Still doing some (Caribbean) pirate stuff occasionally! En route to hunt the fabulous treasure of The Great Bonanza, the pirate captain João made a stop at Boca da Pousada, the home town of Aleixo Zadok, one of the crewmembers.
Boca da Pousada was made particular by it's close ties to another town located just a few miles off the coast. And what is particular about the other town is, that where stands, there are no islands. But that hasn't stopped the two communities from trading and intermarrying, leading to the prosperity of Boca da Pousada, as well as it's citizens, among other peculiarities, having very sharp teeth, an appetite for raw meat and rarely bothering to blink. And the only reported downside has been a few cases of fratricide in utero.
In Boca da Pousada, captain João was joined in the treasure hunt by seaman Zadok's cousin, captain Carlinhos Dagon do Tubarão-Y'ha-nthlei da Vanda. Referred to, in dread by seafarers, as "The Devil of the Depths", "Jaws" or simply as "That Fish Called Vanda".
Pictured below is captain Carlinhos da Vanda, with his pet mollusk "Fofo" on his shoulder.
Any similarities to the any writings by a certain Mr. Lovecraft are more than coincidental.
Captain João's mate Walker was driven to a life piracy, when, at the tender age of seven he watched helplessly, as his pirate parents fell off the cliffs into the sea, pursued by an angry mob in the middle of a raging thunderstorm. With parents like that and the harsh life of an orphan, he felt compelled to take up the career of a criminal. He knows that many of things he does are wrong. But his tears dried up a long time ago, so he had a single tear tattooed on his right cheek as a testimony to his cruel fate. Because of this he goes by the name of Jack "Cry-Matey" Walker.
Inspired by three items:
1. Character A:
"Jack Sparrow" from Pirates of the Caribbean, Gore Verbinski 2003, property of Walt Disney Pictures
2. Character B:
"Cry-Baby", from Cry-Baby, John Waters 1990, property of Universal Pictures
3. The universal truth, that love songs can be turned into sea shanties by replacing every instance of "baby" with "matey", as explained here by talking dinosaurs.
Ensign Nicolas "Nigh-Middle-Aged-Nick" Cifer, carrying captain João's personal colours.
He is a Warlord Games English Civil War mini. The flag is cast and quite wavy at that, so I couldn't paint legibly the captain's motto: "Mortem Ad Phantasma Ambulans". It seems captain João has a lot of beef with the natural enemy of pirates.
Three more pirates to fill the ranks of the boarding crew.
Daniel "Dapper Dan" Soggy Bottom, Elaine Morfil, an angry lady since her dashing pirate fiance turned out to be a drunkard and eventually alligator feed and Quamino.
The ships's doctor's assistants take care of the medical supplies. The pharmacological options are rather limited, but what they have (rum), Mercedes and Bartolomeu make sure it is constantly monitored and sampled to ensure it's quality.
Robert "Prince of Whales" Morfil had a career as a successful whaler until his crew sighted a pale whale of enormous proportions. The attempt to kill the beast ended badly, costing several crew members their lives and captain Morfil his right leg. Mutilated by the giant of the seas, Rob Morfil said "Sod this!" and retired to raise alligators with his brother and sister-in-law for the reptiles' hides and tasty tail meat. The business was good, until one day, when Robert's brother, after sipping rum since breakfast as he was often prone do, fell into the alligator pen and was quickly devoured. After that, the farm didn't feel quite as homey, and when the pirate captain Red João's cook came by to stock up on alligator meat, Robert and his sister-in-law Elaine decided to sign up on João's crew. Rob now holds the position of master-at-arms, charged with keeping the peace aboard the ship. He does this very effectively, throwing his considerable weight around as needed, as well as keeping his two pet alligators, Sebek and Nefernefer close by, which is usually quite enough for troublemakers to see the benefits of finding a peaceful solution to quarrels.
A giant of a pirate from Reaper by Gene van Horne. Very fun to paint because there was a lot of skin to put tattoos on. The reptiles are from Foundry's African animals range, so they are actually crocodiles, but don't tell them.
So far, using the WHFB3e rules, I have an army as follows:
Characters
Captain Red João
level 20 human hero, cutlass and dagger, two pistols. 110 points.
