Travellers in Time

It has been a while since I last posted, as the reality of lockdown is that you spend a fair bit of your time catching up on all the jobs around your home that you’ve put to one side until you had the time to do it – especially if your partner is of the opinion that painting figures, building scenery or playing games with them does not constitute a “constructive” use of your time.

However, as the list of jobs has been whittled down to a bare handful, I have actually spent some time progressing various miniatures, the majority of which are intended for the upcoming “launch” of my take on Doctor Who, as the events which happened in what the BBC claimed were series 11 and 12 are clearly some kind of fever dream that is thankfully now over.

So, first up we have a vehicle kit which was bought back in November of last year, the idea being that it would be used by my Dominion forces in my Distant Stars project – the Warbases Saracen APC, available from their website for a very reasonable £10.00.

This kit is a mixture of laser cut card and MDF, which comes flat-packed and complete with a set of magnets, so the turret can swivel in place. The kit doesn’t come with instructions, but these can be downloaded from the website and are reasonably straight-forward. However, there were two parts which were left off my build, as I couldn’t make head nor tails of the instructions as to how and where they were supposed to be attached, as the photograph was unclear and it wasn’t obvious where they were supposed to go. I used standard PVA glue for the majority of the kit, just using superglue to attach the magnets.

The barrel on the turret is my addition, as it doesn’t come with any kind of weaponry, and I wanted it to look a bit more sci-fi.

After it was assembled, both it and my snowspeeder conversion were given an undercoat of black spray paint, followed by a coat of Wilko Taupe spray paint, as I was trying to match the colour of the original snowspeeder.

The Dominion Outrider figure gives an idea of the how both vehicles scale with a 28mm figure.

Now, the Saracen APC had been sitting in my games cupboard, waiting to be completed, but one of the planned episodes of my version of Doctor Who required a military vehicle armed with “advanced” weaponry. As this adventure was on Earth, the modified Saracen would be ideal… other than the colour.

I had previously decided that whilst it was a cool model, it didn’t really fit in with the aesthetic I was going for with the Dominion. However, it would make a suitable vehicle for the Union – and their main colour was a dark green, similar to British military vehicles. So, I repainted the main body in Docrafts Jungle Green, the advanced weapon in in GW Chainmail and gave the tyres an initial coat of Docrafts Noir.

And this is what it currently looks like, with UNIT Special Operative Tara Hunt alongside, for scale purposes;

Looks very Action Force, if you ask me (which was the 3 3/4″ precursor to G.I.Joe figures here in the UK and was tied in to the Action Man line. Still have some knocking around in the loft somewhere.)

Next up, we have some additional progress made on the Black Pig of Sodor Gardens, destined to cause havoc upon the streets of Blackwell.

The ‘hell boar’ was given a cost of Docrafts Noir, followed by a wash of GW Marine Dark Blue mixed with more Noir, to give a midnight blue hue, which brought out some of the detail of the molding. Its tusks and lil’ piggy eyes were painted Docrafts Linen and the base tidied up somewhat.

Tara Hunt for scale, once more, as the previous picture I posted didn’t really give an idea of its size. It just needs a darker wash on the tusks, the snout re-coloured and some mad lil’ piggy pupils, probably in red, to show that it’s EVIL…

And whilst Tara may very well be allowed to play with heavy ordnance, encountering the Black Pig was not her only brush with the unknown, although she doesn’t recall anything about the second one…

Understandable, given that it involved the Silence. I managed to just about correct their tendency to emulate Michael Jackson is the Smooth Criminal video and gave them an undercoat of GW Corax White, followed by some Docrafts Flesh on hands and face, then a first coat of Docrafts Noir on their suits, followed by a coat of GW Elf Grey. Apologies for the blurry photo, as the camera focused on Tara, rather than the Silence, but as we’re just at the block painting stage, this isn’t an issue.

Next, as mentioned in my previous post, I decided I needed a figure to represent one of the Doomlords of Nox, specifically Servitor Vir, the fourth such alien visitor to Earth and a planned foe for the Doctor in the future.

