Pigs at Risk!!

 After the summer hiatus (no new post since July, but a lot of painting as you'll see in the future), something new at last, and a bit different from my usual warbands.

Thanks to fellow forumers at Benno's, I've recently discovered a MDF buildings manufacturer called Blotz, with an interesting 20mm range - which is rather rare since I only new one so far. Among other things, They propose a Dark Age houses series, which should be great with Viking, medieval or even Fantasy figures. 

I assembled and painted the first buildings a few weeks ago. Then I searched my figures collection and found a few peasants, farm animals and medieval soldiers, so that today, I can show you the last Philotep's production, in Mini-o-rama: 

 

Let's start with the beginning... A long time ago, in a small village somewhere in Europe, lived a poor farmer with his wife. They had two grown-up sons, almost men, a precious manpower for the farm's work. They lived all together in a tiny but nice thatched house, and were fortunate enough to owe a few pigs.

One morning, they were alerted by the unusal noise of the pigs. - What's happening ? said one boy to the other - Let's have a look, answered the other. They went out in the courtyard to discover that some brigands were just robbing the pigs! And the men looked dangerous - probably some mercenaries looking for food.

 Too bad their dog had just died, he would have warned them earlier.

(technical comment: the truth is that I have not painted any dog figure yet, I will put one on my todo list, I promise)

- Dad, dad, help! shouted the younger boy, they're trying to get into the storehouse, I won't be able to defend it alone!

Fortunately, the farmer was working in a field near the house, and he was back very soon, ready to engage the looters himself.

 

The mercenaries were fierce, but the farmer much stronger, and his sons courageous. Step by step, the looters were losing ground. Taking benefit of the thieves' distraction, the stolen pig turned back and run straight into its pig pen. At this sight, the armed men lost their motivation and started to retreat, not without insulting the farmers and the pigs.

- They might return, said the farmer's wife, more of them, hungry and dangerous. But for today, I am very proud of you all.

And so we leave the whole family in their small farm, in a happy end this time.

Will the mercenaries return ? How many of them ? Will there still be some pigs, or will they have been all eaten ? And what about the dog ?

You will find answers to all this questions and many more one day in the next episode: The pigs at risk 2!! (or not).

Oh, credits:

- farmers by Strelets, Valdemar and Zvezda

- farmer's wife by Hät

- looters by Orion, Strelets and Accurate

- pigs by Pegasus

- buildings by Blotz

Every pig used in this story has not been harmed. You may have noticed that I didn't paint them pink - not because they are dirty, but because the actual pink pigs that we see today are the result of crossings between European and Asian pigs that started during the 18th century. The medieval pigs were probably darker, grey brown or black (source: Michel Pastoureau in Libération, 2018).

Japanese bridge

Hello, Happy New Year (it's never too late) !

The beginning of the year is the perfect moment to:

- have a look at the previous year, and write a summary of what was achieved, and what wasn't

- make plans for the year to come

You know what ? I have no desire to develop any of these items - I would have the feeling to be at work and to be compelled to write the annual review and the planned workload. And since this blog is about a hobby, I decided to have NO plan and to paint whatever I like... as usual :D

So, the year will begin with something different: a new civilization, and improved scenery.

Today, we have a look at a small Japanese bridge.

I have been deeply interested in Japan for years, and I have been lucky enough to visit some parts of Honshu (the main island), particularly the Tokyo and Kyoto areas. And since I am also interested in History, I appreciated to visit castles, temples and traditional houses, and also the wonderful gardens in which you can sometimes see some typical curved bridges such as this one:

The wooden Japanese bridges are often painted vermilion red, like the tori, because that colour indicates a passage between the world of the Humans and the world of the Gods.

Hence the color of my bridge, a mix of red and orange.

On this bridge, we can see 4 warrior monks standing their ground against invisible enemies (Redbox figures).

I realised, after writing this post, that my inspiration obviously came from Japanese woodblock prints. I'm a big fan of ukiyo-e, particularly the Edo period, and among all, my favourite artist is Kuniyoshi.

