First half of the Pavesiers done.

So, here they are:

 Scruffy townsfolk behind bright colourful shields... Medieval working class warriors, of sorts.

Here's their banner:

The symbol on the blue streamer that forms the top of the flag is a crossed mash paddle and ladle, signifying that this unit of militia consists of members of the Brewers Guild. (Each guild in a medieval city, which my fantasy setting is heavily influenced by, was obliged to be able to arm their membership and so provide units of militia for the city's defence and policing and to fulfill military obligations to feudal lords that controlled the city. The units would be equipped according to the wealth and status of the guild in question.) The Brewers Guild, not being exceptionally wealthy or poor, but being a large guild (as beer was the main drink of the era), provides the pavisiers in my setting. As you can see the more well-off members have better gear and more important duties within the guild militia.

And here's the pavise of the bannerman:

The captain/guildmaster will get a similar shield, but with a canton (inset) bearing a golden tree on a black field.

About that heraldry: The shield designs aren't just chosen at random or for prettyness. There are some references in there I'd like to share.
The heraldry on the majority of pavises and the banner is the heraldry of Rivia, a sovereignty in the setting of the Witcher, from Andrzej Sapkowski's books and CD Project Red's Witcher game trilogy. My littly geeky tribute to books and games that I love.
Just this week I discovered, by accident, that this is also the heraldry of a historical Dutch family called Zael or Zael Utteneng. Who apparently held lands or office along a part of disputed territories between two Duchies in the Holy Roman Empire, one of which now forms my home province Brabant. Funny that. I just love it when such coincidences pop up!

The rest are nods to regional history:
The red three-towered castle on a white field is the medieval version of the arms of the Quarter of Oisterwijck, the 14th century administrative/feudal domain my home city was part of back then.
 The gold tree on a black field, that I will paint as a canton on the militia captain his shield, was the medieval version of the arms of the Mairie of 'S-Hertogenbosch, the larger feudal (sub)domain within the Duchy of Brabant that the Quarter of Oisterwijck fell under.

Not the proper/historical way this heraldry would be used, but hey, I'm playing a fantasy game here... ;)

See you next time!

Pavises in Progress

Today, I spent some time at the painting table, here are the results:

What's left to do on these? Just some highlights on the red parts of the heraldry, the addition of symbols of the Brewers Guild (crossed mash paddle and ladle) to the blue portion of the banner, and some clean-up/minor detail (including doing the eyes on them and dirt on the lower edge of the pavises).
Then I've only got the other half of this Urban Militia to paint, and their commander/guildmaster.  But those may have to take a temporary back seat due to my sudden, inexplicable Man O'War craze...

See you next time!

I am sailing... (a.k.a. "Welp, that was unexpected!")

Well, as I said in an earlier post, I was working on a unit of Pavesiers for my Fantasy/Dungeoneering games. But last week Johan gave me the last missing component for my Man O'War Dwarf fleet. My original intention was to simply strip the paint off, and store it with my Man O'War stash until I could get around to it one day.
The Muse, apparently refreshed from her prolonged absence, thought otherwise...
Before I knew it, I had cleaned and assembled all the Dreadfleet terrain (yeah, I fell for the Man O'War nostalgia buy :/ ) , and was well underway assembling my Dwarf fleet:

The Dreadfleet Dwarf ship snuck into the assembly line as well. Might as well paint all the Dwarves in one go. And he may just be useful as a sorf of superheavy battleship? Missing from this picture is the second squadron of Monitors, and the other two Ironclads. I also have a second set of 3 Nautilii, but these can wait a bit, I fear 6 Nautilii may be a bit overkill...

Speaking of Nautilii, I want to do a bit more for the submerged option than just plonking down a "submerged" counter next to the model. I'd like to build proper submerged models and have been thinking/experimenting on how to best go about it:

From left to right:
    -A. My original idea of making a Natilus profile as a "submerged" marker.
    -B. A based, non-submerged Nautilus.
    -C. My second idea, of making an empty base, to serve as the "submerged" marker.
    -D. A still-unbased Nautilus, for comparison.
My intention is for both option A and C to have the chimney and banner still sticking out of the water. On option A I tried one of the ideas for doing water on the bases:

While I like the effect, I fear that doing all my fleets this way will simply take too much time/greenstuff. I will paint this one up, and try another one with acrylic gel, to see which I like best.

