15mm - Blue Moon Manufacturing - Old Hags, Witches

 These have been on the workbench for far too long. Nice time to finish them right before Halloween.

But, I have no intention of doing horror games in any other size but 25/28mm. So. I want to incorporate these into my budding ECW project. Are they just harmless old crones? I envision a rule that when a unit encounters them, their true nature will reveal itself. If they are sympathisers with the unit, they will provide it a small bonus for a turn before disappearing. If they are malevolent, then some mishap to the unit will occur. Maybe Matthew Hopkins emerges from the ranks, and the unit halts in place for a turn to burn her up. Maybe the unit's leaders are cursed for a few turns, and firing or moving is impaired. Haven't figured it all out yet, but those are the intentions - a kind of prequel to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell? Or just a nod to the witch craze that haunts the period. 

Two look immediately suspicious. Maybe I stick to four then swap in a storybook witch when they turn out to be evil? I needn't decide now. Indeed, I have just a big unit of the King's Lifeguard sitting there, about 75% finished. No opposition.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858 

28mm Blue Moon - Things that go Bump in the Night - I Had Such a Howling Good Time - Part 1 of 2

Only a handful of figures remain that will be predominantly in Citadel Contrast paints. It's been a fun experiment and, as I've stated elsewhere, has really improved my output for the year. The experiment may not yet be over though as I am torn between doing all the many gravestones I've been collecting or some 15mm buildings for the ECW. Not quite sure just yet. The remainder of the year however, will feature much more traditional entries.

Meanwhile, Things that go Bump in the Night is a one-pager set of rules designed for gaming the standards of the classic horror genre: werewolves, vampires, mummies, zombies, etc. Box 1 included these four miniatures, as well as four protagonists to oppose them. The latter, like the "Wolf Skins" in the West Wind - Empire of the Dead set will need to be painted up in the traditional way being standard adventurer type figures.

This one is Citadel Contrast Cygor Brown over Wraithbone primer. It is also the first appearance of Cygor Brown here. I was reluctant to get this color as I noticed it was very dark in all the preview shots online, but I always can use a dark brown for this and that so thought I'd give it a shot anyway. As as a one shot and done application (like so many of the other Contrast paints provide) I hated it immediately- way too dark. To fix, I went back in with a drybrushed highlight with Wriathbone to bring back some contrasts. Came out pretty good I think if not still a little flat.

For the next one, I wanted to try mixing that dark Cygor Brown with Liquitex Matte Medium to see how that would come out if I reduced the ratio of pigment to medium. It's good, but I think I actually prefer Wyldwood for this kind of fur instead of this rather ruddy result. Like the other wolf see above, I went back in and drybrushed with Wraithbone to bring back some highlights. 

Speaking of highlights - the Woodland Scenics clump foliage looks really flat here and could use some tonal variation.

This one is, like most of the other four legged wolves, simply Contrast Templar Black - no additional highlighting. Eyes, mouth, base, done.

The sculpt on the teeth of this guy though is a mess: looked like maybe gore, maybe slobber? In any event, the teeth were long and undefined. Let's try the gory route, says I. My first pass was terrifically bloody - so much so that I had to tone it down a lot for the final.

Oof that clump foliage is bugging me with it's evenness.

Easily the biggest werewolf I own, this one rolls the d20 and has to be the leader of all the lycanthropes in my collection. This head was the wildest of the three provided and is a little too straight ahead. But that provided the most secure fit, though I do think I'd have liked to see it as a crazy angle like seen on the box.

For bushes of this size I used the Dark Green clump foliage from Woodland Scenics and glued the light green Super Leaf over the top to give it a highlighted appearance. It worked out OK, I didn't think about breaking up some small trees to decorate the large empty base until it was too late. You know, as if he had just burst into a clearing.

For most minis, I don't care for the Blue Moon style of a finished and framed integral base, so On all of these I put on washers, built up the sides and slopes with some modeling paste then added model railroad ballast over the lot to being it together. It takes some doing, but it also adds a lot of real estate that needs landscaping.

A potential action shot featuring two West Wind figs! The four antagonists that came in the box, which will be Part 2 of this entry, are in line but not next.

I have a number of other things nearing completion to look forward to for Halloween (hopefully), so until then, thanks all for looking - questions, comments, followers are welcome and encouraged!