And here he is;

The idea was to reposition the arms of the base Red Skull figure using the boiling/cold water trick. However, this appeared to be successful initially, but then the arms slowly returned to almost the same position. As this wasn’t that important, I decided to let him do what he wanted.

The addition of the ears caused a few choice expletives. Due to the fact that they needed to be both thin and small, I cast around for a suitable material, plumping for some coated thin cardboard (actually an old greetings card). I then had to cut two very, very small ear shapes – that were exactly the same shape and size – from this card. Suffice to say, this wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, but I finally got two ears that were roughly the same size and shape. I then used an old dental probe to create some detail, i.e. ear canals, etc. on one side of the ears. Then it was just a case of attaching them to the sides of the figure’s head.

More swearing, as tiny ear-shaped pieces of cardboard slipped from the tweezers a number of times and pinged across the table. One was irrevocably lost into the carpet, so another tiny ear was created and finally both were glued into place.

An undercoat of GW Corax White, then Tamiya Khaki for his raincoat, Docrafts Noir for the boots, GW Chainmail for the Lugers, GW Enchanted (?) Blue for his trousers and GW Rotting Flesh for his face and hands. Quite pleased how this has turned out so far, but the finishing touches will be what swings it for me.

And explaining the title of this post, we have TWO travellers in time, with their respective time machines.

First, he featured in a previous post, but was not identified, it’s Lord Edmund Blackadder and his time machine, ready to unscrupulously alter the course of history… as long as HE comes out on top.

And a complete counterpoint, MY version of the 13th Doctor and his Tardis, ready to prevent alien incursions, multiple deaths and people meddling with history.

Obviously, the Tardis needs finishing off, but I’m quite pleased with how the Doctor has come out.

“Hang on,” I hear you cry out there in your isolation cubes, “If you’ve now finished the Doctor, and you’ve already completed the other figures and scenery you needed for the first episode, does that mean the next post will be a Doctor Who AAR, the first adventure of the REAL 13th Doctor?”

Indeed it does, children. There’s a title sequence and everything.

Join me next time from behind your sofas, as the newly regenerated 13th Doctor faces his first challenge in… “Who Goes There?”

The Tray of Shame

Having now spent the best part of two weeks in imposed self-isolation, two things have become clear.

Firstly, until you have a surfeit of “free time” you don’t realise just how many jobs around the house you have put off until you had the time to do it. Luckily, your partner will kindly remind you of this, and handily write these all down on a list and pin this in a prominent place, as a daily reminder…

Secondly, until you have the time to assess you collection, you’re probably not quite aware of just how many unfinished miniatures &/or hobby projects you have.

Fortunately, I don’t have nuns following me about, ringing the Shame Bell. What I do have is… The Tray of Shame.

As I have no permanent hobby space, all my paints and the figures I am currently working on are all contained in a handy desk tray, which means that it can be carried to wherever I’ve set up my paint station. The space not taken up by paint has enough room for approximately 30 28mm miniatures – which is a reasonable amount and means that as one set of figures is drying, can work on something else or if you have a specific colour open, you can paint all the red bits (on the figures that have red bits) in one go.

The general idea is that you have all the figures for a particular project in the one place, so that you’re only painting the figures you need, rather than endless serried ranks of everything you own, stretching far away into the distance and making you cry…

And once the miniatures are finished, they are allowed to leave the Tray of Shame.

So, let’s take a look at some of the inmates of the Tray, all from the current Doctor Who project, and see how far they are progressing.

Firstly, the Ur-Ghuls, as mentioned in my previous post;

These plastic figures come in two parts – head and body – and two different poses. They have been assembled, the bases given a light covering of sand, then undercoated in White, followed by a base coat of GW Corax White, which is actually a pale grey, as you can see from the picture above. As I am currently contemplating their final colour scheme, this is as far as I’ve got with them.

Next, my Weeping Angels; 

The two on the left are the rubbery figures from the front of Doctor Who Adventures and the ones on the right are Reaper Bones Angels of Sorrow. Whilst different styles, both sets have been painted in exactly the same way, white undercoat, Corax White base coat, then a wash of a darker grey, which, whilst partially dry, was given a thorough brushing with a dry brush. This has a similar effect to dry-brushing, except rather than adding paint to the figure, you’re actually just taking paint off the raised parts, allowing the base colour to show through. This means that you won’t accidentally add too much paint to the figure, which can happen on the first pass.

I’ve seen these figures have additional green washes given to them, to suggest moss growing on the “statue”, but am undecided on whether I want to go this route, so may just paint the bases and be done with them.

Next, some Timelords:

The left-hand and middle figures are from Crooked Dice, and the right-hand one from North Star Military Figures, as detailed in this post. These are MY versions of – from left to right – the Rani, the 13th Doctor and the Master.

The Doctor is almost finished, with more work to be completed on both the Rani and the Master.

And the final figures that have escaped from the Tray of Shame and are now finished, a trio of… time travellers? Or supporting cast? You will have to wait until they are formally introduced to find out…

The left-hand figure is from Miniature Figurines and the middle and right-hand figure are from Crooked Dice. And yes, I know that the Miniature Figurines “Chrononaut Grandfather” was previously introduced as Dr. Wilton Hume, but this “actor” will be serving another purpose elsewhere.

As you can see, I’ve FINALLY managed to successfully paint the eyes of these figures. Took more than one attempt on all three figures – got one eye right and cocked the other one up, so had to repaint the eye and, in some case, the whole side of the face, but I’m now no longer as wary of doing this is the future, so that’s a good thing. Although I may have been a little heavy handed with the female figures eyebrows…

The final figure in the Tray of Shame is actually destined for Blackwell, as I’ve had this cheap plastic figure for a while and kept meaning to tidy up the mold lines, base and paint it, to represent the Black Pig of Sodor Gardens;

A toy wild boar from a ‘toob’ of wild animals, which is slightly over-sized to be in scale with my 28mm miniatures, but fine for representing a ‘Swine of Unusual Size’. I filed or scraped away the obvious mold lines on the figure, which left a slightly ragged appearance to the figure in certain areas. However, I felt that this looked a bit like fur, so decided to leave it as it was. 

I then cut out a section of expired plastic giftcard, big enough to hold the figure, ensuring that the ends were the same radius as my other based figures, by using a 2 pence piece as a template. This means that the base is approximately 25mm across and won’t look out of place with my other figures. This was then given a thin covering of Milliput, which was then textured and the figure pushed in, then left overnight to dry.

The figure and base then received an undercoat of white. The base got a coat of Chocolate Brown, and the pig had a base coat of Corax White, followed by a couple of coats of Elf Grey, just to build up some base colouring. There will be some black paint in this little piggie’s future, as you can’t have something known as the Black Pig not actually being black.

Right, that’s all for this post, as I’ve just received a delivery and need to construct a day bed/sun lounger before my wife gets home from work.

See you next…time.

Jez  

Small Objects of Desire

One of the problems of this wonderful hobby of ours, is the desire to own more…which can sometimes get in the way of painting what we already own and/or playing with them.

I think we ALL fall victim to this at some stage or another, and unless you are extremely strong-willed, have a limited budget or have some kind of epiphany that allows you to stop hoarding all those figures and games you’re never actually going to play with, you will end up buying something that you don’t really want and will never use.

Now, you may be forgiven for thinking that this signals one of my infamous soapbox speeches, which divides those who follow this blog between those who understand what the Hell I’m banging on about and those who think I’m launching a personal attack on them – you will know into which camp you fall – but you would be wrong.

This post is actually about one of my ongoing hobby-related obsessions and what those cursed folk who manufacture tiny lead man are releasing, when I haven’t got any money to buy things with. Cue much gnashing of teeth, wailing and general poutyness – which may not have been a word before, but is now.

I have two ongoing hobby-related quests; the first is to have a 28mm representation of every version of the Doctor, from William Hartnell up to Pater Capaldi. Yes, I am aware that Warlord Games are doing every version of the Doctor, but I want 28mm versions, so as to fit in with ALL my other figures, rather than the whatever scale WG are using. And yes, I am aware that you may think there is another iteration of the Doctor after Capaldi, but you are mistaken. The Universe is lying to you…there has not been a 13th Doctor…nothing to see here, move along….

Anyway, I am missing the 8th, 9th, 10th and War Doctor, but do have plans to convert my own version of the 8th, as the Black Tree Design one is a bit…pants.

My second quest is to have 28mm versions of every Blackadder and their respective supporting cast…which is where the gnashing of teeth comes in, because people keep releasing MORE figures…

In my previous post on this matter, I highlighted that Rogue Miniatures did a version of Edmund, The Black Adder and King Richard IV from the first series, but it appears that their website no longer exists and the owner is selling off the molds/business, so if you want these figures, you might have to contact him direct via the Rogue Miniatures Facebook page. However, as Studio Miniatures released these just prior to Salute this year;

You can get Edmund, Percy and Baldrick in their original iterations for £12.00 from their online shop here.

Of course, if you’re still craving someone to bellow “Fresh Horses!” whilst fighting Saracens, this Heroclix movie version Volstagg would make a good proxy;

Now, whilst The Assault Group does the Elizabethan versions of Edmund, Percy and Baldrick, that’s all the characters you get. However, Space Vixens from Mars actually do a Queen Elizabeth I, for a very reasonable £2.75.

Whilst hunting for Lord Melchett, I did find a possible figure to use for Lord Flasheart, from Wargames Foundry.

Top right, with the right paint job, I think would work. This is SB022 Squire Edward’s Swashbucklers, from the Seadogs and Swashbucklers range, It’s £12.00 for the whole pack, but you do get 6 figures, so £2.00 a figure.

And talking of Lord Flasheart, whilst Scarab Miniatures provided you with nearly everyone from Blackadder Goes Forth, including Bob the driver AND the drinks cabinet, our dashing aviator was nowhere to be seen. However, this has now been rectified by the latest entry in Wargames Illustrated’s ‘Giants in Miniature’ range;

Available from North Star Military Figures for £3.50. However, you will have to provide your own “woofs”…

We wants them, my precious…

Anyway, as June fast approaches, this signals that the next month will be taken up with Forgotten Heroes 2019. Currently, we have three participants; myself here on the Buffet, Keith aka The Angry Piper over at Dead Dick’s Tavern and Temporary Lodging and a new participant Mezmaron over at Mezmaron’s Lair. Still time to join in, should you so wish and the full details can be found in my previous post about this event here.

 

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something…Orange

Initially, the title of this post was going to be a time-related quote, but as I’d already used “It’s About Time” which would have been perfect, I had to think of something a bit different, hence the above. All will become clear as you read on…

So, let us start with Something Old…

When I first started my Gothic Victoriana project (which became Tales of the Black Museum) way back in August of last year, the first structure that was shown for the London borough of Blackwell was the Chapel of St. Gilbert, with accompanying churchyard and scenery. The build for this particular terrain piece can be found in the post For Whom the Bell Tolls, which is probably worth a look so you can do a comparison, as it was pointed out at the time that my church was a little too clean…

So, I decided to do a bit of work on it to see whether I could make it look a bit more soot-stained and grimy, and this is the result:

Certainly looks a bit more worn than before and the roof tiles are now the appropriate colour. To be frank, the picture makes it look brighter than it actually is. The same applies to the tree in the churchyard, which was originally undercoated black and has had various shades and washes applied to it, but now looks a bit ‘spectral’ – although it is darker to the natural eye.

I still need to finish off the remainder of the churchyard and add a few details to the church doors, but when you progress a large terrain piece from ‘half-done’ to ‘almost done’, you do have a sense of achievement, as large terrain pieces do take a fair while to paint compared to figures.

