The Rockies Ablaze, Part Three

 This post picks up where Part Two of The Rockies Ablaze left off. Part One can be found here.

Near Camrose, Alberta, February, 1937.

The morning after Frenchy Lamoreux’s visit, Sgt. Bill Craighurst set off for the mountains.  It was a calm, bright winter day, and he figured he could make it to Indian River and back before dark.   From Frenchy’s account, he wanted to have a word with Ratko Gligic, the person of interest in the disappearance of Scotty Grainger.   Craighurst relished the chance to get away from the post and breathe the mountain air, and Laurier, his massive Husky, was clearly delighted to be trotting along.

 The Mountie stopped first at Grainger’s cabin, which as he expected was cold and empty.  There was no sign that it had been ransacked.  Everything was tidy and orderly, like the man himself.  He reached Gligic’s ramshackle place shortly before noon, and saw faint smoke rising from the chimney.  Craighurst dismounted, tethered his horse, and approached cautiously, studying the cabin.   Other than the trace of smoke, there was no sign of life.

 Craighurst didn’t see the trap until he was on top of it, but his natural dexterity allowed him to throw himself aside before his foot descended on the touch plate.

 He was still lying in the snow when he heard a snarl, a shout, and a fusilade of shots as Gligic stormed out of his shack.   Craighust felt a bullet pass through his Stetson as he crawled behind the shelter of Gligic’s woodpile, dragging his rifle by the sling.   “Ratko, calm down!  I’m just here to talk!"

“Go away!  Leave me alone!  I kill you!”   From the thick Slavic accent, it was clearly Gligic.

A bullet slammed into the woodpile.   Craighurst chambered a round as a precaution, but thought talking was still better than shooting.  “I just want to talk about Scotty Grainger.  Where’s Scotty?"

“Wasn’t me!  It was him, the wolf!  The wolf gets him!"

“What wolf, Ratko?”  

“Wolf with red eyes!  He get you too!"

This conversation was clearly going no where.   Craighurst gave a hand signal to Laurier, who trotted off behind the cabin.  Another shot, and a volley of Balkan curses.  “You go now, bastard!  I kill you!  Wolf kill you!”   

A snarl and a shout told the Mountie that eighty pounds of Husky had pulled down the trapper.   Craighust raced over, rifle at the ready, putting his boot firmly on Gligic’s pistol.   “Good boy, Laurier.   Now, talk sense, Ratko.   Tell me about Grainger.   What’s all this about a wolf?"

Spittle flecked Gligic’s beard and his eyes were rolling in his head.  He spoke in a kind of keening moan now.  “The wolf!   The wolf!   He coming.   He coming now.  He eat you up!”  As the prospector’s voice tailed off, a snarling growl came from deep within Laurier as the big dog bristled and bared his teeth.    Craighurst’s rifle came up, following the direction of the dog’s muzzle.

Craighurst’s gaze locked with a pair of deep-set, coal red eyes as his brain tried to make sense of the upright figure crouched in the trees, a hundred yards from him across a small clearing.

 Time seemed to freeze.  The figure in the trees was as motionless as Craighurst’s rifle.  Sensing his moment, Gligic scrambled to his feet and ran towards the woods.   The Mountie wasn’t going to shoot a man in the back, and he wasn’t going to take his sights off the strange creature across from him.   By the time his eyes flicked back from the fleeing suspect, the apparition in the trees was gone.

Craighurst slowly exhaled, and lowered his rifle slightly as one thought kept going through his brain.  Wolves don’t walk on their hind legs!

 Moving slowly, his senses on full alert, the Mountie crossed the clearing, searching for the tracks of the creature he had seen.  Gligic wouldn’t go far, he could be easily be picked up later, or killed, if that was how he wanted to go out  A skilled naturalist and woodsman, Craighurst had no difficulty finding and identifying the tracks in the snow.   They were the hind feet of a wolf, as deep set in the snow as any man’s, and only the rear feet.  After several hundred feet, they tracks went to four feet as if the creature wanted to make more speed.  So damned big, he thought.

Craighurst noted the sun’s position, and calculated the remaining hours of daylight.  Just enough to get back to town, he thought.  He’d be back tomorrow, and he wouldn’t be coming alone.

(Figures by Bob Murch from his Pulp Figures range. Werewolf by Reaper.  Cabin by 4Ground).

 

 

 

Terrain Tuesday: Winter Terrain for My Canadian Pulp Project 3 and Done

Quick post to make it under the wire for Terrain Tuesday, and calling it a wrap on my Lemax Christmas village trees and 4Ground rustic cabin. 

The cabin has a wonderful little porch with removable roof, which is handy as there isn’t quite room to fit a 28mm figure on the porch otherwise, let alone to see it.  I haven’t painted the cabin and not sure if I will.   There are other more important projects queuing on the bench. 

A dangerous standoff!

I’m hoping to tell the next instalment in The Rockies Ablaze soon, and this cabin will feature prominently, in which case I will dress the set with some Christmas village glitter snow.

Next on the Terrain Bench are some 6mm TImecast buildings for my Napoleonics project, and hope to have them done soon.

Cheers and blessings to your world building!

MP

Terrain Tuesday: Winter Terrain for My Canadian Pulp Project 2

It’s Terrain Tuesday and I’m doing fairly well in making this a regular theme.    Here are the trees from that pack of craft store Christmas village trees, all based.   I wasn’t happy with the amount of snow on them so I mixed equal parts white acrylic artist’s paint with water, applied liberally to the trees (THAT was a mess of epic proportions, I’m still finding white paint dots on my glasses) and then drenched the wet tree in Woodland Scenics white snow powder.    Once dry I spray the whole base with artists’ workable fixative to help set the snow in place. 

Still adding some winter tufts to the bases and then they’ll be done.

Also making progress on the Mad Trapper’s cabin, which is a 28mm 4Ground model, their Settler’s Log Timber Cabin 1.  I’ve purchased and build several 4Ground models and really like them, and this is no exception, very nice kit, though I did make a small mistake installing the fireplace insert.

 Some scatter terrain inside and outside (barrels, a wood stove, etc) would dress this up nicely, but it will do for now.    I may go hunting for twigs and build a woodpile, rather essential for the winter, I would think.  I should visit Annie’s Bad Squid store and see what she has in the way of scatter stuff.

Good progress made on this terrain project this week and should pronounce it finished by the next Terrain Tuesday.

Cheers and blessings,

MP+

Meanwhile, In Rohan - 6

Revisiting my never-ending Lord of the Rings interest here and a brief return to Rohan, where housing starts are up.

This is the 4Ground Viking Trader’s Shop which will make a splendid addition to the Rohan village I have been working on for the last few years.  I suspect it will attract some Uruk-Has raiders in search of plunder, and will need to be stoutly defended.  And I know just the chaps for the job.

Also on the painting bench are some aspiring Riders of Rohan.   These are Goth Heavy Cavalry from Footsore Miniatures.  

Pros:  The figures are metal, and so are the horses, so I won’t have the problem I have with the blasted Games Workshop plastic horses breaking off at the legs when clumsily handled on the table.  Also, they look suitably Rohanish with their long hair, beards and moustaches, and generally simple accoutrements.   They don’t match perfectly with the GW Riders figures, but I have long since decided to build LOTR forces with figures from whatever range I please, so nyah boo to you, GW.

Cons:  These figures came with a  considerable amount of flash, which involved laborious scraping and filing of men and horses.  Also, while they came with round shields (not shown), I forgot to order weapons, so I ordered a pack of javelins from Northstar.   Also their gripping hands were solid, so I had to carefully drill them out so the javelins will fit.  Finally, they don’t have capes or bows, as the GW Rider models all do, and while I could model them with green stuff, I’m not currently so inclined, so they will serve the Riddermark as they are.

Bottom line:  while I was quite excited to order some Footsore minis, and will no doubt order more, I give these figures between a B+ and an A- at best.

 

I have a quiet weekend ahead, so I am hoping to get a push on and ride these fellows off the table soon.   

Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Turnipograd Rises

In yesterday’s post on a Russian front battle there were some 15mm buildings featured.   Almost of them are from the Northern Russian Village set published by Paper Terrain.  As I’ve said here before, I am a fan of Paper Terrain.  This company provides a cheap and cheerful way to get decent looking terrain on the table in quantity.

I’ve gotten pretty good at assembling this stuff.    All you need is a good pair of scissors, a sharp knife for scoring the folds, glue (I prefer white carpenter’s glue, slightly diluted) and patience.   I can assemble one of these sheets in an hour while keeping one eye on Netflix, and that’s allowing time for the glue to dry between stages.

As I mentioned a few posts back, I’ve been on a basing blitz of late.   I have all but one of the buildings assembled in the PT Village set, but only five based so far. The bases show off the buildings well and allow me to use the nice little fences that come with each building.  Here is Turnipograd in happier times. 

And a sad dystopian vision of what will happen should Turnipograd ever fall into the bloodstained hands of the fascist invader.  The ruined versions of the buildings are quite useful.  Sadly, for the 4Ground models, I would have to purchase the ruined versions, which for now is an expense too far.

Of course a Mad Padre model village has to have a church.

 

Presumably this church has been repurposed by the Party as a granary or something.   Scott W includes a gold-painted wooden knob for the onion dome, which is a nice touch.  There is also a proper Orthodox cross to put on the top of the dome, though I don’t think such a cross would be approved of by Comrade Stalin.

A street view in Turnipograd.

 

A tidy little farm on a busy (Battlefront resin) road.  Judging from those tank tracks leading right up to the window, it looks like someone applied the brakes just in time.

 

That’s a 4Ground laser-cut MDF Russian house mixed with a Paper Terrain outbuilding, fence and woodpile.   They work well together, I think.

I’m thinking this is either a school or a party headquarters?  Or possibly a community hall where the Junior Pioneers can stage their children’s pageant, “Comrade Stalin’s Glorious Fiver Year Plan for Increased Agricultural Production”?

Defenders of Turnipograd.  These buildings work well with my 15mm models.

 

They also work well with 20mm models, or at least, with 1/76 scale.  These fascist invaders will soon be crushed by the Red Army, don’t worry.

So that’s the lot.  All now boxed and packed away - movers come in a week!  Very little time left for wargaming projects.  Hopefully Turnipograd will see some use in the fall or whenever I cross swords with the dastardly Kampfgruppe Manto.

 

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 19; Mounted Figures: 10

20mm:  Vehicles: 1; Artillery: 1 

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5; 15mm Scenic Pieces: 5

6mm:  Scenic pieces:  7

Kilometres Run: 252

More 15mm Soviets For My Year End Totals

Glory to the little miniatures representing the Red Army!

Here’s another completed project as 2014 draws to a close.   Here are 81 figures (65 infantry plus 16 crew for various heavy weapons) for a substantial reinforcement to my 15mm Soviet WW2 army. I’ve been working on these fellows on and off throughout December and it’s possibly the largest batch of figures I’ve done at one time.  Very satisfying when completed.  The figures are mostly Plastic Soldier Company with a handful of Peter Pig and Battlefront thrown in.  All were done using the speed painting technique I’ve described earlier, using a base of Vallejo German Panzer Yellow applied by airbrush which becomes the tunic, and other colours applied for trousers, weapons, webbing, etc, and all finished with Army Painter dip.

Technically I shouldn’t be showing these pictures, as some of these figures (I won’t say which ones) are eligible for the Analogue Hobbies Challenge, and others were painted before the deadline, but I want to include the lot in the VisLardica challenge totals, so here we go.  Curt, pray forgive me.

Heavy weapons detachment - all figures and weapons are from one of the four sprues in the PSC Russian Heavy Weapons box.  A sprue gives you one heavy, one medium and one light mortar, a Maxim MMG, and a moving and firing anti-tank rifle - the number two figure for the moving ATR comes from the PSC infantry box.  I need to get the rest of these guys done for some more firepower.

Battlefront metal castings, kindly given to me by blogger Chris Stoesen a year or so back.  They don’t mix quite so well with the PSC and Peter Pig figures, so for the most part I kept them on their own bases.  The bases are 4Ground’s line of bases cut to Flames of War standard sizes, which is what the rest of my WW2 collection is based on.

PSC and Peter Pig figures mixed together - quite compatible, I think.

SMG armed troops.  I need to paint up a few more and I’ll have a complete SMG platoon, useful in close quarters work.  The leader on the small base at the front with hand raised is a BF figure.

 

These fellows had their debut on Saturday night in the battle of Turnipograd, at my mate James Manto's (aka Rabbitman) place.  This was in between him stuffing me with trifle, turkey sandwiches, ginger bread pudding, and delicious stout.  You can read his AAR here, and also see me in my very cool “I Heart CCCP” Tshirt, worn to honour my glorious Red Army soldiers.  Below you can see the opening stages of the meeting engagement, as the Soviets push into Turnipograd (The Turnip Capital of Belorussia) from the bottom and the evil fascist kitten eaters from the top.  The buildings are mine, a mix of 4Ground and Paper Terrain, also making their wargaming debut.  I have quite a few more Paper Terrain buildings to finish, from their Southern Russian Village set.

