Keep Your Powder Dry

I've watched enough nonsense on the telly box to know that every historical/supernatural setting requires a prison wagon (effectively a cage on wheels) in which the good people round up witches/monsters, or alternatively the evil henchmen (who are all, almost certainly, called Igor) round up innocent civilians to aid their master's fiendish plans. (delete as appropriate). In fact, spurred on by a regular reader (hello), and their questions about Witchfinder General they asked me where my prison wagon was. Well, as I didn't have on, nor any excuse to not have one, I was spurred into action. I decided to utilise the chassis of Donnington Miniatures' CB14 Open 4 Wheel Wagon. The wagon comes as a kit, flat bed, separate sides and baggage. I ditched the sides, and will utilise the baggage elsewhere. Four Museum Miniatures' draught horses from my spares box will pull the cart. But how to fabricate the 'cage'? A few test pieces proved that I could utilise matches a...

Those of you 'tuning in' expecting an homage to 1960s/1970s 'journalist who travels' Alan Whicker - you misspelled Whicker... you forgot the 'h'. This post instead tips its hat to the seminal 1970s horror masterpiece 'The Wicker Man', which was released almost exactly 50 years to the day that this post was published.* As part of my side-project, dabbling around in C17th supernatural gaming courtesy of Witchfinder General  I keep an eye out for suitable figures. I came across a wicker man resin figure available from eBay seller Dreamholme Scenics. It always seemed to be out of stock, and only ever 'in stock' when the household budget was a bit tight. Well ,the stars have finally aligned, and I have bought one. This is one of, if not the best resin casting I have bought. Clean, no bubbles and a perfectly smooth, flat base. The arms are separate, and there is a separate door. Also supplied are two tiny, blink and you'll miss them, magnets. The m...

Without giving too much away, I found myself in need of some rat markers to go alongside my rat catcher and plague doctors...  Hunting for 15mm rats on Google got me nowhere really, it was only when I used the term 'skaven'* that I actually started getting somewhere.  Eventually discounting numerous anthropomorphic rats with shields and unfeasibly large swords I found some rat swarms on Etsy. These are 3D resin prints, and three bases came in at £2.50. Spot the cartwheel When they eventually arrived, one base was pure rats, one had a skeleton on it and another a shield. Not really what I wanted but I could disguise the inappropriate bits under foliage. Members of the National Fancy Rat Society look away now, my rats have more in common with the film Ratatouille than real life. They'll do nicely. But why do I need rat markers...?   All in good time  * something to do with Warhammer I believe If you enjoyed reading this, or any of the other posts, please consider ...

The dreadful Witchfinder movie sent my train of thought to the myths, plague, and superstitions of the seventeenth century. Which ultimately led to the  Witchfinder General rules. A fierce group of  C17th Welsh women, in national dress, seeing off some strange  cat/bird hybrids. Once the seed had been sown, I needed to do some research so the Underworld box set had to be watched. PVC catsuits must get hideously sweaty in battle, plus it's probably not a look everyone could carry off. I've already got a motley crew of civilians, some rather splendid plague physicians, priests, and a witchfinder figure from Matchlock, so I didn't think that it would be too much of a leap to find werewolves, vampires, barguests and noctelingers. Or so I thought. Figures are easy to find in the '15mm' interpretation that is closer to 20mm, less so in the '15mm is 15 actual millimetres' figure sizing. I eventually found some. Magister Militum provi...