The Ensign

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.

500 Points of Pirates, Almost

Ready for battle! Though these guys have nothing to do with the Warhammer world, I'm using the WHFB3e rules. My army list is 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.
• Total of 239 points of characters.

Rank and File

• The Boarding Crew: Standard bearer Antônio Bandeira, musician Nicolau O Cérebro, able seamen Mankey, Ramirez and Tupac. Human shock elite +2, two hand weapons, two pistols. 84 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. Human missile elite +3, scouts and foresters. Arquebus, hand weapon. 112 points.
• The Artillery: Swivel gun, gunners Benn and Gunn. Hand weapons. 49 points,
• Total of 245 points of rank and file.

The Baggage Train

• Pack master Van Muildier, Dr. Matteo Chi. Humans, hand weapons. 10 points.
• Pack donkey Willy, 0 points.
• Total of 10 points of baggage train.

Total: 494 points.

As you can see, I went a bit crazy with eliticizing the troops. But they are rough and tough veterans. It also means that I can get a decent sized army ready with less painting (I used to have a goblin army, jeez!).

I also gave them two pistols, which is not in the rules. I reckon they could, for example, if charged, both stand and fire AND use pistols in the following round of melee. In the WHFB3 rules, pistoliers can move and fire in the same turn, so it would take full turn to load both pistols.

All this would of course be talked over and agreed upon with my opponent before a game. I would be totally cool with playing them as basic humans with single guns. I just feel they'd have more flavour like this.

The Boarding Crew, Part Two - The Command

Next up, some music and flags:

Mr. Antônio Bandeira, carrying the personal colours of the Quartermaster is a Foundry pirate, with his sword cut off and replaced with a flag pole. I gave him a another blade from the Warlord games ECW infantry. 

Mr. Nicolau O Cérebro, who, after being nearly sacrificed to the jungle gods of La Île Cannibalesque, still hears the ritual drums every night and is now a slave to the rhythm. He is a plastic fellow from aforementioned ECW set with a greenstuff beard and tricorn added.

A detail shot of the flag:

The Boarding crew so far:

Year One

It has now been one year since I took up painting again. Looking back, I'm surprised how much I've done.

I usually get about a half hour of painting done every day. Hopping from one project to another I work on 1-20 minis simultaneously which means a lot of half-dones lying around.

With these guys laid out, the funny thing is, I don't know if I've gotten a lot better at painting during this past year but I've definitely gotten a lot faster. And maybe I'm now getting more hits compared to the misses..

Anyway, as a hooray to myself, my top five pieces of the past year IMHO:

This arthropod. I'm happy with getting decent paint job onto the plastic I was having trouble with earlier. And I'm pleased with the way the light source effect turned out. I also think the pose turned out fine; the spider rearing back from the torch, probably thrown by some startled dungeon explorer who has just noticed a spider the size of a cow sneaking up on them.

This pirate. I always wanted to paint a classic pirate, but never got around to it before. Also, he was one of the early ones I did after picking up a brush again after taking a break for a decade. With him I felt like I was really getting my painting groove back on again, painting was starting to feel fast and easy, and I like the result.

These marines. Finishing a full squad was very satisfying. Also, the droids had been taunting me from my "to-paint" pile for almost 20 years. Finally done!

These watchmen. The second time a did a whole unit, and finding inspiration in classic art was surprisingly much fun.

This fellow. The paint job is crap, but he is the mini that broke the decade long hiatus!

The Watchmaker

The City's Finest: Keeping the general populace safe from arachnids and democracy.

Just a quick run-down of the making of the Watch. I remember taking more pictures, but here are most of the stages. I was a bit overwhelmed at doing a whole unit after painting just individual minis. To make sure that would actually have the energy to finish these guys, I decided to follow the ancient guideline of engineering and Keep It Simple, Stupid or KISS.

The sprue.

A pikeman assembled.

Based with one of my favorite basing materials, pine bark.

Grey undercoat.

Painting the first layer with midtone colours.

Some black ink over the metal bits and then drybrush with just the same silvery metal.

Over the rest of the colours I used a brown wash (Citadel Agrax Earthshade) and then a quick highlight with the same midtones I used earlier. Then, finally a layer of satin varnish to provide that tiny bit of protection in the harsh life of an inch tall toy soldier.

The process was quick and the result ok when viewed from a gaming distance of 0,5-1 m. Looking back, it really wouldn't have taken that much longer to add a lighter final highlight, which would have left the watchmen looking a little less flat. Still, there is something in the effect of seeing a finished whole unit that you just don't get with single minis.

The Watchmen

Patroling the streets of the Talisman City, are the watch. Encountered as an event, any scoundrels with a warrant for their arrest may have to fight patrols of variable strength  from 4 to 12. There are a total of eight Watch cards, so this time I wasn't crazy enough to do eight patrols, just enough to represent a unit of up to 12 men.

I know, not quite this:

I also know this has been done before, for example here (a good book by the way):

Some photos in formation:

And a line-up, these guys are plastic Warlord Games English civil war royalist infantry (the Watch motto of the more early medieval City: "Anachronisms over anarchy"):

And these guys are from the same line of products, but in metal:

And instead of a girl in a yellow dress, you got a dwarf in gilded armour:

She's an older acquaintance, a Ral Partha dwarf ca. 1988. Listed here (11-006) as a fighter, but I remember them being sold as clerics. I should have the male counterpart somewhere as well.

The Corrupt Sheriff

One of the fat cats of the City, the Corrupt Sheriff, the event. What kind of a cop is he? A bad cop.

He also doesn't look at all pleased with the amount of palm grease offered. Built from a Warlord Games plastic English civil war royalist infantry sprue. The only modification was chopping of his swordhand and replacing it with an open hand with a couple of shavings from the butt of a pike for coins.

Another Honest Deputy

With this mini on my hands I decided to do another version of the Honest Deputy from the City. Not just a man of high morale standards, but also a man with a heightened fashion sense.

Set against the background of a tiny metallic English civil war officer from Warlord Games.

The Sheriff

Well, I survived the over-eating over the holidays and I'm back posting.


This time a master-level character from the City expansion. Anyone can become the Sheriff by demonstrating their strength at the royal castle. After that you get the bonuses and abilities of the master-level character added to your old abilities. Very nice.

My officer of the law is a English civil war sergeant from Warlord Games. Not sure about the sculptor, tho'.


A happy New Year to everyone!