 

 

As the Germans were threatening my understrength HQ platoon in the large building, I ordered Lt. Nobsky’s platoon to make a glorious charge to oust the invaders.  Sadly, the attach was thrown back, and many posthumous martyrs of the People were made that day, but they did inflict enough casualties to check the German advance.

 

My T34s (also PSC models) advance on a platoon of PzIVs, and are doing some damage, just before a zug of Marders (visible top left) announce themselves.  The T34s were commanded by Comrade Mikey Barratt. 

 

Comrade Mikey drives off the Marders, but between their fire and the Panzer IVs, he gets messed up badly while revealing his hand too slowly.  It would have been better if the whole Soviet tank company had advanced and fired together.  I must have Comrade Mikey shot.  Some of the T34s in this shot were painted earlier this year, and some will be in a forthcoming Analogue Painting Challenge entry, but again I won’t say which ones.

It wasn’t a very serious fight but it was fun to get these figures on the table.  

 

These figures bring my 2014 totals to:

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 85, 28mm Artillery: 2; 28mm terrain pieces: 10 (counting that woods base from a recent post).

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 7, 15mm Foot: 119, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 1100

Thesis Pages Written:  24

Halt! Papers! Cool Roadblock/Sentry Box Stuff From 4Ground

I bought two 28mm 4Ground sets for my Weird War Two project to give some terrain pieces for the evil secret Nazi base that my heroic commandoes will eventually be ready to assault.   They work pretty well with my secret evil Bob Murch Pulp Figures Nazis.
There are two sets.   One is a set of five wire barricades and another checkpoint set.  That gives you a satisfying amount of stuff.I decided to go for a pre-war or early war feel, so instead of drab browns or camo I wanted an in your face, you better stop now or else feel and choose to paint all everything except for the signs read and white.



That’s my terrible attempt at Gothic German script.  



The sentry box and barrier.  The barrier comes in two parts, the barrier on a hinge and a resty thing.   It was a little finicky to put together.



 You can pass!




 The sentry box was fun to assemble and paint.   “Ach, so!”  Here, Feldwebel Stronk catches Geferiter Finkel snacking while on guard duty.



The checkpoint set comes with two useful signs.






 Now that I have a checkpoint, I need a 28mm(ish) vehicle to go through it, particularly one that looks appropriately German, per perhaps  carrying resistance types disguised as Germans.   Also, this set comes with four useful Luftwaffe/pilot types who will go nicely with my cross German aviatrix.



 I’m going to award myself a total of nine separate terrain pieces for my yearly total, since there are five barricades, a sentry box, two signs, and the gate.  That seems right, especially as everything got based.

These figures bring my 2014 totals to:

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 42, 28mm Artillery: 1, 28mm Terrain Pieces: 9

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 5, 15mm Foot: 26, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 925

Saturday Paint Table

 

This week saw a little more work done on the 28mm Redoubt ACW minis that will form my Irish Brigade regiment.  Second of the three flesh shades has been added, and now I’m working on the muskets and hair.  The sculptor gave these fellows big shaggy heads of hair and abundant mutton chop whiskers and beards, so I need to pay attention to that aspect.   In the background are the GMB flags that they will fly once finished.   I’m doing some testing on shading for the kersey blue trousers.   One fellow, third from left, has been giving a coat of Citadel Drakenshade dark blue wash on his pants, and I’ll then add a lighter shade of pale blue as highlights for the fold and creases in his pants.    Another test figure, once finished, will simply get a wash of Army Painter soft tone, without the Drakenshade wash, and I’ll see which one I like better.   I’m very hopeful I can get these fellow done and off those uncomfortable nails by this time next week.

At far left is the 4Ground Sentry box, which has been painted and based, just needs some flocking and touchups.

Tomorrow once I finish preaching (my priest is on holiday this weekend) and I get home, we’re having some friends over for margaritas, so I doubt I’ll be in any shape to paint tomorrow!  

Blessings to your brushes and a good semester to all who are going back to school in one capacity or another.

MP+