for a light, but frenetic night of gaming (and a low figure-count of only 5 in a party/faction). I've been running an online Mork Borg RPG campaign for some out-of-town friends, and hope to get some Forbidden Psalm games in with our local group soon. With this in mind, here is a faction for FS - five misbegotten adventurers, all destined, I'm sure, to come to a quick, nasty and sticky end. 

Nick the Pick

Witnail the Flail

Gavin the Glaive

Wesley the Weaver

and, Ishmael the Pickerel 

Knucklebones Miniatures has done a terrific job in capturing the oddball, comical and weirdly grotesque nature of the Mork Borg universe. In the setting, the 'heroes' are typically homely (if not hideous), but in an interesting way, and it gets even 'better' when you come across the baddies. Hopefully I'll have more Mork Borginess over the coming months.

Have a great weekend, folks!

- Curt

Kushite Warriors and Pets

 

Our 'World Cinema' location in the Painting Challenge asks for something that is 'elsewhere from where you live'. Well, as I look at our snow covered environs I can think of nothing more 'elsewhere' than a bunch of half-naked desert dwellers, a lion, and a passel of African baboons capering around Egypt.

Lady Sarah on the pier overlooking Regina's (frozen) Wascana Lake.

Yep, here we have a group of fierce Kushite warriors, along with their even fiercer house pets. I saw these on the Footsore Miniature website and had to get a set. 

I understand that the warriors of Kush would wear animal hides and paint their bodies with vermillion and white ash - now, really, how much more fashion-forward can you get? Seriously though, I quite like the high-contrast effect of the white alongside the red. I think I may need more of these...

I don't know how the whole half-starved-lion-on-a-leash-thing worked, but I have a hunch that it probably resulted in a lot of OH&S paperwork from partially eaten handlers. 

Apparently the Kushites used baboons like guard dogs. Recalling my recent viewing of 'Planet of the Apes', I'm thinking, 'What could possibly go wrong?'  For a bit more colour, I decided to do these three up as Mandrills with their distinctive red and blue faces (though they are on the wrong side of Africa to be entirely correct, but let's not get hung up on specifics). 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of your week!

- Curt

'Sukiyaki the Inscrutable'

Here's a classic for you. 'Sukiyaki The Inscrutable', a Games Workshop chaos warrior, first released waay, waaay back in 1985, and then advertised in White Dwarf 81, September 1986.

I've done him as a Japanese demon, an Oni, or at least a flamboyant multi-chromatic one! As a bit of fun, I indulged myself with portions of his lacquered armour, using some riotous shades from Greenstuff World's 'Colourshift Paints'. After that, I thought a bone breastplate, helmet and sword would be suitably creepy, and provide a counterpoint to the rest of his flashy kit.

'Sukiyaki' is a gift to my good pal, Sidney Roundwood, who is madly working on his to-be-released samurai skirmish rules (which we've already been treated to a tantalising preview). I know Sid has a great affection for Aly Morrison's early Samurai models, so I thought he might enjoy 'Sukiyaki' capering around, causing mischief in some future game.

- Curt

Roadster for Maximillian 1934

  

Hi All!

Up next for me is an additional car for my Maximillian 1934 project. This time we have a single-seat roadster in classic British racing green. 

Similar to my previous tribekka, this model is from Eureka Miniatures. The resin was a little pitted, but it all went together without any fuss.

A quick blast of racing green with the airbrush and I was off to the races with brushing-in the highlights and other details. 

For this jalopy, I've gave it a different front end, which sports twin machine guns. I also mounted a forward firing anti-tank rifle on the right-side cowling (a handy thing to 'encourage' open-lane driving), and finally a rear-firing Maxim for the odd parting shot (burst?).  

For a bit of fun, I mocked-up a drum magazine from milliput for the Maxim simply for the looks-cool-factor.

With a bit of luck, I hope to get another two cars done, along with some motorcycles. Hopefully enough for a good-sized game.

