Fantasy Masters

Last fall I started a couple new Savage Worlds campaigns. One, on Saturday evening, was using the old TSR AD&D Dragonlance campaign. The players made their own characters that I fit into the campaign (which is really written for use with pre-generated characters, but making your own is more fun). Around that time I’d painted some fun cartoony fantasy figures (Dork Tower and Cerebus and Thrud) which were a lot of fun and I also happened to start sculpting again and I got thinking… “Wouldn’t it be fun to do some cartoony figures for my players characters…?”

One Sunday afternoon in September I sat down and drew pictures of the various characters. A couple days later I got sculpting. It was going good for a bit – but it’s a long process for me and I got going on other things… and they only worked in fits and starts…

I had originally wanted to keep it a secret until I had them all done... but the project stalled and I also didn't get them done in time for Xmas (which I'd originally planned to do)... of course no one was really showing up for games in December anyway... so... Anyway, here's what I've got done so far!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Here’s a pic from my sketchbook of the original drawings:


These are the first three I finished:


From left to right are: Lorena Whiteswan, Henry FitzArnulf, and Roscoe Thorngage.


Their backsides – all kitted out for adventuring. I was inspired a bit by Citadel Miniautres, who used to make some great character adventure figures that had lots of adventuring kit dangling off of them…


These are the masters of the above figures. They're kind of leaning against each other because otherwise they'd topple over... not terribly well balanced figures...

These are the masters of the remaining characters:


From left to right are: Norfindel, Marcus Cabot, Magnus Blackburn, and Curly. Magnus is actually finished… I just have to get around to making a mould and trying to cast one.

Unfortunately Curly is dead. He did die an “obscure death”, however... so I could conceivably reintroduce him to the campaign… washed out to sea… found half dead on the shore… captured by Draconians…

I was actually torn as to whether I should make moulds and cast them or just paint the masters. How many am I ever really going to need?! Ultimately I decided to make moulds and cast them. Though I lose some of the detail, I just really like the WEIGHT of metal minis…

Sample 1812 Infantryman

As I mentioned in the previous post I finished up some moulds of the first batch of 1812 infantry and got casting them last night. Unfortunately all of the British regulars were miscast – the one, below, was the least messed up so I primed and painted him anyway just to see what he’d look like. (I’ve sorted out the casting issue and should be cranking more of these out shortly…). Before I get to basing and presenting entire units I’m going to have to make a flank company figure, an ensign, and an officer… and maybe a drummer…?

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


War or 1812 British Infantryman (41st Regiment of Foot) - modeled, moulded, cast and painted by yours truly…


…and the backside…

Well, obviously, I ain't no Perry Brother... but when there's a hundreds of them on the table in dense formation... who's going to notice?!

The militiamen I have didn’t turn out quite as bad – I should have a stand or two of those painted up shortly (of course they will be posted over at Analogue Hobbies first as part of the 2nd Annual Winter Painting Challenge…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I have some more Great War Jocks on the workbench and ready for painting… but they may be eclipsed by these War or 1812 figures….

As mentioned I also have some sculpting to do (flank company figure, ensign, officer, drummer, etc…)?

Hey, I just realized it’s five years ago today that I started this blog… This is the 811th post.

Bolsheviks!

I finally started casting some of my new Bolshevik figures. I ran out of RTV Rubber and so only had enough to make one mould - there are three others in the works (another rifleman and a lewis-gunner that are ready for moulding, and an officer who is not quite finished yet). Here are a handful of painted samples of the first Rifleman... (click on pic for a bigger version).


Heroes of the Workers Struggle (...or something like that).

End of May Update: Last of the Russians and Other Distractions

Well in the last update (last week) I was pretty much done everything I had planned for May..

Well I haven’t finished the Chinese SPAD… and I didn’t prep and prime (or paint) any new Chinese infantry units…

Here’s what I did finish up

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I did finish the Russian’s C-in-C. He’s also from West Wind Production’s Cowboy Wars line (as mentioned in the last update).


