Graverobbing

Last night at Bonsor, Corey roped me into helping put on a game of Sword Weirdos.

Four groups of adventurers simultaneously chose to rob graves in the same cemetery.

The Grateful Undead, joined by their guest percussionist, provide some musical accompaniment for the raiders.

Leon and his boys (Sean) enter the cemetery.

Thaag and Thaaag advance.

Leon and the boys start digging up graves.  First grave doesn't have anything they want to loot.

The disrespectful graverobbers are confronted by, well, another group of disrespectful robbers.

The pink starfarers arrive, and believing this is a normal custom on this planet, decide to participate in the local tradition.

Fisticuffs commence.  Leon (with the bow) is "noble".  In SW, "noble" means that his boys (minions) will take hits that would otherwise hit Leon.  

Thag, Thaag, Thaaag and Thaaaag discover treasure in one of the graves.

Leon and his boys drive off Jim's raiders.

No photos for a bit.  Things got busy.  Jim's raiders were banished, then Leon and the boys were worn out, and just as the pink starfarers thought they'd get away with a bit of treasure, the troll drummer leapt into action, catching first Jane the Controller with the bag of swag...

While the last starfarer felt lucky to escape with her life!

That left Thag, Thaag, Thaaag and Thaaaag the victors as they escaped with treasure from a couple of looted graves, and with their entire gang intact!

Men not in Macks.

Not all the civvies get to wear macks.  Here are the other IRA (or other mid-century militia) from Footsore Miniatures.    

Five riflemen.  The chap on the left gets a red scarf to tie him to the Italian partisans I painted previously.  I had fun with the centre fellow, trying to make his vest look like a homemade knitted thingy.

Three specialists.   

The uniformed man on the left is trying to look like he has his homemade Irish Volunteers uniform, like the figure on the right (photo from Irish Republican History Museum in Belfast).  Irish Volunteers made their own uniforms, and they were not always to the same standard, so  (for example) in my mind the shade of green would vary from one member to another.

And of course rear view.  It would have been quite unlikely for rebels to get their hands on a Lewis gun, but they are far too much fun not to hand them out whenever I can!

Seventeenth Century Country Folk

Here are a few regular people from 17th Century Britain or France, or from the early British or French settlements in North America.  Pulp Figures markets them as the latter for their Flint and Feather game, but they would easily fit into European-set Devilry Afoot scenarios or ECW/TYW settings.

The closeup photos reveal flaws I didn't notice when holding the figs at arm's length...

Country folk and a fancy lady

Quick update - here are some country folk from Footsore Miniatures, and a fancy lady from Pulp Figures. 

Men in Macks

We are well into autumn, so here are some armed men dressed for the weather in their mackintosh coats and other overcoats.  Maybe they are gangsters, maybe members of an armed militia like the IRA, Ulster Volunteers or one of the many Home Guard groups from the Very British Civil War!  These figures are a mix of Footsore Miniatures IRA and Great Escape Games Peaky Blinders.

Men with revolvers for close-in work, or when they need a weapon that can be concealed.

Sometimes, a bit more firepower is required!

And rifles, almost like real soldiers!

Martello Tower - Plains of Abraham

 This is for Codsticker :)

In 2024, Arthur and I visited Quebec City.  One of the places we explored was a Martello Tower on the Plains of Abraham, which has since been transformed into a museum.  It is set up as it would have been back in the 19th century, under the control of a Royal Artillery garrison.  It is very compact, with living quarters for the gun crew, and a platform for their guns.

Living quarters on the main floor.  The only door is halfway up the side of the tower.  Now there is a stair leading up to it, but back in the day they would have had a ladder that could be pulled inside to make it harder for enemies to storm!

Stores and a water supply on the lower floor.

And the big gun up on the upper floor. 

Fantastic view of the St Laurence River.

 Love the cutaway showing the powder, wadding and shot!

Bonus photo - cutaway model of the Martello Tower from the Plains of Abraham museum.

Irish Holiday Part 9 - Newry

 For our last stop in Northern Ireland, we spent a day and a night in Newry.  We had a day before we needed to be back in Dublin for our flight back to Vancouver.  After a bit of discussion, Arthur said that he wanted to see Narrow Water Castle.  I was curious about his interest in this castle, but agreed.  It's quite a magnificent-looking tower, dating back to the 16th Century, but was not open on the day of our visit. 

We carried on from Narrow Water into the seaside town of Warrenpoint, where we had a lovely late breakfast/early lunch at the Bric Bagel Cafe.  We had a great view of the Republic just across the Lough. 

Beautiful waterfront, mix of sandy beaches and rocky shoreline.

We hopped onto the bus back to Newry, took in the Newry museum and had a wander of the town.  Then back to our B&B.

The next day we took the train back to Dublin.  We had a shopping day, picking up a few souvenirs and gifts for the folks back home, and that was it for our Irish adventure.