Next up – Something New. As my last post did state that the churchyard was where Lord Edmund Blackadder’s time machine had ended up, I thought I’d best show it in place – as I’ve finally got around to finishing the bloody thing!

Trying to create tiny clock hands out of very thin plastic that were the right shape AND symmetrical proved quite tricky. Also discovering that I really should have made the trench surrounding the dial slightly wider to allow me to write the numbers around the dial more clearly was an annoyance, but it IS finished now, so I’m quite pleased.

And yes, this close-up of the time machine revealed that I’d missed painting one of the chapel’s buttresses, which is why it still has the warm toffee colour of the original paint job.

Now, we’ve got Blackadder’s time machine complete, but where is the man himself? He is our Something Borrowed.

So, I finally managed to get the figure I’m using for my version of the 1999 incarnation of Lord Edmund Blackadder based, undercoated and some paint on him. Strangely, the bit that took the longest was mixing up the colour for his velvet jacket, as I did not have a suitable colour pre-mixed – Imperial Purple being too pink and Worm Purple being too purple. So, “Blackadder Plum” was tinkered with until it matched what I thought the colour should be.

Still a bit of work to go, but he’s coming along and at least he can now appear in physical form for his adventures in Blackwell.

So, something old (the church), something new (the time machine), something borrowed (Edmund Balckadder), which leaves…something blue. Or in my case, something orange…Zygons!

I took advantage of Black Tree’s post-Christmas sale to add some classic characters to my Doctor Who collection, including a couple of the classic Zygons from the 1975 Fourth Doctor serial Terror of the Zygons.

Now, I know that the modern re-design of this alien race has changed their colouration slightly, so that they look more crab-like in colour, but my recollection and online images from the original story, showed they were a greeny-orange colour, so that’s what I went with. Both figures were given an undercoat of white, followed by a coat of GW Bogey Green, and then a coat of my ‘Pumpkin Orange’ mix. And that’s it.

As the orange paint is quite ‘orangey’, but also quite thin, it kinds of acts like a glaze, pooling in the right places and allowing hints of the underlying green to show through. I think it works really well and am now tempted to buy some of the new Warlord Zygons and paint them exactly the same way. May not be exactly canon, but neither’s painting their hands black…

Hopefully, this post signifies a return to more regular posting. The next post will be my regular post-Salute report, as it’s now less than a week away, and will be from an ‘insider’s’ point of view, as I’m helping out on the Wargames Terrain Workshop stall and demonstration tables this year. So, please feel free to drop by and say hello.

Until next time…

(Re) Making History

Time travel is a tricky prospect. Your first issue is discovering a means to propel your physical form through the space/time continuum in a safe and controlled fashion. Whether you utilise a limited edition American sports car, an antique call box or a map allegedly left over from when the Creator was building the Universe matters not – you still have to possess the item.

Your second issue (and this is the biggie) is whether your actions in the past will effect the future. If you meddle with a past timeline, when you return to your starting point, will the World you encounter be the same as when you left? Will the inadvertent loss of a cigarette lighter in the distant past have caused an earlier technological revolution, resulting in you previous ‘present’ being reduced to a radioactive cinder? Will the wrong thing said at the Nuremberg Rallies have changed the outcome of the Second World War, with the majority of Europe now occupied by the Nazis? Will the Earth have been invaded by super-intelligent Koala-like aliens, who have subjugated the population and forced them to mass-produce soft toilet tissue? These are all things that the intelligent and responsible time traveller must take into account when venturing into the past, as even the most subtle of changes could have wide-reaching and devastating consequences.

However, if you have a Plan and a goal, if you know exactly what result you wish to achieve, then maybe, just maybe, you can carefully tweak the past to improve your own future.

But it would have to be an extremely cunning plan…

With a slightly disappointing displacement of air, a canvass and wood contraption, looking like a carriage clock writ large, appeared suddenly, then dropped to the ground. As the booth-like object settled into the damp earth of the churchyard, there came from within the sound of someone falling over, followed by what appeared to be a toilet flushing.

