Roadster for Maximillian 1934

  

Hi All!

Up next for me is an additional car for my Maximillian 1934 project. This time we have a single-seat roadster in classic British racing green. 

Similar to my previous tribekka, this model is from Eureka Miniatures. The resin was a little pitted, but it all went together without any fuss.

A quick blast of racing green with the airbrush and I was off to the races with brushing-in the highlights and other details. 

For this jalopy, I've gave it a different front end, which sports twin machine guns. I also mounted a forward firing anti-tank rifle on the right-side cowling (a handy thing to 'encourage' open-lane driving), and finally a rear-firing Maxim for the odd parting shot (burst?).  

For a bit of fun, I mocked-up a drum magazine from milliput for the Maxim simply for the looks-cool-factor.

With a bit of luck, I hope to get another two cars done, along with some motorcycles. Hopefully enough for a good-sized game.

Thanks for popping in for a look!

Two Units of Fodder for Turnip28

I'm back to my Turnip28 project, carrying on from the 'Snobs' to the next formation type: two units of rank-and-file troops, or in T28 parlance: 'The Fodder'. 

In the game, Fodder come in groups of 12 figures, and while they're pretty lousy on the whole, they do benefit from being able to put out a decent curtain of (inaccurate) fire, and can soak up a lot of punishment. Just like what you'd expect from a troop type sporting such a dubious nom de guerre.

The figures are 3d prints from Knucklebone Miniatures. These are fantastic one-piece models which I highly recommend - I printed a duplicate set in a mirror image in order to provide some variation within the units. I also added some chopped-up tufts, coming out of collars and cuffs, along with a few clusters of mushrooms for colour. 

I really like how characterful these figures are, so wonderfully miserable and downtrodden. When grouped together they give a wonderful impression of a shambling mob of dolorous mooks, sadly trudging to their inescapable doom. 

I did-up one unit with red facings as part of my 'Rutabaga Rifles', and another in yellow turnbacks for the 'Fighting Fennel Fusiliers'. I used an airbrush for laying down the base colours and then went in with a brush for some of the details.

I had a bit of fun doing up a rutabaga on one of the standards - not something I thought I'd be painting as a flag device, but when in the Turnip-World you do silly turnip things.

For their yellow opposition, instead of the usual banner, I gave them a spooky Mari Lywd as their standard. For the uninitiated (meaning me until I read up on it), the Mari Lywd was a Welsh wassailing custom, apparently to celebrate nature's growth and renewal. 

It entailed mounting a horses skull on pole, with the person holding it hidden under a sackcloth.  The Mari Lywd and its attendants would go around to local homes, singing and carousing to get free food and drinks. Yes, the Welsh are a wonderfully weird lot. Anyway, I thought it would make an interesting standard for a unit of creepy root vegetable infantry.

Byron was kind enough to make up some sabot bases for me that are similar in design to those I use for my Malta project. 

I had a bit of fun pimping them out with a dice socket (to track panic in the game), along with gratuitous blood spatters in the empty troop sockets to signify when the poor Fodder take a dirt nap. Fun!

The vegetable patch to-date.

Thanks for dropping in folks and have a terrific weekend!

- Curt

Jean de Vallette, Grand Marshal of the Order of Saint John, Defender of Malta 1565

 

Here is another small addition to my Great Siege of Malta collection. Since I have a command stand for Turgut Reis 'The Drawn Sword of Islam', I thought it only fitting to do-up his arch-adversary, Jean Parisot de Vallette, the Grand Marshal of the Order of Saint John and of the Knights of Malta.

Jean de Vallette was 70 years old at the time of the great siege, and while positively ancient in 16th century terms, there are numerous reports of him in the thick of the fighting at the walls - definitely a tough old bird. His command of the defence of the island is considered today as masterful, but also draconian and merciless. He felt he did what he needed to hold out for reinforcements. He and his Order survived the siege and was instrumental in overseeing the reconstruction of the city and its defences after the battle. The capital Valletta, is named after him.

Sarah and I had the pleasure of visiting Malta a few years ago and were delighted to visit many of the sights of the siege around Valletta. The new military museum is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone considering a visit to the island. Sarah even visited the Co-Cathedral of St. John where Vallette's crypt resides (being a lazy bugger on holiday, I slept in). 

This is a set from Warlord Games. I'm not 100% sure of the sculptor, but I'm fairly certain it's from the talented hands of Paul Hicks. A lovely trio of models and a wonderful to work on. 

For the brown horses I decided to try something new and did an oil wash of W&N 'VanDyke Brown' with a touch of 'Lamp Black'. It worked fairly well, though I did make a few rookie mistakes here and there. I'd definitely try it again, though with odourless thinner next time - my hobby room still a bit malodorous from this little experiment.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

Snobs for Turnip28

I'm thought I'd officially kick-off my Turnip28 project with this post. I imagine this flight of fancy will consume a good portion of my time this season as I wish to get two playable forces completed by spring, if possible.

Turnip28 is a very, very odd dystopian setting; a war-torn world gone mad through the infestation of symbiotic, sentient root vegetables. It's all about turnips, really. Aesthetically, it's a mashup of several historical periods; medieval, Renaissance, Napoleonic, and just a smattering of the Great War to keep it grim and dirty. In Turnip28, opposing forces battle each other over long forgotten grievances, contesting useless objectives, and simply knocking the stuffing out of each other. It's a new player in the GrimDark oeuvre of games.

The rules are pretty hilarious, filled with loads of character, horror and humour.  In terms of figure-overhead, it can be defined as a large skirmish game, probably similar to 'Pikeman's Lament' in scale. In its base form its figure count runs around 30+ models per side. Written by the folks behind 'One Page Rules', Turnip28 is easy to understand, simple to play, while still having enough nuance to keep things interesting..

Over the next few months I'm going to try to complete as many of the game's troop types as I can manage. 

Okay, first up: the commanders! In Turnip28, forces are led by 'Snobs', an overarching term for the game's officer class. Think of the many vacuous, dim-witted, upper-echelon idiots that have controlled European armies over the past millennia and you have a good idea of what we're looking at here.

In the game, 'Snobs' are of two types. First, there are the 'Toffs', the upper-crust half-wits who run the whole show. Players will typically have one Toff as the overall commander of their force. 

I've based my Toffs on hexagonal bases and their Toadies are on square ones for easy identification on the tabletop. I'm thinking I will have one side with red facings (The Rutabaga Brigade), while the other will be yellow (The Fighting Fennel Fusiliers). 

Secondly, we have the 'Toadies', the Toffs' boot-licking underlings, who obsequiously do their better's bidding. The Toadies are the game's subcommanders, tasked with chivying along their reluctant, nervous troops, trying to ensure that they follow the orders given to them and trying to mitigate the disasters that will inevitably come. 

For these Snobs I've relied heavily on 3d models from Knucklebones Miniatures. Such characterful figures and brilliant digital design. I've  embellished them a bit, mostly with head swaps, along with adding some of the ubiquitous flora that infests the world of Turnip28.

Though I really like how other hobbyists have used a desaturated palette and a heavy use of weathering of their Turnip troops, I've decided to keep my figures 'merely' dirty, with a punchy colour palette. Heretical I know, but we'll see how it goes as the project clips along.

Finally, for a cavalry officer, I found a wonderful digital sculpt by 'Romychbrush' in Cults of a Snob on a run-down, wheeled hobby horse. 

I decided it would be fun to have the officer and his brave steed being pulled along by his long-suffering batman. Really, this is the stuff that glory is made of.

A final group shot of the Snobs.

Next up for this project will be the rank and file, but right now I have a hankering to do something for my Great Siege of Malta collection. More on that soon, I hope. 

Thanks for popping in for a look, folks!

- Curt

A Tribekka for 'Maximillian 1934'

 

Vrooom! Vroom! Dakka... Dakka... Dakka.... 

Happy Holidays everyone! 

It's another Painting Challenge, so in Curt's world that means that another new project (or two) has to be undertaken. 

This time, it's 'Maximillian 1934', a car racing game set in a post apocalyptic 1930s, and I thought a perfect candidate for the 'High Adventure Studio' location. 

I have to admit that 'Car Wars' and 'Gaslands' have not always scratched that itch, but I do love the vehicle designs of 1930s period, with their swooping, long-nosed cowlings, narrow spoked wheels and the whacky bauhaus aesthetic, so Maximillian 1934 really appealed to my lizard brain.

I have four cars and a few motorcycles from the range that I'm wanting to get done the Challenge. I figure they should be enough for a spirited race, with several varied vehicle designs for players to choose from. 

So, for my first effort, I present to you this sporty three-wheeled Tribekka. 

I gave it a forward facing water-cooled machine gun and a brace of linked Lewis guns on a rear-facing pintle mount. You know, 'cause these are obviously things you need on a vehicle. 

I built out a mahoosive engine for it and gave it big single, side-mounted exhaust pipe. As the game uses a template to move, and is a bit fiddly with arcs, I decided to base-up this guy and the others that will follow.

As I want the cars to be quite visible on the track, I sprayed it a bright yellow, reminding me of the 'Fun in the Sun' yellow we had on our sporty Ford Focus in our salad years.  

I hope to have a roadster up in a week or two. Wish me luck and thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt