Treasure Chest ?

Treasure Chest ?

I'd been looking for something, (though for the life of me I can't remember what - it's an age thing) and decided to have a clear-out of the old (Ikea iirc) 'chest' that has sat above my desk for quite a few number of years (I'm guessing about ten). I had used it to store my paints in, the deep drawers being big enough for the large bottles of acrylic I tend to use.
What started as a clean out though, turned into something of a treasure trove !
So starting from the bottom drawer and working my way up here's the results of my treasure hunt:

The bottom Drawer

As expected a jumble of empty, dried out pot of paints and little else, or so I thought.

The usable meagre (very) contents

 Checking through the contents for anything that could be salvaged the photograph on the right shows the results.
Two tins of old Humbrol paints, a Foliage Factory clear orangey-red and a bottle of GW dark-brown wash - all still very much usable - score!
The small plastic rhino was equally usable (there are pygmy rhino's right ?) and the marker pen worked fine too.!
Now if only I can find the rest of the pair of compasses for the ink 'arm' !

The two centre drawers, looking better

So, moving on, the two centre drawers looked a little more promising.

Not much this time in the way of paint, but two bottles with life left  in them sufficient  to justify their rescue - a GW Beaten Copper and an Anita dark green.
The negative found I haven't a clue about (yet); the card bases were a strange size (not being my usual 20mm square, but rather a rather larger 20mm x 25mm); the paint-brush  was still in fair shape; a die - always useful but the  blister of figures looked a  lot more promising!
  The blister was indeed a tad more than promising, it was stuffed to the gunwales with all manner of goodies, as you can probably see from the photograph to the left.
Five pirates  (two cursed with 'chest-foot'), fully painted; a capstan; a ships wheel; spears, swords and shields (all looking very ancient-ty), a small pile of skulls and a ships figurehead of a mermaid!
The five pirates brings my solely pirate  figure collection to over 400!

The reason for the larger bases also  became apparent

The three disappointing-looking top drawers

I didn't think the three top drawers could come anywhere near the 'treasure' I had found in the centre drawers, but once more I was pleasantly surprised at what I found therein, and delighted to find out just how wrong I was.

The usable content of the top-left drawer

The left-most drawer had six bottles of paint (four unopened!) another die and a draft horse (I think for a 15mm ACW limber).

The centre drawer's usable contents

The centre drawer was slightly underwhelming but still contained three GW ink washes and  a bottle of "Brazen Brass; four new Stanley-style blades, a metal 'puzzle' and a random plastic bottle.
The right-hand drawer, with all the plastic bags in it though looked a lot more promising

The top right-hand  drawer.

The last drawer contained all sorts of goodies.
The two gladiators came as a complete surprise to me as I can't remember purchasing them or acquiring them at all  - or more importantly - why! They look like 54mm figures and will no doubt fit in with my collection of gladiators and gives me reason to write another post on my other blog, that has sadly become stagnant.

Contents of one plastic bag !

One of the seven swivel guns 'found'.

As well as the cocktail sticks, saw blades, card bases, various swords, a spear  and yet another shield, I had seven bags each containing a swivel gun (probably either from Redoubt or Irregular miniatures)
They'll probably get used at some time in the future and I now realise why I have so many pirate figures that seem to be just washing their hands - they're to man these swivel guns.
In addition to the swivel guns there was also a ships cannon (or as I would say it's like a ship's cannon, only smaller)

The ship's cannon. It may not look that small here....

...but compared ot one of my home-made ones.

The final haul

 So to round off I give you a picture of the final 'haul', not bad imo and probably better than some 'loot' I've ended up with after many wargame shows and I think I'm also right in the title for this post "Treasure Chest".






As I intimated in last week's  post, this was the first of three pre-planned posts, but don't expect another treasure chest!
I in other  news I'm finishing the last of terrain boards that'll be used for both "Adventures in Jimland" and pirating; when finished I'm sure it'll be fodder for another post as will my first sortie into Jimland, which is imminent!

That's it then for another week, thanks for taking the time to visit, even just to look at the eye-candy (such as it is) and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.

More Villagers

The complete group

I managed to finish the Villagers pack from Col. Bill's this last week  and whilst mine  are not as display-case worthy as those in the shop , they're food enough for my own purposes.
They were bought to pad out any village scenario in my pirate project, and although they are far more suited to the supposed beginning of the "pirate era", they'll serve well enough for the entire period imo.

The women

 The three women in the pack are a bit of a mixed bunch, when it comes to purpose.
The two women peddling their wares (ooh err missus) are great additions and wouldn't look amiss in many different eras, though I didn't like that I had to glue one of their platters to them, (no-one told me that modelling/assembly  skills were required) though it was not mandatory to have it  so.).
The centre figure in the photograph to the left is wearing a "Scold's Bridle" (look it up), which even if vaguely amusing, is a waste as I'd much rather have had a plain figure, but that's just personal taste.

