Second unit of Brutes for Turnip28

Yeah, I know. It's been a looong time, I get it. 

You haveta understand that this is what happens when nice weather arrives to a person living in an otherwise sub-arctic climate. Blogging? Who can be bothered when there's all this wonderful sun, heat and growing stuff going on. Let's just not talk about wildfires, okay?

Anyhoo, I haven't been completely sun-addled these past few months, in fact I've been uncharacteristically productive hobbywise, but I just couldn't be arsed to take photos and blog about it. Bad Curt! Baaad! 

Nonetheless, here I am to make amends and catch up the best I can.

So first up is this second unit of Brutes for my Turnip28 collection. 

I really like these 3d models from Knucklebones Miniatures (in fact he rarely does anything that I don't find interesting). They're just so characterful, a little bit kooky, and always a touch macabre. Perfect for the Turnip28 setting.

Next up is a unit of heavy cavalry for this T28 lunacy. Stay tuned!

- Curt

10mm Empire Hellblaster Volley Guns and Swordsmen

I took a short break from the blog after the hurly burly of this winter's Painting Challenge. Nevertheless I've not been a complete laggard, beavering away on a few projects in the interim. 

Here are another two units for my 10mm fantasy collection. This time we have a battery of 'Hellblaster' volley guns and a company of doughty Empire Swordsmen. 

The volley guns are 3d prints from the talented Onmioji. I've arrayed them with some added bits from other designers to give the base a little colour.

The Empire swordsmen are metal castings dug up from the lead archives. I clipped them apart and positioned them on the base to give a more pell-mell feel to the unit. I also popped in a tree cluster to serve as a handle for movement.

I think next up for this force will probably be a regiment of handgunners and maybe another unit of knights, but in the meantime, I feel the need to post the last units I've done for my Turnip28 project. 

Stay tuned and have a good one!

- Curt

Méliès' 'A Trip to the Moon'

Sarah and I were fortunate enough to visit Lyon, France this past autumn, and as a part of our wanderings, we visited the Lumiere Museum, which showcases the art, craft and process of early film making and photography. 

One of the films referenced in the museum was George Méliès' 1902 adventure, 'A Trip to the Moon' - the first sci-fi film ever created. 

I loved 'A Trip to the Moon' as a kid as it seemed so whimsical and weird. As it was inspired by Jules Verne's 'From the Earth to the Moon', Méliès' work was the start of my love of pulp science fiction which moved on to 'War of the Worlds' and 'John Carter of Mars' and of course, 'Star Wars'. 

Anyway, on Cults3D I found this wonderful 3d design by Printorama3d of the iconic image of the Moon's face with the space bullet in its eye. I thought it would be a great excuse for me to drag out my monochrome paints to try to give it a greyscale treatment.

As with my old 'Great War in Greyscale' project, I tried to incorporate both warm and cool grey tones to differentiate the face, the surrounding moon, and the crashed spacecraft. Thankfully, I keep an old Moleskin notebook that has all my paint recipes in it, so I could reacquaint myself with how I did these things in the past. I'd be totally lost without it. 

Even though it's a small and simple piece, I found it comforting to return to this style of painting after all these years. 

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

10mm Empire Flagellants

The ranks of the Empire's armies are not only composed of troops from the loyal and sometimes vainglorious Elector Counts, but are also made up of the desperate, the destitute and the fanatical. These poor souls gather in riotous mobs led by fervent warrior priests, worshiping bloodthirsty vengeful gods, and as a whole are simply referred to as Flagellants. Once gathered on the battlefield, they work themselves up into a murderous, doom-ridden rage, ever-eager to get to grips with the enemy.  In game terms, they are a 'tar-baby' unit, not very dangerous when measured man-to-man, BUT as a mob they are excellent in tying-up high-value enemy units being as they won't break, and typically will fight to the bitter end. 

As I wanted a big mob of Flagellants on a double-sized base (signifying 'Deep' units in TtS), I had to break from my use of venerable GW metals as I didn't have enough on hand.  Instead these figures are all 3D prints from the talented MiniRat. 

I really like the variation and character of these figures. From the guys advancing in stocks, to those brandishing torches and flails the diverse poses really reinforce the ad-hoc, crazed mob feel of this unit.

As I didn't want to get bogged down in painting figures for which 90% would not really be seen, I used a few tricks I've learned over the years to quickly bash them out. One is using an airbrush to establish the main tones, both along the upper and lower part of the strips of figures. 

As the lower part of their torsos are hardly visible due to being tightly packed together, I used a mid-tone brown and a contrast wash from the waist down, while keeping their upper torsos relatively bright and flesh toned. This way I could use a variety of inks and washes to get a quick mob effect. 

So essentially the front of the front rank and the backs of the rear rank gets detailed brushwork. The remainder of the figures have basic blocked-in colours on their upper features alone, while their lower parts are painted as in shadow. 

I'm relatively pleased with the results, and the unit provides me a proof of concept as I want to do my upcoming Goblin army using a similar approach, being that they are almost exclusively organized on these large bases. 

Here is a pic of the force as it stands as we wrap up. Again, I'm happy with what I managed to get done through the catalyst of the Challenge. I'm thinking I just need about 4-5 more units and I'll have a decent-sized playable force.

Thanks for stopping in for a look and have a great rest of your day.

- Curt

10mm Empire Crossbowmen

I'll continue on with my gratuitous Empire schtick with a unit of plucky crossbowmen.

The original GW models for these units were designed around 2-man strips, which look great on the small Warmaster bases, but I wanted to take advantage of the larger real estate of the 'To the Strongest' style bases I'm using. These allow me to array them in a more natural looking (at least to my eye) ragged skirmish line.

Again, I found the base with just the figures on it to be a little wanting, so I quickly printed off a ruined cottage and a small field to give it some oomph. (I'm sure there are some turnips in there somewhere.)

A pic of the force as it stands now. 

Next up will be a horde unit.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt