WIP photos

As hinted, here are the WIP photos of King Albert II, Queen Olga (well, she looks Russian in that hat, so why not?) and Colonel von Kartoffeln. Oh, how I long for umlauts. Not sure if Olga is Queen of Ruritania however. She might be Queen of Molvania; or she might be Grand Duchess of Fenwick for all I know.

With them is a random cowboy who will likely become an adventurer or possibly sky pirate. I might call him 'Lee Scoresby' in homage to Philip Pullman's Texan balloning hero. He may or may not have something to do with 'Rivets and Whimsy', it's too early to tell.

Obviously, they're not finished, but don't hold your breath, because it'll take me ages and they still won't look very good. The main reason for posting it is to show off the mustard-yellow jackets on the King and the Colonel. These are the kind of colour I plan on painting the Ruritanian Infantry.

Models: the cowboy is by Artisan, the others from West Wind.

Sinister doings in Ruritania pt 2

Well I actually managed to get some paint on some figures today, alonside helping No. 2 Son paint some cheap plastic skeletons, I started painting up some of my Ruritanians, and an American cowboy-looking chap who will be some kind of gun-toting adventurer in forthcoming VSF. I hope.

Photos I hope will soon appear. Not that any of the figs are actually finished yet; but I have a Ruritanian Colonel almost finished, in his splendid mustard jacket and black trousers; also, I've painted quite a lot of the Tsar Nicholas figure. Until I work out when he fits into Ruritanian history I'll call him King Albert II. I suspect he's king about 1905, but I could be wrong of course. It is perhaps he who is on the throne when Ruritania absorbs Grand Fenwick. Perhaps not...

Sinister doings in Ruritania

Well, I haven't got any photos yet, but I have been cleaning up my new Ruritanians along with a few other new(ish) purchases. Oh if only I had time at the moment to paint them...

Meanwhile over at Lead Adventurers, there have been some in-depth discussions about the idea of mapping out Ruritania as a joint project. Of course, we all have different ideas of what we can do with it, some of which don't match up with each other, but never mind, I'm sure we'll be able to muddle through somehow.

Favoured uniform colour for Ruritanian Infantry Regimets at the moment seems to be a mustard-yellow, and that's what I plan to do. "When" I get some Hussars for the force, they will be wearing purple.

Watch this space...

Soldiers of the Queen...

Right, these are photos of my British Line Infantry, lovely pieces from Ironclad, painted (and photographed, I hope he doesn't mind me using the photo, I'd better ask him) by the lovely and talented Majorsmith from the LAF.





I'm not sure if that's the good Major standing at the front, I don't see any reason why not (or maybe his great-great Grandad). So from now, it's Major Smith of the... now, I never did work out what fake regiment they should be from.

I'm currently torn between having these chaps related to Walmington-on-Sea (home of 'Dad's Army'), Melchester (for that 'Roy of the Rovers' feel) or Trumptonshire. They do rather resemble 'the boys from the Fort', with their Captain Snort and Sergeant-Major Grout (or 'Marginator Grout' as I called him as a child).

If you don't know what I'm talking about, there should be a link to the Trumptonweb on the left somewhere.

Things in the post

Hurrah! I got some new figures today. A parcel came from West Wind miniatures containing the beginnings of my Ruritanians (hey if we've got Atlantis in 1890, why not Ruritania too?) - 8 Zendarian riflemen, 4 Zendarian Vampire Slayers, and Tsar Nicholas and family. All are from their 'Vampire Wars' range.

I'm sure I'll be using these as generic German Empire or central/east Europeans as the need arises, and why wouldn't it?

However it's ages since I read 'The Prisoner of Zenda', can anyone suggest a good uniform for Ruritanians? They don't do an Osprey book of 'Ruritanian Infantry Uniforms 1871-1919' or anything...

Hopefully I'll get some photos of these chaps (and chapesses, as there's a Tsarina and a princess in there too) together soon.

VSF blogginess, day 1...

Well, it's something like day 69 of the LAF Atlantis campaign, and I'm up to my ears in VSF-ness. Which of course is one of the main reasons I started hanging out at LAF in the first place.

In recent days the subject of what VSF gaming actually is has come up a couple of times and this led to my description of it as 'rivets and whimsy' which in turn led to...

"The Extra-ordinary Adventures of 'Rivets' McGurk and Miss Whimsabella Footling" or some such. Rivets and Whimsy have become characters in their own right, and part of this blog will I hope be about them, their aeronef, Whimsy's search for her father and attempts to clear his name, their adventures in Atlantis and Ruritania, and the trouble they have with the dashing but dangerous sky-pirate Captain Horst Van Dango.

No photographs currently exist; perhaps soon I will be able to get some up. Details are sketchy too. All I know for sure is that Whimsy is an excellent markswoman (Papa taught her to shoot big-game hunting as a child) and Rivets (Robertson Douglas James McGurk on Sundays) is an aeronef mechanic; and that they're on the run after Whimsy's father is disgraced and disappears. I'm not even sure what year it is. 1890? 1900? Something like that.

Expect updates.... unexpectedly.