Monday, February 8, 2021

The Chaos of 'Bruegel-Bosch'

When I was a kid, my mom was an active member of our local library board, so we always had lots of books around the house. In addition to the military history and craft books, I always enjoyed anything dealing with art, especially books focusing on the Renaissance period.  While I liked the Italian masters well enough, I was particularly fascinated by the painters from the Low Countries. Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch were two of my favourites, as their work was often quite bizarre, bordering on the grotesque. Here are a few samples:

Bosch's 'Garden of Earthly Delights'


Bruegel's 'Seven Deadly Sins'


With all this in mind, a few years ago I created a fictional setting that I call 'Bruegel-Bosch', a canal town in a composite Renaissance-esque Germany/Low Countries environment. I'm slowly populating it with all things strange and odd. In a way, it was my response to the loss of Warhammer Fantasy's wonderful 'Old World'. 

First I started with some of the brilliant Renaissance fantasy figures offered by Lead Adventure (sculpted by the talented Ratnik). Below is a trio of examples (not for scoring):


So, when I came across Eureka' Fantasy range I knew I had to get them as they fit in perfectly as denizens of 'Bruegel-Bosch'. 


They are so terrifically odd and macabre, with many being 'thematically adjacent' to characters in Bosch and Bruegel's work.




I mean there's a bird-faced creature with a bucket on his head, his tentacles holding a huge honkin' key. WTF? I don't have a clue what it's all supposed to mean (much like Bruegel and Bosch's work), but it really creeps me out, which I find super fun.  :)


There are 12 figures in this group and I still have around 16 still to do, each one a delightful study in the strange, macabre and the grotesque.


Next Up: Something for 'Lord of the Rings'


- Curt

10 comments:

  1. This is a really cool project, and absolutely fantastic painting. The figs are beautiful, thanks for sharing them. I look forward to seeing the others, when you get to them.

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    1. Thanks very much! I hope to do up some suitably strange buildings in the future.

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  2. Those are really great, particularly the... er nose troll guy (ogre?). Looking forward to seeing more of them.

    The Mordheim mob figure would fit in really well with them, too bad they are well OOP now.

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    1. I like the Nose Guy as well. :) Yes, these would be good fits for Mordheim as well, great idea!

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  3. These are wonderfully gruesome and creative - would make a great theme for a fantasy army - Kings of War? A lot of people migrated there from the old world. Beautifully painted and the Schnoz Giant is simply super.

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    1. Thanks Pete! The Schnoz Giant is one of my faves as well. :) I've not yet tried 'Kings of War', but I've heard good things about it. I should really give it a go.

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    2. I think even if the game is not to your taste you might relish the modelling opportunities with multibasing.

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  4. These are excellent Curt, that Bosch painting is a classic and it is great to see your paintwork on the minis. I look forward to seeing more. Aren't there some "triumph of death" Landsknecht skeletons that were released not long ago as well?

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    1. Thanks Oli!

      Yes!! The Landsknecht skellies from Skull & Crown. I hope to have some of those to show as well.

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  5. I seem to have missed these over on the Challenge blog! They're superb my friend and excellent additions to your BrĂ¼gel Bosch project. But I don't know what it is exactly but those new Eureka sculpts have a somewhat 'too modern' touch to me to fit in flawlessly as denizens of Bruegel and Bosch's mad fantasies.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)