Allan Quatermain - Giants in Miniature

Allan Quatermain is the most well known character created by H. Rider Haggard and is the protagonist of King Solomon's Mines, as well as numerous other stories by Haggard - the character was later included in the wonderful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic/graphic novel series by that wonderful word wizard Alan Moore. In the original books he's a big game hunter and explorer, but by the time of the League he's a decrepit elderly drug addict...

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was then turned into a crappy action film, taking away all the nuance of the comics and replacing it explosions and a token American character to play better with a US audience. My feelings about the film aside, this miniature portrays Sean Connery in his role in the film and I think it's a lovely sculpt that captures the essence of the older character pretty damn well!

The figure is from Giants in Miniature by Wargames Illustrated - if you haven't come across the range before, they're a series of historical or literary/TV show/film characters sculpted for Wargames Illustrated as a limited edition series - 500 casts and no more. Quatermain is still available, as are a bunch of other wonderful characters - I've got Django and a couple of Inglourious Basterds that are patiently waiting in my paint queue!

Dark and Dirty Dracula’s America Terrain

I loved the miniatures, art and setting of Dracula's America when it was first announced (back in August 2017) and hopped on the pre-order campaign, securing almost all of the starting warbands ("Posses" in in-game parlance) and the wonderful creatures! I've got a nice little chunk of it painted up and I had plans for a Louisiana-themed setting - swampy New Orleans gothic horror? Yes please! 

I started off by purchasing the Ghost Town Derelict Church from Sarissa Precision - a lovely American-themed church that had seen better days. I imagined this working either as part of an abandoned town or even surrounded by swampy terrain...

I also added to this a Perry Miniatures/Renedra Ramshackle Barn around the same time, with plans to scratchbuild some other similar farm buildings to complete the set - I got both of these buildings built, cut them MDF bases and added gravel and sand, undercoated them, basecoated them...then moved house several times. As you know, fellow hobbyist, life, uh, gets in the way...

After a few years I finally came back to this fledgling terrain collection early this year and around that time I discovered the Perry Miniatures/Renedra Ramshackle House which compliments the barn perfectly! One quick eBay purchase and a couple of days of building and painting and you have the set you see before you! I intend to write a separate blog post for each of the buildings as I'm really happy with how they've turned out!

How does that leave my HOBBY BINGO! board looking? After some discussion with Lewis we agreed that given that I mainly play skirmish games I could count the odd big monster I paint or a collection of terrain as a the Lord of War or Behemoth square - I think these fit that description nicely!

Spooktober & Scarevember

Hello again, long lost readers!

As us bloggers tend to do after we drift off to other platforms that tend to be easier to handle on our telecommunication devices, I've wandered back over to Blogger on numerous occasions, usually at the prompting of friends (Lewis most recently, Dave before that), only to fall at that dastardly final hurdle - consistency!

I’ve decided that I need to make a pledge, in the style of the previous monthly challenges I’ve taken part in - this should have a few different benefits: a) proper targets and themes to try and stick to b) feedback and accountability from friends and readers. Also, given that it’s almost the most wonderful time of the year (Halloween!) and the challenges I’ve been part of previously (Zomtober!), I chose a theme to reflect this but broadened it (as I’ve pretty much ran out of zombies to paint over the years!) - spooky and scary miniatures over the months of October and November, with a view to playing a bunch of games with my best friends towards the end of October/start of November (depending on the state of the ongoing plague and the various sensible restrictions that are in place).

So, what does Spooktober/Scarevember 2020 include?

My main aim is to complete the additions to my wargames collection required to play the first few missions from the brilliant Rangers of Shadow Deep, although I will be setting mine in Shyish, the Realm of Death from Age of Sigmar. Currently this stands at approximately two dozen figures and a few pieces of terrain.

Once this is achieved, I would like to complete enough terrain to be able to play some games of Dracula’s America. 

After this I’ll reassess the situation and decide where to go next (looking at you, big ol’ pile of ghouls!). Given the “paint and make scary things” overall theme, Strange Aeons/Unspeakable Cults may be the direction I take...

Pictures of actual wargames miniatures and terrain will arrive within the next couple of posts, I promise! My current plan is to update the blog every Friday for the two-month challenge (starting this Friday!) but I have lots of other stuff painted in the past couple of years that I’d like to add to the blog, so there should be a bunch of posts appearing!

Thanks for reading - comments, questions and suggestions would be most welcome!

Chris

El Chupacabra - The Goat-Sucker - Dracula's America

I went utterly mad for the Dracula's America range from Northstar Figures and Osprey Games back when the game was announced - I ended up with a bunch of different gangs (or posses as they're called in the game) and I've been working on them over the past year.

 One of my favourite parts of various modern rulesets are "Random Encounters", like those in Frostgrave - Dracula's America also had an interesting Bestiary with various creatures from horror and cryptozoological urban legends, including one of my favourites - the fearsome Chupacabra!

 A relatively modern cryptid, but it very much fits in the time period the game is set in.

 The creature was an easy one to paint once I decided on a scheme I liked - I started with a more alien red and green combination, but decided to go for something more like the descriptions of the creature.

Lots more to come from this range plus more Gothic Horror and Lovecraftian horrors!