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@Gitsplitta: Thanks very much! Yeah, the only problem is that by now I got three of such set pieces plus civilian bystanders. The way the campaign goes it won't take long until my sidelines are more crowded with my minis than the actual battlefield.


Right-o. It's my birthday! Hence an update.

The Gloomhaven figures are finished now and I had to make two more to depict the mystic summed creature for the colourful lady (this is why it reflects her colour scheme a bit) and a rat swarm for the mindbender (the rat-like creature with the fruitbat face); they're some Mantic Abyssal demon creature and Freebooter's Fate rats respectively:



On the side and while paint was drying I painted this special lady here, the Goblin Princess:



All she needs now is a name. Any ideas?

Fiona

Nice work (as always).
And happy birthday.

I'm now stalking following you on Twitter too.

@Gitsplitta: I asked on Twitter as well, and the first reaction I got was also Shrek-related. Really interesting.

@Dr H: Excellent, thanks very much! It's really good fun and totally worth it, right? right?! Yes, it is. A barrel of laughs, that old old @SigurSquirrel on Twitspace! And many thanks for the bday wishes.


Right, pals!
Things don't proceed to quickly, but here goes:



WIP of the new Farmers Guild team (at least the human members of the team. There's a lot of lifestock to come!)

edit: Hey, I haven't even posted the test mini yet!





That's the one.

These look fantastic

@JustALittleOrkish: Oh, thanks very much! Do you play Guild Ball?

Heyhey, here's an update on the Guild Ball figures:



So many details. Such wobbly casting. As you know I praised Steam Forge a lot for how much they improved on their metals after the initial two teams up to them doing my favourite metal models (quality-wise) on the market. Then they did this switch to wobblyplastic and it feels like we're back to square one with especially this set of Farmers Guild figures. Anyway, they're starting to take shape. Just takes ages.

Nice team there Sigur. Happy belated Birthday.

Cheers,

CB

Bloody hell they look good Siggy! you can certainly paint them beautifully!

@Captain Brown: Hooray, thanks very much Sir!

@nerdfest09: Cheers, that's very kind of you to say.



Right, my grass tufts have arrived and I finished the Nurgle characters and chaos cultists:









Hope you like them! I'll go back painting the Guild Ball dudes I guess.


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That was fun, right? So I took some more photos of a mix of figures I did for this army so far.





Should have painted one of the cultists like Waldo..

Hey guys (when I type "guys" this includes all genders and states of being, by the way.)!

Update on the Guildball figures:





As you can see the human members of the team are done now so I started adding the special balls and ..well, the chicken and other things. Hope you like them!

Hello, friends!

Here's a WIP shot of the new Confederates regiment (it's probably going to be the 22nd Louisiana):



Horrible cellphone shot, but it's just an early WIP, so justified I thought. Hope you like them so far?

Love the guildball team, very nice colors on them and the metals are fantastic.

If your still looking for a name for the goblin princess I vote Yellow Snow, or Snow Yellow .

@Theophony: Thanks very much! I actually like that name a whole lot. Very nice.

Last night I forced myself to put as many dudes as possible in their final positions and glue them down. Surely a good move, because I can't really spend much more time playing around with highlights and shading and whatnot. Possibly. Let's see



The goal of course was to get away from two neat rows with these guys, and get the impression that they advance in a cloudy formation. After all they're depicted charging, many of them rebel-a-yellin'.

I love the CSM army. Amazing work!! Those farmers guild figures are really cool, and are also extremely well done.

@HereticTom: Thanks very much!


Heyhey, the 22nd Louisiana is done now:







I really couldn't dedicate any more time to them right now, and also didn't want to put them aside for a while until I have some more time again, because I know I wouldn't have done that. So I just finished details, put them on the bases (as seen above) and added flags. Yup, flagS. Two. That's OK, but technically it's not. From 1862 on rebel units usually only carried the Battle Flag of the Confederacy.



Union troops, as you can see in the battle reports, carried these huge, elaborate US flags as well as state flags in all kinds of variants or their very own ones. Confederate units did the same initially, but after a year or two only carrying the smaller Battle Flag was adapted to by most of the formations. Before that they carried a vast array of different flags. Early on of course most of the fighting units consisted of volunteer militias with colourful names, colourful uniforms and colourful flags. Of course that's confusing, especially as many states carried their white-sybols/lettering-on-blue-background flags; the same colours as all the other Union states carried as well.

Louisiana officials were very aware of this fact. They also didn't like to have the pelican on their war flags (in an official statement the bird was called out for his perceived cowardice and simple-mindedness), so when Louisiana seceded they also got themselves a new state flag.

The old (and current) state flag...



...and the new one:



The Many Flags that flew over Louisiana

Louisiana, ever since Spanish expeditions landed, had a whole host of flags over the centuries. First a Spanish one, but only set up in passing as they explored up the Mississippi. The French set up the first proper colony in Louisiana (hence the name, after king Louis. Most city names in the state still carry french names, such as Baton Rouge, New Orleans, etc.), and hence flew the French flag. After the French and Indian War the parts West to the Mississippi (and New Orleans) were ceded to Spain, the parts East of the river fell to Britain (controlled by a fort in the Baton Rouge vicinity). During the American War of Independence a Spanish force took the fort and thus the rest of the state from the British. Apart from that not much happened on Louisiana soil at all during the AWI.

In the first years of the 19th century Napoleon got the Spanish crown to give Louisiana to him, which wasn't only handy when bargaining with the US, it also helped having a base for his endeavors to get Haiti back from the slaves who had taken it in the Haitiian Revolution. That failed, Napoleon sold Louisiana to the US, and from that time on the US flag flew over Louisiana. By the way, this was the size of "Louisiana" when sold to the US in 1803:


Biggest trade of real estate in human history.

That's quite a lot of flags. The new Louisiana state flag from 1861 included parts of pretty much all of them.



There's the red, white and blue of course reminding us of the French, British and US flags. Okay, British influence on the state had always been less significant, even though governmental stuff and some law had been gotten from the British during their reign there. The French always had been a huge influence on Louisiana, with most of the oldest families of settlers having been French, the names all being French, and so on.

The 13 stripes were taken from the US flag and of course remind us of the 13 British colonies who declared independence. The red and yellow in the top left is a call-back to the Spanish flag, the star being a symbol of West Florida (which was a thing for a while, first state to fly the Lone Star for its flag, and then got incorporated into Louisiana).


Stars and Bars

ANYWAY, back to ACW flags in the field. Of course the official flag of the Confederacy (at least 1861 to 1863) was the Stars and Bars:



The stars of course symbolizing the states of the Confederation. First 7, then 9, then 11, and in the end 13. The last two being ...wobbly in their justification. Here's why:

The last two stars added stood for Missouri and Kentucky, both border states between North and South, both slave states. Neither of which ever officially joined the Confederacy. While Kentucky officially was neutral, Missouri officially belonged to both sides. It's complicated.

Missouri's population was generally in favour of the union and abolition of slavery. The number of inhabitants had recently grown a LOT since mostly German immigrants had come in after the revolutionary year of 1848, many of them catholic. To them the concept of slavery was just alien, especially so as they usually were people who had fought for more individual freedom in their own countries. A constitutional convention was called in, they decided (98 to 1) to remain with the Union, but to stay neutral in the case of war.

However, the governor of Missouri was a friend of the secession and had, officially due to security concerns (Yeah, sounds familiar, right?), state militias trained. Those were pro-South. The Union got concerned and feared for these militias to seize the huge St.Louis arsenal. US army troops, backed up by quickly set up pro-Union militias (~80% of them of German descent) were sent, encircled the camp where the state militia trained and took them prisoners. These prisoners were then led throught the streets of St.Louis, which in hindsight possibly wasn't a great idea. Pro-Southern civilians were not happy and hurled insults and rocks especially at the German-American troops (because they were immigrants, many catholic AND on The Other Side). At some point a shot was fired and things went pear-shaped. Union troops opened fire at the civilians, 28 were killed outright, more than 75 wounded. Following this all hell broke loose in St.Louis and order was only restored after state of war was declared over the city.



The governor and his pro-Southern friends fled the capital Jefferson City and set up a formal Confederate government which didn't hold any real power. So in the end Missouri officially got a star in the Southern and Northern flags each, but technically can be counted as a Union state, sending ca.110,000 men to union regiments, but also ca. 30,000 men to the Confederate army (plus a number of irregular partisans fighting on Missouri territory).

Kentucky was a similar case, in which, despite the general population's sentiments, a majority of delegates voted to secede to the South, so two separate governments were set up.

A whole chaotic mess, this (civil) war. Especially in the border states this whole "brother versus brother" thing doesn't seem to be far off the literal truth.

ANYWAY, the whole Stars and Bars flag wasn't very popular, as it a.) was viewed as a simplified version of the US flag, which itself (for obvious reasons) wasn't popular in the South altogether and b.) when carried into battle it looked a LOT like the US flag and led to all kinds of oopies and hooplahs. So the confederate army pretty quickly introduced the Battle Flag of the Confederacy with the characteristic St.Andrew's cross and the stars.



This one also proved much more popular with the general population and in 1863 it was incorporated into the Confederacy's official flag (battle flag in the top left on a white field). In the 1865 version a red stripe was added to the far right. This version got known as the "blood stained banner".