Quartermaster Mimbah Odide
level 15 human hero and falconer, cutlass and dagger, two pistols. 88 points.
Bosun Jean-Baptiste Thibaud
level 5 human hero, forester and scout. Cutlass and dagger, arquebus and pistol. 41 points.
Mambo Asogwe Joséphine de Belleville and Mabuya the vulture
level 20 necromancer, demonic familiar, hand weapon. 240 points.
Grand Zombi Lee
level 5 undead hero, two handed weapon, hand weapon, protective ancestral bone (counts as shield). 33 points.
Total of 512 points of characters.
Rank and File
The Boarding Crew: Standard bearer Antônio Bandeira, musician Nicolau O Cérebro, able seamen Mankey, Ramirez, Tupac, Cleisthenes Deliverance, Florencio Vasco, Gilius Stoutbeard and Fridhmund Långstövel.
8 human and 1 dwarf, standard and musician, shock elite +2, two hand weapons, two pistols. 145 points.
The Buccaneers: Standard bearer Jean-Guy Thibeault, musician Jean-Marie Thibault, midshipman Hector Sauvage, able seaman Jean-François "Petit-Jean" Thibeaud, seaman Jean-Yves Thibaut.
6 human missile elite +3 scouts and foresters. Standard and musician. Arquebus, hand weapon. 112 points.
The Artillery:
Swivel gun, gunners Benn and Gunn. Hand weapons. 49 points,
Cannon, gunners Saomete, "Tiny" Timoteo and Hjalmar "El Rubio" Grönbyxor. Hand weapons. 60 points.
The Zombis
19 zombies. Standard and musician. Spears and shields. 105 points.
Total of 471 points of rank and file.
The Baggage Train
Pack master Van Muildier. Human, hand weapon. 5 points.
Dr. Matteo Chi. Human, hand weapon. 5 points.
Navigators Geoffroi Le Pierthy and Geoffroy LePerdu. Counts as 1 human, hand weapon. 5 points.
Vultures were bad news also in 1932 (Victor Halperin: White Zombie, United Artists)
What would an evil wizard be without a demonic familiar? Sorceress de Belleville's familiar has taken the form of a vulture named Mabuya ('Evil Spirit' or 'Ghost' in Taino. Subtle!).
I sculpted the bird from modelling putty over a wire frame and took the colours from the turkey vulture*, indigenous to the Caribbean.
*Fun fact: Turkey vultures cool themselves through urohidrosis i.e. emptying their bowels and bladders on their well vascularized feet. The evaporating water from the feces removes heat from the circulating blood in the skin. Like sweating but far more disgusting.
This ended up being a bit more graphic than what I usually write, so just in case: Warning, content not suitable for sensitive readers!
As for anyone willing to read on, get your boots on, because we're going to be knee-deep in pulp.
The name of the sorceress de Belleville is spoken in fearful whispers throughout the islands. But when she was born, she was named Joséphine. Her mother was Marie, a slave on the plantation Éden, surrounded on all sides by swamps and thick jungles and owned by Joséphine's father, the marquis de Belleville who paid no heed to his illegitimate daughter, beget not of love nor lust, but of ownership. Joséphine grew, working the fields as soon as she could walk while Marie and her brother Toussaint stood watch over Joséphine as much as they could, teaching her what little they knew of the songs and the words of protection of the old country. When Joséphine was eight years old, her uncle dropped a cask of expensive port he was carrying, shattering it. Seeing this, marquis de Belleville flew into a rage and ordered the slave to be flogged, refusing to give the order to stop while strips of flesh were torn from Toussaint's bleeding back. Crying, Marie threw herself at the marquis de Belleville's feet, begging for the life of his brother as well as the uncle of the marquis' daughter. But her words only fueled de Belleville's anger, for he did not appreciate the mention of his blood coursing through the veins of a slave's offspring. When the marquis threatened to have Joséphine put to death, Marie grabbed her daughter and ran. The escape from the plantation was easy, for they were close to the swamp's edge, and none of the guards were very eager to follow them. The hostile surroundings of the plantation were an effective deterrent to escaping, for they were filled with hostile wildlife and travel on the treacherous ground was slow and exhausting. After several hours, as night was beginning to fall, it finally looked as if mother and daughter were about to reach firmer land. Then, wading through shallow water, Marie suddenly screamed in pain. Joséphine turned to watch in horror as her mother fell face first into the water while her leg was pulled back by the teeth of an enormous alligator that were sunk into Marie's shin. The terrified girl tried in vain to hold onto her mother's hand as she was pulled deeper, her screams dying under the murky waters. Suddenly alone and lost, Joséphine lay down under a large magnolia, hoping never to get up again. The predators in the night would surely have made sure that Joséphine had found her final resting place, had her mother's screams not attracted the attention of Bagnamanay, a medicine man far from his village out gathering healing herbs and poisonous frogs. Bagnamanay took the catatonic girl back to his village and with the help of his witch doctor colleagues slowly nursed her back to the land of the living. Joséphine was taken into the tribe, learning their ways and speech. As she grew, it became apparent to Bagnamanay that the girl possessed the potential for great power of sorcery and the shamen taught her the ancient chants and herbal brews of the jungles and her growing abilities as a healer and a soothsayer benefited the tribe. But the day of her mother's death never left Joséphine's mind, and often wandering in the woods, she lent her ear to the whispers of the dead and the unborn lingering under the waters of the bog and amidst the roots of the trees of the jungle. Her fear found a kindred in the fear of the spirits, her anger in their anger, her hate in their hate and her bitterness in their bitterness. The secrets Joséphine learnt from the ghosts and the demons gave her powers she could not have imagined before. The village was her home and the tribe her family, and she began to guard them jealously. The young sorceress punished anyone she saw as threat to her family, be they strangers or not. With vile witchcraft Joséphine bent the minds and bodies of her enemies to her will. Soon the witch ruled the tribe unopposed, a queen against whose wishes none dared to speak. With the might now in her hands, Joséphine took the warriors of the tribe and her dark minions and marched to Éden to exact revenge on the marquis de Belleville, only to discover that the plantation had already been abandoned a year before, after two hurricanes and an outbreak of cholera had made living in the malaria-ridden conditions unbearable, and more importantly, financially unsustainable. Her lust for revenge unsated, the witch queen swore to find the marquis. She would take everything he possessed, not out of greed, but by birthright, and would visit torment and agony on the man fate had cruelly made her father. To herald her coming triumph over the source of her misfortune, Joséphine took on the name of the most frightful demon she had encountered and soon a mention of mambo asogwe de Belleville would cause the most callous cutthroats to hastily cross themselves and to look fearfully over their shoulders. Now, through portents and spies, the sorceress de Belleville has learned that the marquis de Belleville is searching for the fabled treasure of Great Bonanza. Interestingly, it has come to the witch's attention that the pirate captain Red João is also on Great Bonanza's trail, and that the pirate has also found the means of locating the legendary prize. A perfect chance to beat the marquis to the goal and to set a trap..
A lovely mini from Reaper by Julie Guthrie. She's a great sculptor. Not necessarily the best in the world, but I have a special fondness for her style because the first minis I ever bought were her sculpts.
The mini came with a voodoo mask that would fit on her face, I used it as the standard for the zombis.
I think the paint job looks better in real life. I really should build a proper light box to get better pictures.
Not really related:
Despite the rocking title, seems like a terrible movie. I found a condensed 10 minute version on Youtube, and got too bored to watch it halfway through.
"And that's a frog. I get a sense you people aren't even trying."
Because a horde of 20 zombies is very unwieldy on tabletop as separate pieces, I started to make some movement trays. It takes some time and effort to make a nice movement tray, and you always find some cool mini you want to add to the unit, or perhaps you just want a character to join a unit during a game, making the movement tray too small. So I made the tray a bit bigger and sculpted some filler pieces that can be replaced with characters etc. as need be.
A tray in progress.
My trays have a decorated edge, glued to a rubber coated metallic sheet so the magnetic bases stick nice and firm.
"Men! Pay no heed to this sorcery! Follow me, for booty calls!"
I made one tray edge out of plasticard, but at least with my tools it was quite a chore resulting in an annoying amount of statically charged plastic dust that was hard to clean up and will probably end up floating in the oceans (I hope they get this working).
