54mm Imaginations: Now with more Wig and Boom!

                                             Sultan:" Have you any last words?" 
                                             Baron Munchhausen: " Not yet" 
                                            Sultan: " Not yet? is that Famous?" 

                                                                                  ~ Baron Munchhausen 

 

Stuff in Review!  

As a boy can't build galleys every day, I've been building up my 54mm Wars of Imaginations armies and supporting bits.  This week was all about upping the size of my white battalion, painting up a couple more officers, playing with basing, and of course- Boom!  

 

A good view of painted and unpainted explosions. 

Explosions!  

These all came about when, in the last To the Strongest game variation we played needed "shaken" markers. We used barrels and "janked' the unit to show it was disheveled, but I wanted something with a bit more oomph- so I got out my sketch book and started noodling Ideas with Baron von J. We came up with this, and I expanded upon it. 

Look at all that boom!

The style was inspired by a fantastic book I was gifted which features fantastic litho and etching style prints of Napoleons exploits. The color, the stylization- pure heaven!

Great smoke style and colors

As far as I can tell, this book is from the late 1920's. There is not date in it.

After cutting a couple and painting one up, I think they need to be about 40mm taller, and with a more stable base, but the idea is there!

Shaken, disordered and confused- oh my!  

We know it by many names, but the general idea is that a unit has taken it on the chin and need to shake it's head a few time to clear the cobwebs. Here my expanded 18 man White battalion models the boom! 

Does the wig come with the commission?  

Working my hand at a few officer types, thinking of uniform ideas for more units. One in particular will be Empress Persephone's Royal guard, sporting the Arore (ahem- pink) cuffs. This came about when I had a great discussion with my daughter when she told me pink was a girls color. "Oh no no, said I. One of my favorite uniforms is a dragoons- and it has pink trim."  

We continued the discussion while turning pages through some Osprey and Funken books. Then I painted this one for her. She's okay with Pink on boys now. 

 This Fellow in blue, another officer pose I've made, made me happy as to how well he reads. The model can also have a spontoon in the right hand.

This fine fellow will command the Artillery.

Like most of my Wooden soldier models, he is 3 pieces thick.

Unfortunately the photos were taken indoors and are a bit on the yellowish side, but you get the idea.

A groups shot of officers.

All about the base

So it's been bugging me that with flats (ish) the general norm is to leave the bases just one color and blank. With nothing but a couple of bases to lose, I thought I'd see what adding some detail and texture like one does with metal minis would do to bring out the model. 

Compare and contrast. What do you think?

Here is an officer with a base that is textured using Golden's course pumice gel, then painted up. I'm not convinced that this is the way to go- there is too much contrast. I've been thinking of laser cutting some "weeds" and flowers to put on bases. I've love some feedback and to hear your ideas. 

That's all for now-  Time to finish up a grenadier drawing and get some 6mm crew painted for some galleys! 

Cheers

My palette for the week.