Thanks for popping in for a look!

Two Units of Fodder for Turnip28

I'm back to my Turnip28 project, carrying on from the 'Snobs' to the next formation type: two units of rank-and-file troops, or in T28 parlance: 'The Fodder'. 

In the game, Fodder come in groups of 12 figures, and while they're pretty lousy on the whole, they do benefit from being able to put out a decent curtain of (inaccurate) fire, and can soak up a lot of punishment. Just like what you'd expect from a troop type sporting such a dubious nom de guerre.

The figures are 3d prints from Knucklebone Miniatures. These are fantastic one-piece models which I highly recommend - I printed a duplicate set in a mirror image in order to provide some variation within the units. I also added some chopped-up tufts, coming out of collars and cuffs, along with a few clusters of mushrooms for colour. 

I really like how characterful these figures are, so wonderfully miserable and downtrodden. When grouped together they give a wonderful impression of a shambling mob of dolorous mooks, sadly trudging to their inescapable doom. 

I did-up one unit with red facings as part of my 'Rutabaga Rifles', and another in yellow turnbacks for the 'Fighting Fennel Fusiliers'. I used an airbrush for laying down the base colours and then went in with a brush for some of the details.

I had a bit of fun doing up a rutabaga on one of the standards - not something I thought I'd be painting as a flag device, but when in the Turnip-World you do silly turnip things.

For their yellow opposition, instead of the usual banner, I gave them a spooky Mari Lywd as their standard. For the uninitiated (meaning me until I read up on it), the Mari Lywd was a Welsh wassailing custom, apparently to celebrate nature's growth and renewal. 

It entailed mounting a horses skull on pole, with the person holding it hidden under a sackcloth.  The Mari Lywd and its attendants would go around to local homes, singing and carousing to get free food and drinks. Yes, the Welsh are a wonderfully weird lot. Anyway, I thought it would make an interesting standard for a unit of creepy root vegetable infantry.

Byron was kind enough to make up some sabot bases for me that are similar in design to those I use for my Malta project. 

I had a bit of fun pimping them out with a dice socket (to track panic in the game), along with gratuitous blood spatters in the empty troop sockets to signify when the poor Fodder take a dirt nap. Fun!

The vegetable patch to-date.

Thanks for dropping in folks and have a terrific weekend!

- Curt

Jean de Vallette, Grand Marshal of the Order of Saint John, Defender of Malta 1565

 

Here is another small addition to my Great Siege of Malta collection. Since I have a command stand for Turgut Reis 'The Drawn Sword of Islam', I thought it only fitting to do-up his arch-adversary, Jean Parisot de Vallette, the Grand Marshal of the Order of Saint John and of the Knights of Malta.

Jean de Vallette was 70 years old at the time of the great siege, and while positively ancient in 16th century terms, there are numerous reports of him in the thick of the fighting at the walls - definitely a tough old bird. His command of the defence of the island is considered today as masterful, but also draconian and merciless. He felt he did what he needed to hold out for reinforcements. He and his Order survived the siege and was instrumental in overseeing the reconstruction of the city and its defences after the battle. The capital Valletta, is named after him.

Sarah and I had the pleasure of visiting Malta a few years ago and were delighted to visit many of the sights of the siege around Valletta. The new military museum is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone considering a visit to the island. Sarah even visited the Co-Cathedral of St. John where Vallette's crypt resides (being a lazy bugger on holiday, I slept in). 

This is a set from Warlord Games. I'm not 100% sure of the sculptor, but I'm fairly certain it's from the talented hands of Paul Hicks. A lovely trio of models and a wonderful to work on. 

For the brown horses I decided to try something new and did an oil wash of W&N 'VanDyke Brown' with a touch of 'Lamp Black'. It worked fairly well, though I did make a few rookie mistakes here and there. I'd definitely try it again, though with odourless thinner next time - my hobby room still a bit malodorous from this little experiment.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt