What's on the Work Bench

With the holidays and everything I haven't had much time to finish a project. But shinny syndrome being what it is, I've dived into my lead pile with ADD abandon, that is to say I've begun cleaning, basing and painting many figures but I haven't finished any of them. My hope here is by throwing all these half started projects up here I can force myself to focus on finishing them. So here they are:

 Order of the Sacred Blood: London Expedition

The Heresy Miniatures posing vampire and West Wind EOTD brother.

The Wolf Pack

This is the simple name I've chosen for my Lycan faction. I've been adding to the original starter set to flesh out the pack I'm very happy with the extra wolves I've sourced.

Wolves

From right to left. 

OOP Ral Partha Werewolf the Apocalypse wolf, West Wind EOTD wolf.

From right to left. 

OOP Citadel 1980's wolf, West Wind EOTD wolf.

Sourced wolves next to EOTD werewolf for scale.

 Werewolf

 

  From right to left.

OOP Ral Partha (late 80's?) Werewolf, West Wind EOTD werewolf.

Horrorclix

 I have a number of Horrorclix figures I picked up while waiting for my EOTD miniatures to arrive. I apologize for the the very poor picture I didn't have proper lighting. Mr. Fright is mounted on a 40mm base and he is close to being finish though you couldn't tell it from this picture.

Re-purposed Figure

OOP Ral Partha Werewolf the Apocalypse giant wolf.

I had originally intended to use him as a werewolf in my LOTR games when they put out the SBG rules for werewolves. GW never did put out rules for werewolves. I didn't get the Hound of the Baskervilles when I participated in the Requiem KS it was a separate figure not part of the 221 B Baker Street set. But now I discover that the Hound is part of the Great Detective (221 B Baker Street) faction in the new rules as written and I'm without a Hound so guess who's my stand in.

Hound stand in vrs West Wind EOTD werewolf for scale.

In addition I have 3 Lideo carts to convert, base and paint. I've found some brass rod to serve as an axle for the replacement wheels and some chariot bases. I need a driver for the 3rd cart but otherwise I just need to sit down and convert and paint them.

And lets not mention the half painted zombies moaning in the cupboard.

I still don't know which direction to move in first but hopefully if I stare at this mess long enough I will.

The History of the Order of the Sacred Blood

"In ancient times the world was ruled by the old gods of ice & fire but then a new god arose in the middle east. The followers of this new god destroyed the shrines of the old gods in an orgy of blood & fire. The old gods tried to save their worshipers by bestowing the gift of their sacred blood upon their greatest champions. The sacred blood granted them godlike strength, vitality and immortality, but this new god flush with power cursed them so that they weakened in the face of the sun"

The Chronicle of the Order of the Sacred Blood-

The Pagan Kingdom of Lithuania

"The Pagan Kingdom of Lithuania remained the last bastion of the old gods in Europe having withstood the forces of the Baltic Crusades and the Order of the Teutonic Knights, but this small nation could no longer withstand the Christian might of Europe. So in an effort to stop the genocide being perpetrated against his people Grand Duke Jogaila married the 11-year-old Queen Jadwiga of Poland and the nation was officially converted to Christianity in 1386. The champions of the old gods, the vessels of the sacred blood, went to sleep deep in their castle crypts and the Order of the Scared was formed from the oldest aristocratic families to watch over them."

From The Secret History of Lithuania-


June 24th 1812
Napoleon crossed the Neman River today war has begun. The Tzar's Court is calling it the Great Patriotic War but them every war is patriotic.

June 26th 1812
I've received my orders today the regiment is to muster at Riga on the 30th.

June 27th 1812
He's awake! I was in the crypt attending to the champion and he awake he spoke to me... he said "Its raining blood".

From the diary of Jan Matejko-

"After nearly five centuries the champions have awakened they are gifting the most worthy members of the Order with the Sacred Blood turning them into a pale imitation of themselves. Outside of the Order humanity has largely forgotten them though they do live in peasant folklore as monsters called Nosferatu..."

From the New History of the Order if the Sacred Blood-

I've received the generous gift of no less than 3 Perry Bros. Napoleonic calvary arms with sabers from Mike McGraw thanks mate! I'll get to work on the Nosferatu consort conversion of Nadezhda Durova and here history as a vampire right away.

 I'll be using this cool Requiem figure as the Graf or champion.

And these brothers will be the minions of the order.

Nadezhda Durova

Everyone who pledged in the Requiem Kickstarter received this this dashing hussar or should I say hussette? But did you know that this figure is an artistic interpretation of a real life military adventuress? Yes Nadezhda Duroa was a decorated Tsarist hero of the Napoleonic Wars! 

"The year was 1807. Napoleon and his Grande Armée, having defeated the vaunted Prussian army the year before, was on the move again, and the Russian army was marching west to meet him. Among the multitude of Russian units was the Polish Lancer Regiment, whose recruiting parties rode alongside its line of march, trying to fill vacancies in its ranks. One rainy night in March a young man presented himself to one of those parties and politely asked to join the regiment. His only answer to the captain's questions about his background was that he was a Russian nobleman who left his family to join the military in spite of its disapproval. The volunteer, who called himself Aleksandr Sokolov, enlisted as a 'gentleman-ranker.' Nobody suspected that this slim, dark-eyed man was, in fact, a young woman named Nadezhda A. Durova." 
"Once in the Polish Lancers, Durova received her baptism of fire at Guttstadt on May 22, 1807. Throughout the action, the Lancers did not fight as a regiment–instead, each squadron would make a charge and then rotate to allow a fresh squadron to take its place in line. Either in her excitement, or simple ignorance of what was expected, Nadya joined in every squadron's assault until an officer from another such unit noticed her with his squadron and chased her away.


In addition to displaying her inexperience, the battle first showcased Durova's bravery. While returning with her own squadron after a charge, she saw several French dragoons surround a Russian dragoon officer and knock him off his horse with a pistol shot. Without a second thought, Nadya lowered her lance and charged. Startled, the French dragoons scattered. Showing more nobility than judgment, Durova then lent the wounded officer her horse to get him to the nearest field doctor. She was able to recover Alchides much later–after Cossacks had stolen her saddlebags, packed with food, personal possessions and her overcoat. She spent several very uncomfortable and wet nights before she replaced the lost items with those pilfered from troopers killed in action."

Nadezhda fought in all the later campaigns of 1812, 1813, 1814 and the Hundred Days Campaign of 1815 which ended in the Battle of Waterloo. She impersonated a man throughout her military career but rumors of a cavalry-woman in the Russian ranks persisted and "Durova was summoned for a personal audience with the tsar at St. Petersburg. Aleksandr was very impressed with her and granted her permission to stay in the army. He also awarded her the Cross of St. George for saving the life of an officer and commissioned her as a cornet (second lieutenant), with permission to join the regiment of her choice. She chose the Mariupol Hussars, known for a large number of Russian aristocrats serving in its ranks." 

Despite the Tsar learning the truth she continued to wear mens clothing and insist on being address as Sir even after she retired from the army to her country estate. She found this retirement to be a bore so she wrote four novels, her memoirs and numerous short stories.The Cavalry Maiden: Journals of a Russian Officer in the Napoleonic Wars, her memoirs are available in English through Amazon.

She became a Soviet era icon due to the Aleksandr Gladkov play, A Long Time Ago.

She appears here as one of the main characters in Eldar Ryazanov's 1960's film The Hussar Ballad. 

She became such a soviet darling that her likeness appeared on a 2 ruble coin. 

She was decorated for bravery numerous times during the course of her military career and subsequently the subject of many military themed oil paintings.

She was buried with full military honors in 1866 at the age of 83. Or was she?
She appears here in Requiem in the flower of her adventuring youth could she have become one of the Nosferatu?

(Quotes taken from an article orignially publish in Military History magazine on June 12 2006. The article can be found here.

Requiem Vampire Slayers Set

The Requiem Vampire Slayers Set, like the 221 B Baker Street Set is not EotD faction set its a set of book characters in this case characters form Dracula. These are great figures for collectors and players alike. Again these are straight out of the box, no clean up what so ever. Now to the figures:

Lucy Westenra the victim who became a vampire consort, called "the lost love" in the set.

Mina Murray Jonathan's fiance and Dracula's victim, called "the fallen woman" in this set.

 Jonathan Harker Mina's fiancee and Dracula's solicitor, called simply "Jonathan" in the set.

Van Helsing the famous vampire hunter know as "professor van" in this set.

Arthur Holmwood the son of Lord Godlaming and one of Miss Lucy's suitors, he's called "Lord Godlaming" in this set.

Quincey Morris the Texan suitor of miss Lucy, called simply "Quincey" in this set.

Dr. John Seward  is the administrator of an insane asylum not far from Dracula’s English home and is Van Helsing's former pupil, he is called "Dr. Seward" in this set.

A Look At The Work Table 3 & Declaration Of Intent

As you may have notice I've been changing some things around. I'm happy with the picture but I fear my description "Victorian Phantasmagoria" can't be read. I'm happy with the post background color but not the general background color. I'll try another round of graphic changes in the near future. Please free to chime out when you notice a color combination you like.

I've been inspired to offer up some prizes to my readers, nothing fancy mind you, I've decided I can offer up one of my Liedo milk delivery vans, a Malifaux blister and some other odds & sodds laying around the flat. I was inspired to do this by the very generous Tamsin P from Wargaming Girl.
WELL before I can do that I'll need to add a subscription thingy. I know I have to add a 3rd party code to blogger for that, but as of yet I haven't figured out where to get it or how to set it up. If anyone would like to help me out you can email ageofbloodiron@gmail.com

I realize that this has been a very boring update so far so let's take a peak at the work table. First up the Horrorclix zombie puppeteer quick repaint.

I have several other Horrorclix figures but the will get a full re-paint as opposed to the touch-up this one got.
 

West Wind zombies in various stages of completion. The shuffling lads & lassies will do double duty as the minions of  Alasdair Sinister and the Sinister Six, my hellfire club gang, and as members of the shambling horde in "The Zombie Incident of 1889".

The Ghoul King, he was a very successful gang leader during our Mordheim days. We used a different figure during our games. I converted this one at the end of our Mordheim period thinking we would start again. I have a bunch of painted GW old school ghouls to go with him. But they are all dressed like Tarzan so I'm working up a Victorian gang for him.

So just to be clear gentle readers I'm working on two versions of Empire of the Dead; A regular campaign featuring Alasdair Sinister and the Sinister Six (hellfire club), Lunatic R's Brotherhood, The Ghoul King (Vampire gang), as of yet unnamed Gentleman's club and I believe The Werewolves of London.

 And I'm working on "The Zombie Incident of 1889" a zombie apocalypse campaign.  Now to portray this properly we will need to play totally different factions. Apocalypse type ones! So far I have " The Ladies Auxiliary Yachting Club" (made up of those lovely Hinterland Sailor girls), and the "Fraternal Order of Angry Men". 

Yes gentle readers in time, perhaps a very long time, each faction once finished will be displayed here with their accompanying biography.

If you've read all the way though this mad late night ramble I salute you!

Robert