The Gallows Tree

 While I was in the terrain making mood, and the primer on the windmill was drying, I knocked up a couple of pieces that would have been seen all over Europe in the 17c.

Here are a couple of examples of paintings with gallows evident, and if course there's the well known Magpie on the gallows by Breughel.

Here's my version so far.

There is a bit more of a twist on them than is visible in this picture, just to show the warped wood as in the last painting above.

Also a leaning crucifix. 

Hopefully these will add some flavour to the 17c tabletop.

Blow Wind Blow Part2

 I've finished all the modifications to the windmill kit, so it's ready for priming.

I added more bits of balsa to the sails as I thought they still didn't look organic enough.

Front and rear 

and the 'axle' end was made from the end of an old paintbrush.

The ladder, tiller and tilting mechanism are completed.

I then coated all the additions with Modpodge for extra strength and to hopefully disguise any visible printing ridges.

I was pleased to discover this was a common design in England as well as Northern Europe, so it will be usable in ECW games too. Ready to undercoat now. I'll attach the sails after painting, and add a few extra details.

Finally Sunrise from the Growlery (my mancave ) window this morning.

Trog and Trogmagog

 I've just finished flocking the bases of the 2 Fighting Fantasy Trolls I was prepping a few days ago. It was a bit of a slog painting them but I'm fairly pleased with the results.  

I think the green fellow (Trog) is my favourite. I hope they perform well at the BOYL game, maybe even fighting each other. It has put me in the mood to paint some early Citadel Night Goblins.....

Blow Wind Blow Part 1

 Having painted loads of TYW figures ( which I will get around to showing you), I have begun to think I need some bespoke terrain. Something like this windmill for instance, painted by Sebastian Vrancx in the early 17c.

I had already purchased a secondhand windmill at Lincombe Barn Tabletop sale a few years ago, but while the top part was ideal, the base wasn't.

I think this model was from the old Ian Weekly range, cast in a kind of hard

 foam. I originally bought it for goblins to live in, but that project will have to wait.

I suppose I could have made the lower part and ladder I needed, but I found a 3d printed windmill kit on eBay which would work perfectly. 

So here we are so far 

Windy helps with the repairs adding an extra step.

The lower half with some alterations to make it more like the Vrancx painting above, such as adding risers on top of the brick foundations, and extending the central post.

I added some spars to the sails to make it a look a bit more ramshackle. The original print was very neat and tidy, and looking at other paintings of windmills or the time the sails often look warped and rotten.

(Note the bright colourful clothing of the rustics. Not everything was black and covered in crap as modern Hollywood would have us believe).

After the glue on the spars had dried I added some furled sails made from some linen tied with thread. I'm not a windmill expert, but I think the sails are rolled aside when the mill isn't in use, during storms or times of battle.

The next detail was the 'tiller' ( I must get a book on the proper terminology, but this seems the right word), with which the miller turns the mill to face the wind. The 3d one that came with the kit was straight, but in all the paintings I found, it's curved through the ladder . Happily the resin the kit was made from bends easily when held in hot water.

Now I've got the headache of fitting it through the steps....

To be continued....

A few 17c Types

 I've painted hundreds of 17c figures over the last couple of years for my TYW armies, but of course haven't catalogued the progress . That changes now, so here are a few I knocked out this week.

A couple of Essex figures with a Minifigs shot barrow.

Redoubt this time. Lovely figures, but the moulds must be in a shocking state. The flash on them was terrible.

2 Redoubt ladies are escorted by a Bicorne dismounted Harquebusier. More complaining in that the Bicorne figure was sadly lacking in detail definition, and cast in a dreadful tinny metal. He painted up ok, but Bicorne charge a premium price for their figures and ought to do better. 

Strange to say there seems to be a dearth of 17c manufacturers, or at least new ranges. With semi retirement in view and a strong desire to earn some bread and cheese away from gardening, I'm sorely tempted to do something to rectify this and maybe commission a new range. 

Shadow and Flame

 ...or to be accurate, bright red paint and gloss varnish.  I volunteered to provide this flock of Balrogs for the upcoming game at BOYL, thinking I had all the figures, but on rummaging about, I found I only had a couple of them ( I had owned these all in the past, but they must have gone in my big fantasy purge of 1987). Happily the Oldhammer community stepped up to the mark and I was able to source the missing figures for zero cost thanks to the generosity of members.

The figures in the original picture are nice and shiny.

So I was pleased to be able to carry that theme on and do likewise, so they also fit in with my Prehammer and Joe Dever collection. It was very refreshing to do a simple paint job, lovely gloss varnish and a filler base again after a couple of years of painting muddy 17c soldiers.

The entire flock. Lots of lovely wings, like all good Balrogs should have.

Citadel and Grenadier.

Two Ral Partha specimens.

Citadel demon by Nick Bibby. A dynamic pose, but I had to counterbalance the base as he tips forward. He's still a bit unstable, but better.

I thoroughly enjoyed painting these. So much so I started another batch of vintage fire demons to join them. They are currently awaiting basing.

Fighting Fantasy Trolls WIP

 I picked these 2 large plastic trolls up a few years ago at Lincombe Barn tabletop sale, for a couple of quid, which was quite a bargain ( although I didn't realise it at the time). They are Citadel Fighting Fantasy figures released about 1984.

I've finally started work on them for the up BOYL game. Firstly by stripping off the flaky poster paint with which they were painted. A head swap ensued and I added a brass nail to the club one of them is holding.

Copious amounts of milliput later, the addition of some underarm hair, and a coat of the very useful Citadel technical Typhus Corrosion , they are primed black and ready for painting.

The one on the right should be bright orange to match the troll in the 3rd edition rulebook, but I'm not sure I want an orange troll in my collection. One orange troll in the world is quite enough.

Witch Hunters

Some more figures finished in the last year. Some witch Hunters to tag onto my TYW army. These guys are a tad medieval in appearance, but I suppose hanging about in torture chambers or the Bamberg Hexenhaus ( look it up, it's terrifying), they don't get to see up to date fashions.

The figures are from Gripping Beast and were great fun to paint. 

I've got a couple of 17c Solomon Kane looking figures to go with them, to help purge the Palatinate of the devil's minions.
 

Skeleton Painting Commission

A few months ago, a returning client sent me these 1980s Citadel skeletons to paint, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing. The brief was red garb and to highlight the lettering on the bases for nostalgias sake.

The glowing rune on the shield is copied from the one sculpted on the commanders chest below.

The Witch King is clad in more traditional undead robes.

I'm hoping these will appear in the new edition of Dragon Rampant ( the client was Daniel Mersey), but we'll have to wait and see..I've got a box of these sculpts myself so it was good to see how they turned out, and hopefully I'll be able to do my own figures in a similar manner.

 

My Oldest Lad

 I'm obviously very proud of all 3 of my sons. Here's the oldest keeping an eye on those pesky Ruskies (he's on exercise in a country adjacent to Russia). Returning home soon, thank goodness. 

Empire Archers

 Some more figures done for Geoff's game at Bring out your Lead in August. A mix of historical archers from the 13-15c. 

I wasn't that happy when the yellow, but it sort of matches the colour in the 3rd edition Warhammer rulebook where these chaos are shown deployed in front of the village WC (in case they are subject to a FEAR roll perhaps). 

Only 5 are visibility, but we are assuming they are part of a larger unit. I need to source the chap in the spangenhelm as I've just realised I haven't got him.

I picked these figures up at Devizes Attack show last year, and I think they might be recasts, or rejects from Foundry as some are quite small and there are some very pronounced mould lines , but they scrubbed up ok. 

The flag is based on a Burgundian example showing arrows forming a St. Andrew's cross. 

Hopefully they'll be able to defend the village thunderbox against the evil horde.

The unit will be for sale at £150 after the game.

What I've been doing.pt1

Just to prove I haven't been completely bone idle over the last couple of years I'll put up a few pics of what painting I've been doing ( and remembered to take pictures at the time.

I've been focussing mainly on a Thirty Years War army, that if the combined forces of Ernst Von Mansfeld and Christian of Brunswick. I've found these really easy to paint while feeling frazzled ( and I have been feeling absolutely knackered most of the time). 

The army keeps on growing so I'm up to about 300 infantry and 100 cavalry so far. It's gradually morphing into an Eighty Years War project too, and I'm waiting for a delivery of 3d printed Low Country buildings of the period .

Here's a couple of pictures to whet the appetite. More to follow once I've done some flocking.

Christian of Brunswick. A mash up of Redoubt, Captain General and Steel Fist parts. 

Four 60 man regiments. A real mix of manufacturers, and I keep on buying more!

I haven't taken any pics of the cuirassiers, or artillery yet, but will do so soon I hope.

 

Treebeard at BOYL

I've just finished painting this 80s Citadel Treebeard figure. Not my favourite ent model by any stretch of the imagination, but accurate to the text I think.... clothing of bark and the appearance of not being very 'bendable'.

I'm not sure who sculpted him
(Trish Carden I expect), but the 3 sections of head legs and torso don't fit together brilliantly, leaving a definite straight line rather than following the bark line of the clothing ( if it is clothing). This makes him look more like an automaton than an ent imo, but was no doubt necessary for casting purposes.

Either way he'll join my moot of ents for future games. His first appearance will be at BOYL taking part in a recreation of the 3rd edition Warhammer rulebook battlefield picture where he is visible lurking under some Britains trees.

For the same game, which is being put on by Geoff of Oakbound Studios, I've got a unit of 20 archers, a flock of 5 balrogs and 2 large trolls to paint. Better get cracking!