On the Workbench: West Wind London Thugs

I'm also working on West Wind's pack of 28mm London Thugs, another generic pack of disgruntled Victorian workers and street folk perfect for Victorian science fiction and horror. Some also work for Western games, though the trousers can be a dead giveaway that these are more Victorian than American Wild West.

Again, variations of the bloke on the far left appear in at least one other pack, the Lady Doctor.

Hey, didn't I see the fellow on the left in another pack? Hmmm....Cousins?

On the Workbench: West Wind London Mob

Ironically, I've been complaining that I'm tired of painting 19th century and WWII figures, so what do I do? I start painting more 19th century figures! Someday I'll figure out how my brain thinks. Anyway, I mentioned on Brummie's excellent blog that I'd post some photos of the pack of West Wind's 28mm London Mob, because WW and Old Glory only have a photo showing one of the eight figures you get.

I love nearly all the figures in West Wind's horror lines, having bought many packs of them years ago when Old Glory said they would no longer be casting them. The West Wind figures have great, often exaggerated character, making them fun to paint and put on the table. Unfortunately, some of them look like they were sculpted after the artist came home from an all-night bender. *cough*GHZ-5 Lady Doctor and Her Staff*cough* Thankfully, those seem few and far between.

Oddly, the head on the far left fellow gets repeated in other packs, a common WW practice.

Priming Miniatures: Gesso Update 2

Well, several days have passed along with three evenings of power outages since I primed the latest batch of figures using black Golden gesso and the results are in.

The Golden gesso adheres great to the miniatures, not blocking details too much. The gesso doesn't rub off with normal pressure, unlike my last batch of Liquitex gesso.

Some of the figures have bare spots, which can be typical of any gesso. You can see the Blue Moon Zorro doesn't have any bare spots front or back, but the Blue Moon cowboy does. I'd say about a third of the 20+ figures I primed have some bare spots. I've never been able to figure out when, where, or why this happens. If anyone knows, please post it in the comments section! I'll just brush black over these bare spots. When the figure is sealed, the spots will be fine without any paint rubbing off in those areas.

All in all, I like the Golden brand much more than the current Liquitex.

Priming Miniatures: Gesso Update

This is an update to my earlier post on priming miniatures using gesso. In that post, I discuss the pros and cons of using gesso, along with my recent problems using Liquitex gesso and my decision to switch to Golden gesso. You can read the full post by clicking on this link.

This afternoon, I finally got around to priming some miniatures using the Golden black gesso I had bought a couple months ago. These are the Old Glory/Blue Moon Zorro freebie set and some OK Corral figures. They are pretty simple figures without too many doodads, a style I appreciate.

Minutes after glopping on the gesso.

So far I'm pleased with the Golden black gesso, though the real test will come in a couple days when it thoroughly dries. That's when I'll see how durable it really is, unlike my last batch of Liquitex.

The Golden black gesso is quite a bit thicker than the Liquitex. Whether that's a good sign or not, I can only hope. It seems to apply like any other gesso would, and has all the pros and con of gesso, like leaving some bare spots when it dries. However, those have been few and far between so far!

I have noticed that the wet Golden black gesso seems to adhere to everything better than the Liquitex. In fact, it takes some effort to get the stuff off my fingers! It really stains fast, unlike Liquitex. I got some on my painting lamp (don't ask!), and really had to work to get it off, eventually using Windex instead of plain wet paper towels. So be careful using this stuff! Don't be a klutz like me!

About 1.5 hours of drying time. You can see the gesso shrinking. Looks okay so far!

My only real complaint is the wide-mouth jar. Yes, I realize it's so artists can dip in their wide brushes they use when priming their canvases, but the wide lid makes things a bit messier for me. I didn't want to keep the lid off for over an hour, fearing the gesso might skim over like paints do, so I poured it into a small medicine cup I had been saving. I always did this with the Liquitex. This time was a bit messy, but ok. I really miss Liquitex's squirt bottles! If I can remember, I'll see if the art store has a better, less-messy bottle for the Golden gesso.

