From Curt: Two Units of Fodder for Turnip28 (120 points)

Hi All!

I'm back to my Turnip28 project, carrying on from the 'Snobs' to the next formation type: two units of rank-and-file troops, or in T28 parlance: 'The Fodder'. 

In the game, Fodder come in groups of 12 figures, and while they're pretty lousy on the whole, they do benefit from being able to put out a decent curtain of (inaccurate) fire, and can soak up a lot of punishment. Just like what you'd expect from a troop type sporting such a dubious nom de guerre.

The figures are 3d prints from Knucklebone Miniatures. These are fantastic one-piece models which I highly recommend - I printed a duplicate set in a mirror image in order to provide some variation within the units. I also added some chopped-up tufts, coming out of collars and cuffs, along with a few clusters of mushrooms for colour. 

I really like how characterful these figures are, so wonderfully miserable and downtrodden. When grouped together they give a wonderful impression of a shambling mob of dolorous mooks, sadly trudging to their inescapable doom. 

I did-up one unit with red facings as part of my 'Rutabaga Rifles', and another in yellow turnbacks for the 'Fighting Fennel Fusiliers'. I used an airbrush for laying down the base colours and then went in with a brush for some of the details.

I had a bit of fun doing up a rutabaga on one of the standards - not something I thought I'd be painting as a flag device, but when in the Turnip-World you do silly turnip things.

For their yellow opposition, instead of the usual banner, I gave them a spooky Mari Lywd as their standard. For the uninitiated (meaning me until I read up on it), the Mari Lywd was a Welsh wassailing custom, apparently to celebrate nature's growth and renewal. 

It entailed mounting a horses skull on pole, with the person holding it hidden under a sackcloth.  The Mari Lywd and its attendants would go around to local homes, singing and carousing to get free food and drinks. Yes, the Welsh are a wonderfully weird lot. Anyway, I thought it would make an interesting standard for a unit of creepy root vegetable infantry.

Byron was kind enough to make up some sabot bases for me that are similar in design to those I use for my Malta project. 

I had a bit of fun pimping them out with a dice socket (to track panic in the game), along with gratuitous blood spatters in the empty troop sockets to signify when the poor Fodder take a dirt nap. Fun!

These 24 infantry will give me 120 points for the roster, a few for the airbrush duel, and a nice escalatory bump in our Turnip28 clash of vegetables.

The vegetable patch to-date.

Thanks for dropping in folks and have a terrific weekend!

- Curt

Friday Minion - Aha, trudging in dolefully on the heels of the toffs and toadies, the fodder have arrived! Delightful, miserable, bonkers nonsense here Curt. I confess to liking the grimy, grim aesthetic of Turnip28 (I really should get back to my abortive attempts), but your jaunty twist has its appeal too. 

I love the Mari Lywd as standard, quite coincidentally, shortly before Christmas I spent an hour or so in a wikipedia rabbithole of Welsh and other bizarre festive traditions (looking at you, Finland), and recent attempts at Mari Lywd revival movements, despite seemingly noone knowing where or whence the tradition comes from, let alone why. 

120 points to the Snowlord!