Tabletop World Windmill

 This week's random Tabletop World building is the Windmill.  I was hesitant to get this model but my wife loved it... so here it is! The reason I was hesitant is that it would almost certainly be fiddly and require a LOT of adjustment... like with a hammer... but WOW was I mistaken!

The vanes pictured above are straight out of the package... obviously pre-cleaned up and test fitted... oh.. and arrow straight with no warp whatsoever in spite of the ambitious twist and in spite of sitting in the pile for half a year.  As with all the Tabletop World kits to date I did zero clean up on these... just a wash before priming.

 The kit had no method to attach the upper turret to the main body and, after dorking around with magnets...mostly out of habit... I settled on inserting an old toothpick container to act as a swivel.  Works great!

In terms of painting I seem to have omitted one of the usual layers and replaced it with some washes and glazes... the overall result is that the windmill looks a little older that the rest of the village.

These got the same window treatment as the rest of the village.  I like the warm glow and it implies that its dark out! Vampires and Werewolves..Oh My!

 The real stand out differences are the sails and the copper roof details. 

The Sails were a lot of scrubby layers... Vallejo German Light Brown, Vallejo Sand Light, Vallejo Medium Flesh, Reaper Splintered Bone.

The copper was a lot less messy.  GW Bolt Gun Metal over black and three layers of GW Nihilikh Oxide.  The oxide is a technical paint and is intended to spot corrode instead of as a coverage paint but I think it works out ok here.

 Speaking of 'the village'  I think this collection of buildings needs a name!  While Mordheim is the most likely use for them.. they aren't all ruined and decrepit so I'm thinking another name for the group is in order! Something evocative... hmmm....  suggestions welcome!

And.. just for Greggles... Lulus for scale!  Turns out the windmill was built for Hobbits?  Or, more likely, more realistic medieval height people... plays well with my idea that its an old building... in a town where people tend to have to duck a little going through a door anyway!


The Lulus are from batch 2 and are more heavily pigmented than the first batch... which look a bit washed out against the buildings.  Lesson learned a few more layers of wash and glaze... or maybe 'White primer is not your friend."  I'm beginning to understand grey primers now... that took long enough!

Mad Nurse Bernadette, One Shot Blondie, and a Town Square

 Its been a busy couple of weeks.  Today we get a visit from Mad Nurse Bernadette!

This was one of the minis in the Raging Heroes TGG Kickstarter that really grabbed attention.  Inspired by an old Album cover  she is one of several nurse/medics offered in the KS.   Here she is paired with my second iteration of One-Shot Blondie.

The sculpt is very striking and the only construction challenge is the fore arm join which requires a bit of filling.  Once again RH demonstrates their great feel for style with a simple but iconic pose.

 This iteration of Blondie shares a lot of color elements with this Bernadette and I'm liking the "Combat Blue Jeans" look for Post Apocalypse style.  I've a couple more Bernadettes on the table at the moment each with different take on color but they should all mix well in any of the jailbird units.

I used a lot of Secret Weapon stuff on this batch... from bases to their washes.  I'm getting a better grip on using these washes, which are a lot more heavily... and coarsely... pigmented than their GW or Army Painter counterparts.

From Tabletop World I discovered this Town Square stuck in a box of paints.  I brushed it up with the same sort of stone gray as the buildings and discolored many areas with various washes to get a sort of greasy, well used look.  I opted to not use powders and grass fills in the crevices as this piece will get a lot of traffic in different configurations.

Below you can see it forming the basis for the Merchant Shop with a minis thrown in for scale.

Next on the plate.... completing batch 2 of the Lulus, grabbing another TTW building at random from the pile... and starting cleanup on some Malifaux 2e Death Marshals.

Fun fun fun!

One Shot Blondie and the Lulus

 Batch one of the lulus is done.  There are 4 batches total so three more remain on the table.  They are a fun group and have a lot of character.

 One Shot Blondie is the leader/guardian of the Lulus (also to be known as the brat packs in in the current version of my personal army fluff). This is an iconic pose and one of the few metal minis that I picked up from the KS.  I tended to get resins this go around but don't now recall why I got a handful of metals.

I see her as a little damaged so added the 'thousand mile stare' and some hair dye to the already included detail of lollipops and Mickey Mouse ears.

 Though metal the mini was relatively clean with well placed mold lines and went together without event. 

 There are six lulus including the 'Butterfly Lulu'  which was the hardest to get assembled.  In general I had more trouble with the mold lines that I originally had thought.

I decided to use some ideas like... colorful plastic galoshes and rain coats to theme the group and emphasize their identity as refugee children... as if all the teddy bears, pets, lollipops, false ears, and bling left any room for doubt on that score.

 Overall the group reminds me a lot of Peter Pan's lost boys.

I returned to a style of painting that I haven't used in a while painting in washes over while.  It'll take a few iterations to get better definition but, in general, I think its easier for this sort of subject. 

This lulu turned out to be my favorite and went together very easily.

And finally... a size comparison with a Lulu, Hilda, and the crazy Colossal Bone Giant.