So there you have it. It's like the guy who jumped off the 50-story building said every time he passed by a new floor: "So far, so good!" I'll see what happens when we hit the ground later this week. :-)

Painting WWII Soviet Infantry - Part 3:Basing Tips & Tricks

Articles In This Series
Part 1: Series Introduction, Plus Ranks & Insignia
Part 2: Summer Tunics & Trousers
Part 3: Basing Tips & Tricks
Part 4: Winter Uniforms
Part 5: Painting Guides
Part 6A: Finished Black Tree Design 28mm Infantry
Part 6B: Finished Black Tree Design 28mm Infantry
Part 6C: Finished Black Tree Design 28mm Infantry

Series Overview
This is the third in an ongoing series of articles documenting the research I have been doing for painting my 28mm Black Tree Design miniatures for 1:1 skirmish gaming. Finding historical information on Soviet uniforms that gamers can use was very difficult, with much of it scattered across various Osprey and other books, along with some websites. I hope folks find this series of articles helpful and might even stir some interest in gaming the Eastern Front. While I painted 28mm miniatures, nearly all this information is useful for all miniature sizes.

Getting Started With Basing
Having some free time yesterday afternoon, I finally worked some more on the bases of my Black Tree Design Soviets. Several weeks ago, I had smeared Elmer's Wood Filler across the bases. When that dried, I painted the edges of the bases and much of the base itself using Ceramcoat Autumn Brown. When that dried, I sealed the paint on the bases using Americana's brush-on matte varnish, though it dried with more of a shine than I would like. Normally, I would have sprayed the bases with Dulcote, but it's been too humid here in Central Florida. I'll have to do that once the humidity lets up.

Using Ballast (not Sand) as Ground Cover
So yesterday the figures got some ground cover. You can see my set up in the top photo below. For these figures, I used a mixture of fine, medium, and coarse brown ballast from Woodland Scenics. In a small bowl, I mixed some of each. Since I was shooting for a rubble-look, I used more medium and coarse ballast than I normally would have.

Though a few years ago I tried using plain old sand and then painting it, I've found using model railroad ballast works just as well. Plus, model hobby shops sell ballast in many different colors and rock mixtures, not just the few colors that Woodland Scenics offers. Check them out when you get a chance.

This beings me to another point. Why did I use brown ballast if I was thinking of doing city fighting, like in Stalingrad. Wouldn't grey ballast and rocks be better, along with grey painted bases? You know, at first I had been planning on doing just that. Then I began thinking that grey bases would be too limiting, switching to basic brown earth instead. After all, cities have lots of earth, especially around blown up buildings. Earthen bases wouldn't look as out of place in city fighting as grey bases would look in countryside fighting. Kind of trivial, I guess, it was something that ran through my head.

Painting on the Glue
Ok, so I have all my bowls of rocks on the table. I then thin down white glue about 50/50 with the same distilled water/flow improver mix that I use when painting. Using an old brush, I paint the glue onto the base. Here is a little trick I figured out: licking my finger, I rub the ring of the base to get off any excess glue so my base edges don't become rock-covered.

Rock On!
Next, I take the figure and dip it deep into the ballast mixture, swooshing it about. When I pull out the figure from the mix, I make sure to keep the ballast piled on top. I then use an old bristle brush and pat down the pile of ballast, making sure the ballast settles into the glue. I then tap off the excess ballast, rub off any ballast around the edges, and move onto the next figure. This is the easy part, I always feel.

Base Details: Rubble, Rocks, & Grass
Now comes the fun part that make or break the look of a base and its figure. What details do I put on the bases? I want an autumn/early spring look to the figures, after all many are wearing bits of winter uniform. I'd love to do winter bases, but that specialized project will have to wait!

The other containers in the photo have Woodland Scenics coarse brown talus and coarse grey talus, along with some Cajon sandstone rip-rap. What's nice is that these packs also have bits of other rock colors in them, so I can pull them out to look like brick bits maybe. These rocks can be used for nearly any other project as well. Finally, I have some autumn grass tufts from Army Painter. You don't see any static grass because I don't own any autumn colors, only summer farm pasture, which won't work too well here. (Besides, I'll be placing an order with Scenic Express next week for more scenery stuff, like autumn grass.)

You can see in the photo that I experimented a bit with a few figures. A couple of them I glopped on some glue and then dipped them in either the grey or sandstone talus, looking for that pile of rubble look. Some rocks I just glued in place as I felt. I'm not sure if it capture the look of rubble, but since I don't have a bits box of rubble junk, they'll have to do for now. I don't think I'll do this to many of the bases.

When I get my order from Scenic Express, I'll finish the bases on all 25 figures. At least with the ballasted bases they look a lot better than they had look the past several months in their black-primed bases!

