Friday, 15 January 2021

From Barks: Ned Kelly raids the Armoury (45 points)

Ned Kelly is the most (in)famous Australian bushranger. His career progressed from petty crime through livestock rustling and on to murdering police and robbing banks. His gang fashioned armour out of ploughshares in a bush forge, and wore it for a shootout with police at Glenrowan in 1880. Forewarned of ambush by young teacher Thomas Curnow (an under-recognized hero), the police prevailed. Kelly was executed and his last words were, "Such is life." He was 25.


His iconic armour weighed 40kg and significantly impaired movement and vision, but sustained multiple hits without penetration.


Ned wore a grey coat at his final shootout





He has become part of Australian history, either as an idolised Robin Hood figure or a disaffected terrorist- Geoffrey Robertson scornfully calls him 'Jihad Ned'. If you have a "Such is life" tattoo, then I will judge you.

These figures are from Great Escape Games. I painted the armour with Army Painter Gunmetal, then a wash of AP Dark Tone, then a thin wash of Vallejo 73.204 Flesh Wash for a subtle rust effect. The final touch is a 2B pencil for edge highlighting and scratches.

5x 28mm figures: 25 points

The Armoury: 20 points

30 comments:

  1. These guys are great! Nice work!

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  2. Nice work on these villains.

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  3. Great work on these cultural icons Barks. I fell down the Wikipedia rabbit hole after reading this post.

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    1. I'm very glad to hear that!

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    2. Looks like the missed the opportunity for a Ned Kelly skull.

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    3. I painted it as missing.

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  4. Interesting figures and great painting ... I love the weatherbeaten look! Cheers Jez

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  5. I like the combined effect of the two washes on the armour- very nice.

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    1. I’m pretty happy with the effect as well.

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  6. Great looking bushrangers!
    Best Iain

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    1. Cheers, Iain! It’s a bit hard to tell them apart...

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  7. Nice work Barks, and fine choice for the Armoury. The armour is really effective.

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    1. Thanks, Phyllion. I’ve had them for years and this was a great opportunity.

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  8. I love this set of figures and you've done a great job on them
    Regards KenR

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  9. Good work especially considering that unpainted they may have seem somewhat flat

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  10. Very nice, Barks - and quite spooky, as I am sure Curt mentioned Ned Kelly when he mentioned adding an Armoury to the Chambers of Challenge XI map! Clearly on the same wavelength as The Snow Lord! Awesome work!

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  11. Did you skip the Hatchery on your way?

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    1. I did- I got a teleport from a sorceress!

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  12. Awesome job mate - always meant to get those figs but just never did. You've done a really great job with them.

    You are spot on with the folk hero worship of a cop killing outlaw though - I don't get it either

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    1. I snapped them up when they came out.

      Fighting 'gainst The Man I can see, but when it comes to heedlessness toward civilian casualties, then you're into terrorism.

      But the armour is very cool.

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