For the last chamber in Level 1, the Larder, I went with a farmer's wagon and horse carrying his produce to market. This 28mm plastic set is from Mantic Games and is from their Terrain Crate Market Set.
The first chamber to complete in the second level is the Hatchery. This requires the model to have an avian theme, so I painted a Bretonnian Lord on a Hippogryph. The selection alone should give you some idea of how long this model has sat idle, since it's been several years since Bretonnia has even been a thing! Age of Sigmar has created rules for them, though its far from being a competitive list.
This model does not have the original rider. I "converted" it a long time ago in order to place a different Bretonnian lord on it. This was mostly successful despite having far less skill than I have today or the appropriate tools. I'm pretty sure I used just a file and hobby knife. This is all the more impressive when one considers that the model is metal and the riders legs are fully molded to the body of the horsy-bird thing. Unfortunately the rider I chose to replace the original just won't sit up straight on the horsy-bird. The riders legs also weren't wide enough which resulted in the rider sitting too high off the horsey-bird's back. This meant that there were too few contact points to glue the rider to the mount without turning to green stuff. That caused further problems because I knew I needed to paint the rider and mount separately. My solution was to sink a small magnet into the back of the mount and then ram a metal screw right up between the riders lags (oh, the horror!). This created a strong enough bond that the rider would remain on the mount even if held upside down. Naturally, after all this work Warhammer Fantasy was blown up and Bretonnia was kicked to the dustbin. I threw the remaining models in a cardboard box and moved on to other things. Thankfully, this challenge inspired me to finish it because it was a fun model to paint and I think it turned out better than it would have if I had painted it all those years ago.
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| The cape on the back helps disguise the fact that only his knees and feet touch the mount. |
For scoring purposes this is a 28mm mounted model so normally 10 points. However, its slightly more substantial than a normal horse mount and I appeal to the minions for final ruling on point value. And of course 20 points for completing a chamber.
These are 28mm in scale on 25mm bases for a total of 20 points.
I'm continuing the trip through the Chamber with the same theme as my first entry, the pain of supporting a lower league football club.
Having been tied to the seat so you can't leave before the final whistle, you are destined to be tortured by the "football" for 90 minutes. The sparks will fly and your brain will be fried as your favourite football team with a 25,000 all seated stadium loose 3 nil to some nowhere town, usually housing a major railway junction, who have brought less fans than you have catering staff.
The figure comes from the same source as my previous entry, the Malifaux Jack Daw Crew set. I love the figures for this game, they are great. Its well outside my comfort zone, but great fun. The fig is 28mm so that 5 points for the fig and 20 for the room. There are another 4 figs in the box to fit into the chamber, sure I can manage 😉
Next up 1st unit of Hastati.
"First stop, lads, The Drowned Rat... followed by The Golden Spurs, then The Duke's Repose and we'll end up at The Harvest Goose for last orders. Willem - don't you dare wander off half-way through tonight's watch to visit Agnes de Blom, like you did last week. Johannes, keep your eyes open for those rowdy, drunken Livonian sellswords from Graf von Bek's brigade - I heard they're in town tonight. Good. Everyone ready? Let's get a move on ... the first round in The Drowned Rat is on Lord van Brueghel, God Bless 'im,,,"
Captain Joos van Voocht, Laarden Nacht Wacht, 1688
Darkness in the Flemish Free-City of Laarden is always a dangerous time. Alongside the industrious and God-fearing townsfolk there are visitors to the city with less than fair intentions. Foreign mercenaries arriving in the city to augment the Flemish forces can be troublesome drinking companions. Pickpockets and thieves lurk in the dark corners of the Grote Markt, or the adjacent alleyways, hoping for a drunken nobleman or a careless merchant to stagger off the beaten track. And, in the midst of the campaign against Le Roi Soleil, rumours of French spies are ever-present among the night-time revellers.
Yet all is not lost. Keeping order on the dangerous, frost-flecked winter cobbles of Laarden is the duty of the Laarden Night Watch. A small, but enthusiastic, company of former soldiers and city artisans, they patrol the streets and marketplaces, alleys and wynds of the city from dusk until dawn.
Eschewing the gaudy clothing, bright plumage and lavish uniforms of other Laarden militia companies, the Night Watch is dressed in deliberately sober, modest professional grey. The standard of the Night Watch matches their uniform, being a carefully embroidered black swan, on a field of expensive ash-grey, white and black silk.
To outward appearances, the Night Watch are the sober defenders of civic order in the chaos of the night. The truth, of course, is not quite as heroic...
*****
The Night Watch miniatures are from the Wargames Foundry Thirty Years War range, venerable figures first produced in the late 1980s. I seem to have kept these in the lead mountain for years, mainly because I plumped for the later seventeenth century (and not the Thirty Years War) with my Laarden project. However, for a Flemish city watch, I reasoned that their arms and uniforms might not have quite kept up to date with the latest military fashions. And while the Spanish lace collar on Captain van Voocht looks a little antiquated, I doubt it'll be noticed when his company of watchmen is deployed within the walls of my miniature Laarden.
