Wild Weasel

Hello again.

Now, it may surprise you to know, but this particular Wild Weasel has absolutely nothing to do with aircraft equipped to take out enemy radar and SAM defences, but it is a weasel and it may well be wild.

Yes, I give you yet another offering in the growing range of Oathsworn Miniatures' anthropomorphic animals range for "Badgers & Burrows" which, for those who have missed it, is a skirmish game of the "Frostgrave"/ "Mordheim"/ "Ghost Archipelago"/ insert any sort of fantasy or swords skirmish game to taste that pits small bands against each other for treasure or whatever and enables them to develop between games in a campaign-like way. This one is specifically branded as a "Weasel Rogue". With his club and semi-hidden dagger, I see him more in line for pressganging some poor unfortunates so have roped him in as accomplice to the Black Pi-Rat I posted about a week or so ago. So, with that in mind, it looks like the first band will be pirate-themed and you can expect more scurrilous characters going forwards.

I must say that after painting regiments of British and French for most of the past 12 to 18 months, painting single figures is a welcome change. Whilst I always try and shade and highlight all my regiments, not to mention painting the flags by hand, I can go a bit further still with single figures, especially on some of the bases. I selected a beach theme for my pirates, so will pursue that option, especially with some of the bigger figures that might join the Black Pi-Rat's nefarious schemes. But the option to paint in the eyes, to add an extra highlight, to experiment a little with rust or other effects is there and I intend to use it on these single figures.

For those who have battled through these last few fantasy-orientated posts, please note that I am still painting "proper" stuff - His Majesty's 35th Regiment of Foot is underway, for example - but I am also hooked by the need to paint less than a dozen, quality figures in the vain hope of getting a game some time soon. And, make no bones about it, the Oathsworn Miniatures range is quality in my opinion, spawning not only a lot of ideas for different groups but also bringing some joy back into my painting, as it had become a little bit of a chore churning through 18th Century infantry.

"What about the need to research?" I hear you cry.

Well, whilst I may not need to check out my Haythornthwaites, Funckens and Ospreys, who knows what colour a shrew is? What about a weasel? What varieties are there? What colour eyes and claws do they have?

Another much-valued aspect of this project has been the need to check out images of our countryside's natives (no, not some Yorkshire farmer tending his flock!), the small, hardly noticed but always present inhabitants of our land who go about short and often brutal lives missed by everyone until one turns up on TV and we all go "ahhh". For the record, my weasels will be reddish brown, like the Common Weasel variety, and my shrews will be tricolour brown, starting with a dark brown back and fading around to light at the front. I had to do research to find that out!

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As the figure stoops somewhat as it walks, getting both the head and the body in focus was a challenge, especially for my limited photographic skills.

The beach theme is here typified not only by the sand but by some driftwood. This is a piece of plastic armature sold by Woodland Scenics to make trees from, aimed primarily at the model railway fraternity, but eminently suitable for wargames purposes too. You might just pick out the rust tinge on the dagger in this shot too.

Club at the ready to pressgang some poor unfortunate into the crew of the Blackberry. And more signs of rust development on his scavenged pieces of armour.