Jan Zizka, as a young mercenary

For my entry to the Historical theme I have Jan Zizka, who was the military leader of the Hussites during their struggles against, well, everyone in Europe it seems. 

As a short backgrounder, the Hussites were a 15th century proto Protestant sect that adhered to the theological arguments of Jan Hus. He preached that fundamental reforms were needed within the Catholic Church to bring it back in line with the religion's underpinnings of humility and simplicity. As one can imagine, Rome had a very dim view on this kind of thing and after promising Hus safe passage to explain himself, took the opportunity to summarily burn him at the stake (as the Inquisition was wont to do). Not surprisingly, Hus' followers in Bohemia (modern day Czech Republic) took a rather dim view of this and so an armed revolt soon broke out.

Jan Zizka, previously an outlaw and mercenary, was an ardent supporter of Hus and became the military leader of the Hussites. Zizka is considered by many military historians as one of the most gifted commanders of the late medieval period. He trained and galvanized Hus' peasant followers, utilized heavily armed wagon lagers as strongpoints, and defeated not one, but three holy crusades sent to eradicate them. He also quelled civil war within Bohemia and prosecuted a war against Hungary. He never lost a battle, even when he was made completely blind in later life. It is recorded that on his deathbed he desired his body to be flayed and his skin used to furnish drums so he could continue to lead his people into battle. Yep. So. Damn. Hardcore. My grandpa was Czech and enjoyed telling me about Zizka's exploits, so I've done this entry in fond memory of him.

I found a great figure of Zizka by Northern Crusades Miniatures. He's depicted here as a young man, still with one eye in the game, being all medieval and badass. 

Here I imagine him at the titanic battle of Grunnewald in 1410 (which saw the collapse of the Teutonic Order). I've set him against a knight who is rising from his downed mount, ready to carry the fight on foot. Great minis and a real joy to paint. 

Gosh, who knows, maybe there will be more Hussites down the road. Wagons Ho!!

Thanks for dropping in for a look. I hope you have a great weekend!

- Curt

Goblin Airship for 'Moonstone'

Today I present to you a Goblin Airship. 

I know, demented, isn't it? When I first saw it on the Moonstone website I knew I had to get one for my collection. It's just so charmingly whacky.

The 'airship', a poor frog whose been bunged up to contain its 'hot air', provides some 'vertical dimensionality' for the forces of the goblin 'Dominion'. 

I used Kermit the Frog as my muse for this model. I shaved down the pupil of one eye, so it could painted with the eyelid closed. I think it helps convey the poor guy's sense of distress. For the flag, I kept the same blue and white checked livery as my existing goblins.

I scrapped the stock stand and replaced it with a magnetic ball and gimbal set-up, so it can be easily separated for transport.

If you look hard you can see that the gondola has a little goblin peering out, manning a Maxim gun, (really it's a 'pea shooter', with the hopper for the peas at the end of the barrel).  He also has a cup of tea (cappuccino?) sitting precariously next to him. You know, for when he goes on union breaks.

Love. It.

Next up: A Two-Headed Giant(!) from Moonstone.

Thanks for dropping in folks! Have a terrific day!

-Curt

Goblin Troupe for 'Moonstone'

What have I been up to lately? Well, since early spring I've become quite enamoured with the game 'Moonstone'. I posted a sampling of the human faction, 'The Commonwealth' a few weeks ago. Since then I've placed several orders for its figures, cherry-picking from the wide assortment of models offered from its catalog.

This group is from the base set representing elements of the goblin faction, 'The Dominion', which is part of the starter set.

As I mentioned previously, I really enjoy how wacky the characters are, they look as if they've walked right off the sets of 'Legend' or 'Labyrinth' - they're quite demented. 

As the figures are a bit over-the-top, I decided to paint them in a very vibrant, bright pallet, using lots of glazes, washes and wet blending.  Some of it worked, some didn't, but I've been having a blast working on them. Here is the group.

The Vicious Midget

Doug the Flatulent (love this guy!)

Grub

Beaky Bobby

In addition to the figure design, one of the things I quite like about the system is that there are no point values in the game. The figures are essentially 'equal' to each other in their bonuses and shortcomings, so you're not having to fuss around with puzzling over lists or shaving points here to bring in something your really want. I find this is quite liberating and simplifies game setup. More on the game in the next post.

Thanks for dropping in!

-Curt

A Trio of Heroes from Star Wars Imperial Assault

For a bit of pulp summer reading, I picked up 'Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View'. 

Wow, what a page turner!  I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying it. The book is comprised of 40 short stories, all centred on the original 1977 film. Sure, some of the stories are a bit hackneyed, but most are quite inspired and a few are absolute genius. All of them do a great job in making readers of <ahem> a certain vintage very nostalgic for that innocent, bright-eyed, thrilling tale which came from 'a more civilized age'.

So, with all these wonderful stories percolating in my mind, I thought it a perfect excuse to get a few more figures painted for my Imperial Assault collection.

Here are three intrepid Rebels, eager to take the good fight to the Empire.