 Here you are a couple of prints that he designed:

Kuniyoshi 1839 Biography of Yoshitsune - Gojo bridge

Kuniyoshi 1839-41Yoshitsune fighting Benkei on Gojo bridge

The triptych and the diptych have the same subject: they represent Yoshitsune, a young boy and future famous samurai et fight with Benkei, a Sohei (warrior monk) who will become his most faithful ally.
 

Let's consider now the technical side of today's pictures. It's good to have a small bridge, but you also need a river if you want to take decent pictures!  Therefore, I had to dig in a plate of polystyrene, add some sand, paint, then add some flocking, and paint again... 3 days work for just  few pictures! Now you know why I haven't posted anything since Christmas :)

I hope you like the result :)

See you soon.

Edit 10/01/2020:

To answer a question asked by Eric, The bridge comes from a kit by Sarissa Precision Ltd. They have a very interesting range of 20mm buildings, but it would be very nice if they decided to adapt their whole 28mm range to 20mm :)

And I also added some woodblock prints reproductions above.

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 13

Between the foundation of Rome in 753 BC and the end of the Western Empire in the middle of the 5th century AD, the Roman civilization lasted more than thousand years. No wonder that this history keeps on fascinating so many people.

There will be no exception with this blog as we (re)discover today the most famous soldier of the Empire period.

Day 13 of the Advent Calendar: a Roman legionary in full armor, the Lorica Segmentata.

This soldier is the symbol of the Empire at its full extent. His duty is to protect the Roman world against the assaults of the Barbarians living beyond the edge of the known world. We can see him on guard duty in front of the door of a wooden fort. I like this standing pose, popularized by Strelets in the past years. And this big shield was a real temptation for a painter :)

Our legionary is soon disturbed by two of his comrades coming back from reconnaissance - yes, the very same that were on display on Day 7 of the Calendar. What sort of discussion do they have ? I let you imagine.

The wooden palissade with a door comes from the Zvezda range. It was originally designed to be part of a wooden Russian fort in the 14th century AD.

See you tomorrow !

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 11

At last! I wrote in the previous post that a peaceful scene would be great for an Advent Calendar, here we are!

For Day 11 of the Advent, let's rest a little as we have a look at a musician in Africa.

This figure comes from a very old 1/72 set, which is set #01733 Tarzan figures by Airfix. This man is practicing on a cylindrical drum. In Central Africa, this kind of drum is called Ngoma, played with bare hands.

Our musician might have been included in this year "musician of the month" challenge, but, I you have read this blog from the start, you know that I regularly fail to achieve it, so that I haven't even tried this year :)

The house is a resin model bought some times ago and painted last year. It represents a Celtic house in the Iron Age, but I found it close enough to represent an house in Central Africa, compared to this picture, taken in Democratic Republic of Congo at the end of the 20th century:

So let's take a break, and for some time listen to the beat of the drum...

Rather different than the previous post, don't you think ? Hope you like this scene, and... see you tomorrow :)

Oh, by the way: I have created a page on this blog to gather the images of the Calendar, you can get to it via a link, simply named "2020 Advent Calendar", under the header image.

I probably will modify this page in the future (when I find time), but you will find one picture for every past day.

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 6

Another time, another latitude, no snow for Day 6 of this Advent Calendar. Let's go to Middle-East! Today we have a look at some medieval Muslim foot soldiers.

These men are part of the Ayyubid army, in the 12th century AD. The Ayyubid dynasty was a Muslim Dynasty founded by Saladin who abolished the Fatimid caliphate in 1171. Starting in Egypt, the Ayyubid created a vast empire including Syria, a part of north Africa, Hejaz, Yemen. They also conquered most of the Crusader states, including the kingdom of Jerusalem.

We can see them in action at the entrance of a small village.

Wait, wasn't there a goat ? I think we already saw this one in the pages of this blog.

