'Quack' for Moonstone

Quack is a wizard/cleric in the Moonstone game. He's aligned with the Commonwealth faction, which are largely composed of humans and gnomes (though they do have some characters from other races as allies as well). He's not very powerful in combat, but is a terrific support character, being able to heal members of his troupe at a fairly good range (Moonstone is played on a 3' x 3' surface, so a 8-10" range is quite respectable), and to give his 'Foresight' ability, which provides a nice bonus to him or his allies for shooting and spells.

I had a lot of fun working on Quack. Looking at the figure, I imagined him as as sort of a ragamuffin, ill-kept fellow, so made his clothes and gear rather dirty and manky. For his bottles and the trippy smoke emanating from his potion I used some of the excellent Colourshift Paint from Greenstuff World. You'll probably see me using more of this stuff when I work on the upcoming faeries from this range. 

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

Kalista, Leshevult Priestess for 'Moonstone'

First, Happy New Year Everyone!! I hope 2022 brings the very best to you all.

Here is Kalista, a priestess of Leshevult in the whimsical game of 'Moonstone'. Our group as been enjoying a lot of Moonstone over the past few months, having great fun with all the varied characters and scenarios. Sarah and Natasha have been working as a team, often running this trio of witch sisters from the 'A Witch in Time' boxed set.

Zorya 'The Dawn Witch', Antonia 'The Noonday Witch', and Danica 'The Dusk Witch'

  
To be clear, these lasses are not for points as I painted them earlier this summer (and still need to properly feature them), but I thought I'd show them off to you so you can see how fun the sculpts are.

These ladies use a lot of blood magic for their mischief, which, as you can imagine, is quite nasty as it requires a fair bit of self-harm and oodles of magical power. They often end up too weakened, and are then susceptible to other troupes' attacks later in the game.

Well, now we have Kalista who can ally to the witches, providing them with both healing spells and additional arcane energy. This will alter the dynamic of their troupe, and I look forward to how  the girls adapt their tabletop strategies to use her.

I found the raw casting of Kalista to be rather dull and not very dynamic, but, like many first-homely minis, I warmed to her as the colours went on. Being a druidic priestess, I thought I'd paint her in natural tones, perhaps amped-up for additional colour on the tabletop. 

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

The Snail, the Crane and the Frog

Hi All!

I've made the sub-light hop from Caprica to land on picturesque Arda, the planet of high fantasy and all this LotR. I've been looking forward to this as I've been in a sort of all-things-fantasy mood this past year, being quite taken by the game 'Moonstone', and preparing several 10mm Warhammer Fantasy forces for 'Monsters and Magic' (M2), the fantasy version of 'To the Strongest'.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I was cruising around on MyMinFactory and came across this brilliant digital sculptor who goes by the handle 'CobraMode'. His/Her designs are incredible, exhibiting such a unique and whimsical vision. The overall aesthetic is a mystical medieval Asia, but with the twist of having anthropomorphic creatures as the primary characters - I find it's all very cool. Suitable impressed, I plumped down for several of the print files (okay, a lot of the print files). 

This little tryptic sets the scene of a Feixian sword-for-hire, travelling with his loyal pack-snail (squire?). They have made it to the outskirts of the Great Mushroom Forest when they are met on the road by a Hikiga swordsman baring their way. The Crane swordsman, sensing this is no simple highwayman, leaps from his faithful steed to attack. The Fog Ogre (Fogre?) takes up his 'stone pose', his petal-blade poised to meet the Feixian's aggressive approach...

I had a lot of fun working on all of these models as they're so characterful. Being a fantastical creatures, I just opened up a bunch of paint pots and sort of went wild.

The Pack-Snail is a hoot and is absolutely festooned with adventuring gear. 

If you look closely, in amongst all the baggage, you can see a sock drying on a line, a pot of soup being rudely jostled, and a rooster(?!) precariously teetering on his nest. 

I used various blends of contrast paint for his shell (btw Contrast Medium is awesome for colourshift blending) and, thinking him as a helpful creature, I added a Moorish target shield to his 'hand' (propodium?) which he's offering to his liege. 

I did up the Fexian swordsman in colourful layered robes that you would see in any Chinatown festival. As his pose is quite busy, I had to paint him while in his individual parts and assemble later. 

He's such a delicate figure that I'm rather dubious of his survivability on the tabletop. Oh well, such is the life of a Crane swordsman.

The huge Hikiga swordsman looks like a cross between a Maori warrior and a salamander. I decided to make him largely turquoise with trippy sigil-tattoos across his belly and circling his biceps. 

I had fun painting on the flower petals on his 'uge honkin' blade and doing his doo in a pink to azure blue fade. Kids these days.

All of these models are fairly large at around 54mm. The Snail and the Hikiga were one-piece prints, but the Feixian swordsman comes as five pieces and is quite complex to arrange in his leaping pose. I had to carefully drill out one of his legs to pin it to the base for stability (which I later camouflaged with the flowering shrub). 

Hmm. Not sure what I'm doing next, so we'll see where the star lanes take us...

Thanks for dropping in for a look - have a great day!

- Curt

More1812 Russian Retreat French

I decided to add a few more figures my slowly growing 1812 Retreat collection.

These are all Perry metals. In my opinion, this range is some of the best work they've every done. They do a brilliant job of capturing the utter desolation and despair of these men trudging their way out of frozen Russia. The poses and postures of these figures do a brilliant job of conveying the brutal, numbing, and unrelenting cold of the environment. Brrr! 

I have to apologize as my iPhone camera struggles with the high-contrast grey and white of my snow bases. I finally had to shrug and give up.

Hmm, I'm thinking that these fellow would be perfect for a Silver Bayonet scenario - perhaps a story built around icy Ithaqua pursuing a group of cut off French and Russian infantry... Excuse me as I get my notepad!

Thanks for dropping in!

- Curt

Felicity Foxcroft, Femme Fatale

I present to you Felicity Foxcroft, dilettante, freelance spy and all-around heart-breaker.

I've had this figure in my stores for quite a while, and for the life of me I can't remember where I got her from. She looks like a Hasslefree, Statuesque, or a Pulp Miniature sculpt. Hmm, I dunno. No matter, I think she's quite the dish with her slinky evening gown, long silk gloves, and, the ultimate accessory for a lady-about-town: a .38 snub nose revolver.

Felicity will be a welcome addition to our Pulp collection. I know for certain she'll charm the socks off of the next Shoggoth we happen across. 

- Curt