Better results were achieved with gluing four layers of thin cardboard (from a box of porridge flakes) together with PVA glue and cutting it with a carpet knife.
This pirate landing party took a wrong turn at that big magnolia and straight into the hands of mambo de Belleville.
I went with a subdued, greyish palette in contrast with the more vivacious pirates. I also gave these guys a more uniform colour scheme, 'cause one of horrors associated with zombies is the loss of personality, right? Also, it was faster to paint them like that..
Related watching:
Captive in the borderland between life and death, her brain drained of the life-spark, the "White Zombie" obeys the unholy commands of her demon master!
As that line clearly suggests, a great movie!
More zombi. This time caught hunters of neighbouring tribes and tribesmen deemed criminal.
More Foundry minis, from their Aztec range.
I'm a lot happier with the stitching over their mouths this time. I used the same cotton string as in with the previous posts, but rolled out the threads to get a "plate" of stitches. Not quite pleased with the paint job on the shields, though. But I know I'm too lazy to go back and fix them..
Among the slaves, old Olamilekan was the one who could speak to the ancestors. With the power of the ancient songs he could break the fever and stop the bleeding of wounds. He carried bones of his ancestors that protected him from harm. But these small powers could not shield Olamilekan from the terrible might of the witch de Belleville when the band of escaped slaves he had guided through the treacherous, alligator-infested swamps, were captured by the foul sorceress. Unlike his companions, with the ancestors watching over him, the old healers mind wasn't completely obliterated under the voodoo curse. He was still a person, even if a shadow of a person. He had a name, Lee. But sometimes he almost remembered that wasn't his name, not his whole name. And if Lee could remember his true name, maybe he could find his will again..
A undead champion for the zombis. Also a musician with a greenstuff drum and a standard bearer carrying a mask that came with the mini for the voodoo priestess de Belleville. But you'll still have wait a little longer to see her!
News of Red João procuring guidance to the fabled Great Bonanza soon reached the ears of the feared witch, mambo asogwe de Belleville. She offered an alliance to the pirate captain, to aid with her mystical powers and the manpower of her servants in the search for the legendary treasure. Because captain João's guide, navigator Le Pierthy, cursed to exist as a bodiless head, was living proof of what happened to those who braved the safeguards of the Great Bonanza unprepared, João accepted the offer. But he soon wished he hadn't. Of the pirates' new allies, the first to arrive were some unfortunate slaves who had escaped into the wilderness. Exhausted and starving they came upon a native village, where de Belleville resides as the villages protector and de facto leader. When the desperate slaves were caught, trying to steal food from villagers' stores, her justice was cruel. Through dark magic and the clever use of natural toxins, those the Witch deems criminals are damned into a shadow existence, knowing neither pain nor fear and having no will save that of their mistress. The only thing they crave, is to eat salt, which would release them from their torment.* To prevent this, their mouths have been sewn shut with crude stitches.** The presence of these creatures is most unnerving to the mortal pirates, but none of them dares to ask de Belleville to leave for the fear of sharing the fate of her servants. * The current hypothesis is that the perpetuation of the "zombi state" requires the body to be hyponatraemiac for the toxins used to remain effective. This causes an overpowering hunger for salt and the fast increase in blood sodium levels after consuming large quantities of salt leads to central pontine myelinolysis (breakdown of the white matter of the brainstem) and death of the "zombi". ** The crudeness of the stitching of due to their creator being well versed in the dark arts and witchcraft and less so in actual arts and crafts. Any connection to the author's poor modelling skills are purely coincidental.
These unfortunate souls (soullesses?) are tribal warriors from the Wargames Foundry Darkest Africa -range.
They stand a bit shorter than the pirates, so I put some cardboard between them and their bases to add a little height. You can also still see the little numbers on the back of the bases I painted while basing them, to make sure that they still rank up when finished without them poking their spears in each other's backs.
I added bits of string for the stitches over their mouths. Not quite happy with the way that turned out, with just two bits of string, they look more like fangs, which not what I wanted at all. The paint job I like better, I just went for a sickly green with some blue on the noses, lips and fingers to suggest cyanosis.