After that, insanity struck...

The Cake is a lie...

As I said in my previous post, I've been painting a couple of portals for a friend.
Normally I don't show stuff I paint for others online before the new owner receives it as a matter of courtesy, but Johan gave the go-ahead to show these off early. Per request the portals were painted in blue and yellow, in reference to a certain PC game that deceives you with regards to baked goods. ;)
The stonework was left more subdued.

So, thank you Johan, for letting me paint these and show them off early, I'll get them to you soon! :)

A quick sign of life

Sooo, as you may have noticed, I've not been doing much hobby stuff lately...
My muse has apparently been on an extended holiday. I've been fairly unfocussed as well, leading me to pull out a project, stare at it for a few days before putting it away again, rinse, repeat...

I did paint a set of Age of Sigmar portals for a mate (finished them this weekend) but I'm not showing those on the interwebs until they've been delivered to him.
This cleared the painting table (if I ignore the small gang of WIPs...) to start on my medievalesque/fantasy Urban Militia. Here's how they stand now:

The men are from the old Harlequin/Black Tree Design range, I'm not sure if they're from the Hundred Years War or Fantasy range. The Pavises are from Mirliton.
The plan is to give them a quick basic paintjob, nothing fancy. I intend to keep the men themselves fairly subdued, to give them a contrast with the bright white and red shields they'll carry.
This is only half of the unit, but I didn't feel like slogging through the entire 15 at once. Especially as this is mainly meant to get me back in the flow again before some of the WIP figures that deserve my A game. (Like my long-awaited Escher Gang, that has been languishing half painted for far too long!)
Or alternatively, this may rekindle my lost, but much appreciated long haul focus on Fantasy. I hadn't been focussed for that long a time (a year+) on a single project/theme and I kind of miss it. But at this point, just to get painting again, on anything really, is a step forward. Mojo first, plans later.

See you next time!

Nerd Bounty

No new hobby news, the muse is still on vacation. :(

But, today the postman was kind to me...
Last year I had participated in a Kickstarter for gaming coins, these coins were large, sounded well and were generally wonderfull, their self-claimed "legendary" status was deserved. Their only flaw was that their size and small number made them not entirely practical for actual RPG use, as they couldn't cover small day-to-day transactions.
So I turned to kickstarter once more for a batch of smaller coins to supplement them. These arrived today:

(More pics and loot after the break:)

Big Bird

Not much hobby from me lately, Real Life has been interfering immensely...
Over the last few weeks, in fits and starts, I've been painting a Basilisk for my Chivalry gaming and Dungeoneering stuff:

He's converted from a Otherworld Miniatures Cockatrice with wings from a giant eagle I had laying around somewhere. 
Why do it this way?
Because historically there was a lot of overlap and confusion between Cockatrices and Basilisks, both being rooster and reptile hybrids (they may even originally have been different names for the same mythical creature).
Only very late did the clear divide occur where the Cockatrice was the serpent-rooster and the basilisk turned into a 6- or 8-legged giant lizard. I rather like this ambiguity and confusion.
So I've decided to model the earlier form of Basilisk you see above. Alongside it will go an unconverted Otherworld Miniatures Cockatrice, in a more rooster-like brown black colour. The idea being that on the Basilisk I emphasise the reptilian features more, despite the feathered wings, where on the Cockatrice I emphasise the avian features more, despite the leathery wings. The Basilisk will have it's venomous/life withering attacks, where the Cockatrice will get the petrifying stare. Against a Basilisk you can defend with a weasel, for the Cockatrice you need the roosters crowing or a mirror.
This will mean that I can add more roleplay/story to any games involving either creature: The panicked villagers are raving about an unholy rooster-reptile hybrid monster, but will I be facing a Cockatrice or a Basilisk? Both naturally present their own dangers, means to defend against their special attacks and preferred ways to fight them...

To further muddy the waters, I also have regular Otherworld Miniatures Basilisk (you know, the multilegged lizard type). As this creature will, in my setting, not have any special attacks or supernatural qualities, I will classify it as a Lesser Basilisk, whereas the smaller, rooster-serpent (with it's venomous nature)  will be known as a Greater Basilisk among scholars...

See you next time!