Painted : Valeria Alvaro, Ordic Pistoleer - Iron Kingdoms miniature.

So, taking a break form the Flames of War 'journey', just to keep things fresh, I found a long-forgotten model that I had bought a couple of years ago. Initially, I just liked the figure and hadn't really decided what I was going to do with it - other than paint it in the same style as the Privateer Press photos.

This mini is from quite a cool little range that Privateer Press do to support their Iron Kingdoms RPG and such. The pose is quite interesting. You can't quite tell where the front is, as she looks askance over her shoulder.

Going back to it recently then, I had painted a Cygnar warjack and Coleman Strykera while ago (see posts), so it seemed sensible to see if I could get her into this army by making her into a journeyman warcaster or gun mage officer of some sort. To that end I painted her with a blue jacket and a similar colour scheme to the warjack.

Here are the pics!



Just lacking a sword?

 And then these ...

And then these ... Note the blonde hair. The shadows are darker than I'd have liked though. But black or cream 'shirt'? Hmmm ....

And finally ...

Done! (Cream shirt.)

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Posted in: Warmachine

Flames Of War, painting infantry update - now with the rural bases!

This post is so that you can have a look-see at the way the Flames Of War Rural Bases Set looks. In no way do I claim to be a professional. I haven't got it all looking great by any means, but I did find that these bases enable you to get more varied looks to your infantry bases with minimal extra effort. The only thing is that you still have to patch up the figures' bases. This takes some doing with the minis from the Open Fire! set because the plastic infantry have thicker bases than metal ones. This means that a certain amount of trimming/fiddling is required to get the figures to fit neatly into the slots on the Rural bases.

But there are lots of good details so that when looking at the tabletop you don't get that sense of repetitious uniformity that often comes with painting lots of units at once.

Step one  -  making the mud look like mud. You can see the wheel ruts on the US Parachute Rifle team base. On the German infantry base there are rocks and logs....

It's better than bad, it's good... LOG (TM).

And then then you add a bit of grassy stuff and you get this ...

Hopefully, you can still see the ruts and logs. These bases are fun to use and you can even adapt the slots for the minis with tabs to fit in to the larger empty slots - again helping to provide loads of options for variety. A decent buy.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames Of War - Rural bases arrived!

Just a quick post to signpost the fact that there will be a few Flames Of War updates in the future containing these -

Click for larger image..

These are the Battlefront Games Rural Bases. In effect they are bases with ready-made details. Trees (damaged), logs (fallen), fences, (wonky), ruts, mud footprints, rocks, wagon wheels etc. All you need do is glue minis on and away you go. You still have a bit of 'patching up' to do as you have to add mud effects to the minis' bases and cover up all of the joins. Well, we'll see ... the detail is good and it might lead to quicker bases than having to build walls and such like for yourself (see previous post - PaK 40). More later.

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Posted in: Flames Of War

Flames of War - Open Fire! Painting update.

Just so you believe me - here's some stuff I done.

So, what you have here is a team of US Parachute Rifle, with prone machine gunner and some mud/grass stuck on the base for scenic effect. Basically, it's a bit slow going, however I am making progress. Next up will be a US rifle/MG team and a German rifle/MG team. Look out!


Down in the dirt!



Stug G and commander.

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Posted in: current projects,Flames Of War

Review: Jimmy Corrigan - The Smartest Kid on Earth, by Chris Ware.

Not strictly a comic strip, or maybe it is. Not strictly a graphic novel, or perhaps it is. Not clearly sure how I would characterise this 'book' at all.

 My brother suggested this to me and although I had read excerpts before I'd never been sufficiently interested enough to actually get it. So he bought it for me to save time... with the added note, 'Enjoy! It may take some time to get through!'

This is the story of three generations of Corrigans told in two main time narratives - that of Jimmy, an office 'dogsbody' ('our hero') and that of his grandfather (Jimmy), growing up in the late eighteen hundreds. But both are sad stories. Both Jimmys are bullied, brow-beaten and have truly tragic (or pathetic) lives. There is a real and constant sense of loneliness and isolation. Just when you think human warmth is going to shine through, it melts away in the snow that falls. And there is a constant longing, on the reader's part, for life to be fairer, more just and not quite so unremittingly bleak. Grandfather Jimmy has a painful relationship with his lone-parent father. Contemporary Jimmy attempts an unsuccessful reconcilliation with a father long absent from his own life -  the chain-like apron strings that exist between him and his mother pervade the novel. Is it a novel?

It would be too easy to say that it's quite depressing fare. That's not it at all. There is not much in the way of text but the constant thought-provoking nature of the story does mean it takes time to digest and 'mull over'. (My brother was spot on!) It is powerful and affective. That's it! The sadness Ware creates is so human, so recogniseable. Relationships are seen to be complex, unsatisfactory and often fragile. The tragedies are human ones, even everyday ones. But as we read, we feel and that is what makes this book (?) stand out from the rest. It's oddly all too real.




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A lot has been said about the muted colouring and simple drawings. Mignola only uses half a dozen colours in 'Hellboy' and Spiegleman's 'Maus' is in black and white. It's clever, it's carefully drawn and, in my opinion, if that's your crticism, you've missed the point. In art (?), form and content have a relationship. And that is clearly seen here. The story panels don't quite tell the story sequentially, the mind wanders, Jimmy's (both of them) mind wanders, there is a kind of 'stream of consciousness here'.  It works.

This is genuinely an extraordinary text. I finished reading it a couple of days ago but I still haven't settled on what I think about it fully yet, the ideas are still lingering. Top job Mr Ware. There's so much I have read that I have forgotten. It won't happen with this comic book.

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Posted in: graphic novels