Trish Scarborough 'The Spy' for Sarah's Balloon

Well, after a short hiatus I'm back to featuring the femme fatales from 'Mansions of Madness'. Sorry folks, but this game is chock full of great pulpy gals so you're just going to have to grin and bear it. 

Okay, so today we have Trish Scarborough, 'The Spy'.

At first glance, Trish Scarborough is simply a middling employee for a nondescript company. Nonetheless, in reality she is a spy for the shadowy organisation, 'The Black Chamber', travelling the world, thwarting occult plots and generally being a heroic badass.

In the game, Trish is a great all-rounder. She has a solid stat line (as long as she keeps away from magic), but her real strong suit is investigating for clues and getting into and out of scrapes.

I had a bit of gaff when working on Trish. I first painted her from memory (ALWAYS a bad idea for me), thinking that her trenchcoat was a classic camel colour. Well, I pulled out the character card to do the pictures and discovered that, no, she actually wears a dark indigo coloured trench. 

F*ck. 

So, it was back to the desk for a quick costume adjustment. Now she is sartorially conforming to MoM canon. A huge sigh of relief from all you viewers, I'm sure.

It's a nicely posed mini, and I kept it fairly simple for the paintjob - dark indigo raincoat (ahem), black turtleneck and brown slacks. The only embellishment I gave her is a nice pearl-handled revolver (really, it compliments her hair).

Trish will serve as my fare for my next journey: to Burch's Bluff!

al-Docherty and al-Millsy's Flying(!) Camel Artillery - for 'Docherty's Dock' and Entry #9 for AHPCX

Mu'tamid al-Millsy steps back and grimaces in expectation of the coming catastrophe.' I don't know brother, this seems to be a very bad idea...'

'I think it's brilliant.' Dawood al-Docherty reaches forward with his lit linstock. 'If the thrice-damned French can have flying horse artillery then why can't we have the same, but with camels?!'

'Yes, I understand, but I'm just concerned about the 'flying' part...'

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These figures were from a Westfalia Miniatures Kickstarter for Napoleonic Persians, way back when they were still doing Napoleonics (sniffs in pained remembrance). Wonderful Paul Hicks sculpts. They were an absolute pleasure to work on and I hope they get a smile from Dave and Millsy. Thanks Dave for the location challenge, it was great fun!

Inquisitorial Kill Team - Entry #8 to AHPCX

I thought I'd mix things up a bit for my next trip on Sarah's Balloon by submitting something which is, gasp, not related to 'Mansions of Madness'. 

This time out (up?) we have a 40K Inquisitorial kill team composed of a very self assured inquisitor and her retinue of rock-hard Battle Sisters.

For the past couple of years I've been running a winter 'Dark Heresy' role playing campaign for a few of the guys and, surprisingly enough, Sarah. 

This is Inquisitor Ingrid von Bek of the Ordo Hereticus. She's a badass witch-hunter who will have a prominent role in our upcoming DH campaign. I'll give no more away, but with Sarah's character being an unsanctioned psyker things could get quite interesting. ;)

This model shows her strutting her stuff in a fancy-schmancy suit of power armour, wielding a very rare Inferno Pistol (yes, the name says it all) and sporting really fabulous hair. 

I like the gothic details on these figures like the halo and whacky smokestacks on their power packs.

The other four in von Bek's retinue are Sisters of Battle. Two are armed with Storm Bolters, one with a Heavy Bolter and the last one is a young lass with the gift of the gab, a Dialogus, an adept who is particularly persuasive with encouraging allies and haranguing enemies. I see her as Ingrid's herald, press secretary and factotum.

The Dialogus is an an older, now OOP, GW metal (love eBay), but the rest are from Wargames Exclusive, one of my favourite not-40K figure manufacturers. They are tremendously detailed castings with boatloads of character. The only downside (for me) is that they are cast in resin which makes them feel overly fragile, though to their credit they've taken several tumbles without any damage.  Anyway, to give them a little added heft I've based them using metal washers.

I hope to have another group of Sisters ready later this challenge, but we'll see how the next couple of months unfold. I'm in the midst of several big entries (well, big for me) which are absorbing a lot of my hobby time. Fingers crossed that I can get everything I want done.

Next up: 'Docherty's Dock'!

French Aide-de-Camp having a Peek - For 'Piper's Peak'

Hi Everybody!

Today I disembark from Sarah's Balloon onto Piper's Peak. I'm really enjoying using the balloon service as it allows me to work on my usual scatter-shot of projects ('focus is for the weak') and just zip to the location of whatever one I'm closest to finishing. This being said, at this rate I'm going to have enough SarahMiles to journey back to the mainland when this is all over!

Anyway, it's a very nice view from here. Much less congested than some other locations on the island. I hear Sander's Sand Dunes is a bit of a nightmare, what with all the t-shirt stands, red light district and the dodgy 'Island Tour' excursions. ;)

Okay, on to business. Piper's Peak asks us to submit and entry that is:

i) associated with mountains; or 

ii) taking a look (a peek); or 

iii) displaying anger ('a fit of pique')

I decided to go with the second option with a small vignette depicting a group of Napoleonic French aides observing (taking a 'peek' at) their distant opponents. 

I had done a similar one to this several years ago which I gave away as a gift, but as luck would have it the Perry's double shipped my original order so here I am with a redux version.

While cleanup seems to be a perennial issue with Perry metals I'm still a big fan of these figures. Like so many of their offerings they have such evocative, natural poses that really lend themselves to telling stories. I especially like the fellow with his spyglass braced over his saddle, taking a good long look at the enemy lines. You may not see it in the photos, but he has his boots crossed at the ankles conveying a nice, relaxed pose. Terrific stuff. 

A few people have asked about the bases. Greg and I base our Napoleonic collections on metal sheeting. The corners can be wicked sharp, but it gives a nice, thin profile on the tabletop and allows us to use magnetic sheathed carriers for transport.

This vignette will join the other two sets that I had done up a while back.

A group shot of all the REMFs to-date.

I like using these to help add more colour to the tabletop. I like to place them at the trail of artillery batteries to try convey the formation's greater depth (Yes, I should have limbers to do this, but that way madness lies). Now I just need to do a few more of these for the Brits and Austrians...

Next up is, you guessed it, another balloon trip! Weee!!

-Curt

Kate Winthrop 'The Scientist' from 'Mansions of Madness' - Entry #6 to AHPCX

Continuing on my riff of heroines from 'Mansions of Madness' I present to you Kate Winthrop, 'The Scientist'.

In the game's background, Kate witnessed one of her fellow scientists being ripped apart by a strange being from anther dimension. From that horrific experience she was determined to create a device to combat these terrible creatures - thus the 'Flux Stabilizer' was born. In game terms, this allows her to disrupt the placement and movement of monsters on the board, which can come in very, very handy.

This being said, Kate's a bit of a hot-n-cold character. In monster-heavy scenarios her Flux Stabilizer can be an absolute game winner, but if the setting is more investigative then her special ability will not be as on-point and she may struggle a bit.  

A somewhat rough and quick paintjob, I found the figure for Kate to be a little soft in detail, so I tried to amp it up by layering in some high contrast on her lab coat and giving her a touch of vibrant blue as a counterpoint. 

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Next destination for me: Piper's Peak!