Second Rank, Fire!

You can expect to see quite a few somewhat similar looking posts as I work through my War of 1812 British force for Sharp Practice.

So much so that I've decided to open with a picture of everything I've done so far just to make it clear that this is a different post.

As you can see, I've added another six light infantry, completing one of the units in the Select Embodied Militia Force I'm working towards.

In case you didn't know, the Select Embodied Militia were a full-time and uniformed militia raised in Lower Canada and formed from volunteers and man vlchosen by ballot. They were much better trained than what most think of when the word militia is used and are probably analogous to what we might consider as soldiers doing national service.

There's not much to say about the six I've painted as I've approached them in exactly the same way as the last seven, and I think I managed to do them more quickly (but not by much).

I've now got twenty Line Infantry to do, so I'm tempted to do them in batches of ten now that I've got my process sorted out.

I begin with a Ghoul Grey/Grey Seer undercoat and start by giving all the black and grey sections a coat of Basilicanum Grey contrast paint. I then dry brush the trousers in Administratum Grey as it's the messiest part of the process, before moving up the model from feet to head, starting with the boots.

The black parts get a coat of Black Templar contrast paint as I go, and after I've done Flesh Tearers Red contrast paint on the jacket, I shade the jacket with Agrax Earthshade. I then use Talasaar Blue on the facings before highlighting the jacket in Mephiston Red before doing the many straps in Skull White.

I then move onto the backpack which is done simply in Black Templar, Administratum Grey and Skull White. The skin is Gulliman Flesh highlighted in Kislev Flesh, whilst the plumes on the shakos are Loren Forest washed with Biel-Tan Green. Muskets are Wildwood washed with Nuln Oil (after the metal is done) and the straps (which I realised I'd missed last time) are again Skull white.

Finally I do the metals in Leadbelcher and Retributor Armour, washing them where appropriate, before basing simply with Javis Battlezone Scatter (Fields).

It's quite laborious but I'm currently enjoying the proncess, so I want to strike whilst the iron is hot and get some more done soon.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 145

Lead Mountain: 686

Night Terrors #4: Monarch of Main Street

Returning to our ongoing quest through Night Terrors, the 80's sci-fi horror themed 7TV feature pack, we find ourselves on Main Street in the small New England town of Pilgrim's Bluff, where the covert transfer of a recently apprehended,  frightened and extremely psychic alien has caused all sorts of nightmarish visions to come to life.

I suppose it was just back luck that local celebrity, the prolific horror author Richard Bishop, was having a midnight book signing, and the feverish imaginations of his fans have spewed forth versions of his most famous creations to terrifying the town.

It's down to Sheriff Tucker, who's son Teddy has given her the lowdown on what's really happening, to try to keep the good people of Pilgrim's Bluff safe.

The action takes place in the centre of the town and pits local law enforcement (along with assorted attendees of the book signing) against the main villains of Richard Bishop's most successful works.

The police are trying to reach the bookshop (on the left) to destroy the paperbacks that are spewing forth horrors, whist the creatures are trying to get to the library (on the right) to gain access to the occult tomes stored there (this is New England, remember, it's full of that stuff).

The heroic cast is as follows:

Sheriff Alison Tucker (Star)

Richard Bishop - Author (Co-Star)

Heather Gilmore - No. 1 Fan (Co-Star)

Teddy Tucker - Plucky Kid (Extra)

4 Pilgrim's Bluff Deputies (Extras)

Reporter (Extra)

2 News Crew (Extra)

Whereas the monsters of Main Street are:

Riddles the Clown (Star)

Bloody Mary Carver (Co-Star)

Mr Creak the Scarecrow (Co-Star)

Klaus Barrow the Vampire (Extra)

Guzalu the Demon Hound (Extra)

4 Night Terrors (Extras)

I opted to use Giant Ants as the Night Terrors as not only did the profile seem appropriate, but given that the creatures from the drive-in win the second scenario, so if figured that some of them might have made their way into town via the sewers.

***

As the insects that had scuttled out of the sewers began to advance on the police cordon around the library, Sheriff Tucker ordered her nen to open fire and they blasted away, bullets ripping through several of the chitinous terrors before they got close.

Richard Bishop, deciding that he had to stop his own creations, started to sneak his way to the bookshop, with Heather Gilmore and the sheriff's son in tow.

Meanwhile, the monsters of his imagination began barreling through the square, drawn by the gunfire and the scent of violence.

Despite the success of their initial volleys, the ants just kept coming, and so the PBPD were caught by surprise when the scythe wielding straw-filled maniac, Mr Creak, suddenly appeared in their midst, cutting them down like wheat.

The police were so taken back, and couldn't seem to harm the Scarecrow, that it look like they were about to be overrun when the unlikely figures of Heather Gilmore and Teddy Tucker came charging to their rescue.

