Dangerous Dames 2

Even more Dangerous Dames from Pulp Figures!  For no particular reason, I decided that these 'dames' should all be blondes :-)

First up is Meg Masters, ready for action with her bolt action rifle.

Next up, Calamity Jane, who is definitely putting out similar vibes to Sharon Stone in 'The Quick and the Dead'!  (and so inspired the blonde look for the whole group).

Here is Oberleutnant Heidi Rasch of the Luftwaffe.

And Bernadette de la Résistance!

Finally, Cassandra van Pelt.

And a group shot to finish this post.

Dangerous Dames: Lady Rathborne's Raiders

Back to the Pulp Figures' Dangerous Dames!  No, this is not me finishing up the remaining figures from the kickstarter from 2 years ago.  I purchased NEW Dangerous Dames, and as new figures they of course moved to the front of the painting queue! :-D  This set is called 'Lady Rathborne's Raiders".  

First up is this charming lady with a big sword.  I can't possibly think of where the inspiration to paint her in this colour scheme came from ;-)

The archer has a tartan skirt that copies (as near as I could manage) the one I used for my 1940-ish Highlanders.

I don't have much to add about these last three, except to reiterate how much I enjoy painting Pulp Figures!

More Moustachioed Movember Miniatures

Here are two more of Bob Murch's magnificent moustachioed Movember figures from previous campaigns, which he generously included with the 2021 Movember Colonel Blimp figure. 

First up is 2020's Master Lip Fan, martial artist.

And second is 2018's Barnabus Tash!

German supply wagon

 Clearing through some of my incomplete projects, I found this Rubicon Models wagon.  It's a nice little kit, although lacking in some of the usual bonus materials that usually come with Rubicon kits.  The kit contains only the wagon and horses, with no driver or cargo.  Those are available separately, but in this case I simply assembled a load from my bits box and recruited a seated German infantryman from another project.

The kit comes with an option of either a single horse or two horse harness.  I initially had an idea of rigging up the traces and reins, but after I figured out that the reason it had gone back into the box was that I had more important things to do than rig up harnesses (actually, it's really hard for me to think of anything LESS important to me right now!), I decided to finish it up quickly so that it can join the rest of my WWII German equipment.

   

Interwar Highlanders and Armed Sailors

 Here is the start to another force for Chain of Command or possibly another game at a similar scale.  The armed sailors will add to the ones I did a couple of years ago, so that now there are 10 of them.  I'm more excited, however, about the Highlanders!  My goal is to build them up to a full platoon for the 1940 Battle of France, or a fictitious campaign such as Operation Sea Lion or the Very British Civil War.  It will depend on what my local gamers are willing to support, so I'll see if these troops can fit in to campaigns they have under way!  All of these figures are from Pulp Figures.

I have around half a platoon's worth of Highlanders.  In a pinch, I could add a section of RN armed sailors to pad out their numbers (however it's more likely that I'd make up the numbers with the late WWI Great War Miniatures Highlanders that I prepared years ago).  For now, the sailors will be available for guarding coastal installations or whatever similar role they might be assigned.

Here are the sailors.  Nice and tidy, and ready aye ready for action!

In the Battle of France, only one battalion of Highlanders actually wore kilts into action, the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders.  Apparently they "didn't receive" the orders telling them to deploy in battledress.  Rather than attempt to replicate Cameron of Erracht tartan, I've decided to depict a fictitious regiment, the MacLaren Highlanders, from an out-of-print historical romance series written in the 1970s by C.L.Skelton.  Skelton's series only progressed to WWI, so that leaves me free to speculate on the MacLarens in either WWII or in the VBCW.  Using a fictional regiment lets me send them wherever I want and in whatever uniform I choose!

These are the Highlanders' "special weapons":  a Boys anti-tank rifle, a Lewis LMG and a Bren LMG, plus two Thompson submachine guns.  

Here are the riflemen.

These are the command figures, three officers, an NCO and a piper.  I originally painted them several years ago, but I touched them up a bit and converted them to MacLaren tartan so they'd match the rest of the platoon.

Here's the current force.  I've been carefully pouring over the army lists in the Chain of Command Blitzkrieg handbook.  I'm going to need many more riflemen, at least one more LMG (or two if I want each section to have a Bren), and a 2" mortar team.  And then I'll need to start adding the support options!  I've already decided that the piper could stand in for the Drinks Cabinet ;^)  but they will still need some better anti-tank options than the Boys rifle.  However, there will be plenty of time to figure out support after I get the platoon itself up to strength!

 

Gandalf

 Arthur, as mentioned previously, is terribly keen on all things Middle-earth, and he convinced his aunt to buy him the box set of Thorin's Company.  Arthur has been painting the Bilbo and the dwarves, but I absconded with Gandalf!  I wanted to paint him to match as closely as possible with the 3 versions of him that I already had from many years ago.

This version of Gandalf is dressed for travel, with his pointy blue hat, a silver scarf, his wizard's staff and the sword Glamdring. 

Here is the new version of Gandalf, from the journey to the Lonely Mountain, alongside the older versions.  The latest Gandalf is plastic, but you wouldn't know it to look at him next to the metal models.  Although my intent was to match the grey and blue of the older models, they've actually come out somewhat darker.  Rather than attempt to lighten up the painting, I've decided to simply explain it all away! You see, Gandalf with the faded robes and hat are from the time of the War of the Ring, which took place some 77 years after the events of The Hobbit.  This means that Gandalf's robes have had ample time to fade to a lighter shade, as he has been travelling throughout Middle-earth all that time.  And of course he wears the exact same clothes during that whole time and never replaces them!