...and now to return to the figures pictured above: I found a photo of the remains of the 22nd Louisiana's flag, so I printed a generic battle flag as usual, and then added the required little lettering stuffs by hand.




...and that's it for now. Hope you like the figures!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
...and here's a treat because we all sat through that weirdly all-over-the-place history lesson:

The Farmers are finished!




Of course the batteries on my cam were empty last night, so no more photos at this point, but I shall supply them shortly! Hope you like the team!

Right, more photos!
















That's that done. Hope you like them!

I love the market display. Wow.

@Gitsplitta: Thanks very much! yeah,always adding to my little Fantasy/medieval town.

Right, boys and girls. It's been a while since I posted, because I've been painting 6mm things again. Took me a while to get back into it, and let's be honest - 6mm WIPs aren't exactly gripping cinema. Anyway, remember that Great Northern War poject I've been working on in early 2018?







Well, there are reinforcements for that now, plus a whole new army! Starting with additions to the Swedish army:



It's 50/50 cavalry and infantry. The latter all wearing Karpus hats.



Those were basically another Swedish speciality (even though they had very similar ones on the Russian side, just less fluffy): A fur-lined hat on which the differently coloured flaps can be turned down to protect the wearer against snow/cold/the weather in general.



....and for the Russians:



All infantry this time: 2 units of Grenadiers and 4 units of Strelzi.



Incredibly interesting thing, these Strelzi. You hear tons about the Pretorian Guards in ancient Rome, the Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire, or the bloody Ultramarines but nothing about these dudes. Thes were kinda similar though in that they were a standing force of up to 23.000 dudes (first standing army in Russia) set up by Ivan the Terrible in 1450 as his own personal army and guard. They had their own districts in the city, had their own stores, ran their own businesses, basically were a state within the state. In peace times they were also the police force and firefighters. As always with these corps at some point there started a certain downturn for the Strelzi; they went from beating down uprisings to often organizing them (not always without reason either) until Peter the Great defeated their biggest uprising, sentenced thousands to death and disbanded the Strelzi corps.

The most striking thing about the Strelzi was their equipment in battle.Originally they were armed as archers (which is basically what their name means too), but soon they were reamed with the iconic muskets and bardiches used for musket rests and side arms. Extremely interesting stuff there; wish I knew more about Russian history.


So yeah, that's that. The Russian and Swedish reinforcements are almost finished painting; but as we all know basing is a huge part of the visual appeal of 6mm figures. Currently I'm working on another huge addition to this collection - the Saxon army. So stay tuned!

Heyhey, after the Russian and Swedish reinforcements, here's an update on the Saxon army:





Furthermore, here are some generic carts for the baggage train:


...and a meeting of the Greats (in 6mm)! Charles XII. and Peter I. respectively:


Hope you like them! I'm afraid the project will have to rest for 2-3 weeks now, since I have to take care of an "emergency project" (see below). Once that's done I'll add officers, artillery and August the Strong himself to the Saxon army. Oh, and 4-5 more cavalry regiments.



Right, and now to something completely different.!



NOVA AETAS! One of those Kickstarter boardgames. Few days ago a good human being approached me, and said "Sir, I really like this boardgame and I want to play the campaign NOW. Please paint all the minis for me until our next session." (something along those lines) Of course I can not turn away a fellow child of the sun and the moon. Now I'm sitting here with my roughly 50 new best friends, all of them cast in that wobbly plastic. At least not quite as wobbly as much other stuff. And they all demand to be painted by the 19th of October.

The game's set in 16th century Fantasy Italy, with Fantasy Vatican threatening Fantasy Venice. And then there's Fauns as well. Basically it's the usual cooperative dungeon crawler fare, without a dungeon. Instead it's a series of pretty interesting scenarios, a few side quests, and so on. I was told a few things about the game mechanics, and it all sounds pretty nice. Less exhausting than Gloomhaven, more complex than Descent. Not bad.

The figures look OK as well. No high fantasy stuff, which is something I like. The Fauns are pretty neat actually. Warriors, musicians with flutes (don't ask me why they didn't get any pan pipes) and centaurs with bows. So I thought I'd start with this faction right away. Here's a test figure for the Faun warriors:



Casting's OK as well. Sure, mold lines are a problem and pretty pronounced, given the material. It's the wobbly China plastic. Not good, but it seems like this is what board games companies go with these days. The sculpts themselves are nicely designed, level of detail is OK. Not really crisp, but could be worse.

The execeptional thing about these is the size.



These guys are gigantic. The chap in the left and the Faun are from the boardgame, i also put a GW Ork and a regular 28mm Perrys figure next to them for size comparison. Golly. These are way beyond the absurd size of 32mm some want to establish as a thing. These figures are 38mm, foot to eye level. Weird.

