Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

 

It's Canadian Flag Day. 

It's snowing.

It's cold...

  ... and I'm not going outside if I can help it.

   It's Winter in Canada and as the man said "What else is new?" 

   Well a few things. Since I'm now retired from the ministry (save a few agreed-upon services at my old parish and some supply work) and I've been painting miniatures and building scale buildings. Here are a few examples.

For The Silver Bayonet, a supernatural investigator 

from the American listing.

A very useful figure... the Coachman from the Austrian listing for The Silver

Bayonet. This appears to be a really useful figure in a number of ways. I like him!

 

A very nautical ghostly figure. A gift from my eldest's partner, I attempted to make him very ghostly and almost glowing. The different shades of green with dry brushings in yellows gives the figure character. The tentacle rising from the sea just gives goosebumps. 

From Trent Miniatures' Wars of the Vendee range, a character I'm calling

a female demon hunter. Trent minis make some wonderful figures usable 

for The Silver Bayonet, well worth looking into. 

A fire wizard from Reaper Bones. I often use inks for final detailings. To the eye, they 

                              look fine, but on camera they make things look dirty.

                                                        I need to work this out. 

A Zombie master or a necromancer from North Star's Horror range. He has a "Baron Samedi" vibe of sorts. He might be quite handy for any number of evil plots in The Silver Bayonet.

"Kein Kreuzer, Kein Schweizer"

"No money, no Swiss" is the old saying. Here is a Swiss Guardsman for my Vatican team for The Silver Bayonet. I realized I had bought a pack of Landsknecht pikemen and had some left. I dug up the figure, added a musket from the "bits box", and had another Swiss guard for the team.

 

North Star Miniatures offering of an "occultist" for the Prussian unit in The Silver Bayonet. I liked idea of another female character for the use of any group, especially on in civilian clothes.

 

The Cardinal

I think this is a Essex figure I've had for years and years. I'll find a use for him. 

Toxic stuff in barrels. Available at your local tavern.

Meanwhile, my wonderful wife had begun to paint again. She had been painting for a long time but took a hiatus for a long number of years. I turned over to her all my "Wild West" Saloon figures and she had a few of her own to paint as well. With her permission, I'm posting them. 

"Don't shoot me! I'm only the piano player!"

Not ready for the San Francisco Symphony,

but good enough for Deadwood!

Beth does the best painting of faces!

"Who's light? Ante up!"

 The cards were small pieces of paper added to the table and the coins were dabs of glue. 

"Who dealt this mess?"

The Saloon Band

The red vested banjo player came with the set. The other three are "Wild-Westernized" version of ZZ Top and "Girls go crazy for a sharp dressed man!" 

Live and in person

The backside of the music business

The Saloonkeeper

The Saloonkeeper - "Time to lean? Time to clean!"

The Saloon Girl

The Saloon girl - delivering the goods.

The caption card for the Saloon figures

The other side of the caption card

I've been building buildings. Often it's a creative paint job on Christmas village buildings from places like Michael's craft stores. The most fun has been building log cabins found at Dollarama and building onto them in some way or another. I posted the blockhouse I made from two log cabin kits before, but here it is again.

Rather crude, but workable for some scenarios in North America

I've since touched up the places I'd missed.

   I saw what was called a "grain barn" in a recent Skytrex track-side building advert. I said to myself "I think I could do something like that from left-over cabin parts and other things in my parts box." Here we go!

The Grain Barn with a sandy floor and hand-made shingles, done in strips

There's a little shed at the back of the building to cover whatever needs covering.

I can see this as a stand-alone structure or as a covered walkway with a cabin on either side. If we do another gangster scenario with the Wiley Games rules, this might be the shipping/loading area of the brewery.

Last but not least, Beth's offering on a small dragon with lots of dry-brush work.

Beth has really taken to many "advanced" techniques. More than I really.

More to come later... 'cause I'm still painting!