Entry #5 to the 9th Lead Painters' League - 'Attack of the Clockwork Monkeys'

For something a little off the beaten path I decided to do up this whacky group of clockwork monkeys for my 5th entry to the Lead Painters' League.

These 28mm figures are from Westfalia Miniatures' new steampunk range. I found the castings to be excellent, requiring almost no prep, essentially ready for paint straight out of the packaging.  A delight to work with.

Their fezzes crack me up. I dunno what it is, but there is nothing like a jaunty fez for adding that  je ne c'est quoi to a villain. 

Unfortunately these little fellas didn't really gain much favour with the LPL voters, but no matter, I still had a ball working on them. 

I have another four or five to get done and then they'll be ready to cause clockwork mayhem on the tabletop.

Thanks for stopping for a visit everyone!

Next Up: Bolshevik Infantry from the Russian Civil War

Entry #3 to the 9th Lead Painter's League - 'Goblins of 1979'

For my third entry to the Painters' League I decided to paint up a set of very old castings that I found in a dark corner of my Lead Shed.

These figures are 25mm Ral Partha Goblins and Great Goblins sculpted by the talented Tom Meier, circa 1979. Though perhaps fairly average sculpts by today's standards, one has to keep in mind that these models were produced over 35 years ago. 

I remember getting these as a youngster for our D&D campaign and being completely blown away by how dynamic and very characterful they were - there was really nothing like them on the market at the time and I think they still hold up rather well.

I was in a bit of a flap to get these done for the LPL deadline and frankly it shows. Nonetheless, I'm content with how they turned out.

I originally picked up quite a few of these in order to play Gary Gygax's 'Chainmail', a set of miniature rules which I remember to being impenetrable at the time, but that recollection may speak more to me being an inexperienced and impatient youth rather than to the rules themselves.

Thanks for joining me on my trip down memory lane - back when I had far less pocket money but much more hair!

Next up: Italian Wars!

Entry #2 to the 9th Lead Painters' League - 1812 Retreat: French and Germans

For my past week's entry to the LPL I decided to add a few more figures to my 1812 Retreat collection. Here is a group of French along with a few of their unfortunate German allies.

Westphalian Hussar, elite company.

French Carabiniere.

French voltigeur.

Wurttemberg infantryman.

...and a French line infantryman.


These five castings are all from the fabulous range of 28mm figures depicting the French retreat from Moscow from Perry Miniatures. Highly recommended.

As for this week's entry, I have a group of very old school 1970s era orcs and goblins from Ral Partha that I excavated from the Lead Shed. If you have the time please drop by the Lead Painters' League to see all the submissions from the participants of the League.

Have a great week folks!

Entry #1 to the 9th Lead Painters' League - 'You want it? Come, pick it up.' Bosworth 1485

'You want it? Come, pick it up.'  Bosworth 1485

Now that my administrative duties for the Painting Challenge are more or less wrapped up I can get back to some of my neglected projects.

One event that helps me get back into gear is the Lead Painters' League, an annual event hosted over at The Lead Adventure Forum. As in previous years, this season will be made up of 10 matched submissions, one per week, with extra points being awarded for new work, specific themes, etc. The participants are paired off for duels utilizing a random draw. 

To be perfectly honest I have some issues with the format of the League (the single picture limit, the over-use of backgrounds which distract attention from the figures, the feeling that one's competing amongst a clique, etc.) but it always proves to be a nice distraction and gets me back in that saddle with my own work. 

Anyway, the opening theme of this year's League was 'armour' and so, as a nod to Richard III's recent reinterment, I decided to enter some Wars of the Roses figures as a Bosworth vignette

I chose to go with figures from the Perry's excellent Wars of the Roses plastic infantry set. I wanted to do something which depicted Richard after his all-or-nothing charge against Henry and his retainers, where he is ultimately unhorsed and has become surrounded by a tightening ring of Lancastrians. For inspiration, I drew upon Graham Turner's evocative illustrations which he did for the Osprey title on Bosworth.

The envisioned a scene where Richard has finally run his course, where he is separated from his retinue,  knowing all is lost, but he nonetheless fights on - choosing to go down swinging. As it turns out this 'hopeless stand' theme conformed to the match results as these lads were soundly trounced when exhibited last week. Life indeed does follow 'art'.  ;)

I selected parts from the plastic set that, with a bit of cutting, repositioning and the strategic use of sculpting putty, would depict Richard pointing to his fallen crown (still attached to his sallet helm), challenging his enemies to come forward and take it.

