From the Painting Table

 I enjoy painting the figures I use in games. There was a time when I couldn't game much and I did painting for some friends. It was satisfying and fun. Still I enjoy both the painting and the playing. So here are some of my latest projects.

The Old Western Gunfight Skirmish Project

US Infantry in frontier/plains kit
(North Star Figures)

US Cavalry dismounted
(North Star Figures)

Wild West Seraphim
(North Star Figures - Dracula's America)
Beth like this figure so I needed to paint it up.
It really was a lot of fun to paint!

The here-to-for unannounced Dune Skirmish project

Frank Herbert's "Dune" fascinates me and I saw an opportunity for a small unit skirmish game. I'd hope to use the "5-Core" rules since most of the troops would be armed with blade weapons and slow projectile stunners rather than lasers or such. I wanted to find figures in hoods and robes (of a sort) as the Freman. Ninjas seemed to fill the bill for most of it.

Ninja from Iron Wind Miniatures serving as "Fremen" on Arrakis/Dune.
I wanted fighters with bladed weapons and hoods with face coverings.
Capes would have served me more and had I the patience and skill, I'd have added them.
I like the dust/sand colour with a heavy ink wash that picked out the details.

These guys should be armed with knives rather than spears and Katana-style swords.
Still, as a whole, I rather like how they turned out.

The Sardukar soldier-fanatics of the Padishaw Emperor, Shaddam IV proved to be a challenge. I wanted a sci-fi feel with bladed weapons but found that was too much to ask. So I ordered some Sci-fi troopers from Iron Wind Metals who look bulky, arrogant, and heavily armed. I can pretend they have knives.

These troops should be in black but I chose a more easily detailed uniform.
Big guns in hand... I like how they turned out. They may end up being used in some of my
Traveller campaign games.

I liked the rocket launcher on the left.
The unit officer is on the right, with the slight silver touches for insignia.

SteamPunk/Sci-fi/Fantasy Mixed Bag project

The Royal Family from West Wind's Gothic Horror range
They'd been sitting in the To-Be-Painted box for years and I got the urge to paint them up.
Probably Traveller fodder.

Various SteamPunk/Pulp figures
I don't know all the sources since some were bought at KEGSCON convention over the past
few years. On the far left is a Sergeant from Pulp Miniatures Gunga Din-ish offering.
Doctor sorta-Who is on the far right. The women are living dangerously in their arsenic-green dresses. 

Traders! Cultists! Musicians!
Bad Squido... Pulp Miniatures... Reaper... from left to right.
The Musician showed up in my recent Traveller game as DJ PB Smooth, the Scrunge-Rock 
guitarist. (Listening to Scrunge-Rock could lead to seizures or collapse... if it's heard wrong.)

Two Femme-Fatales from different eras.
On the left is Guinevere for Beth's Kings of War army. 

Space Dwarves from Wargames Atlantic
Fun to put together, even if you add heads and arms from other kits!

15mm Spanish Civil War project

These were originally done for Command Decision and were later rebased for Disposable Heroes. Now they're being resettled for Battlefront.

In the Nationalist service, an older model French "fast-firing" 75mm field gun.
For some reason, Spanish Regular Army artillerymen wore white belting.

Again in the Nationalist army, a later model 75mm field piece.
The difference? Rubber tires!

A Republican anti-tank gun.
International brigade crew? Maybe. The French "Adrian" helmets are a give-away.

US Troops in 15mm for Battlefront

The M1919 Browning medium machine gun with a competent crew.

An 81mm mortar ready to ruin my opponent's day

54mm (1/32) Spanish soldiers

Willed to me by my friend, Martin when he moved out of London, ON
3d-printed Spanish Napoleonic troops - a Spanish regiment and an Irish regiment.
The photo isn't too good and I haven't finished too many of these, so it's an on-going project.
Another on-going project.

Look who came to visit at Church this month!