I also finished up some Big Game Hunters from Coppelstone Castings. I picked these up as they could be used both in Pulp Adventure games as well as be the base of unit of British volunteers in some sort of Great War in Africa campaign.


I am also more or less finished up the Bolshevik masters… I might do a little touching up here and there and the officer still needs an arm, etc. But they’re well on their way…


I signed up for a Board Game Geek account and wasted a lot of time cataloguing all my games. Of course going through all those games got me to thinking about playing them and I also stumbled across these half-painted RoboRally figures… So I did a bit of work on them… they’re still not quite finished… but just about…

I also haven’t done an illustration for the Hero’s Gambit poster. I pulled out my pens and realized they were all thoroughly gummed up for lack or use and realized I haven’t gotten Photoshop or Illustrator … or any sort of graphics program on my new computer… yeha, not sure how I’m going to sort that out just yet…

So.. for June. Well in the It’s Good to Have a Plan I had set out to accomplish the following things in June:

1. Finish off any Chinese or Russians

2. Make moulds and start casting Bolsheviks

3. Start sculpting Indians inc. a new British officer figure, two Indian riflemen, one Indian Lewis-gunner, and a generic Indian crewman kneeling.

Well I think I’m on track and that’s all do-able. I have no Russians to finish off so that’s one less thing. I might cast another handful of Russians, when I cast the 6 odd Chinese, I need and paint them up as White Russians in Chinese service. I’ll just add finishing off the SPAD to the “Finish off Chinese category”…

Finishing and making moulds of Bolsheviks should be no problem. Nor should getting started on Indians….

If I get ahead of myself I’ll maybe try and paint a few pirates and make a couple pirate ships.

New Figures

Here are some new figures that I cast recently. Some were for the Vimy project, others... well... not so much...

First some higlanders (click on the pics for a bigger version):


Front; Rifleman, Rifleman, Officer, Lewis-Gunner, Rifleman. I also did a jock tossing a bomb. Somehow he didn't end up in this line-up.


Same jocks from the back.

I finally finished up a Lewis Gunner for my regular Canadian Infantry:


Front only....

My King's African Rifles will be needing someone to fight so I modeled a German Shutztruppe Askari:


Front and back

I made a British Lewis Gunner in tropical Kit:


Front and back

....and because he didn't quite look right with my old British rifleman in tropical kit I made a new one....



I made a mistake makin the mould so this lad's pith helmet is a tad wider than it should be and his face looks a bit screwy... Ah well.... It's all a learning experience, right?

Next I'm going to start work on some Great War era Indians and some Bolsheviks. Once the Vimy stuff is over I want to take a bit of a break from the western front and play around in the Back of Beyond and East Africa for a bit...

Vimy Update

Here are some pics and a report on the progress of the Vimy Project.

Last week I finished painting all the figures I need for the scenario. All of the figures below I modeled, molded, cast and painted myself since last November (with the exception of the two British and two German trench mortar teams and three British officers that I will be using as staff officers – they are all from Renegade Miniatures).

Hopefully I will be all finished the terrain for Monday when I am planning on playing the scenario on the 90th anniversary of the battle – it’s even Easter Monday – as it was in 1917.

(click on the pictures for a bigger version)


There’s the whole she-bang! Two brigades of Canadians (the 11th and 12th), two regiments of Germans, plus an additional battalion of Canadians (the 85th), and two batteries of trench mortars each. Doesn’t look like much. Dang it was a lot of work!


A close-up from the German end.


A close-up from the Canadian end.

The playing area is pretty small; 4’x4’. This is mostly due to that maniac vision of doing the whole corps attack one day. At the far end of the Corp’s line of advance the table will have to be 8-10’ deep at the same scale. Going any bigger would be silly.

The terrain is being build up on 4 – 2’x2’ MDF boards.


There’s the four boards of MDF with the trenches and elevation lines all laid out.


Close-up of the same thing.


Starting to cut the foam.

