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

17th Century Heroes for 'Devilry Afoot'

Hi All!

As some may know know (or I'm sure can commiserate) I'm a little, um, 'diverse' in my hobby interests. Italian Wars to Forbidden Psalm, Napoleonics to Turnip28, WWII to Burrows & Badgers, I like to cast my net wide and far. The same goes for rules and ideas for games: my mind (and library) are bursting with them, often to the detriment of forgetting other, perhaps more important things.

So in this vein, one new set of rules that has piqued my interest lately is Nic Wright's 'Devilry Afoot'.

This is a very nice, compact set of gothic horror skirmish rules set in the much-troubled 17th century. Similar to 'Hametsu', I really like that it's cooperative and requires a very modest figure count. Each player typically has one Hero and perhaps one or two followers. In 'Devilry Afoot', players are set against classic horrors of the period such as witches, werewolves, vampires, etc. I've not rolled it out to our gaming group yet as I wanted to have a few heroes 'oven ready' for the guys to choose from - and so here we are.

The rule book itself is a wonderful 128 page hardback which contains the rules,  character/beastie profiles and about a dozen scenarios for players to have fun with. I believe these are self-published but I found my copy on Amazon (boo!) and a PDF version is available through DriveThruRPG. Highly recommended.

Here are the first five heroes (all 28mm) I've painted-up for 'Devilry Afoot'. Four of the five models are from Bloody Miniatures. Several worthy Challengers have already featured these figures in their excellent posts, and so here are my efforts.

A cavalry trooper cheering his mates on.

A calm squire, smoking his pipe and waiting with his blunderbuss.

I really enjoyed working on these figures as they have great character and just enough detail not to get you into trouble. I also appreciate that they are cast in metal which appeals to my small, lizard brain on these heady matters.

A soldier from the Continent prepared with his long arm.

A lightly wounded gentleman with his dragoon pistol at the ready.

One of the five figures originates from my Dutch friend, Sander. Sarah and I met up with Sander and Arthur in Antwerp a year or so ago, and during lunch he gifted me this wonderful figure of a rat catcher that he thought I could make good use of. 

It was a very apropos gift, as rat catchers spark some nostalgia for me. I had just turned 20 when we received Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay at our game store in Winnipeg. At that time (I think around 1986), I was very used to fantasy RPGs having the typical wizards, fighters, thieves, etc., but then WFRP introduced totally new characters such as Troll Slayers, Agitators and... Rat Catchers. Mind. Blown. I absolutely loved it, and my first character was a poxed rat catcher with a peg leg, hemp bag and a spade as a weapon. It was brilliant.

Of course, like a dullard, I threw out the figure's packaging before noting the sculptor/manufacture, so if anyone knows the provenance of this mini let me know in the comments. Anyway, its a terrific model with loads of detail (rats galore, as you can imagine) and I had a terrific time painting him up. He'll be a worthy character in our games such as 'Devilry Afoot'. 

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

30K Raven Guard for Killteam

Hi All!

To switch things up a bit I've decided to follow my good friend Greg's worthy footsteps and take the plunge into 40K. Well, actually 30K to be precise. While I've enjoyed reading the Horus Heresy books, I've not done much for figures for it. That being said, the updated 'Killteam' rules now allow for cooperative play AND some enthusiasts have released a fan-based 30K expansion that looks quite good. Anyhoo, I thought I could put together a Heresy era Space Marine Killteam and perhaps run some cooperative games over Discord (similar to what I've been doing for 'Hametsu').

So with no further ado, here is the start of my 30K Killteam! I've decided to do up a group reflecting A 'Shattered Legion' force  - an ad hoc conglomerate of survivors who emerged from the 'Drop Site Massacre' on Istvaan V. Essentially, they are composed of the remnants of three legions: the Raven Guard, Iron Hands and the Salamanders. 

A Killteam is typically made up of 8-10 figures which I think is quite manageable. This first group is made up of three Raven Guard with jump packs. One is a close combat specialist with dual power blades, another has a groovy silenced bolter and the last one has a pair of arcane Dark Age of Technology pistols (which probably leak enough passive radiation to poison a good-sized city).  I envision that the completed force will mostly be Raven Guard with maybe an Iron Hand and Salamander popped-in for variety. 

Being a contrarian at heart, I looked for non-GW models. I was very happy to find a designer on Cults (RGANDALL) who concentrates pretty much exclusively on Raven Guard. As you can see, his models are absolutely stunning. The animation and detail are top-tier, with the added bonus that he includes all of this Legion specific iconography, gee-gaws and do-dads that really make them unique. The corker is that all his files are free (probably one of the reasons why GW lawyers have not given him static...yet).

I was surfing the net to get ideas for painting and found a YouTube channel that features GrimDark paint styles. I really liked this gritty approach and thought it fit nicely with this group of isolated survivors who've been conducting hit-and-run raids, and not having been resupplied for months. So, lots of chipping, muddy washes, AK Grime and Streaking Rust. 

The 'Apollo' rocket exhausts crack me up.

I had a load of fun with these, but each one took a good chunk of time to do. I think the process will speed up right after I'm finished. :)

- Curt