The Common Folk

Medieval Peasants

28 mm

"The courage of those who work the land is born of long days of labor in the hot summer sun and the cold winter wind. It is the courage of the Earth itself." - MTG 'Yoked Ox' card

 

I've long wanted some ordinary European peasant type figures, and I saw these "Agricola" board game figures at the store I knew they were perfect!

There's a man carrying gourds, a woman with grain and a baby, a boy chopping wood, a woman feeding ducks (my favorite!), and a brewer or cider maker carrying a barrel.  All salt of the earth types suitable to be bystanders or helpful NPCs in a fantasy game.

I actually speed painted these, they were finished in about six hours after I came home from the shop.  The simple quality reflects this, but it suits them.

The Moses of her People

Harriet Tubman

28mm

“I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home after all, was down in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But I was free, and they should be free."

Harriet Tubman, born an enslaved person in 1822 in Maryland, finished her life as an American hero who personally liberated over 70 other Black people from slavery, and guided a Union naval raid of Black troops that freed 750 others and destroyed their enslavers' plantations.  

After escaping slavery as a young woman she secretly returned again and again, on foot, to guide others north to Union states where they would be free.  She worked as a nurse and spy for the Union Army and was an associate of abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, and armed anti-slavery insurrectionst John Brown.

Later in life she was a suffragette, working alongside activists like Susan B. Anthony to demand the vote for women.

This figure is from Bad Squiddo Games as part of their "Community Miniatures project".

Early Men and the Mother of All

The Mother Goddess and her Guardians

28mm scale

A goddess on a mountain top
Was burning like a silver flame
The summit of beauty and love
And Venus was her name 

 

The ancestors had carved the tribe's idol of the Mother-Goddess Lah with awe-inspiring skill.   From her womb had sprung the moon and sun, the world, all the animals, and finally, the People.  To their protector and creator they bring offerings, in the hopes of good hunting, good health, and safety in a world full of daily perils.

Today, Bergar the Elder and Vorlu the Fire Holder guard the idol
and its sacred grove from desecration by outsiders

The Goddess is a Reaper Bones model, the Neolithics are from Pulp Figures... a very deep dive into my lead pile!  These were passed on to me in 2002 by Bob Murch, when I worked with his wife.

"Thag no!  Is not good idea!"

She sells seashells

Mary Anning and "Tray"
28mm

 

A woman.  Born to a working-class Dorset family in the 19th century.  Without higher education.  Ineligible for membership in the Geological Society of London, due to her sex.  

But by age 12 Mary Anning had unearthed her first ichthyosaur, and by 24, a complete plesiosaur.  She discovered countless other fossils including England's first pterosaur, Dimorphodon.  And she impressed the hell out of most of the major paleontologists of her day, who visited her regularly and sought her fossil-hunting expertise.  She was just that good.

That said, she always struggled financially and like most people of her time, had to work very hard to support a quite modest living.  And while many prominent scientists of her time lauded her and considered her a friend, others had no qualms about leaving her name off the manuscripts they wrote about her fossil finds.  Still, her impact on the fledgling science of paleontology was striking, both in her time and ours.

This fantastic set, clearly based on a well-known painting of Anning and her beloved spaniel Tray, is a recent release from Antediluvian Miniatures.

 

“Her history shows what humble people may do, if they have just purpose and courage enough, toward promoting the cause of science. The inscription under her memorial window commemorates “her usefulness in furthering the science of geology” (it was not a science when she began to discover, and so helped to make it one), “and also her benevolence of heart and integrity of life.” The carpenter’s daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it.” - Charles Dickens, 1865

Starry starry night

Vincent Van Gogh
28 mm

Starry, starry night
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze
Swirling clouds in violet haze
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of China blue
Colors changing hue
Morning fields of amber grain
Weathered faces lined in pain
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand

When I saw that Philip Hynes of Bears Head Miniatures had sculpted a Vincent van Gogh figure, I was so excited. Van Gogh is one of those artists who everybody has heard of, but who can never be overexposed or uninteresting. He was somebody who had a passion and a vast talent for art, but who was sadly so plagued by mental illness that he didn't last. Still, in his short life he painted over 900 canvases!

The particular painting I've depicted here is one of a series of four sunflower still lifes he did while working in Arles, France around 1888. The most famous of these hangs in the National Gallery in London, but there were three others. One is in a Belgian gallery and another was destroyed in Japan during WWII. This one has long been in a private collection and is not publicly displayed.

Something I was not aware of is that probably the only reason Van Gogh didn't slip into obscurity in death was that his brother's widow, Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger, inherited much of his work and devoted herself to raising its profile - and value - through an artful campaign of gallery showings and publicity. Without her, we'd never have enjoyed so many brilliant paintings, or a rather good episode of "Doctor Who".

"You should sign it 'For Amy' or something, just to confuse the art historians."

