Fauna

After a recent expedition "down under" a couple of new animals have been added to the national zoological gardens.

If I recall correctly these are from a Reaper Miniatures "familiars" pack.

Odds and Ends

No new miniature pictures today, but I'm slowly working my way through my old lead pile.Prepping miniatures, and painting again. Some are fantasy figures, which I will post on my other blog as they are completed. Historical (or imagi-nations) and VSF stuff will be posted here as they are completed. Among the historicals I have some lancers prepped and awaiting their turn on the painting desk. I was pleased to find some plastic toothpicks that I think work well for the lances.

For those interested in ships of the mid-1800's I found an interesting book in Barnes & Noble, Ships of the Civil War 1861-1865. I don't know much about the ships of the era (or any era for that matter), so I can't vouch for accuracy. Basically the book consists of 2 page spreads on each of about 100 ships of all different types, from "riverine gunboats through ironclad steamers, to wooden sloops and paddle-driven cruisers" (as the blurb on the back states). Each one has details about size, armament, number of crew, speed, etc; along with a brief history; with a full-color illustration of the ship on the facing page, mostly side views of each ship. If nothing else it might be a good source of inspiration for anyone wanting to build ships or even a navy of the era.

More Guides and a Pathan

I'm slowly getting some miniature painting done, and hope to pick up the pace a little as the long hot Summer slowly cools down. For now, here are a couple more Guides, one of the regular Indian troops and an officer. And a Pathan. All Foundry miniatures from the lead pile.

Rock/s and Roll

I created some more rock piles/rocky/rough ground (rocks made from cellu-clay), stands of vegetation that can stand in for elephant grass (long grass-like plastic aquarium plants), and based some old conifers to add to my old tree stands. All bases were cut from mdf board.

The vehicle is a steam tank I made from a plastic Mott's applesauce container (molded to look like half a barrel), some mdf board and pine wood, a dowel, a wooden peg from the craft store (for the smokestack), a button, some gears, a washer, and a plastic stick from some old toy (for the gun barrel). Here are some closer shots with a 28mm Foundry figure for size comparison.

The top and bottom are not glued together, but have a dowel and hole so the top can be rotated.

As far as gaming goes, I've mostly been playing boardgames and card games this summer, games such as Wrath of Ashardalon and the Lord of the Rings card game, as they can be played solo as and when time and energy allow.

Megafauna

I'm not sure where or how I will use these, but I couldn't resist.
Brontotherium (the large gray Rhinoceros-like beast) and Daedon (the smaller brown warthog-like beast)

Aurochs bull

Megaloceros (sometimes called "Irish Elk")

Woolly Mammoths

All figures from Acheson Creations. Except for the daedon these critters are mostly resin, only the mammoth tusks, bull horns and forehead, and deer antlers/ears are metal. The daedon is a single-part metal miniature. These are a bit large for 28mm, probably more fitting for 40mm.

Google Reader is being closed down

Sorry for the off-topic post, but Google is reporting that they are closing down Google Reader. According to Google not enough people use Google Reader to make it worth their while to keep it going. So my question is how do people keep up with all the blogs they read? I'm not particularly adept with the tech stuff, and especially not with all the various "social media" type things, so I'm looking for alternatives that are pretty easy to use. If anyone reads this and has any helpful advice please let me know. Thank you!

A Couple of Characters

Slowly getting some painting done. Here are a 17th-18th century female swashbuckler type (could be a cavalry trooper), and a 19th century British (Grand Thidwickian) officer.

(I don't remember where the female figure came from; the officer is from Foundry)

Lots of Little Soldiers

I don't usually post stuff like this, but I just came across this youtube video and thought some of you might enjoy it.

Soforth Highlanders on the North by Northwest Frontier

The Soforth Highlanders have arrived on the Frontier. Figures from Foundry. (Painting plaid is slooow work! ha ha)

Guide and Sikh

I finally got back into painting and finished a few figures.

First up, a Guide from Foundry. There are a few more on the painting desk waiting to be painted, but I wanted to try color schemes on this one first.

Next, Teatray's Sikhs. I'm not sure I like the turbans. I always have difficulty getting nice straight even lines. I think they actually look better in the photo than in person.

A pair of tigers lurking in the brush.

Sikhs and tigers also from Foundry.

They have seen the elephant - African elephant from Northstar, with Indian elephant from Foundry for comparison. This put a big dent in my "lead mountain"! He's all metal, 4 parts but not a lot of empty space, and is pretty hefty. In scale I figure he's about 13 feet tall.