Lily Hill - Pulp Adventuress

This is Lily Hill. She is a wilful dilettante, an adventuress, a raider of tombs, and a breaker of hearts.

Lily is a daughter of an oil magnate who desperately wanted a son to take over the family business. Wanting to be accepted by her father, Lily became a tomboy as a young girl, learning to shoot, ride, drive, fly and use very, very uncouth language. Nonetheless, she has grown into a beautiful young woman and has discovered she can use her feminine wiles as yet another tool in her ever growing set of of skills.

Lily has developed a deep fascination of ancient cultures, and so has undertaken several expeditions into uncharted jungles and mapless deserts, looking for artefacts and treasures of lost civilizations. 

These adventures often get Lily into tight scrapes, but she is more than up to the task of getting out of them (or making them even worse).

'Nazis... I hate these guys.'

Before I take on the 'Hall of Traps' I'm going to take a detour and make an addition to one of my many standing projects. Hopefully more on that soon.

-Curt

Four Cops and P.I. 'Ginger' Brede From Arkham City

A few years ago Sarah and I took in the Partizan show up in Newark. We met up with several Challengers including SidneyR, DaveD, MartinC and Tamsin. During our visit, Tamsin kindly gifted me a pack of Copplestone 'Beat Cops' for my pulp adventure collection. 

I've had these primed and sitting in my paint queue for several years. Yes, I hang my head with the shame of it. Before Covid we had a game where I really wanted some police figures and so I swore I'd get them done-up this Challenge.

Accordingly, here are several boys from Detachment B, Arkham City Police. I love Copplestone's models - just enough detail for character, but nothing overblown - they almost paint themselves.

I thought these cops needed an associate, so I painted up a private dick from Artizan Miniatures. I've named him Atticus Brede. The locals call him 'Ginger' due to his red hair. Ginger Brede was formally a sergeant in the Arkham City Police, but had a nervous breakdown after a midnight call to Miskatonic University saw him the only survivor from his detachment. Due of his insane rantings from that night he was 'offered' early retirement. Nonetheless, Ginger has chosen to honour his fallen comrades and continues to investigate the strange goings happening within his beloved city as a private investigator.

I like how slovenly Ginger is, with his untucked, partially buttoned shirt, and wearing too-large trousers, cinched up by a belt. Lots of character.

Thank you so much Tamsin, they were great fun to work on!

Curt

Deep One Rising

I've decided to be crafty and enter the Chambers of Challenge via the Aquifer.

I could think of no better way to infiltrate this cold, watery portal than by using a creature accustomed to its inky depths, a beast not easily unsettled by unknown horrors, in fact a creature that is probably more frightening than most things it will encounter.

Behold!! Something rises from the deep! The water breaks and we see the Herald of Father Dagon, the Protector of Mother Hydra, the Great Deep One of Y'ha-nthlei !

This is a fun resin piece from the Strange Aeons range over at Uncle Mike's Miniatures. It's the companion to the full sized model which I did a few Challenges ago. These are such great figures with loads of character.

Just for a sense of scale, here's a shot of them with their Innsmouth relations. Yeah, not really a bunch of lookers, but they are very loyal, just not fond of strangers. 

Thanks for dropping in folks!

A Classic Pig-Faced Orc

This is my first entry to this year's Painting Challenge. As a nod to our dungeon theme, here is an 'Orc with Guisarme' (Orc1) from the venerable 1979 Minifig range, I believe sculpted by David Hutchins.

Yes, he's a real old school classic. This figure was originally from a group of twelve that I had ordered with our first set of D&D books and dice, directly from TSR out of Lake Geneva. 

When I finally received the figures I was so impatient to have them painted that I used my dad's nasty automotive paints (no primer!) and 'brushed' it on using some of my mom's sewing needles. Yes, very primitive, but you can't fault the pure enthusiasm of youth.

Here is the last remaining orc of that cohort. As you can see, almost all the paint has flaked off over the years. It took several hours of rummaging through containers of random bits to find the original hexagonal shield. I did snoopy's dance of joy when I found it.

A certain charm. The archivist in me was torn whether to paint this guy or just leave him be.  

As historical background, the original concept of pig-faced orcs is usually attributed to Dave Sutherland, who was one of the main illustrators for TSR in the mid to late 70s. His work on the cover of 'Swords & Spells' (1976) is probably the first imagining of the face de cochon orc.

That same year The Brothers Hildebrandt also produced a painting of the capture of Merry and Pippin by orcs. Who influenced who, I'm not sure, but the idea took hold for those formative years.

TSR continued the porcine depiction of orcs in their 1977  Basic Set and the 1st Edition of the AD&D Monster Manual (I can't look at this book without getting misty, recalling a younger me pondering the weighty questions of which monster had the nastiest stats, the best art, the most treasure, etc.)

Orcs in the AD&D Monster Manual

...and from the D&D Basic Set

While the style of orcs have changed over time, certainly with the dominance of Games Workshop and Peter Jackson's movies, good ole pig-faced Orcs are still 'canon' for nostalgic old school D&D geeks like me. I love 'em. Oink.

I decided to repaint this guy in a fairly natty armoured hauberk, with bronze for his helmet, shield edge and boot banding. 

In a nod to Games Workshop I went with classic orky green for this skin tone, though now I wish I had gone with a dark flesh instead. Maybe I'll try that with the next ones I do. 

Fans of these types of orcs will be happy to find that Otherworld Miniatures has an entire range of re-imagined snouted Orcs available. I hope to have a few of these done later this winter.

Curt

The Eleventh Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Begins in One Month!

Let's get old school.

Hey, it's November 20th.  Here in the Canadian prairies that means that the snow is in the air, the frost is on the trees and this hobbyist is ready to take solace in the warm indoors, his hobby desk and some good company. 

Welcome to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

For our 11th edition of the Challenge we'll be adventuring through the dark vaults and dim passageways of... 'The Chambers of Challenge'. <cue ominous organ music>

For more information, head over to the Challenge Blog.

Curt Actual Out.