Still struggling with Mr Creak, the police looked to be in trouble, but Richard Bishop managed to channel his writer's block and keep Riddles the Clown from joining the fray.

However, the demonically fast Guzalu was able to leap into the fray as the last of the Deputies fell to Creak's bloody sickle.

Confusion abounded until Sheriff Tucker was finally able to put a bullet through the sackcloth head of Mr Creak, knocking the stuffing out of him.

Heather Gilmore's stern told reminded Guzalu that he was a bad dog and he ran off into the distance with his tail between his legs.

However, a surprise attack from an ant brought Bishop low and, with his authorial control lost, Riddles was free to beat down upon the Sheriff.

Somehow Alison Tucker managed to avoid his meaty fists and between her and Miss Gilmore, they came perilously close to bring down the curtain on his act.

But the Clown was hard to kill and kept coming back from death like De Niro on a yacht.

This left Heather vulnerable, and she too was taken down by an unexpected ant.

However, just as thing looked at their bleakest, Richard Bishop reappeared in a plot twist befitting one of his novels (his endings were never very good) and Sheriff Tucker was able to try and fail once again to take down the clown.

Things looked desperate. The demonic clown towered over them, giant ants crawled around their kegs and was that a vampire approaching?

She may be a policewoman, but Alison Tucker was first and foremost a mom. She told Teddy to get away and wait for her at the station as she and Bishop prepared for their last stand.

As the creatures swarmed in, thing looked hopeless. Numerous policemen and civilians were dead, but a good number of monsters has fallen too.

Richard Bishop told Sheriff Tucker to go to her son. He would hold the library doors until sun up. She must find out more from her son and seek to stop this horror from spreading.

***

Another close fought game. The scenario was really challenging. Although the good guys had all the guns, the villains were really tough to kill making a desperate struggle befitting a horror novel.

There were all sorts of status based shenanigans going on in the background as we both used every trick at our disposal.

The final score was 3-2 to the villains as we'd both taken out just one Co-Star, although I did manage to reduce Riddle to zero health only to be saved by SFX and Bishop did come back from the dead thanks to a script card.

The results was decided by the heroic cast being axed. Again, the ant that just wouldn't die thanks to scenario rules prevented me from returning the favour onto the villains.

This feature pack has been consistently balanced and entertaining and we're hoping for more of the same from the final scenario.

The British Are Finally Coming!

Very long time readers of this blog will be aware that eleven years ago I first put paint to miniature on some Native Americans to finally begin my long postponed War of 1812 project.

Two years later I started a United States force for use in Sharp Practice, an army that took another six years to complete.

I have finally turned my attention to their opponents. The British-Canadian army.

After completing my US Scouting Force and their somewhat unlikely artillery support, I thought I'd leave things there.

However, not having enough Native Americans to create an opposition has prevented me from ever getting around to playing a game, and so returning to the War of 1812 has sat in the back of my mind until last year.

Whilst attending one of the two Partizan shows I encountered two very persuasive chaps selling second hand miniatures at a very reasonable price to raise money for veterans.

Money exchanged hands and I walked away with an indeterminate number of Perry Miniatures plastic British Napoleonic infantry.

I immediately regretted my decision as although British Napoleonics have very much been near the top of the list of armies I always wanted (thank you Sean Bean), the concept of actually painting them has terrified me.

However, several months later, the muse has finally taken me and I sat down to work out what I could do with the miniatures I had.

A quick scan of the War of 1812 supplement for Sharp Practice told me that by using some of the Native Americans I already had (an an unpainted mounted Officer), I could put together a Militia Force with 33 infantrymen.

A quick examination of the sprues revealed that I had 34 miniatures to play with. What's more, I had though that I was going to have to use the covered Belgic shakos of the Waterloo campaign, but the sprues also held just enough plumed shakos that were more prevalent during the war.

There were also enough arms with more decorative epaulettes to denote the 12 light infantry were required and I was able to rustle up just enough 20mm round bases.

I was on a roll.

Now I just needed to paint them.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the painting process. I've been much more methodical that I ever usually am, going back and forth to source material to ensure I got them right.

There's less red to paint than you'd think, but there are a lot of white straps and lace to detail on.

These seven are the first section of Light Infantry (hence the fancy epaulettes and green plumes) along with their corporal, and I've painted them with the blue facings of the 1st Battalion of Select Embodied Militia. Conveniently, these were also the colours of the 1st (Royal Scots) Regiment of Foot, which gives me options to deploy these models as British Regulars as well.

I'm really pleased with this first batch and keen to get on with some more.

Whether this enthusiasm holds remains to be seen.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 139

Lead Mountain: 692

When Projects 'Drag On'

I previously mentioned that I wanted to add a little something to my D&D Villains cast for 7TV...I may have lied about the 'little'.

