The Competition Winners

One of our winners celebrates with a bottle of champagne and the world's
largest pain au chocolat

Yes, congratulations are in order.  I've drawn the winners for my 600th Post Competition.  If your name has been drawn, drop me a note with your address at  diplomatist2<AT>gmail<DOT>com.

Special Prize - Victorian Gothic books to Peter Douglas.

Prize 1 - Armageddon book to Fran

Prize 2 - British Battles to Jonathan Freitag

Prize 3 - Various pamphlets to Chris Stoesen.

Prizes 4, 5 and 6 - no takers!

Prize 7 - Hereward the Wake - as this was a popular one and I got several free at the Heward Wargames Show I drew two names - Joakim Strom and Michael Mills.

Prize 8 - Landrover kit to Conrad Kinch.

Prize 9 - Airplane kits to brownk29

Prize 10 - Spitfire kit to The Comoran

Terrain Tuesday #14

A couple of useful links to start with.

• First, Solo Wargaming in the UK had a useful post sharing some pics of some Victorian buildings local to him.  This kind of post is always useful - in this case especially for those of you not in the UK who aren't use to our vernacular architecture.  
• Secondly, Brian at RayGun Gothic had a post showing WIP on some fields he's making.  Following the links he provides leads to some very useful (but sadly dormant) sites with terrain tutorials.  I'm very tempted to follow this method to create some Lost World swamps - perhaps later in the year when I can use the Shed of Delights for mucky jobs.

In Other News

I bought a rock.

Posts Mean Prizes! The 600th Version

I'm often slightly surprised to see my 200th Post Giveaway from July 2013 feature in my most popular post roll*.  I don't know if the allure is the title or the Star Trek picture - one or the other must be pulling in the punters.

*So far it's have 2371 hits, making it my second most popular post to date.

This is even more surprising as at the moment there is a current giveaway still open.  Yes!  You still have time to sign up for the 600th Post Giveaway!  Go forth and do so!

In related news. Michael Awdry is celebrating the 5th Anniversary of starting his excellent ( but misnamed) 28mm Victorian Warfare blog with a giveaway.  Easy to enter and great prizes.

Frostgrave Fursday #1

It had been my intention to use the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge to concentrate on building up a couple of Frostgrave warbands and a compliment of baddies and beasties for them to tackle.  But we've got within sight of the end and not a Frostgrave figure to be seen from me!

Well, better late than never!

First up are the spell fodder...

Who would hire this rabble?

As some of you will instantly recognise these are from Northstar's sprue of Frostgrave soldiers (though I can't swear there's not some cultist thrown in there).  As many have already said, this is a very nice pack, with some wonderful detail and character.

I've decided that this jovial chap was a mass murderer before
deciding to chance his luck in Felstad

The spellcasters on the other hand are from Midlam Miniatures.  They're sold as suitable for 28mm games, but some might find them a little small.*

*At 25mm they're the weedy academic wizards, compared to the beefy mercenaries.

The rest of the group call the apprentice 'Smiler' when the
spellcasters aren't around.

The bases are my usual 2p pieces with Vallejo Sandy Paste.  With the soldiers I added some sprue off-cuts to represent fallen masonry.  Then various grass and heather tufts (a mix of Tajima and some Gamers' Grass I got with my last order from Bad Squiddo - I think the former are much better value for money and will go with them again).

I haven't attempted to make the wizards school-specific, preferring to have a pool of figures I can choose from when I play.  Equally, I've not been too particular about what arms and equipment the soldiers have - today's Thug might be tomorrow's Thief. 

Sadly, other than Smiler and The Butcher of Harvey's Grove, these haven't inspired me to do any detailed back-story.  Perhaps that'll come when I start creating the stat sheets and playing with them.  And perhaps best not to get too attached to the Dispensables anyway...

Dr Who Wednesday #9

When I painted the Ice Warriors and submitted them the the Analogue Painting Challenge, I couldn't face doing the Ice Lords (their officer caste)* and left them for another week.  

*How do all you World War types mange with all those shades of greens and grays?

Well here they are.

To be fair to Black Tree Design their monotonous green and lack of features isn't their fault - that's how Martin Baugh designed them for the BBC back in 1967 - fiberglass helmets and green wellies and all.  The towel is down to me - and much comment it has generated on the Challenge website!

I bought these figures second-hand, and it wasn't until I got them unpacked that I realised that the previous owner had done some conversion work to them - the figure above on the right has had new arms and some embellishment to his helmet, whereas the figure on the left has had his belt removed.   Righty has been designated the Grand Marshal.  For such small mercies, I am grateful. 

Warriors Reunited

Frostgrave Adventurers

Annie over at Bad Squiddo Games used her FaceBook group to announce a flash sale on Otherworld Miniatures adventurers the other day (stock she'd not got around to putting on the website, and was getting underfoot).  I've currently got five of their figures on the painting table and found them nicely detailed, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to add to the recruiting pool for warbands.

Accordingly, I present a Dwarven Cleric and a spell-caster  Two very nice figures which came with Annie's customarily speedy service and a complementary teabag.  Some will spot the resemblance between the wizard (who comes complete with a bandoleer of potions) and Nicol Williamson.

Giveaway Reminder

Don't forget to sign up for the 600 Post Giveaway - there will be draws for all of the prizes and some haven't had any takers yet!

And There Are Prizes!!!

As promised, I'm marking my 600th blog post with prizes (partly because I never got around to running a giveaway for my 500th).

The rules are simple:-

• Each of the prizes below will be given away by drawing names on 15 March 2016.
• To enter you have to be a follower of the blog and post a comment on this post saying which prizes you would be interested in.
• The prizes will be drawn in the order they are listed below.  No one will win more than one prize, so the winner's name will be removed from subsequent draws (but see below).
• The memorial prize is special.  Therefore the winner can also be considered for other prizes.
• Merely for my own interest, and to butter me up, I'd like to know what you enjoy most about the blog, or what your favorite post has been.

Special Prize

In my mind I think of this one as the Robert Audin memorial prize.  These four books represent Victorian gothic horror, and I'd like them to go to someone who'd get real inspiration from them - either for their own writing or for gaming.

Other Prizes

Prize 1 - basically a picture book - images evocative of the UK's role in the Cold War.

Prize 2 - An English Heritage book - full of colour pictures of sites and re-enactors of various battles.

Prize 3 - Booklets that might be of interest, inc a Minifigs catalogue from  the 70s or 80s.  The Flags and Standards of the Napoleonic Wars is water damaged, but still useable.

Prize 4 - Booklets on WWII aviation

Prize 5 - Military museum guides.

Prize 6 - Vehicles (28mm for scale only).

Prize 7 - A Gripping Beast Hereward the Wake figure (white metal, 28mm).

Prize 8 - A 1:76 Landrover kit.

Prize 9 - A Hawker P.1127 and a Sea Hawk kit.

Prize 10 - A 1:72 Spitfire kit.

Dr Who Wednesday #8

Carrying on with my series of classic Doctor Who aliens in the Analogue Painting Challenge, I came to these chaps the other week. 

Ice Warriors

For the uninitiated, they are ice Warriors - an ancient race of  reptilian humanoids who ruled Mars until it became uninhabitable.  At various times they've been shown trying to transform Earth or other planets to their own requirements, as 'obvious baddies' who turn out to be much maligned or, in a double-bluff as goodies turning out to be baddies.

As their name suggests, they are a militaristic race, with their own complex hierarchies and a sense of bushido (useful in the trope - "Wait the green, scaly aliens are more honorable than the humans!"

So, these are seven 28mm figures from Black Tree Design.  The beauty of the old Dr Who aliens is they are never terribly complex paint-jobs.  If the BBC can spray-paint bubble-wrap green, who am I to aspire to much more?

I do have a couple of the officer-class, but they will have to wait for another time.

Deep Sea Divers (and 600 Up!)

For the latest bonus round - Nautical - of the painting challenge I splashed out on a set of Victorian Divers from Foundry (actually, Casting Room Miniatures).  It's a set I've had my eye on for some time, so I was pleased for the excuse to get and paint them up.

It seems I wasn't alone!  Two other members of the challenge submitted figures from this pack - and completely outclassed me along the way!

Nevertheless, I'm quite pleased with them.  They are nice, characterful figures that took quite nicely to paint.

To me, these divers bring up a couple of iconic images.  The first is John Wayne and Ray Millard grappling with each other and battling a giant squid/octopus*

*SPOILER ALERT:  It's often said that 'The Cowboys' was the first film in which Wayne was killed - not so, in 'Reap the Wild Wind' two divers go down to the wreck and only one returns!

But for me Herge will always be the master*, so I thought I would see what I could steal do by way of homage.

*No, not The Master - that's Roger Delgado

Sadly, my rushed photography in advance of the deadline hasn't done them justice*, but I think you get the idea that the Haddock has worked quite well.  Tintin's quiff hasn't survived the diving helmet.  I think he looks more like River Phoenix!

* What PeterD called my 'choice of sepia tones' in presenting the Nosferatu figures! lol.

This is my 600th published post.  Having posted about the death of Robert Audin yesterday has made me realise how much I have gained from blogging and how much I value the contacts I have made thereby.  Thank you for your company and your comments.  There may be prizes...