Classic Warhammer: The Empire, Part 1

Standing between the hordes of bad guys and unspeakable horrors was the Empire in the Warhammer Universe. A combined arms army, it took skill and guts to be successful on the battlefield. Our Empire Army was commanded by Honorable Son #4 (The greatest 18th Century General who ever lived). These are pictures are from before the time we had gaming mats and was definitely a Dining Room Battle!

 The might of the Empire.

The Army standard bearer next to his general.

 Pistoliers, excellent light cavalry.

 Halflings, crossbowmen and handgunners provide fire power.

 The Knights Panther; a hard hitting order of heavy cavalry.

 Grandmaster of the Knights Panther

 The toughest infantry in the Empire; the dreaded two-handed great swords!

 Empire Spearmen.

 Empire Swordsmen: The Black Eagles.

 Wizards and Battle Clerics.

 Canons are cool.

 Another view of the Army standard.

 Another view of the "Black Eagles" sword regiment.

 I had fun painting the flags. I love flags.

 The Captain of the Pistoliers.

 My skirmishers, drawn from the ranks of foresters and huntsmen. Love the powder monkey.

 "Hold until relieved!"

Great musician with horn, one of my all time favorites.

The Slayer of Men (or how I learned to like Resin D&D figures and save some money)

"Ummm . . . this is not what I was quite expecting," thought Captain John Watson, MD, Royal Medical Corps.

I was at the local gaming shop and noticed the D&D figures from WIZKIDS. Hmmm, I can use some of those for the gaming I'm doing. Most importantly I noticed the price: $5.99 US for the small packs and about $12 US for the large pacts. This figure is a small pack and is called Marilith.

The resin figure comes pre-primed and with a flat base.

All paints are Vallejo unless specifically mentioned. I started with a base of Dark Prussian Blue for the skin. Not the mold mark in the front. Before I started painted I tried removing mold lines with small, fine files and just ended up making them look worse. Either I need practice with resin or . . .

 Another view.

And then the knucklehead (me) accidentally spilled some red paint on the figure and had to prime it again with white. Unfortunately the prime obscured some of the nice details of the figure; especially the face.

 I decided to go with another color scheme and used Sky Blue and then GW Blue Wash over it. The wash was able to bring out some of the details but I still had too much paint on the face. Oh well.

 Another view.

 I like to use flat black for areas that will have metal.

 What the back of the figure looks like.

Details are being added and I noticed the resin "dot" on the front. Note the lack of detail on the face; again my fault for spilling the paint and priming the figure.

More detail and dang that dot!

The figure is complete and the basing is almost done, The figure itself really does look better than how I painted it but it will still be a great addition to games like In Her Majesty's Name and other Pulp type games.

Decided to add some tall grass as I did not like that open area on the base.

 So how does it look on the gaming table:

 Dr. Watson is drinking his tea while he keeps up a stiff upper lip.

Looking for prey.

Some of the adventurers of Miskatonic Univeristy.

Not too bad and the scale looks great with my current collection of 28 mm figures, Currently I am calling it the "Slayer of Men" until I come up with a suitable inter-dimensional evil alien being name for it.

Happy Valentine's Day: The Gaming Geeks do get the girl!

Happy Valentines Day! Who says we gaming geeks, fan boys and nerds don't get the girl of our dreams during our miniature adventures?

 My Beautiful Bride (The Chief of Staff and Minister of Finance) of 33 years and 5 months with Honorable Son #4 (The Best 18th Century General of all time).

Honorable Son #1 (The Librarian) and his beautiful bride (The Future Doctor).

 Honorable Son # 2 (The Captain) and his beautiful bride (The Future Lawyer).

Honorable Son #3 (The Engineer) and his beautiful bride (The Social Warrior) with Gracie, War Poodle 2nd Class.

Honorable Son #4 (The Best 18th Century General of all time) and Honorable Son #5 (The Skirmisher). Not quite at the time for marriage yet, but I keep seeing these women hanging out at the house.

So here's to all of our significant others who understand the special people we are that play with accurate miniature historical figures and those of other genres; or as my wife said when she met me," Those are cute toy soldiers." Talk about love at first sight!

Bob Murch's Movember Pulp Figure for 2019

Each November Bob Murch, owner and sculpter of Pulp Figures, conducts a fundraiser for men's health.

The 2019 Movember limited edition fundraiser fig is Marshal Grin Duster. The redoubtable lawman strides the West, a titan of rough justice and harbinger of doom to the outlaw kind. Grin was available in November and only by donation to the Movember campaign.

Movember is an annual, month-long event involving the growing of mustaches during the month of November to raise funds for and awareness of prostate cancer and other male cancer and mental health issues. The goal of Movember is to change the face of men's health.

Priming Figures Part 2: A Story of Black and White starring The Red Queen and DA Denton

Dang, The Red Queen looks a bit sad and I still need to fix her forehead. Time to start adding highlights. For her skin I went back over with Basic Flesh Tone to make her paler but being careful not to cover up any of the shading from the dark flesh. You may notice that I did not do a perfect job on fixing the imperfection of the molding on the forehead, but at a gaming distance on the tabletop it looks just fine.

I painted her pearls Flat Black and then just dabbed Flat White so we could see the jewelry. For the eyes (I'm not as good as I used to be with eyes - early onset of OLD), I first painted Neutral Gray as some eyeliner, then Flat Black and then some Flat White. I carefully dabbed a dot of Flat Black for the actual eyes.

I added some GW Red Wash to the hair, another coat of Neutral Gray to the gloves, and Earth Brown to the revolver handle. Eyebrows - sorta. I put some GW Skrag Brown above the eyes.

 Now I am in more familiar territory. Denton's suit is highlighted with Sky Blue, buttons are flat white and I finished the shirt first with Buff and then Flat White. The tie is Flat Red and needs some cleanup around the shirt. I took some flat brown, watered it down and used it as a wash on the overcoat. I highlighter the shoes with Flat Earth and started experimenting with the various metal paints I have for the Tommy gun.

 He looks like a mess right now, but trust me, it'll get better. Oh and I added some Flat White for the headband and used the brown wash on the hat also.

Currently where we are at in the process with both figures. I have done no highlighting of The Red Queen's Dress or shoes as the white primer brought out the highlights nicely.

 View from the back. You may have noticed I highlighted DA Denton's gloves with some Neutral Gray.

Just about done. I went back over Denton's overcoat with Buff, and added a Dark Blue line at the top of The Red Queen's glove. I just dry brushed the revolver with Silver. For the Tommy Gun I used Gun Metal and the Highlighted carefully with Silver. I also added some Flat Red highlights to the Red Queen's Hair.

 Denton is basically finished. I added GW Skrag Brown over a base of flat brown for the Tommy Gun handle. I did some additional "clean-up" with the pants and hat. The side of the base was painted Chocolate Brown.

The two completed figures. Yes that is my finger print on The Red Queens base.

 Speaking of bases, I use watered down white glue and spread it over the base . . . 

 . . . then I add hobby sand. Once the sand is dry I put another coat of watered down glue over the sand.

For static grass (I use Gale Force Nine) I randomly add some watered down white glue and dio the bases in my static grass tupperware container. And yes I did  paint over my finger print. Once dry, I spray a clear, flat finish to help hold the static grass down and to protect the paint on the figures.

Time for adventure. The Black Prime made DA Denton look rugged and the White Prime made The Red Queen stand out and look flashy and glamorous.