Stay tuned for an After Action Report of Monday's battle!

More New Fgures

I finished up some masters for a pile of new figures last week. Seven actually. Mostly Great War Germans, a couple higlanders, and a King's African Rifles askari.

I made moulds on Thursday and Friday and then cast a hundred or so on Saturday. I started painting them last night. Here's the first unit the KAR askaris.

(click on picture for a bigger version)

More New Figures

A couple more new figures rolled off the production line in the last couple days....

For those of you not aware these are figures I am modeling, moulding, and casting myself. They are about 30mm.


First a Cossak Cavalryman. I started this guy last fall and had hoped to have him donw in time for the Back of Beyond game I ran at the Hero's Gambit. I didn't and then he got shelved when I started work on my Canadian masters. I thought I'd bring him down and finish him off while I was workin on the Germans. Of course finihsing him has got me all pumped about the Back of Beyond again and that threatens to derail my focus on the Vimy Project. Luckily I have no more horses (the Horse is made by Hinchliffe) so it's not a really big threat.... I will have to get some in the near future and add a Cossack horde to my White Russian army.



Back on track... Here is another late war german. Front and back of marching figure.


...and I finally finished up the Canadian bomb tosser. The only figures I have left to finish up for my Canadian Infantry are the Lewis gunner and the Staff Officer. I will at some point make my own Vickers and gunners and a trench mortar and crew, but for this year I am just going to buy a couple of each.

New Figures

While working on all the great war figures for the Vimy Project I decided to make a couple of pulp adventure figures of my own just for laughs. Here are the first two. Click on the pictures below for a bigger version.


The first is a Tramp Steamer Captain. Can anyone guess who the one on the left was painted to look like...?


Next up are some Cultists. I always wanted my own cult of followers. Now I have them. I've started on a second cultist figure that will have an open sleeve that a hand carrying either a knife or a revolver or a torch can be pinned and glued on to. perhaps I'll paint up two cults and have a skirmish wargame between two rival cults! These red ones will be The Crimson Death Cult!


Here I was experimenting with some different colour schemes. These will be (from left to right); The Jade Death Cult, The Violet Death Cult, and ... uh.... The Sons of the Hobgoblin....? I don't know what possessed me to paint him like that. When I was finished I looked at him and was suddenly reminded of a supervillain... I think it was from the Spiderman cartoons I watched as a kid, and I think his name was the Hobgoblin... any comic nerds out there that can correct of verify this?


This is what the "green" from the cultist figure looks like.

There'll be more. Stay tuned...

"Old" Minis

These aren't really THAT old, really. They're just not the newest ones I've made (which I posted pictures of yesterday). All of these were modelled, cast, and painted earlier this year. Mostly in September and October. I thought I'd post them here as well for anyone that hasn't seen them yet.

First is a 28/30mm British Infantryman advancing in tropical kit.


Front


Back


Here's two battalions of them. The officers are from Coppelstone Castings.

Next are some more pics of my 28/30mm 1920's Chinese Warlord Troops.


The front of the two original infantrymen (I've added a third one, you can see it in the post before this one)


The back of those same Chinese infantrymen


A Regiment of four battalions (again the officers are from Coppelstone Castings).


Chinese Cavalrymen. The horses are 25mm Hinchliffe from the Colonial Connection and the officer and his horse are, once again from Coppelstone Castings).

Next are a bunch of 1914 British. They're a bit smaller, more of an "old school" 25mm (1/72). Here is a pic for size comparison:


From left to right: a British Officer from Coppelstone Castings), my own 1914 Highlander (see below), my own British Infantryman in tropical kit (see above)


The 1914 Highlander.


Another view of the Highlander. Can anyone guess what Tartan I was trying to paint?


A battlaion of Highlanders.


1914 Naval Brigade. I have since repainted his hat to be the correct navy blue...


Fronts of the 1914 Tommies


Backs of the 1914 Tommies


A battalion of 1914 British Infantrymen.