A large cut-out from a past Vacation Bible School.
This was set up in a pew two weeks ago to surprise us all. 
Yesterday he/she had a surgical mask added.
Smart critter!

I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar

 I am a leaf on the wind; watch how I soar

A few thoughts have come to mind recently and I wish to "give vent" to them. I'm sure that many have had these same thoughts before me and probably have expressed them better...

But anyway...

I have enjoyed the television show "Firefly" and I re-watch it every so often. As a long time player of the sci-fi RPG Traveller, the show seemed to me to be influenced by the game although it took it's own direction.

Many people have bemoaned the end of the show so soon. I'm not sure why it ended; maybe it was too good. But it ended and people who liked it have missed it, the characters in it, and the setting.

What if the show had gone on for a number of seasons? How would it have fared?

I'm guessing here, but I feel it would have been on for a number of years and then cancelled. It might have become stale and cast personalities might have clashed to cause an end. Then it would have been analyzed and picked apart and become a cult show for a small number. It would have been forgotten by many.

As it is, it has become a legend in it's own right and taken on a life of it's own. Personal opinion: It might be better this way. It ended as it began: on a constant high note. Continuing on would have made it "just another TV show." Now it is much more.

What's in this load?

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Rich people can go to space. We ask why they didn't feed the hungry and clothe the naked. The answer might be "What glory is in that for me?" A number of people I know are disgusted by these displays of wealth and refusal to use wealth for the betterment of all. I might be one of them.

However we'd best get used to it. Corporate exploration of space is on the way and is coming. The wealthy and the large corporations will continue to do this. I suppose there's money to be made in space... somehow. I don't think governments can be quite so single-minded.

Didn't science-fiction literature and movies/shows tell us this? Babylon 5 shows many non-governmental corporate bodies exploring the universe. The author, Poul Anderson, wrote an entire series of related books and stories about the Polesotechnic League, a loosely-bound bunch of corporate "traders to the stars" as it were. (Look up "Hanseatic League.") Frank Herbert's Dune has the CHOAM Corporation. Our own histories tell us this, to use the Hudson's Bay Company and the British or Dutch East India Companies as only two examples out of many.

It may be disgusting and aggravating and unjust in a larger sense of justice. And it may be what will happen. We'd best be prepared.

 

                                    

Of course, all this is only my opinion.

Smile when you say that, pardner.

 

     For reasons unknown to me, I've developed a taste for skirmish gaming in what might be called the Old American West. There are still plenty of skirmishes in the modern American West, but they don't interest me. The idea of a limited number of figures all armed with roughly the same weapons interests me. Something like "The Three Musketeers" sword fight gamess or Sardukar vs. Fremen in the Dune sci-fi setting holds some interest for me. So I jumped in with both feet.

Alan Quartermain... not really Wild West but close enough.
My wife insisted. (Copplestone Castings limited edition figure)

A gunfighter I named Billy Stahl
after the good friend who painted the figure for me 25 years ago.

Buffalo Bill Cody is what Reaper Miniatures calls this fellow.
He has the right rough-and-tumble look about him for the game.

Doc Holiday - another Reaper fig
Dapper and deadly.

Trooper Landry - a good start for the US Cavalry part of the game
Another Bill Stahl gift 

Reaper's Lobo Sanchez - 
Sandals, bottle, iguana... what more could I say? (Reaper)

Lobo's best friend in his bottle... I mean, his iguana, Ignatio!

Dusty... one tough guy from Reaper

Malcolm Reynolds or maybe his ancestor (Reaper)

Our lawman, Marshal O'Dowd
I have no idea how long I've had this figure and his knife.

Nameless Lambert... another Reaper figure

Pancho (Manufacturer unknown)
Short but deadly.

Pepperbox Mercer - six barrels of hurt
(Reaper)

Rustler Jake (Reaper)
I think he's a rustler since he has gloves on. He's the only working man!

Shotgun Sally (Reaper)
Beware of sunburn!