An offer you can't refuse

Dirty Thirties Gangsters
15mm

I painted this buncha wise guys for the same person who sent me some 10mm fantasy characters a while back.  They're Khurasan's "LC-103, Sheparton's gangster henchmen" from his eldritch horror range.  These may have spurred some light research into men's fashion, prompted by such questions as "did hats match suits?" and "who wore spats?" (in this case the two dapper goons on the right).

Poe's Law

Edgar Allan Poe
28 mm

Out- out are the lights- out all!
And, over each quivering form,
The curtain, a funeral pall,
Comes down with the rush of a storm,
While the angels, all pallid and wan,
Uprising, unveiling, affirm
That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"
And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

I learned a lot about Poe doing the (unnecessary) research for this figure.  I read stories like "The Cask of Amontillado" and "The Telltale Heart" in school, and I'd certainly hope any North American with a TV is familiar with his Gothic poem "The Raven".  His financial struggles would be unsurprising to anyone familiar with the publishing industry.  But I did not know that he was in the army, or that his story The Murders in the Rue Morgue was the first modern detective story, or that when he was 27 he married his 14-year -old cousin...

As I posted earlier, this is another excellent figure from the Bears Head Miniatures Kickstarter.  It's obviously based on the well-known portraits from later in Poe's life, with impressive accuracy.  I doubt he regularly carried a skull and raven about town, but I think the figure really captures Poe's literary character very well.

"Howard, I know they said we could bring a pet, but I brought, well, a bird..."

Scribe of the Unspeakable

H.P. Lovecraft
28 mm

This Bears Head miniature was a real pleasure to paint!  Part literary caricature, part dramatic fictional character, it's an excellent sculpt, crisp and dynamic.  Waving his unholy idol and clutching his dog-eared copy of the Necronomicon, the author unleashes the creative process on an unsuspecting world...

I learned a few new things about Lovecraft in the painting process, like his hair colour, for which I had to consult professional Lovecraft impersonator Leeman Kessler, as no colour photographs of the author seem to exist.  I've always enjoyed Lovecraft's lurid works, and despite his substantial... personal shortcomings... and the fact that many of his creations have reached the status of self-parody in recent fandom, I truly think he was a man of remarkable imagination who contributed a lot to the fantasy, horror and SF genres.

Late night rites at the Miskatonic University library...

Avenging Outlaw

Phoolan Devi, "Bandit Queen of Uttar Pradesh"
28 mm

I was intrigued that Bad Squiddo Games (aka Annie Norman), purveyor of "believable female miniatures", made not one, but three models of this controversial, but memorable figure from India's recent history.  Was she a hero avenging women and the mistreated lower castes?  Or simply a murdering brigand?  As usual, real people can't be pigeonholed, and her story holds a mirror to the desperation and unjust treatment women and lower-caste Indians faced during her lifetime, and continue to struggle against today.

Seema Biswas as Devi in her 1994 biopic;
obviously the model for this sculpt.

The Art of War

Leonardo da Vinci and his tank
15 mm

I stand alone
And gaze upon the battlefield
Wasteland
Is all that's left after the fight
And I'm searching a new way to defeat my enemy
Bloodshed
I've seen enough of death and pain
- Sabaton, "The Art of War"

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci, already an accomplished artist, came under the retainer and patronage of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan.  Ludovico desired to make his city-state renowned for the arts and skilled crafts, as well as adorning his own court with elegance and splendour.  War never being far from his doorstep, he was also greatly interested in Leonardo's claims of expertise in military engineering.

One of Leonardo's military concepts was his "tank", a mobile wooden fortress bristling with cannons which could wheel across the battlefield immune to arquebus and pike.  Like many of his concepts it was likely never built, but one could imagine Ludovico, mindful of his surrounding enemies, financing the creation of a prototype.

Decorated with the family crest of the Sforzas.

Tank or no tank, in 1499 Ludovico was forced from power a French invasion of Milan, and Leonardo fled to Venice.  He spent the rest of his legendary career serving patrons such as the Cesare Borgia and Pope Leo X, before dying in France in 1519.

 As mentioned in my previous post, these lovely miniatures are from 15mm.co.uk.

Leonardo and his Tank

"You up for a little reconnaissance?"
"You mean where we all sculpt and paint and stuff?" 
"No, that was the Renaissance."
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I normally don't bother to just post stuff I bought these days but I have to share this one.  15mm.co.uk recently released miniatures of Leonardo da Vinci and his famous concept "tank", one of many inventions of his that was so far ahead of its time that it was, as far as we know, never built.  Leonardo was a military engineer for the Duke of Milan, producing other more practical deadly mechanisms and fortifications, as well as overseeing the Duke and Duchess' opulent wedding.

They're really nice models: well-sculpted crisp casts with lots of detail.  The tank is two resin halves with sixteen (!) metal cannon barrels, and you get two versions of Leo: mounted, and unmounted holding blueprints and a tiny model of the tank!  Too cool.  I can't wait to paint these up.

It's pretty big too.  With other figures for scale.