Saska Teft is from the 'Twin Shadows' expansion. She's a tech type of character, being very handy at hacking into Imperial systems while providing support for the rest of the party.

Fenn Signis is from the core boxed set, a weapon's expert, being specially good at laying down heaps of suppressive fire and causing mayhem amongst any close-clustered Imperial targets. 

I've run out of clear acrylic bases so I just went with gloss black for this group. I actually quite like nice, clean, minimalist look so I might just run with it in the future.

Gaarkhan is also from the core set, he's a Wookie warrior (yeah, obviously) who, not surprisingly, deals out loads of pain in close combat. 

The plastic used for these figures is quite crisp on the whole, and reasonably hard, but some of the longer weapons still suffer from being somewhat al dente in their aspirations of being straight and true, so I try to replace these bits with brass rod to give them a bit of rigidity. 

I also added a bit of length to Gaarkhan's halberd as I thought it would better suit his imposing height.

I'm doing up a series of Imperial types which maybe I'll bring out in a future post.

Entry #1 to the 8th Lead Painters' League: 30mm Goblin War Party

As I mentioned last week I decided to join this year's Lead Painter's League (LPL) over at the Lead Adventure Forum. I participated in the event last year and I found it good fun and a great source of impetus to get some work done on my own projects.

This year the LPL kicked-off only three days after the end of the Challenge which put me in a bit of a flap to meet the deadline requirements.  Since the LPL rules require the first three entries to be sent together, AND all three entries have to be 'unpublished' miniatures, I had to keep some figures back from the Challenge, which was a bit of a bummer. So, fellow 'Wild Bunchers',  if you were wondering why I had 'flatlined' at the end of the Challenge this is why.

The first round of the LPL gave bonus points for aligning to its theme which was 'Realms of Fantasy'. I was wracking my mind trying to decide what to do and then discovered that Tom Meier has his own company, Thunderbolt Mountain which has a range of 30mm fantasy figures which provide a modern, arguably more sophisticated, take on the classic work he did for Ral Partha in the 80s. So I plunked down for a set of groovy looking goblins and waited for them to arrive. 

And waited. And then I sighed heavily and waited some more. 

Finally, when they did arrive, it was only a few days before the LPL deadline, right in the midst of the closing Big Push of the Challenge.  In the end I had to burn some (more) midnight oil in order to crack them off in a few frenzied hours of gluing, painting and flocking. I don't know if it was the time crunch or what, but I had a hard time getting any real traction with these guys. It's certainly no fault of the figures - they're wonderful castings, clean, crisp, with great character and requiring very little cleanup. Nevertheless, I staggered to the photo-booth in the early morning light not really feeling the love. 

That all being said I actually had fun working on them. I'm not a big fan of GW's ubiquitous bright green used for their orcs and goblins so decided to go with a darker, olive hued skin, with mottled charcoal patches on their arms, upper legs and shoulders. I also played around with the hair of the drummer, making him a blonde. I thought I'd follow a spur of the Tolkien canon, I think it's from the Silmarillion, which postulates that orcs and goblins are corrupted  versions of elves.  Along this line I'm thinking of having some sort of debauched elf warlord as the leader of this force - I'm imagining something like a Dirk Bogarde with pointy ears.

Bonzo 'Boom Boom' Thrakka with his dwarf-skin bass drum (assisted by junior goblin roadie)

Not surprisingly, I got completely curb-stomped in the first round by this excellent D&D themed group of adventurers painted by Frank. (As I lamely pointed out, with the LPL organizers matching us up they managed to cover off two great adjectives for this round. Y'know, 'Curt and Frank'. Get it? 'Curt and Frank' ...Ahem. Okay, move along...)

I particularly like the faithful pooch sitting on the far right.

While I really enjoy many elements of the League, such as its efficient (and patient) administration, painting towards ten weekly targets and the camaraderie of fellow contestants, I do find some of the rules a bit byzantine. The restriction of just one 800x800 image for each round seems cruelly limiting. Why not allow  a few more images, at a greater size, with varying angles? These are three dimensional objects after all, not flat figures. As it stands now viewers miss at least 50% of the work put into the submissions with this restriction. It also puts a tremendous amount of pressure on participants to compose one good image to convey the best of their work.  While some participants are gifted photographers (my stuff is serviceable at best), many people do not have the patience or skills to consistently create 'good copy' of their submissions, even though their paintwork may be brilliant.

The other thing that sort of piques me is the elaborate backgrounds that the organizers allow, well, actually encourage. To me this seems to fly in the face of a competition that compares figure painting. I often read the comments from visitors of how they are impressed by the use of particular backgrounds, terrain, etc. This is completely understandable, but I often wonder to what extent some of these backgrounds skew the consideration of the voters. By my understanding, this event is supposed to compare painted figures, not the settings they are placed within. Accordingly I've stuck to using my usual black backgrounds as it forces the viewer to just see the figures, for good or ill.

Anyway, these minor peccadilloes aside I really do appreciate all the hard work put into the event. Anything that can bring hobbyists together in a well-run, constructive forum over ten weeks is a great boon.

