Now there's this tavern down in Stirland, called the Brass Farthing. Pretty dodgy place, it is. Not like our fine establishment here... Anyway, the place ain't much to look at, although they say the owner, some Dwarf fella, has more money than Sigmar... But yeah, the place ain't flash, but they say the ale they serve there is somethin' else. It's so good, it's almost unnatural!
A month has passed since my initial post in the series, and I'm pleased to report that I managed to paint everything I was originally hoping to. This is a novel feeling - it's been a long time since I really felt like I managed to paint anything to much of a schedule.
Anyway, behold the patrons of the Brass Farthing, one of the most questionable taverns in Stirland...
40 of the most questionable soldiers you're ever likely to meet in the field. The first time I've really painted any Free Company, and I'm kind of sick of them. Too many colour decisions.
In actual fact though, this unit is rather a product of its time. By which I mean right now, rather than 20 years ago, or whenever the GW Militia models were first released. The unit is a blend of old and new. Most of it is the old plastic models, but there are also a pile of 3D printed components.
The chap with the fancy clothes is Grubbi Geldsson. This Dwarf owns the tavern. In fact, he owns half the town. Despite being exceedingly wealthy, he spends as little as he can to run and maintain the Brass Farthing. It really is a seedy place.
The innkeeper is Hans, a decidedly sensible fellow who spends most of his time trying to stop the patrons from getting up to too much trouble. He ends up coming along when the lads go to battle, mainly to help make sure they charge in the right direction.
Of course, the customers wouldn't go anywhere if they weren't being bribed by the offer of "supplies". Gerhardt is one of the bouncers at the inn, and travels along as security for the wagon. He has no sense of humour. The guy on the wagon itself is Jimmy. He is in charge of "testing" the supplies. Quality control, or some such. He is self-appointed, and nobody understands why Gerhardt allows him to be there.
The horse's name is Rover, because the stable-hand wanted a dog and was too stupid to understand the difference. So, the barrel wagon was printed on an FDM printer, and is from Hero's Hoard. The horse is resin printed from Cast n Play. Jimmy is from Titan Forge, and Gerhardt's legs and body are from Reptilian Overlords. The rest of him is GW parts. But you see what I mean about the mixed nature of some parts of this unit.
My phone camera was really struggling tonight. I don't know why. I'm sure it did a better job of focusing in the past. Anyway, you can still tell the Gerhardt doesn't really enjoy the constant toasts coming from the idiot behind him.
Franz is an earnest (though not very clever) young lad who has been entrusted with the unit standard, which is actually the battered old sign from the tavern itself. It's another Titan Forge element, planted on some brass rod. Franz has basically the same printed body as Gerhardt; legs that are standing still is not really something the old GW Militia models offered.
The sign itself actually misprinted a bit, but I decided it would do. After all, old penny-pinching Geldsson would hardly pay full price for a sign when he could get an almost perfectly good one on the cheap, eh?
Geldsson himself is 3D printed from MOM Miniatures (as is Hans the innkeeper). It's fair to say that this model really has nothing to do with a Free Company regiment, but he was just so stylish. I had to use him somewhere.
The scrolls are list of the people who owe him money. They're long scrolls, and the writing is very, very small...
So blurry. All the phone wanted to focus on was the grass. So annoying.
The unit is a deliberate mix of colours, but I did want them to belong to the Stirland contingent of my army. So there is more green and yellow than any other colour combinations. Old soldiers who never bothered to take off their uniforms, I guess. I'm sure they never washed them.
Most of the Militia models are second-hand, and were assembled by someone else. And it seems that some of them were given bonus moustaches, presumably out of greenstuff. They were already undercoated, so I only noticed the handlebar mos when I was painting them.
And then there's this guy. You can't really tell given the glorious focus on the grass, but this guy only has half a moustache. His name is Hulkenhogan, and he really loved his blonde moustache. Some idiot barber chopped half of it off by accident. That blunderbuss he's carrying isn't intended for the enemy on the field. He's just looking for the barber, who sensibly has not been seen since the "incident"...
Whoever greenstuffed the moustaches also turned this guy's helmet into a fetching bandana. The things you notice when you stare at something closely enough... Like mould lines. Don't look at those.
Anyway, some of those photos were a real struggle. In fact, the whole process didn't exactly go according to plan...
Really? How is this helpful? She even threatened to eat some of the models until I produced a water pistol and issued an ultimatum.
Noakes assures me he will get good photos of his efforts shortly, so stay tuned for another post (with fewer unhelpful cat assistants).
No comments:
Post a Comment