German Casualties, Tirailleurs, and... a Cultist!?

A few odd items I finished up yesterday. Another indoor rainy day capped off with watching two more episodes of Game of Thrones. We’re now halfway through the season.

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German Great War Casualties from Old Glory.

Tirailleurs Algérien from Artizan Designs. I got these three as part of the French Foreign Legion Lucky Bags. Just need to pick up a couple more packs to make a unit… for now…? I guess I could use them as guides attached to the Legionnaire units?

Tirailleurs Martien!? This is a Martian Colonial Trooper from RAFM that I’ve painted in French colours to pass off as French Indigenous Colonial Troops on Mars. On close inspection the equipment – particularly the back pack and water bottle (and rifle) have a distinctly “English” look… but I’m hoping when an entire unit is fielded no one will notice.

An odd cultist I found that I hadn’t painted when I went to re-base his brethren. The figure is one I modeled and cast myself.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

I’m working on some Great War German Jägers at the moment. More Martian Colonial troops have marched on to the painting table. I should really get painting some native Martian hordes if I’m going to do these Martian Colonial Troops…. 

Zulu Dawn (of the Dead)

I was only sort of serious when, a couple posts back, I had alluded to painting some more stuff for the Zulu War… As I think I also mentioned earlier I had recently taken advantage of some deeply discounted packs at Black Tree Design - like 70% off – who can say no to that action… anyway it wasn’t entire lines it was just the occasional pack in assorted lines… so I went though their entire catalogue… all of it… to find all the 70% off packs, because, hey, at 70% off I can find all sorts of uses for all sorts of things, right? No I didn’t buy all the 70% off packs… but I did buy a few and, in the process came across this gem:

Zulu Dawn of the Dead

I’m not sure how they thought anyone interested in the pack would ever find it – it was on the bottom of the third page of the Harlequin Fantasy Undead line – which is all pretty much standard fantasy battle undead skeletons and stuff… No mention of it anywhere near their extensive Zulu War line… Perhaps they thought the Historical Puritans would be all offended and stuff…

Anyway I ordered FOUR packs (70% off remember!) so I could put together a whole unit of them (the standard unit size of my Zulu War units is 15).

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Zulu Dawn of the Dead

(the other eight were back ordered, but now on their way!)

If I had too much money and nothing better to do with my time, I’d totally buy piles of these – and some other zombie types and do some converting – and do a “what REALLY happened at Rorke’s Drift” scenario… (The Truth being so awful and outrageous that it was covered up and said to be a second group of Zulus that had broken off from the main army – not the RISEN DEAD FROM ISANDLWANA!!)

MWA-HA-HA-Ha-Ha-ha-ha-haaaaaa…..

I also got thinking they coudl totally be used in Rippers (Savage Worlds Victorian Horror game) or Space:1889 (players get sent out to remote region of Mars to discovery what happened to a lost patrol/comapny/etc...)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Other things in red coats…

New sculpted figures

Martians, Hobgoblins, Russians, Machine-gun Jocks…

Busy days… I was up waaaay too late Friday night (Saturday morning…) and had a good chunk of the rest of the day Saturday to work on things as well. So I managed to finish up a number of things that had been haunting the workbench… and a few things that I’m not entirely sure how I got to doing… but got them done, nonetheless…

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These Hobgoblins are from Otherworld Miniatures.


Six dead or dying Bolsheviks and a Tsarist cavalry officer (presumably responsible for the state of said Bolsheviks). Four of the dead and dying Bolshies are from Battle Honors… or maybe Old Glory…? I can’t remember which now… The other dead Bolshies are actually western gun-fight figures in “dusters” that I painted to look like Bolshevik greatcoats. I got them in a trade and have no idea who manufactured them. The Tsarist Currassier is actually also a “western gunfight” figure from Crusader Miniatures old west line – the pack was, I believe, called “the Foreigners”… or something like that… It included my favourite gunslinging Scotsman!


Oenotrian artillery – Crew are from RAFM and the gun is from… Huston…? (another ebay purchase… not really sure)


A pair of Martian scout/guides – also from RAFM. Experimenting with Martian skin colour again..


Finally a Jock MG team for some Great War or Very British Civil War action. The figures are from Renegade Miniatures.

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Should have another batch of hobgoblins finished up tonight and posted tomorrow. Hopefully have those all finished off by the end of the week! Then it’s on to Zulus… or Zulu war British… or Martians…

Parhoon Rifles

While working on the Hobgoblins last night I quickly did up four of the Parhoon Rifles to try and figure out what colour to do their skin. I was never really taken with the idea of yellow skin on Martians (as the Martians in Space: 1889 supposedly have).

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I’ve done some Martians with red skin:



(Sort of John Carter-esque Martians – less the radium rifles)

I’ve also done my High Martians with orange skin:


I’m not married to the idea of red or orange. Indeed I’m okay with Martians having different skin tones (Earthlings do!?). These new Figures I’ve done up with a selection of skin tones. But I do want the units I’m working on now to be consistent. As they would all be recruited from the same region they’d most likely have a similar skin colour (so the ones below will need to be redone). I wasn’t sure about red or orange for the Canal Martian colonials. I was especially concerned the Parhoon Rifles in their green uniforms might look a little too… “Christmassy”? …with the red skin!


These are Space: 1889 Colonial Martian troops from RAFM.

last night I was thinking I actually didn’t mind that particular yellow I used… Now I'm kind of leaning towards the red or lightened orange.. The darker orange and red are the same as I used for the other Martians and the lighter orange is a mix of the darker orange and a slightly brighter yellow and a touch of pasty-white-earthling flesh tone.

I don’t know… anyone out there have any strong feelings one way or the other…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Martians and Hobgoblins

Fenian Steam Raiders

Bleh…

I’ve been sick for the last week or so, and not been doing much painting at all! I started working on the big batch o’ Hobgoblins for Mike… but then somehow got a little distracted by these…

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I think these were made for Pinnacle Entertainment Groups Deadlands… but I’m not sure by whom…?

They’re supposed to be American Steam Rocket troops or something. Now, I’m not about to make any American historical or VSF forces, so I thought these might sit in the bin collecting dust forever. I suppose I could have used them in some Weird Wild West adventure scenarios… but then I remembered a Painting of the Battle of Ridgeway which depicted the Fenians in uniforms that looked very America but with Green coats, Grey trousers and Grey Kepis. Not entirely how accurate that painting is… But this is VSF, so WHO CARES!? Anyway, these chaps have thus become Fenian Steam Raiders and might just show up to battle the colonial British wherever they may be fighting… Mars…? Canada…? Zululand…?

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

As I mentioned I’ve been working on Hobgoblins – I was trying to do them as one big batch… but that’s proved a bit overwhelming so I’m going to break it down and do them in smaller batches, the first of which should be rolling off the workbench shortly.

Also polluting the workbench and causing considerable distraction are Martians of different sorts (an Oenotrian Legion and a unit of Parhoon Rifles), Zulus, British, and some Star Wars figures?! The kids have been all about Star Wars lately so I’ve been picking up a few of the old Grenadier/West End Games Star Wars figures and planning to try a little Savage Worlds Skirmishing with them.

A Few More Zulus

Finished up a few more trial Zulus…

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These are from The Foundry. I don’t know why I keep doing ones in captured British uniforms…?

I’ve spent the last couple days basing and assembling and such and I have a unit of 20 Foundry Zulus ready to go, waiting close in the wings are two units of 20 Black Tree Zulus (one primed, the other not so much). I have a few more units of Foundry Zulus, but I need to manufacture spears for them, and I have a couple smaller units of foundry Zulus with firearms, mostly primed and ready to go… so far, including a dozen villagers, I think I have about 200 Zulus…and there should be another batch of 40 arriving in the next week or so.

Here’s a pic of the two bins...


Got my work cut out for me…

Next I’m going to try and do a whole unit of 20 unmarried Zulus (the chaps in the bottom left of the pic).

I had thought I’d finish off some Great War King’s African Rifles for my game on Friday… but I’m more excited about the Zulus at the moment and it’s always better to go with what you’re excited about!

All this thinking about colonial stuff has got me thinking a lot about Space 1889: Red Sands… and Kapitan Mors BRILLIANT post about Lord Chelmsford’s Expedition, a clever blending VSF and Star Trek, over at Tea and Tiffin has just about put me over the edge – ready to drop everything and start painting spare ancients with blue skin! Oh my!! (I have plenty of “Red Shirts” ready to go!)

I do have a few RAFM Space:1889 Martians I could paint up… but I got thinking about what else I could use as “outer-space” aliens from the other worlds that could be explored? I figured, in the tradition of the original Star Trek's cheap props and aliens that all look vaguely human, I could totally use the fantasy Elves as the inhabitants of one planet... perhaps Dwarves on another... Orcs... Hobbits… etc... I could even take some spare ancient, dark age, medieval, ECW, fantasy, or… whatever… kind of human figures I have kicking around and paint them with blue or green or orange skin and bippity-bam – instant aliens!!

Hmmmmm… I do have some spare Ral Partha Greeks and Rafm later helenistic “Imitation Legionairres” that are either surplus to my needs or not enough of to make a DBA army…

Oooooh dear…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Zulus, hopefully… or maybe Martians and aliens, if I become COMPLETELY distracted!?

I also have a few fantasy character types on the workbench that I’m painting for a friend’s D&D game. I’ll be working on those over the next week or so as well.