So yeah, let's see. I'll start with the Fauns and go on from there. Wish me luck.

...that's a big Faun, Siggy - nice scheme for them, though.

@Dysartes: Yus, all these minis are insanely big.






Fauns done. Rushing on to the Venetians (8 soldiers, 5 crossbowmen, the doge and two more characters). First I have to figure out a colour scheme.

I wrote up an estimated schedule based on how painting the Fauns went. I'll never get this done until the 19th.

Painted up some test minis for the Venetian faction, so I can get feedback about the colour scheme from the customer:





Once the scheme's green-lit I'll paiont the rest of 'em.

I'm impressed with how the painted models are looking, Siggy - though it's often hard to tell how much is from the sculpt, and how much from your excellent painting

@Dysartes: Thanks very much for commenting! Helps with keeping spirits up. Even after all these years these help tremendously with keeping up the motivation to keep going. I know it sounds odd and fake and whatnot (especially nowadays, as so many people seem to be in constant sales mode on the internet and be overly positive and "enthusiastic" about things), but it does help.

Anyway, here's an overview (Done, Work in Progress, To Do):

Fauns:
.) 8 Warriors
.) 2 Musicians
.) 5 Centaurs

Venice:
.) 8 Stratiota
.) 5 Crossbowmen
.) The Doge
.) Condottiere
.) The Gypsy

Vatican:
.) 8 Swiss Guard
.) 5 Papal Guard
.) The Pope
.) Cardinal

Characters:
.) Knight
.) Scum
.) Apprentice
.) Novice

Monsters:
.) Dragon
.) Manticore



So yeah, there's still a bit left to do..

Anyway, I also brought pictures!

The venetian soldiers are done now.







So yeah, those are done. Currently I'm doing characters (as you can see in the overview above). It's funny how the two human factions each bring their big boss to the table in the shape of the Doge and the Pope respectively. They also got nice figures each, especially the Pope. Looking forward to painting this one. On top of that, each of these factions also have some smaller-time characters. The Condottiere and the Gypsy lady for Venice and the Cardinal for the Vatican. I'll start with the Doge, the Condottiere, the Knight and the ...Scum for now. Hope to get most of them done by tomorrow. Hope you like the pictures!

Wow they all look amazing! Always nice to see what you're working on

I just love those Sigur...

@Commander Cain: Thanks very much!

@Gitsplitta: Oh, cool. Thank you. Some people are put off by them all being monopose, but then they're boardgame figures (made from horrible, horrible wobblyplastic with mold lines all over ).


Heyhey, here's an update with the first handful of characters:





From left to right: Knight, Novice, Doge (much shine, so Venice, cool!), Condottiere, Scum


And now for the updated to do list:

Fauns:
.) 8 Warriors
.) 2 Musicians
.) 5 Centaurs

Venice:
.) 8 Stratiota
.) 5 Crossbowmen
.) The Doge
.) Condottiere
.) The Gypsy

Vatican:
.) 8 Swiss Guard
.) 5 Papal Guard
.) The Pope
.) Cardinal

Characters:
.) Knight
.) Scum
.) Apprentice
.) Novice

Monsters:
.) Dragon
.) Manticore


As you can see, I'll do the Apprentice and Gypsy lady next. Then it's off to Vatican city.

Okay, the panicking is over, it's half-time in the schedule and I THINK I'll manage to make it. Of course sure-fire ways to know that the panic phase is over is that my ego expands immensely and I think I'm the best in the world at what I do (until the next tiniest little crisis hits to shatter my fragile artiste ego. ). Also: I'm starting to slack in terms of speed. Nah, I'll be fine. Things will be fine.


Well, here's the rest of the characters for now - the Apprentice and the Gypsy:





Hope you like them!



And now for the updated to do list:

Fauns:
.) 8 Warriors
.) 2 Musicians
.) 5 Centaurs

Venice:
.) 8 Stratiota
.) 5 Crossbowmen
.) The Doge
.) Condottiere
.) The Gypsy

Vatican:
.) 8 Swiss Guard
.) 5 Papal Guard
.) The Pope
.) Cardinal

Characters:
.) Knight
.) Scum
.) Apprentice
.) Novice

Monsters:
.) Dragon
.) Manticore


The lines are pretty clearly drawn now. I guess it's time to work out a colour scheme for the Vatican dudes, starting with the Swiss Guard and the Papal Guard, then I guess I'll paint the pope and the cardinal, and then it's monster time!

Wow you are really blasting through these guys and gals. Really nice blending on all the clothing, I like the NMM gold as well, I have recently been trying to teach myself how to do it and it is deceptively tricky!

Love coming here, so brilliant.