I painted the greyscale in various Vallejo Model Colours - black, neutral grey, light grey, sky grey and white. I mixed the colours fairly freely, just trying to create interesting contrasts on the figures. The standard of the Night Watch is freehand painted. You might remember a few years back, one of the Laarden Militias I painted in Challenge VI had the standard of a voracious pelican. I thought it'd be fun to give the Night Watch a standard of a more serene black swan, watching over the city in a patrician fashion.
On to the points. Three 28mm figures, at 5 points each (15 points), plus the 20 points for "The Chamber of Darkness" makes an additional 35 points. And for those eagerly collecting my ridiculously whimsical Laarden "Character Cards", here's the card for Captain van Voocht and his Night Watch.
Happy New Year all!
Thank you for the kind comments, hope everyone has had a great new years celebration.
I have sadly not had as much painting time over the past couple of days. But I have managed to get some more figures done.
I have now filled out the final elements for my 15mm DBA Medieval Russian Army. I managed to get it done within my own 2020 deadline (just!)
Firstly the 3 elements of Russian spearmen. There are two types of spearmen listed in the DBA army list. The Polk and the Smerdy. The Polk are described as town militia, and I have added a flag to each of their elements to distinguish them. I looked up the miniatures I used for the spearmen and I found that they were Mirliton miniatures from Italy. The Russian mounted I posted earlier are from the same manufacturer. The flags are from LBMS, I found my sheet of transfers while looking for some other miniatures. I had forgotten how fiddly the LBMS flag transfers are. I am not sure I will be doing too many more!
Next up are the German mercenary Knights. These are an option within the army list. The figures are from Legio Heroica. I really like this manufacturer and I have many more of their figures in my collection. After the experience with the LBMS flags, I decided to have a go at hand painting the heraldry. I must admit, I have not based these on any exact family, and I think I have also managed to mash the heraldic forms somewhat, but I am quite happy with the outcome, especially my eagle (although it certainly skips leg day at the gym and only works on the guns!)
For my submission for 'The Hall of Traps' I've painted up figures representing the Czech paratroops, members of 'Operation Anthropoid', who were trapped and killed in the Church of Saint Cyril and Methodius in Prague on June 18, 1942.
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| Poster from the 2016 film |
As a bit of background, 'Operation Anthropoid' was a Special Operations Executive (SOE) mission whose objective was to assassinate SS Obergruppenfurer Reinhard Heydrich in Prague in the spring of 1942.
Heydrich was the head of the SS security service and was the Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia. In addition to being soullessly ruthless (he was the chief architect of 'The Final Solution'), he was also regarded as a brilliant administrator and a savvy politician. His influence and position within the Nazi party made him an obvious target for the SOE, who wanted to make the point that any Nazi leader, no matter how powerful, could be found, targeted and killed.
In light of the despondency and acquiescence of many Czechoslovakians to the 1938 German occupation, the Czech government-in-exile was eager to show its commitment to the overthrow of Nazi Germany. They wanted to be seen as active participants in the war, and were enthusiastic to be involved in a bold strike to salve their national pride and bolster their credentials in any postwar reconstruction.
As such, a team of SOE-trained Czech paratroopers were dropped into Czechoslovakia, and after several setbacks and false starts, succeeded in fatally wounding Heydrich while he was being driven to work in his open-topped staff car.
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| Heydrich's staff car after the attack. Note the bomb damage on the rear running board. |
The Czech commandos were given sanctuary in the Church of Saint Cyril and Methodius. Nonetheless, their hiding place was ultimately discovered by the SS through torture and treachery.
Approximately 750 SS troops laid siege to the church. They tried numerous times to simply force an entry, but were bloodily repulsed. After several hours of fighting they managed to force the surviving paratroopers down into the lower crypt. The SS then used tear gas and then began to flood it from firetrucks brought to the scene. Recognising that their situation was hopeless, the last remaining paratroopers committed suicide rather than being captured.
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| Memorial plaque at the Church commemorating the Czech and Slovak paratroopers killed in the siege and the church's clergy who were subsequently murdered by the Nazis. |
As expected, the reprisals for the assassination were swift, brutal and without any sense of proportion. The Nazis arrested thousands, and the villages of Lidice and Lezaky were effectively wiped from the map. It is estimated that approximately 5000 civilians were murdered by the SS, with many being interred and later executed in concentration camps. The clergy from the church where the paratroopers were hidden were summarily executed.
The believed necessity of Heydrich's assassination weighed against the resulting reprisals is something which is still debated today - it certainly isn't an easy question to rationalise or square with. Yes, 'The Butcher of Prague' and the architect of the Final Solution had been brought to justice. It did cause the Nazis to increase security in their rear areas, which meant less troops serving at the front, and it did steel the Czech's will against their occupiers, but the cost of these gains was so very high that it brings into question the decision to mount the operation in the first place.
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The majority of the figures I used for the paratroopers are 28mm partisans from Artizan Design and Wargames Foundry. Nice, simple and characterful.
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These seven figures plus the Chamber bonus will give me 55 points and Squirrel Point #3.
Sorry for the rambling history lesson, but thank you for dropping in!
-Curt
While he waits for some buddies to join him, I'll claim 10 points for my tally. He sports 2 skullz, and as I also think he is rather terrifying so I shall also claim him for the Pit of the Pendulum!
* If you want the long version of his backstory you can find it here:
