More characters for 'Devilry Afoot' - Johann, Felix and a Leprechaun

Hola!

Some may have noticed that I've been a little quiet, and somewhat tardy with updates as of late. Well, Lady Sarah and I and are enjoying a much anticipated vacation to Costa Rica. 

So while my Canadian countrymen, especially those in the Prairies, are enduring the last body-blows that winter has to offer, we, in turn, have been lounging by the pool and enjoying the warm weather. I don't want to gloat, but it's been glorious.

This all being said, before we left for our vacation, I did manage to get a few figures done to help nudge my tally along. Here are a few more figures for 'Devilry Afoot'.

On our way home, we will be stopping in Toronto to visit with Greg and his lovely wife Linda. On top of food, drink and catching-up, I look forward to playing some games with Greg and being complete geeks. One game on our roster is 'Devilry Afoot'. 

Greg has made up a hero for Devilry Afoot, Johann von Saxe. A scholarly priest, a jaded survivor of the Thirty Years War, Johann now wanders the land, hunting monsters and fighting evil where he can. 

This was a 3d print from Michael Evans on MyMiniFactory. A wonderfully expressive figure - nice and chunky. I like how he's slightly stooped, road-weary, but still stolid in his resolve. 'Johann' will be staying with Greg as a thank you for his hospitality during our visit. 

Next is a Leprechaun to serve as a 'Pact Devil'. In 'Devilry Afoot', Pact Devils tempt heroes and NPCs to enter into 'special arrangements'. For NPCs they are simply whisked off to the land of the fae to be the playthings of fairy folk, but to players, Pact Devils will give them boons to help them in their missions. Of course, these boons always come with a price, and they are often quite steep. Fun!

I thought this grinning little trickster, raising a big mug of foamy beer, laying amongst a heap of treasure, an excellent 'pact devil' I think. 3d model by Epic-Miniatures, coin stacks by Metalik Studios.

Finally I offer 'Felix' the faithful, if somewhat incontinent, terrier.

Dogs in 'Devilry Afoot' provide a significant benefit to heroes as they can alert them to threats in the darkness (it's ALWAYS dark in DA), and be a general nuisance to monsters. 

I love the pose of this little fella, especially as, in the game, dogs need to be in base contact with their masters. I thought his pose perfectly lampoons the more posh adventurers who are facing the horrors of 17th century Europe. Fellix, what a good boy!

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

'Lab Eagle' from 'Space 1999'

Hi All!

Like many hobbyists of a certain 'vintage', I was a child of the 'Space Race' between the USA and the USSR, with the Apollo and Skylab missions occurring throughout my early childhood. Everything that was in vogue during that time was 'space age' and 'futuristic'.  It seemed that the world had this optimism that, after the lunar landings, we could do absolutely anything. Riding upon this 'space enthusiasm', in 1966 NBC launched 'Star Trek' (which surprisingly debuted 2 days earlier on CBC here in Canada), with 'UFO' coming along in 1970. 

My first experience of 'Star Trek' was when in went into re-run syndication, and like many around my age, I was completely entranced with it. Nonetheless, as good as 'Star Trek' was, there was another show launched in 1975 that, for me, eclipsed Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise, and that was 'Space: 1999'.

I've shamelessly copied Wikipedia's description of the show as it's better than anything I could do:

The premise of Space: 1999 centres on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, a scientific research centre located within the crater Plato in the Moon's northern hemisphere. Humanity had been storing its nuclear waste in vast disposal sites on the far side of the Moon, but when an unknown form of "magnetic radiation" is detected, the accumulated waste reaches critical mass and causes a massive thermonuclear explosion on 13 September 1999. The force of the blast propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the 311 personnel stationed on Alpha. The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's Solar System, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilisations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity.

'Space: 1999' had this vibe that was completely different from 'Star Trek'. One could definitely see 'Star Trek' originating from the United States, whereas 'Space: 1999' was from the UK and Europe. 'Space: 1999' seemed darker, more realistic and quite introspective. The stakes seemed higher and there was more of an edge running through it. Though it only lasted for two seasons, I thought it made its stamp on the genre and I still enjoy watching re-runs when I come across them.

I really liked the technology of the show as it seemed quite practical and utilitarian, but still stylized and kinda groovy. The Moonbase itself was wonderful, with all these pods radiating from a central core, and the costumes and gear were excellent as well (so very 70s). 

You can see how these uniforms influenced the designs for 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'

Maya was such a hottie and rather kick-ass as well.

My absolute favourite bit of 'Space: 1999' kit was the 'Eagle Transporters'. These were girder-framed spaceships and kind of insectoid-looking in design. They had this neat modularity about them, and could be configured by swapping out their central module to fit a wide assortment of missions. As the show did not have 'beam-me-down transporters' like Star Trek, the 'Eagles' were often pivotal to many of the episodes. 

I was absolutely transfixed by them. So cool.

There was this wonderful model railway shop in Saskatoon that had all the diecast Dinky Toy versions of the Eagles.

I can tell you, I spent many an hour with my nose pressed against the display cabinet glass, pining for them. I remember them being quite expensive at the time, and I knew very well what the answer would be from my parents if I asked for one, so I just made due with looking and daydreaming of what it would be like to have one. 

I've looked at these on Ebay several times but have not pulled the trigger on one... yet. I'm sure it will happen as nostalgia and disposable income often make a convergence, so it's only a matter of time. Nonetheless, for this post I thought I'd print an Eagle and try my hand at painting it up. 

This is a 'Lab Eagle' with the central module having booster rockets and little more room for, you know, lab stuff (besides what bad thing can happen in a space lab...). The model is only about 3 inches long, so about 1:600 scale.