Lord Edmund Blackadder closed the heavy tome he had balanced on his knee and looked askance at the crumpled heap of his manservant, who had endeavoured to prevent his fall by grabbing the toilet chain.

“Given that we have made innumerable jumps through time and space and upon reaching every destination, the time machine always drops the last few feet to the ground,” he began, “it truly astounds me that on every occasion, without fail, you seem unprepared and fall over. Either you have the memory of a goldfish, Baldrick, or you are the stupidest man in existence. On past experience, I believe it is the latter.”

“Yes, my Lord…sorry, my Lord.” Said Baldrick, clambering to his feet.

“Now,” said Blackadder, “as we – and when I say ‘we’, I actually mean ‘me’ – have ascertained that the time machine is keyed to our individual DNA, wherever – or to be more precise when-ever – we have appeared, one of my ancestors should be in close proximity to our arrival point. We therefore need to find out when we are – and on this occasion, when I say ‘we’, I actually mean ‘you’.”

“Er…I don’t understand, my Lord.” Stammered Baldrick.

Blackadder sighed.

“You never fail to disappoint, do you, Baldrick?”

“Thank you, my Lord.”

“What I mean is that it is time to stretch your legs, Balders…to venture forth into the World beyond and find out where we’ve ended up this time.”

Blackadder released the cord holding the door and lowered the gangplank.

“But…it might be dangerous, my Lord…” said Baldrick fearfully.

“Exactly,” said Blackadder, pushing Baldrick out into the crisp night air, “which is why you’re going instead of me.”

The Greatest Breakthrough in Travel..

…since Mr. Rodney Tricycle thought to himself “I’m bored with walking, I think I’ll invent a machine with three wheels and a bell, and name it after myself.”

Behold, the time machine…

As I am now the proud owner of the surrogate figure I’m planning on using to represent Lord Edmund Blackadder (circa 1999), in order for him to visit the London borough of Blackwell, I decided that some additional work was needed to complete his time machine.

However, as I’m sadly lacking in my very own Baldrick to delegate this task to, I’ve had to do it myself…

When we first saw the machine, it looked like this;

The initial box was crafted from an Amazon cardboard ‘envelope’, with a circular hole cut in the front and the drawbridge-like door cut into the left side. A smaller disc of card was then covered in baking foil (dull side up) to create the clockface, then glued to a larger disc of card and fixed behind the hole, giving a bit of depth to the model.

All four sides and the top were then given a covering of textured wallpaper, to represent the canvass sides of the machine. A rubber washer, topped with a smaller plastic washer and then a plastic cap were glued together and added to the top of the device, to represent the viewing port of the original machine.

This made it look a bit like a washing machine with a hatbox on top of it, but as with most modelling projects, it’s all in the details…

The machine needed four decorative ‘spires’ on each corner of the roof, some feet, a cog or fly-wheel protruding from the right-hand side of the device and some rungs on inner surface of the door, so our intrepid time travellers had stable footing when alighting – so my bits box was raided and various beads, screws and washers were affixed in the relevant places, resulting in this;

And another shot showing the fly-wheel;

I also decided to add several cut down cotton-bud stems to represent the frame that the canvass is attached to.

It’s not exactly the same as the original design, but it’s a pretty good match and I’m happy with it.

Now, as it was fairly evident that it was cobbled together from a variety of disparate parts, I decided to give it an undercoat of Docrafts Linen, in order to blend them all together.

The bases and feet were given a coat of Docrafts Burnt Umber and the frame a coat of Docrafts Classic Gold. Referring to the Blackadder: Back and Forth, I then painted the roof spires, viewing port and clockface in GW Shining Gold, and the shallow trench around the clockface with Docrafts White. And this is the result;

The exerior requires dry-brushing with a dark pink, the ramp needs a coat of brown and I need to add the numerals, decorative marks and hands to the clockface, but it’s progressing well and should be finished…in good time.

