Pigs at Risk!!

 After the summer hiatus (no new post since July, but a lot of painting as you'll see in the future), something new at last, and a bit different from my usual warbands.

Thanks to fellow forumers at Benno's, I've recently discovered a MDF buildings manufacturer called Blotz, with an interesting 20mm range - which is rather rare since I only new one so far. Among other things, They propose a Dark Age houses series, which should be great with Viking, medieval or even Fantasy figures. 

I assembled and painted the first buildings a few weeks ago. Then I searched my figures collection and found a few peasants, farm animals and medieval soldiers, so that today, I can show you the last Philotep's production, in Mini-o-rama: 

 

Let's start with the beginning... A long time ago, in a small village somewhere in Europe, lived a poor farmer with his wife. They had two grown-up sons, almost men, a precious manpower for the farm's work. They lived all together in a tiny but nice thatched house, and were fortunate enough to owe a few pigs.

One morning, they were alerted by the unusal noise of the pigs. - What's happening ? said one boy to the other - Let's have a look, answered the other. They went out in the courtyard to discover that some brigands were just robbing the pigs! And the men looked dangerous - probably some mercenaries looking for food.

 Too bad their dog had just died, he would have warned them earlier.

(technical comment: the truth is that I have not painted any dog figure yet, I will put one on my todo list, I promise)

- Dad, dad, help! shouted the younger boy, they're trying to get into the storehouse, I won't be able to defend it alone!

Fortunately, the farmer was working in a field near the house, and he was back very soon, ready to engage the looters himself.

 

The mercenaries were fierce, but the farmer much stronger, and his sons courageous. Step by step, the looters were losing ground. Taking benefit of the thieves' distraction, the stolen pig turned back and run straight into its pig pen. At this sight, the armed men lost their motivation and started to retreat, not without insulting the farmers and the pigs.

- They might return, said the farmer's wife, more of them, hungry and dangerous. But for today, I am very proud of you all.

And so we leave the whole family in their small farm, in a happy end this time.

Will the mercenaries return ? How many of them ? Will there still be some pigs, or will they have been all eaten ? And what about the dog ?

You will find answers to all this questions and many more one day in the next episode: The pigs at risk 2!! (or not).

Oh, credits:

- farmers by Strelets, Valdemar and Zvezda

- farmer's wife by Hät

- looters by Orion, Strelets and Accurate

- pigs by Pegasus

- buildings by Blotz

Every pig used in this story has not been harmed. You may have noticed that I didn't paint them pink - not because they are dirty, but because the actual pink pigs that we see today are the result of crossings between European and Asian pigs that started during the 18th century. The medieval pigs were probably darker, grey brown or black (source: Michel Pastoureau in Libération, 2018).

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 24

Today is the last day of the advent calendar, and for that particular day, we need a peaceful scene :-)

Day 24: Along the Silk Road

The name 'Silk Road' is given to a network of trade routes interconnecting all lands between Southern Europe and East Asia. A major item of this trade was the silk, first produced in China. Various historical events, particularly the conquests of Alexander, contributed to the opening of these intercontinental roads. One of the successor state to the Macedonian Empire, the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom, based in Bactria (modern Afghanistan) expanded to the East, leading to the first contacts with China in about 200 BC.

Of course, trade caravans gathered dozens, or even hundreds of beasts and men, certainly heavily guarded since they transported highly valuable goods. In the pictures below, we see only a part of a caravan, a man leading a camel and a yack in a mountainous area. Given the look of the fret, the animals are maybe carrying silk.

Wonderful figures by Linear A, I only wish I find time to paint more of them :)

Here you are, the end of the road for the 2020 advent calendar. The good thing is that I really used every single scene element I had, so beyond 24 images, I would have repeated myself very soon :)

I hope you all enjoyed the journey, that these pictures illustrate very wel.

See you... tomorrow for a short summary ;-)

The soldier, the camel and the goat

Hi everyone! Today I want to show you something unusual: a soldier (and his camel) from the "Régiment des dromadaires", created in 1799 during the French campaign in Egypt under general Bonaparte. This regiment was created because of the lack of horses (taken away by the Mamelukes). The soldiers acted as mounted infantry.

Some years ago, I was fascinated by Bonaparte's expedition in Egypt, because of the scientific part of this adventure - the beginning of Egyptology - and also by the extraordinary uniforms of this time.

The camel was painted after I read this excellent tutorial on Figuren und Geschichten, a great blog - I must admit that my camel is not as nice as the original, but I have a few more minis to improve my skill :-)

Here's a few pictures of a soldier with his camel somewhere in the Nile valley. He seems to be waiting for an invisible enemy, while a goat is looking for grass around. 1/72 Figures by GerMan, goat by Pegaso.

The GerMan figures are not made of plastic but of soft resin, which is a bit strange where you are not accustomed to this material, but the minis look great when painted.

The soldier...

... the camel...

... and the goat.