On a final note, Round 2 of the Painters' League is now up so I invite you to go check it out. 

For this round I've posted five more of my 1812 French Retreat figures that I kept back from the Challenge. Alan Perry really hit the ball out of the park with this range of figures - they're absolutely gorgeous castings. I'll have the lads posted here next Sunday when the round is finished, but you can get a 800x800 preview of them on the Round 2 League roster. :)

From AnneO'L: 30mm 'Women in Uniform' (28 points)

From Anne:

Four weeks ago I challenged myself to make a radical change in my palette, avoiding my usual bright colours in favour of blacks, greys and shades of brown. Further, I have chosen to use minimal basing that does not detract from the figure itself.

For my admission fee piece I chose to paint a figure from Peckinpah's classic film "Cross of Iron". My figure represents the female Russian soldiers in the film. Peckinpah was criticized for including a rape scene in the film and the scene was used by feminists to condemn him as a misogynist. I strongly disagree. What was portrayed was a fact of war and should not be shied away from. In my eyes these were brave women, willing to take up arms to defend their country and able to fight back when set upon by brutal, savage men.

This is a 28mm figure from Reaper Miniatures and was sculpted by Werner Klocke.

Meet Moira, the Irish fighter pilot. As a child Moira was a bit of a tomboy preferring to play rugby with the boys over playing dollies with the girls.  The thought of growing up and having loads of babies and taking care of house filled Moira with a savage anger. She longed to fight and she longed for freedom.

That freedom came when the yanks joined the fighting in WWII.  Hearing that America had equal opportunities for women, Moira boarded a steamer bound for New York.

Upon passing her physical, Moira was told she could serve, but it would be behind a desk, not behind enemy lines. Well let me tell you, Moira flew into a rage so great it scared General Patton near to death.  "Anger like this could win us the war" Patton was heard to say.  

So they did the only thing they could do. They renamed her "Bob" , gave her a plane and she spent the rest of the war as a fighter pilot, happily bombing away her anger at being born a woman. 

This is a 32mm figure from Bombshell Babes and was sculpted by Patrick Keith.

First off, thank you very much Anne for this wonderful Soviet sniper. Both of these are such fabulous miniatures. 

I've really quite enjoyed this recent series where you've been using variations of this wonderful orange-russet-brown colour, punctuated with that vibrant emerald green. Subdued yet still very punchy. Great stuff.

These two women in uniform will give Anne 28 points. Super work Anne and thanks again!

From JohnM: 20mm WWII British Engineers & Challenge Desperado (56 points)

From John:

These very nice 20 mm British engineers are from SHQ miniatures, I had understood that these 20 mm figures were smaller then most, but then fit in nicely with the rest of my 20 mm figures from PSC, AB, CPModels, TQD miniatures and Warmodelling (list gets longer and longer).

Some duplicates, but overall nice clean sculpts. Some mine sweepers, flamethrowers, dynamiters are all represented. 

I really like the guy with the dynamite. First attempt at camouflage in the helmets. I still have not decided if these are British or Canadian troops, so no shoulder flashes yet.

Each year, Curt requests that we send in a painted figure that fits with the theme of that year's challenge. He has successfully build up nice armies of skirmishers, I thought he was particularly clever last year to get us to all paint Samurai! This year it is Cowboys; well I have no cowboys, so last weekend when I was at the Hobby Bunker for my fortnightly game of Chain of Command I had a look around. And although I doubt this chappie is a Sam Peckinpah character, I thought he might be cowboy enough.

I believe this easily recognised figure from the Wild West is a Reaper Miniatures figure in their heroic 30mm range. Anyway I do not believe he will go astray in a game of Deadman's Hand.

A couple of years ago Curt was very kind and sent me something I was desperate to get my hands on, I wonder if he remembers. Anyway, a small portion of it is being sent back with this figure!

Great figures here John. I have quite a few SHQ myself and while sometimes fragile they have very good character and detail. Like you John, I quite like the engineer with the dynamite and the detonation cord. Great sculpt.

Also thanks very much for the Challenge Desperado. Great figure! I quite like his green hat, red whiskers and yellow buff leggings. And I must say that his Tentacle Pink scarf is to die for. ;)

These engineers and the dashing rifleman will give John 56 points. Well done and thanks again John!

From Curt: 30mm Samurai with 'Meganata' (5 points)

I have a couple larger projects on the go but I thought I'd keep in the mix by popping in with a single figure now and again. I found this model deep in my 'Miscellaneous' bin and thought I'd prime it up and put on a lick of paint. 

This is a model from the Clan War miniature range. I'm not sure if these figures are still around but I remember that they had some really nice castings, though they are a tad largish in comparison to regular 28s.

I always liked the look of the red armour from the movies 'Ran' and 'Heaven and Earth' (not the Tommy Lee Jones film) so I thought I'd try something similar.

His polearm is a little over the top but I was too lazy to swap it out with something less 'heroic'. (I'm going to call it a 'Meganata', yeah that's it...)

This lad will chip me 5 points. WooHoo!