I just need to base and paint Blackadder himself and he will then be meddling in the affairs of the residents of Blackwell.

Until next “time”…

A Plan So Cunning You Could Stick a Tail on it and Call it a Weasel

Regular visitors to the Buffet will know that I’m a big fan of the BBC comedy series Blackadder, which ran for four series between 1983 and 1989, with a couple of specials broadcast in 1988 and the final instalment of the saga – Blackadder: Back and Forth – released in 1999.

During this time, we were introduced to NINE incarnations of the titular character, from Centurion Blaccadicus, way back in Roman occupied Britain, to the most recent Lord Edmund Blackadder, who through some unscrupulous tinkering with the time-stream, managed to end up as the King of England.

Now, you might be wondering what this possibly has to do with wargaming?

Well, it would appear that I’m not the only fan of the Blackadder series, as various companies have produced 28mm versions of Edmund and his chums.

Want Prince Edmund, the Duke of Edinburgh and his father, King Richard IV? Head on over to Rogue Miniatures, who have Eddy:

And Lord Loud:

at £3.75 each, from their “Sword” range.

Fancy something a little more Elizabethan? Then look no further than The Assault Group, who have amongst their Renaissance range REN438 – Cunning Courtier, Manservant & Percy:

At £7.20 for all three, that’s £2.40 a figure, which is pretty good value.

Finally, should you be more inclined to game amongst the trenches of the Great War, Scarab Miniatures have this collection of individuals for you:

Lieutenant George, Private “Bob” Parkhurst, Captain Darling, the drinks cabinet, General Melchett, Captain Blackadder and Private Baldrick, all for £8.20. Unfortunately, this is the best picture I could get from their website, but if you want to see them painted extremely well and in a suitable diorama, then pay Michael Awdry’s 28mm Victorian Warfare blog a visit, particularly this post, to see what they should look like.

Now, whilst we have three incarnations of Edmund, this still leaves us short of Centurion Blaccadicus; Sir Edmund Blackadder from the English Civil War; Mr E. Blackadder Esq., butler to the Prince Regent; Mr Ebenezer Blackadder, proprietor of the finest moustache shop in Victorian London, Lord Edmund Blackadder, time-travelling ne’er-do-well and Grand Admiral Blackadder of the Dark Segment. And believe me, I have trawled the Internet, looking at various ranges to try to find suitable proxies, so I could have the ‘full set’ without luck.

Now, I’d put the idea of ‘The Blackadder Project’ on hold back in 2014, but with my current focus on all things Victorian, I thought it would be quite amusing to add the Victorian incarnation of Blackadder to the narrative. After an exhaustive search of the Internet, I still haven’t located a suitable figure to represent Mr Ebenezer Blackadder.

Not giving up on this idea, I changed tack and started searching for a suitable figure for the modern version, as whilst I would have to build a time machine, this shouldn’t present a problem.

Which is a phrase I never thought I’d use…

Strangely, finding a suitable figure for an unarmed, bearded man in a suit in 28mm isn’t quite as easy as you’d think. I did consider Tony Stark from the Heroclix Avengers Movie subset, but the amount that this was going for online was silly for a single plastic figure.

So, I went for a slightly different alternative and have decided to use the Crooked Dice Lionel figure:

It may not be exact, but I think with a suitable paint job, this will make a good proxy for the modern version of Lord Edmund Blackadder. And could that be a tranquiliser pistol? It would certainly suit his character…

As for the time machine…well, I’ve made a start…

Looks a bit like washing machine at present…

Just before I go, it seems that my regular posts on the Buffet have inspired a fellow gamer to take a crack at this blogging lark. His name is Harry and his blog is War Across the Ages. So far, he has provided a very interesting introduction into how he got into the hobby, which should ring a few bells with the majority of you out there. Why not pay him a visit and see what he has to say.

Next time…we shall be returning to Blackwell to see what’s been occurring.