In order to aid players in keeping track of who is who on the tabletop I've simply placed red or white roses on the bases, depending on the allegiance of the figure.  

Richard's heraldry is a bit impressionistic but serves well enough.

While these are my first attempts at some Wars of the Roses figures  I do have a few more waiting in the wings, namely some Welsh retinue archers. I also wanted to do a figure conversion of Richard's ill-fated banner bearer, Sir Percival Thirlwall, but the figure I wanted to use as a basis did not arrive in time so I was forced to submit without him. I'll do a follow-up of these figures in a later post.

This weeks round (the second of the 10-round series) is now up over at The Lead Painters' League. For my part, I've submitted some more figures for my 1812 Winter Retreat collection - it's somehow easier to work on these when it's not 20 below zero, go figure.

Please drop over to the League and check out the work by all the participants. I'll be keeping a weekly update on my progress through the League so come back to chart my march of folly.

Thanks for visiting!

My 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Entries to the Lead Painter's League

Viet Minh marching to Dien Bien Phu, 1954

So, a few folks have been asking me what's been going on with my participation in the Lead Painters' League (LPL). Well, as a recap, the League has been clipping along over the past ten weeks, with each week having the 40 entrants paired against one another for one-on-one matches. Points are won for a variety of things such as points for win/loss, point-spread within a match, submitting figures towards a stated theme, newly painted figures, etc. 

I've had a great time painting everything from goblins to panzergrenadiers but I soon realized that since our vacation landed right in the midst of the League I'd not have the time to submit new work for every round, so I've had to resort to 'retreading' some of my recent efforts.  So my apologies if this post seems a bit redundant in some spots but I thought I should try to wrap up what I'd started.

For the 6th round I drew upon my winter-themed French and Russians that I'd done for this year's Painting Challenge. Again, I really can't rave about these Perry figures enough - they're simply superb models.

For my 7th entry I sent in this group of 28mm Viet Minh from Red Star Miniatures which are excellent sculpts by Paul Hicks. I had read in Bernard Fall's 'Street Without Joy' that the French forces in Indochina greatly admired the Viet Minh expertise in camouflage, so I decided to tart up a couple of the models with some leaf camo on their helmets which I had snipped from the tips of aquarium plants.

For the 8th round I submitted a group of post-apocalyptic Soviet die-'ards that, again, I had done for the Challenge. These are very characterful Lead Adventure sculpts by the very talented 'Ratnik'.

My 9th entry was an homage to Alan Furst's excellent series of WWII noir-espionage novels. I know, it's kinda a lame entry but I do like these models from Mark Copplestone - they're such a blast to paint.

So there you have it, we're pretty much caught up on my entries for the LPL. There's just one more round to go and I'll post up that final entry next week when the League concludes. Thanks for visiting!

A Mountie Always Get His Man: On Vacation to Blog-Con and Lard Island

We finally finished transiting from planes, trains and automobiles and are now enjoying the first leg our much anticipated spring vacation. I write this from the picturesque town of Delft, Holland after spending the previous week in the St Alban's area outside of London where we enjoyed the generous hospitality of Sidney and his wonderful family at Roundwood Towers. So now that I'm in a gap between gobbling food, binge drinking and gaming I thought I'd crack off a post and provide a blog update on recent goings on. 

As some may know, last weekend Sidney and I drove up to York to attend Blog-Con. DaveD was kind enough to arrange the venue and put on the first game of the day, a spirited cowboy donnybrook in his storied town of Serenity. This was a real treat as I've had the pleasure of witnessing the progress of this wonderful project over the past two Painting Challenges and now I was getting a chance to play a scenario within it. Brilliant!

(Thanks to Phil and Dave for the great Blog-Con photos displayed here!)

Blog-Con: Great company and a good many laughs.

Being the token Canadian in the crowd I was assigned to play 'The Mountie' in the scenario. His job was to escort the villainous 'Budgie' Ray on to the local train for transport to Canada in order to face charges for crimes against beavers (or something along those lines). 

The Mountie

The Mountie's just mission was opposed by a host of shady characters ranging from bloody-minded Pinkertons to vicious lasso-wielding hillbillies all bent on stopping the virtuous Canuck lawman from doing his duty. Nonetheless, our hero jutted his lantern jaw, furrowed a brow over his narrow-set eyes and resolved to get the job done no matter the cost.

Once he saw what was arrayed against him, the Mountie knew he had to take desperate measures, perhaps cutting a few corners regarding the comfort of his prisoner. With this in mind Ray was unceremoniously shoved off the saloon's balcony, with the intention that he would land in the water trough below and save a bit of time in their bid for freedom. Well, as it turned out, both physics and geometry were not The Mountie's strong suit and poor Ray landed just shy of the trough and was knocked senseless. 

