Merry Christmas!

...and happy holidays, and in case I don't post again this month, happy New Year's too!

I have two new projects for the winter. One is a diorama contest entry, and the other is still secret because I don't have any good pics for it yet.

The contest basically has just three rules: Warlord minis only, no more than 20 cm in any dimension, the theme is harsh/hostile environments.

I've started a thread on their forum to document my planning and execution. I've pretty much decided I'm going to model Erik Dahlbergh and his assistants on the Baltic ice during the Great Northern War, checking the thickness to see if Karl X's army can safely perform the March Across the Belts. I'm thinking Dahlbergh himself will be a metal infantry officer, the assistant(s) will be various gun crew models, and I'll also have the dragoon horse-holder minding their mounts, and if the base isn't too crowded by then, a couple reiters keeping watch.

Unfortunately, my card is having weird issues with foreign transactions, so I don't have the miniatures I want yet. But I've been playing around with a mock-up, and 20 cm isn't a whole lot of space. This will be interesting...

Nice Lady

"He chose... poorly."

-Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Ghoulsies

"The night was black, was no use holding back

'Cos I just had to see was someone watching me

In the mist dark figures move and twist

Was this all for real or some kind of hell"

-Iron Maiden

New Foes for the Commonwealth

“There are some things that it is better to begin than to refuse, even though the end may be dark.”

-J. R. R. Tolkien, The Two Towers

Historical Mordheim

or perhaps "By Fire & Sword-heim".

The Poles use Marienburg rules (extra money at warband creation):

The Swedes use Reikland rules (better marksmen and leadership):

The Cossacks and Scots use Middenheim rules (stronger captains and champions):

A few new models here and there, but mostly you've already seen these. More warbands under construction...

Fun with 4ground

Just a quick shot of some wagons and my new battlefield surface.

It's an overhead shot, because I haven't yet rigged up a sky backdrop.

Plastuny painted

Hail to the king, baby!

Here is King Jan II Kazimierz Waza, now with horse and bodyguards.

The King is based on Bicorne's Charles I, as shown previously. His guards are from Warlord Games (mostly). The standard bearer is a WG plastic pikeman with Wargames Factory arms, and the one with the pistol is the WG limited edition Pike & Shotte promotional mini. The halberd heads are from Games Workshop's Empire militia.

Push of Pike

No computer at the moment... still getting the hang of blogging via phone. Here's a preview of my Swedish-style pike block in the grips of brutal mêlée.

Now to the best of my knowledge, no battles in Renaissance Eastern Europe even came to a push of pike; but the image is so evocative that I'd gladly be proven wrong.

not enough figures for a game...

... but enough for a vignette!

One gray morning, as news of Khmelnitsky's rebellion sweeps the land, an Orthodox priest exhorts his flock to take up arms against the oppressive Polish magnates. While the holy man rouses the cossacks and peasants, a pair of bodyguards scans the crowd, on the lookout for assassins in the pay of the Szlachta...