15/18mm Blue Moon, ECW - Engineers & Pioneers

I'm probably not thinking this through by doing all the specialty units and accessories before I do the main army regiments but I like to set the scene completely before I bring war and destruction to it.

Messing around with the flash

Trying to paint the illusion of dug holes without adding any additional height to the mini and not sure how well I succeeded here.They are based on washers do no digging through that.

Just trying to think of all the ECW rules I've read were there is a need for engineers and pioneers at all. These may end up being never used for anything but decoration.

It'd have been difficult to paint these as exclusively Royalist or Parliamentarian so they can be set up on either side.

 I've had a Royalist regiment approaching completion, but Hey Squirrel keeps getting me.

Thanks all for looking - questions, comments, followers are welcome and encouraged!

28mm Blue Moon - European Timber Wolves

I've mostly moved on from the ethereal creatures project, though a couple figs still linger on the workbench, to do some of the various werewolf encounter sets I have from West Wind and Blue Moon. The figures below were among the easiest to complete and came out nice for EotD, Gothic Horror, Chaos in Carpathia, Frostgrave, or any number of other fantasy or horror themed games.

To match the sculpts, I wanted these deliberately cartoony and sterotypically evil, rank & file wolves. As an aside, I can paint realistic wolves: click here to see the ones I did for the 1812 Retreat from Moscow game for example, but I wanted to see how easy Citadel's Contrast paints would work for this ideal figure type: one that is mostly a single color. In this case, what's become a popular stand by, Templar Black. Yes, all of these were done with a single thick coat over Wraithbone spray primer. As mentioned elsewhere, I tend to heavily dab the paint on rather than flood it, or do painterly type strokes as I see in the GW Contrast tutorials. For this kind of miniature, my method works out great. You decide.

Also, though the fur was very easy to do and took only a few minutes, (I didn't do any additional highlighting there) it does take me a fair amount of time to do all the eyes, teeth and the actual basing to help disguise the manufactured base and to blend them harmoniously with the steel washers upon which they are glued. There's a lot of time waiting for glues, undercoats, and various layers to dry. The vegetation is done in three steps starting with the grass tufts (Army Painter), followed by the light green bushes (Woodland Scenics), then in the third pass, I go and cover up any really ugly parts of the base and to try and blend the terrain in all together with the old Games Workshop standard green flock. For these I didn't really want a riot of colors, but was happy with applying very different monochromatic textures instead.

Enjoy!

Having the flash on looked better then my usual method here but you'll see a mix of both below.

I mistakenly made the individual bases first and then could not, for all it was worth, get a wolf separated from the washer. I was hoping to have a pair of 2-wolf stands here instead of six individual ones, but I couldn't get it done. This was the best compromise. There's only three different sculpts in this 12 figure pack.

Unless you are the pack leader, this is the direction you want to see these things.

I like this shot and enjoy doing the compositions. It was tempting to line them up in a row but I tried to capture the moment when these split off from one another.

I did a flame recipe for the eyes which evokes candy corn here more than anything else lo! Still, very happy with them.

A clear shot of the three different sculpts in the pack. They're fine.

I like this duo especially - ready to pounce!

 ...and my favorite shot of them all!

Flash on

Flash off

This pack is the stand alone - next up (currently in the final base landscaping stages) are the Blue Moon and West Wind Werewolves. Alas, the Wolfen Jaegers, and the heroes out to dispatch these villains have to be painted in my traditional layering style. More Blue Moon ECW support stuff is also nearing completion. Much more to come!

Thanks all for looking - questions, comments, followers are welcome and encouraged!

15/18mm Blue Moon - ECW - Civilians

In between all the ghosts and Contrast paint, I've been quietly putting together these vignettes for an upcoming ECW project using exclusively Blue Moon minis - criminally underrated in my view! That's an old Gallia house in the background.

The gents steps in between his lady and danger.

Fists clenched, the boy is ready for a scrap while his uncle hides behind his mum.

"Surely, Vicar, in every government there must be somewhat fundamental, somewhat like a Magna Charta, that should be standing and unalterable…that Parliaments should not make themselves perpetual is a fundamental. Do you not agree?”

Haven't yet sealed these, hence the bothersome shine.

English Gothic

"The fields won't tend to themselves, war or no bloody war."

"Right chooar flower, I'll have a pint ready for yeh, when ye coom back."

"If they coom any closeh, run to the 'ouse w'all speede".

Bonus: with the flash on

And the initial shot sans the house.

 Thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!