The women's rear view

The two "gentlemen" (not from Verona necessarily)

Next up are two of the men whom I believe to be well suited as civilians of the period. (the flash on the camera seems to have made the chap on the left rather bleary-eyed though!)
The chap on the right looks nothing like the chap on the web site, as their one has both his hands clasped on his cane.
My version's left arm (a detached piece) wouldn't fit in that position easily and if it was just left hanging down his side it would have reached below his knee! (a scale four foot long arm).
I chopped the hand off the arm, re-modelled another  from the stump, crooked his arm slightly using pliers and glued the new length arm on the figure,

Their rear views (for those that like that sort of thing)

"A yokel, a Priest and a beggar walk into a bar..."
The the final three are a stereotypical country bumpkin, complete with smock and pitchfork. Whilst the pitchfork is great the smock I'm fairly sure is more late 18th century than the 17th/ or early18th century, but it doesn't matter to me as he's a cracking figure.
 The chap in the middle  looks very church-like but is dressed as a fairly typical 17th villager.

When painting him I though he had a flagon in his right hand, but it turns out on close inspection of the photograph that it is in fact a book! (making him even more likely to be destined for the clergy).
The third chap looks shabby (not difficult with my painting skills) and I think is meant to be a beggar, I like this figure a lot too.
Overall they're great pack of figures for the price (£1.25/figure), though they should come with a warning that some assembly is required!

The whole ensemble in the back yard of the church

In other news, I now have three of my four new terrain boards finished to my satisfaction (the harbour one needs  more work doing to it); I've been preparing my next three posts (I've never had so much material to work with) and I'm working on some new rough terrain pieces ready for my first solo foray into "Jimland".

So that's it then for another week, thanks as always for taking the time to visit, whether accidentally, to just look at what passes for eye candy and of course you comments are welcomed and appreciated.  

Village Mob (2)

Butcher, Baker and Candlestick maker?

The remaining seven figures took only a couple of hours to finish and varnish (which left me with time to to spare, to spend working on four of  my terrain boards).
First up are the three figures in the photograph on the right, each having only a minimal amount of conversion.
The leftmost chap is more or less the "standard" figure (I think he's had his head altered slightly) -

Rear(ish) view

Notice the puny dagger in this right hand, whilst the chap on the right has had it made a little more  substantial, (as has the chap in the photograph below). A slight bending of their arms produced a little variation. I was initially a little perplex as to their clothing until I realised that they were all sporting aprons!

 Next up are two who have had little conversion work, just their daggers.
One has been 'improved' from the six-inch nail that it appeared to be, whilst the other has had it removed completely (he's obviously a fisticuffs type of guy).

Rear view (almost becoming obligatory)

Wood-Choppers in their spare time ?

The third set of figures have had nothing done to them conversion-wise.  I couldn't think of a way of making them even slightly different from the original sculpts.
Even filing on of their hats down to make a bare-headed figure was out of the question as their facial details are almost none-existent (at least to my failing eyesight). Nevertheless, I do think that the pair are good additions to the group, they're in a quite dynamic pose.

Also useful as part-time locksmiths

  To finish off, here's the whole group:

Rushing out the church to riot...

...and rushing back in to hide.

That's nearly all of my purchase from June, painted up now, just the pack of the eight villager figures from Colonel Bill's to finish off, hopefully by next week, but I'll also be continuing to work on my terrain boards for both my Pirate and Jimland projects (though using them in a zombie setting too isn't entirely off the cards).

 That's it then for yet another week, thanks for taking the time to visit and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated, whether good bad or indifferent.

Village Mob (1)

Eight of the villagers' pack.

Putting aside the "Jimland" project for the moment I've been busily trying to finish off painting one of my recent purchases - the pack of Old Glory Villagers .
The pack contains 15 figures. in the usual OG style, (save that their heads are not twisted in various ways) with six poses.
I've finished (as far as I'm concerned) eight figures from the pack whilst the remaining seven are in the 95% finished category.
All would have been finished off, but as always real-life intervenes - hospital visits family etc.

The three club-men going to the riot

  Whilst the poses don't lend easily to conversion some small variety can be achieved as shown with the figures in the photograph on the left.
The original figure armed with a club is on the left and has had his beret removed.
The other two figures have had the club 'converted' into a make-shift sword and a cleaver.

Marching away from the riot 

Rear view for those that like that sort of thing

Extra photo to pad out the post.

Three forking mobsters

The three chaps with pitchforks in the photograph on the left have had no 'conversion' except for the chap in the centre that has had his cap removed to add a little variety.

The three forkers again (*yawn)

And their rear view (By popular (?) request)

Finally for this week's post here is the only female sculpt in the pack I bought.
They're armed with what is either a hoe or an adze, though I'm open to other suggestions.
Had there been a third figure I'd have probably filed off the mop-cap to make have one with flowing hair (the hussy!).
The figures are very much early to late 18th century figures  and would easily fit in a lot of periods and genres, from London riots to the French Indian wars (as settlers) as well as the use I'll put them to in my Caribbean Pirate setting.
At £1.20 a figure they're great value for money too!

The females' rear view (ooh err missus)

In other news, I have been making a little progress on the star fort base, but polystyrene take forever to glue!

That's it then for this week, thanks for taking the time to look and as always your comments are both welcomed and appreciated.