Hmm, where's the splash? Oh, sorry about that Ray old boy...

Undeterred, our Canadian hero jumped down to the ground, fetched some rope from his trusty steed 'Flat-Out' (a name soon to be realized), hog-tied Ray and, not wanting to waste time, set off on his horse dragging the prisoner behind him.

A few local miscreants tried to interfere, but apart from of few wild shots, the steely-eyed stare of The Mountie made them change their minds and leave him be. 

Nonetheless, the arrival of a team of cold-blooded Pinkertons soon made things a bit hot for our hero.  The Canadian's faithful horse tripped on the tracks in front of the moving train, but The Mountie managed to bundle Ray to the other side before the locomotive made glue of the Canadian's unfortunate mount. 

The Pinkertons, these chilling mercenaries of American justice (very ably led by Ian), wounded The Mountie several times but the Canadian girded his jodhpur-clad loins and succeeded in getting both himself and Ray into the caboose of the escalating train.  

After securing Ray to the caboose stove a frenetic gunfight ensued with the Mountie fighting Pinkersons at either end of the rail car. My luck managed to hold out and The Mountie dispatched both assailants in a flurry of pistol shots.

The fierce shootout in the caboose.

The next game was run by Sidney using his fabulous WWI figures and terrain. The scenario was titled 'Get Carter' which entailed the British forces scampering across No Man's Land to rescue their popular Captain Carter. From my post-game discussions with Sidney I understood that the scenario would always be a challenging one for the British. Nonetheless, the Tommies made a valiant go of it and almost pulled the caper off, but were ultimately swamped by elite Stosstruppen released from the German tactical reserve. 

It was a great game and very evocative of the period. I won't go into great detail on it here as Sidney has provided an excellent photographic account on his great blog. He also provides details to running this scenario along with helpful play aids. I must say that I particularly liked the scenario's 'whistle blowing' mechanic. This is where the German side accrued 'alert' points through the whistles of their forward sentries. These alert points eventually built-up to the point where various levels of alarm / activity would be initiated. This added great tension to the game as the British try to creep up to the German lines to quickly snatch Captain Carter and make their escape.

Big kudos go to Sidney in keeping eleven players fully engaged in the scenario. It went right down to the wire and was a treat to both play and view. Well done my good man!

A few days later I got to do it all over again when Sidney hosted a variation of the same scenario for his clubmates on Lard Island. Yes indeed, I had the distinct pleasure to be invited out to a club game night with the collective that makes up Two Fat Lardies. I won't go into the details of the rules behind the game but it did involve the development of the upcoming Version 2 of 'Through the Mud and the Blood'. Pretty exciting stuff.

The nerve center (nerd centre?) of Lard Island...

I must say I was a bit star struck in a dorky kind of way. I'm a big admirer of the Lardies rules and I was quite chuffed to meet all of them and especially to chat with Richard. All the members were very gracious in having a colonial in their midst and were a load of fun to hang out with. I quite enjoyed talking with Richard regarding rulesets, styles of play, clubs, etc. 

Richard and Big Al pondering the enormity of it all...

What particularly impressed me was how open they all were to challenging and changing the mechanics of their own rules. Some rules designers can be a bit pedantic regarding their designs but I was delighted with the enthusiasm and creativity of the group in adapting rules mechanics or changing them entirely. I know, it's pretty nerdy stuff but I found it very cool to witness and be a part of in a small way.

Rich and Big Al looking at Sidney: Patent disbelief on their faces, writ large...

At the end of our stay in the UK I gave out a few figures. Two of them were Mounties, with one of them going to Dave in thanks for the figures he provided me and his great efforts in organizing Blog-Con...

...the other went to Phil whose Pulp Adventure collection seemed desperately in need of a man from the NWMP (North West Mounted Police - the precursor to today's RCMP) to fight the good fight.

I also gave a figure, a French WWI aviator, to Sidney in deep gratitude for his marvellous hospitality over the week.

He just needs a long-ashed gauloises gripped in his fist to complete the scene. 

Thank you Sidney, it was a delight and a privilege to hang out with you! I very much look forward to the next time.

So there we have it! That's brings us pretty much up to date with my adventures. Next up is an update on my participation in the Lead Painters' League and more importantly my gaming visit with the excellent lads from the 'Royal Dutch Water-Bicycle Detachment'. Stay tuned!