This is Marduk the Tyrant from Archon Studios, a model I picked up from the UK Games Expo in 2024 as it clearly bears a significant resemblance to Tiamat from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon (fun fact: Tiamat and Marduk are both figure from Babylonian mythology).

Obviously, there are a few differences, including the Archon model not having the same body shape as Snarf from Thundercats.

She was a third-party antagonist in the show who was equally an enemy to Venger as to the children. She also had a multi-tonal voice which suggest that she smoked too much.

I built the model almost as soon as I got it back home and the model went together really well, and encouraged me to potentially pick up some more of the Archon models in the future.

I then set about painting, using mainly contrast paints, with a little dry brushing and highlighting for good measure. However, I ran out of steam after getting base coats on as I think I became a bit daunted by the heads.

With hindsight, I should have left all but the central head off the model and painted them separately, as I had a bit of a nightmare getting contrast paint into all the books and crannies around the necks.

If you are picking up this model for yourself, sub-assembly is you friend.

However, having painted up the other Villains, I felt I really out to get back to Tiamat.

I sorted out the red bits of the main body I'd missed before giving the whole model a Mephiston Red dry brush. I then approached each head one at I time, breaking the project into doable chunks until she was done.

Here she is with Venger for scale.

I pleased to have go her done and I'm pretty sure I can put together a decent sized cast to attack Matt's D&D kids with. I'll just have to come up with a very thin excuse for all these Villains who hate each other to have teamed up.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 132

Lead Mountain: 692

Forgotten Foes

In 1983, as Dungeons & Dragons was entering mainstream consciousness (in both positive and bizarrely negative ways), both a cartoon series and a toyline were commissioned to capitalise on the growing success of the game.

Unfortunately, these two franchises didn't really communicate with each other, leading to the confusing (for 7 year old me) situation where what I was watching on TV bore no relation to the toys I was playing with.

The collection of villainous miniatures I've painted this week reflects this somewhat uncoordinated merchandising strategy.

You can tell their villains. They're all dressed in black and red.

The miniatures were kindly printed for me by Matt when he was printing his 7TV cast, the kids from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. He'd picked up the STLs somewhere along the line and he did a whole batch and passed on the villains to me.

I think he'd admit that these sculpts were somewhat problematic to print and there was more than a bit of tidying up to do, particularly with regard to missing fingers, and I believe that Shadow Demon didn't survive at all.

The most recognisable of the bunch is obviously Venger, both foot and mounted. The primary antagonist of the cartoon series, a terrifyingly powerful dark sorcerer with jefions of minions  and perpetually in pursuit of the magic weapons held by...checks notes...six children.

These sculpts frighten me. Not just because it's Venger, but because the wings are incredibly thin and fragile. In fact one of the mounted model's wings broke whilst the supports were being removed and has been fixed with liquid greenstuff and blind hope.

The model on foot just needed a new index finger.

Kelek the Sorcerer has the unique honour of fitting in three separate categories in this group. He was part of the original toyline, he featured in a grand total of one episode of the cartoon series, and he's the only one of the bunch that I owned a toy of (if you're interested, I also had Warduke, Strongheart, Ringlerun, Elkhorn and Melf/Peralay - a pair of Gamorrean Guards served as Kelek's pig-faced Orc minions.

Zarak is an assassin. He's also technically a Half-Orc whose about the size of a Goblin. Apparently, back in the early editions of D&D Half-Orcs were quite short, although given that their average size is 5'6", Zarak is still short.

That's probably what turned him into a villain.

Like Kelek, he was part of the original toyline, but he didn't make it onto TV outside of commercials.

I had to replace his left hand due to the aforementioned finger issues.

Skyllar the Witch is an even more obscure character than Zarak, as she didn't even make it into the action figure range, but did get featured in a smaller scale monopose range of toys from the same time.

She's technically the apprentice of the hood wizard Ringlerun, but was corrupted by a magic item called the Heartstone.

Anyway, I needed to give her a hand swap as well.

Here's the group stood with Warduke, who I painted several years ago. Although Venger is arguably the most famous D&D villain of all time after Hugh Grant, the others did get their time in the sun. They were featured as special characters in The Shady Dragon Inn supplement for D&D and have continued to feature in adventure supplements down the years since.

So it seems I now have a good chunk of a D&D themed 7TV cast. If only there was someone I knew who has an era appropriate cast of magic item hoarding small children I could harass.

There's just one 'small' addition I'll need to make first...

Acquired: 76

Painted: 131*

Lead Mountain: 693*

* Stats watchers might be wondering, but I've also painted three more street tiles for my Carnevale board. They're in the pictures if you look carefully.