A spot more recruitment

Blimey it's quiet around here! Almost as though every single waking moment recently has been filled with work (boo!) and family things (yay!)...

Still, I put the finishing touches to my unit of handgunners for Whiskey Priest's "How to do Oldhammer" challenge, the Muster challenge, and the "oh dear, I need some painted figures for BOYL" challenge. Triple use, so I reckon that makes them worth thirty figures, right? Suit yourself.

Here's a pretty crappy phone photo as proof:

Keeping myself a-moo-sed

I'm afraid that's the only pun I've got for you today, comedy fans, but I do have a spot of painting progress to report.

First up, some dirty old cows:

Fetchez le vache!

Apparently I have to have plenty of stock phrases ready for maximum geekage at Bring Out Your Lead 2014 (BOYL14 from now on) at Foundry's new HQ in August. I shall therefore have this on loop while I'm painting and practise my pronunciation of "elderrrrrbehreeeez"

Les arquebusiers de Thierry

If you're a nobleman, you can do as you like as long as you can afford it and it's not treason. Even then, if you've got the money you can probably get away with treason as well. For most, though, it means indulging one's whims. Les arquebusiers de Thierry is one such whim. Inspired by the troubadours' tales of Thierry l'Arquebus, the minor noble Vicomte Lincolne raised a band of skirmishers armed and dressed as the literary figure; an arquebus and the green cloth for which the area of Lincolne is famed. The Vicomte seems to have missed the point that, although green is a good colour for a woodsman, poacher or skirmisher, as soon as they start shooting the noise and smoke will give them away instantly. Nevertheless, the greencoats are good shots and (for peasants) fairly stalwart.

Knowing that I'd better raise some troops (read: paint!) fairly sharpish, I knocked these first six out this week. They still need their bases finishing but I'll do them all in one go at the end. Here they are bravely hiding in the lee of a village headman's house. I was going to pick a francophone rendering of "Robin" but found that there's been a 1960s French series called "Thierry le Fronde" about a Loxley-esque character who used a sling rather than a bow. Fun fact!

"Look busy, mes braves, here comes the Vicomte!"