The figures have been painting from time to time in the past three years, the last ones were made in 2020. They are meant to be part of my Ayyubid army against the crusaders.

Some Ayyubid knights can be seen here.

My (complete) crusader army is there.

The regular visitors will have recognized the goat that travels through time and space, rarely seen these days (I don't remember the last time :)).

The newest element in this scene is the house, that I've painted yesterday. Simple but nice (I think). This is a resin model that I bought a long time ago. I will try to create (scrath-building) some more to have a real village.

Hope you're not fed up with this calendar. See you tomorrow for day 7 :)

A pyramid in the jungle

The big thing from the cellar is ready, and I must say (for once) that I am quite happy with the result.
Today, the attraction of this blog is a scratch-built Maya pyramid (ta-daam) !

In the previous post, the pyramid was built with polystyren and painted with yellow ochre as a base color. The next stage was to lighten step by step the base color, then add some traces of vegetation - not too much, so that it could be use as an active temple and as an antique building.
Well, if I wanted to be really accurate, I should have covered the building with plaster painted mainly in red - that's what the Mayan pyramid mostly looked like when they were still in service.

You can see the result below:

The enlightement was achieved through several drybrushes (with more and more white added to the base color), except that I also had to paint a lighter line on the top of every stone - a bit long but necessary.
Adding the vegetation was easy: some green paint, green flocking and a little bit of lichen.

The most difficult was to create a scene looking like a primary forest with only a few modelling trees... see for yourself:

That pyramid is a good spot for saurus...

The last picture in cinemascope: Maya-Toltecs vs Aztec invaders.

It's my first serious attempt at building some scenery element, I think I should build a few more, what do you think ? Maybe some houses for my Vikings, or my Rohirrim :)

Meanwhile, in the cellar...

... something big is being prepared!

A mysterious plan

Many parts needed and cut

 Big enough for Lizardmen in 28mm

Even bigger for 20mm Mayas

After glueing, the stones are drawn with a pen (the longest step)

Some sculpting on the rooftop

The painting begins - Yellow Ocre as a base

To be continued.

Pirates of the Caribbean: skirmish on the dock

Hi everyone!

My Flying Dutchman crew needed to raid, they found a small coastal town with a dock, and even opponents to fight against. Come on, the battle begins!

1. Skirmish on the dock

2.The Making of

First of all, let me introduce you the two teams. I've already painted a small group of Zombie pirates, three crewmen of the Flying Dutchman, from left to right:
- Palifico, whose head is covered with coral
- Maccus, first mate of Davy Jones
- Hadras, already presented here.

I also added a zombie pirate, though he should be crewman on the Black Pearl. All Mars minis.

To defend the dock (and the city), a few mariners took their poor weapons and tried to stand before the horrible crew. They are Hät minis, from mini set #8325 British Marines and Fighting Sailors.

What about the dock ? No, not scratchbuilt alas. It's a piece of scenery I bought once in a local shop - just needed to paint it. It is designed for 28mm figures, but I thought it might be ok for 1/72 figures. Ok, the crates and coffer are a bit too large, but I think it works well enough.

And what about the sea ? My first idea was to paint some piece of paper to represent water, waves and maybe the coast, and I think I will do something like that one of these days, but it will take days before it is over, and I wanted to take pictures today (first day without rain for at least one week), so I needed something ready to use. Mrs Philotep (nicknamed NeferCaro on this blog :)) proposed me some blue crepe paper. Nothing extraordinary, but good enough. The first pictures looked like that:

Nice but really flat. Then she went to the kitchen and came back with some plastic film. A layer of plastic over the blue paper, and this was it:

Brilliant, isn't it ? It is maybe a common trick for miniature sceneries, but I didn't know it, so Mrs Philotep takes credit for this very good idea!

Last thing (see the edit below), I changed the color of the sea to turquoise with my computer, and there you are:

Hope you like them all, even the ugliest ones :)

Edit: I just found a way to replace the blue of the sea by some turquoise, which is much more realistic, so I've replaced all the pictures in this post.