Now I just need some buildings, most likely paper, and get these guys onto the table for some gaming. I'll keep you posted.

James P. Blaylock: Fantasy & Steampunk Novelist

Often times writing (and for you guys reading) this blog feels like I'm taking a car trip on a winding mountain road at night in the rain with only one working headlight and windshield wipers that scratch across the glass more than they wipe it clear. I'm not sure that that all means, other than some nights I feel rather nostalgic for the good old days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when gaming, computers, fantasy, and science fiction held a magical grip on my young imagination.

So where is this road leading me tonight? How about to one of my favorite fantasy and science fiction writers at the time, James P. Blaylock? Perhaps you've heard of him, though odds on you haven't. His first novel was The Elfin Ship in 1982, followed by The Disappearing Dwarf in 1983, which I accidentally read prior to reading The Elfin Ship! These were part of what would become his Elfin series of four novels. He wrote other novels as well, eventually being influenced by the emerging steampunk movement of the time, and he continues to write today.

Blaylock writes in a very off-beat, light-hearted manner, heavily influenced by 19th century British and American literature with a twist of Monty Python tossed in. Very odd and humorous, with numerous literary references and word-plays. We'd classify his style as "magic realism," placing him among writers such as Gabriel García Márquez, who wrote the novel 100 Years of Solitude. Blaylock's quirky humor has always fit my quirky sense of humor.

Of course, I knew practically nothing about that literary stuff at the time. I was just a young adult/kid working in my dad's store. I wouldn't become a literature major for a few more years. Still, I always had an interest in Victorian science fiction from reading Wells and Verne. Later, I would go on to specialize in 19th century British and American literature.

You can find most of Blaylock's works on the Nook for $10 each, though finding paperbacks seems to be easy enough as well. I've listed most of the Blaylock novels below that I've read. I stopped reading him after 1986, mainly because I had too much else to read as a literature major and he had worn thin for me. Homunculus, for example, juggles more characters and plot threads than Blaylock can really handle well. But his early novels are a breezy read. If you like Victorian science fiction with a twist of fantasy, check out James P. Blaylock, one of my favorite imaginative writers from the early 1980s.

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The Elfin Ship (1982)

Trading with the elves used to be so simple. Every year Master Cheeser Jonathan Bing would send his very best cheeses downriver to traders who would eventually return with Elfin wonders for the people of Twombly Town.

But no more...

First, the trading post at Willowood Station was mysteriously destroyed. Then a magical elfin airship began making forays overhead: Jonathan knew something was definitely amiss.

So he set off downriver to deliver the cheeses himself, accompanied by the amazing Professor Wurzle, the irrepressible Dooly, and his faithful dog Ahab. It would have been such a pleasant trip, if not for the weeping skeleton, mad goblins, magic coins, an evil dwarf, a cloak of invisibility - and a watch that stopped time.

Of course, the return trip was not so simple...

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The Disappearing Dwarf (1983)

Jonathan Bing, Master Cheeser, has been growing a bit bored in Twombly Town. So it’s no surprise that when Professor Wurzle suggests a trip downriver, Jonathan jumps at the chance. A visit to the Evil Dwarf Selznak’s abandoned castle leads to a treasure hunt, but also to the discovery that Jonathan’s old friend the Squire has vanished, and that Selznak may be involved.

Jonathan--accompanied by his wonderpooch Ahab, the Professor, and Miles the Magician--will have to set off to darkest Balumnia, to the city of Landsend, to find the treasure, and the Squire. And to make matters worse, Selznak will be there, too...

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The Digging Leviathan (1984)

Southern California - sunny days, blue skies, neighbours on flying bicycles ... ghostly submarines ... mermen off the Catalina coast ... and a vast underground sea stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the Inland Empire where Chinese junks ply an illicit trade and enormous creatures from ages past still survive. It is a place of wonder ... and dark conspiracies. A place rife with adventure - if one knows where to look for it. Two such seekers are the teenagers Jim Hastings and his friend, Giles Peach. Giles was born with a wonderful set of gills along his neck and insatiable appetite for reading. Drawing inspiration from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Giles is determined to build a Digging Leviathan. Will he reach the center of the earth? or destroy it in the process?

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Homunculus (1986)

In 1870s London, a city of contradictions and improbabilities, a dead man pilots an airship and living men are willing to risk all to steal a carp. Here, a night of bangers and ale at the local pub can result in an eternity at the Blood Pudding with the rest of the reanimated dead.