Bearpaw, a scout (RAFM figure)

Bearpaw's brother, Ed
RAFM figures come in two's... so we have twins!

Grizzly Jim (Reaper)

Pecos Wil... also from Reaper
No, they're not twins. (They were born 2 years apart.)
Yes, they are the same figure. Paint can do a lot!

Shady Kate (Reaper)
At least these Wild West gunfight females wear a bit more
than many of the D&D females.

Swift Wind (Unknown)
I thought he deserved a checked shirt.

Tall Jizelle (Reaper)
Big gun, big hat, small waist.
(I named her; Reaper called her by another alias.)

Ted the Gun (Reaper)
Very business-like.

The Madam (Reaper)
complete with lever-action Winchester.
The house NEVER loses.

Is it the payroll from the mine?
Is it fabulous documents of great import?
Is it a heart (or gizzard) for Dr. Frankenstein?
You'll have to wait for the next episode!

--From Old Glory's Maori Wars range--
British troops painted as Canadian Militia for the Fenian Raids
Maybe they'll show up at the border of a norther state...

Marshton Reynolds
The Malcom Reynolds figure painted in a variant
More than likely ready to misbehave.

Pulp Miniatures... Sergeants Three...
Probably never to be seen in the American West...
Probably... maybe...

Maeve prepared the photo shoot and approved the entire thing.

I'm looking at a few sets of rules. Simple... direct... fun. I'll let you know.

By the way, I'm back to blogging!

I'm not sure the paint is dry!

 

     Between the pandemic, some work issues (Yes, I'm still working from home during Ontario's lockdown), and teaching a T-Rex to reach 4th position on the trombone, it's been busy. I've discovered that I also like to work on multiple painting projects at the same time. Getting things done takes longer but it's not boring. Not everybody works this way, I know... but I do and I'll continue.

     Here's a few things I've been finishing on the painting table (often with Time Team on the TV in the background.) 

Medieval Irish from Wargames Atlantic
Separate heads, arms, and weapons give you a lot of options.
Many people don't like the "fiddly" nature of such figures, but I like them.
Can't you hear them yell? "Póg mo thóin!"
(Wardogs are included!)

Spanish Civil War Republican Tinzano (improvised armoured vehicle)
3-D printed for me by my good friend, Dr. Martin.
(PCE? Translation - Spanish Communist Party)

More Wargames Atlantic figures
Futuristic Einherjar from their "Death Fields" Range
The box's mythos says they were Viking raiders taken by aliens for their Death Fields sport.
Settled on high gravity worlds, their growth was stunted.
So... Space Dwarves!!

Halfling Rogues by WhizKids
The lighting is poor and I'm using a somewhat paler flesh for Caucasian types,
relying on inking for detail and contrast.

I wish I knew what this guy is. Looks kind of "undead-ish."
You never know when something like this might come in handy.

Allan Quatermain: I may have been overly rude earlier... when I called you a pirate.

Captain Nemo: And I may have been overly charitable... when I said I wasn't. But I try to live in the now... 

where the ghosts of old wrongs do not abide. (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)

Captain Nemo, captain of the submersible Nautilus

A late Roman armoured legionary by a company I think Warlord Games has absorbed.
Another Medieval Irishman armed with the ol' blackthorne stick or shillelagh.

"Gun Mages" from the Warmachine listing.
I don't play the game, but the figures were on the re-sale rack at a local games store.
I thought they'd make a good gang for my Traveller campaign. 
("We am beez lookin' fer dat crazy girl wit' all them personalities. Yez know her, heyna?")

Velociraptors from WhizKids... found in my Christmas stocking.
I love them!
Now... who makes a loose trombone for 25mm figures?

So I'm still painting and I have a battalion of Napoleonic Prussian fusileers, a regiment of ACW Union Zouaves, some WWII Soviet Naval troops, Byzantine infantry, and Napoleonic French cuirassiers in the line. I guess I have a very short attention span!