I have to admit, it was a bit of a rush job as this week was busy, but I think it captures the fundamentals of the original design, though there is some damage to the exhaust (damn aliens). Perhaps I'll print a slightly larger version, but that will be another day.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by!

- Curt

Bohemian Pike & Shotte for the Thirty Years War

During my last visit to Greg's he showed me his Thirty Years War efforts using Warlord Games' 'Epic' range. As typical, his painting was fabulous, and they really looked the business all ranked up with an impressive hedge of pikes. I was so impressed by them that I wanted to give them a go myself as I was looking for any excuse to collect pike & shotte for this period. As Greg had already started in with the Imperialists, I suggested I give the Protestants a go, starting with the ill-fated Bohemians from the beginnings of the conflict.

I managed to find one of the all-in starter box sets on deep-discount, and so here are my first efforts with an infantry pike & shotte 'frame' from the range.

I like how shoulder-to-shoulder the troops are designed for each strip. I find this makes the painting of them a little easier. That being said, I thought it odd that the front rank of the pike figures are designed with a 45 degree action pose, whereas the shotte has been designed in marching, or at-rest attitudes. 

Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, so I started pillaging the commanded shotte portion of the frames (which are posed as loading and firing) in order to make the handgunners a little more dynamic, and thereby blending better with their active, pike-armed comrades. As this process was a little fiddly, I'll probably do this just for a few units, maybe to denote veteran status.  

I primed the strips dark brown and then drybrushed them light grey and finally white to help the Contrast paints to do their thing. I then went in with a small brush to pull-out some details and add further highlights. Similar to my other small-scale projects I only paint details on the front rank, keeping the following ranks fairly minimal from the shoulders down. I figure, there's no point painting stuff that nobody sees. I like the more desaturated look to the figures, but we'll see how the process holds up when I get more done down the road. I think I'll want around 10 of these units to make a creditable force.

As to basing, I wanted something a bit more flexible to work with different rulesets.  Warlord has their own 'Pike & Shotte' rules, which are a descendant of Rick Priestly's venerable but still excellent 'Warmaster' system. Those rules have each unit made up of four bases, allowing for various formations to be reflected depending on their arrangement. 

While this is great, our group also enjoys the 'Too the Strongest' rules (the 'For King and Parliament' variant for this period) where we've been having fun making-up single bases to depict units, allowing us to make mini-dioramas to add colour. We also have found that the single-base approach also makes gameplay a little faster, being as players only have to move one thing as opposed to several bits for a unit. Horses for Courses!

Anyhoo, as the bases that come with the box are plastic, I contacted Precision Wargame Supplies to have them cut me steel bases as replacements. I did this as I like the added weight that the steel bases provide, and they also allow me to use magnets (without messing up the polarity) for the large sabot basing I had in mind for the large single bases.

This led me to contact our friendly terrain Minion Byron (also of Northern Lights Terrain) to have him cut me a few bespoke sabot bases as a proof of concept. These sabot bases are 190 x 60, with cutouts for 3mm magnets to keep the steel-shod figures in place. I also put in a cutout for a unit label. I still have a few tweaks I want to do, but I think these will serve nicely.  

One thing about the scale of these figures. They call them 'Epic', intoning that they are around 10-12mm, like their earlier efforts for other periods, but these are actually true 15mm (foot to eye). With that being the case, I think these might mix well with other 15mm ranges such as those from Steel Fist Miniatures, Peter Pig, Naismith, etc. More on that later as I try mixing a few of these ranges in.

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

Some Villains for 'Devilry Afoot'

Continuing on with my 'Devilry Afoot' dalliance, here are a few Villains and Monsters for our brave heroes to face and overcome (or get made into wet bits scattered about the moors).

First up we have the Count along with three of his brides. These are from Crooked Dice, through their MyMiniFactory store. Lovely models and a joy to paint.

One thing you gotta say about Dracula, the dude's always been solid with the ladies. Look here, three wives! Wow, right?! All at the same time and not at each other's throats... Well, yeah, anyway. Now, I figure you either have to be French, Mormon, or the Prince of the Undead to pull that one off.

The slightly yellow-greenish cast of his skin is on purpose to drive home that he's not entirely human.

Nothing says lady-killa like a purple velvet jacket and red-lined cape.

Devilry Afoot has a profile for 'Bogeymen' with a relatively open interpretation describing them. So, I decided to go with two variations, one a good ole scarecrow (from Reconquer Designs) and the other a creepy AF harlequin/jester (from Bestarium Miniatures). 

The scarecrow was fairly straightforward, but I took a little bit more time with the harlequin as I wanted a more desaturated look to him. He was great fun to work on.

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

Simon Bolivar - Liberator of Venezuela

Here is my rendition of Simon Bolivar, famous Venezuelan military officer and veteran statesman, who during the Napoleonic period led Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru and Venezuela to independence from under the rule of the Spanish Empire. 

Born as a South American Spaniard, Bolivar was educated in Europe and lived much of his early life in Spain. It was during this period of the Enlightenment that he vowed to help South America break from Spain and become fully independent. He returned to Venezuela and over the rest of his life laboured and fought to achieve this goal. In the south and central American region Bolivar is viewed with great reverence, and the memory of his deeds are being invoked and appraised as another imperial power intrudes into that part of the world. What strange times we live in.

Not surprisingly there's not much to be found for Simon Bolivar figures in the market, but I was not to be deterred! As he is depicted in portraits as being uniformed very similarly to many contemporary Napoleonic officers, I decided to see if I could find a figure that, squinting with one eye, could work. 

After a bit of looking I decided to go with this figure from Piano Wargames (thanks Martijn) as he has the broad closed lapels on his uniform coat and the distinctive swept back hair often seen in paintings of Bolivar. Really well designed miniature with lots of character and detail. I'd highly recommend Piano as another option for Napoleonic figures.

- Curt