February 10, 2014

Let your freak flag fly

Sometimes you just have to get naked and let your hair down


February 4, 2014

boom chaka lakka

I was going to do this months ago for an artillery themed contest, but never got to it.

Now seemed like a good time to get around to it, since I need something to work on while the snail putty dries. The next themed empire contest focuses on doing red uniforms, so I chose this high contrast color scheme for how neat it looks, as well as its suitability as an entry for that.
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The crew figures are really fun sculpts full of character, and painted up very quickly.  The culverin is from EM4 / Mirliton, the figures are from a Foundry medieval artillery crew set.



I really don't need more artillery pieces, but they are fun to paint, and well, I collect Empire. . . it's not about needing more artillery pieces at all. It's about unleashing fury like the angry fist of a drunken god on anyone across the table from you.

(and yes, I have a few more artillery pieces yet in the closet of woe)

Look at that S Car Go!

It all started innocently enough. A curious Smithsonian article about medieval manuscripts. After reading it, I googled for other commentaries on the subject, but mostly for more examples, of which I found plenty.

The more I looked, the more I realized I could not resist making something to pay homage to this weird affectation of the scribes of old.

I had two competing ideas, and true to form I decided to tackle both, rather than come to a decision regarding which one made more sense.

To that end, I began sourcing various snails.

The first of these creations finally came to fruition last week.



The militia figures are from Ebob's Rebellion range. The snail came from Archie McPhee, though it is no longer available from them.  Resin walls by Fenris Games, and the roadbed is from Lemax.

The other project is underway, but is taking much longer since it requires a fair amount of sculpting, and while I've done a little here and there, I've never tackled anything like this. I have started a bunch of new projects to have on the go so I can paint other things while I wait for putty to dry. I can only get a little bit done each day because of that, so until I get the putty work done, it will likely be sometime before Snail Duel #2 graces these pages.

I made a bit of noise on a few forums to see if anyone else wanted to join me in this madness, and a fair number of folks expressed interest. As these things normally go, many of them did not have anything completed by the deadline we'd set to share them all by. But there is one exception! The greatly talented BeePie made this wonderful interpretation of the brief:



A direct link to this image is worth it so you can enjoy it at full size. You can see more of his excellent work here!