Don't Borrow From This Chap

Hello again.

There is something rather ironic about Summer from a figure painter' perspective, I feel. You should be enjoying all that lovely, natural light, those long days that give you plenty of time to speed all those projects along, the extra free time provided by not having to do school runs and so forth.

Yet, this year, it has mostly been changeable at best, so that lovely light has been variable in quality. When it has been hot, it has led to paint drying on the brush in the man cave where I paint and work has been busier than ever, it seems. To top it all off, high winds have made prepping anything a lottery, as I like to spray undercoat figures, which is somewhat tricky in a wind!

Nonetheless, I have finally managed to finish a few figures, though it has tended to be more single figures for my Burrows & Badgers project rather than a juicy 18th Century or other era unit. Bear with me, however, as I have a yearning for something more substantial than single figures going forwards, so those units hopefully will not be too far away from taking their turns on the painting table.

However, back to the here and now. I have it in mind to base my Burrows & Badgers world in the seedier parts of the fictional town of Scarsburgh, with its docks, narrow streets, limited policing and other suitable archetypal factors that make it so suitable for crime, skulduggery and the odd game or two. Now, towns have civilians as well as fighting types and, fortunately, so does the Oathsworn Miniatures range of figures. So, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to Shylock Smallweed. This fellow is a slippery one, not only because of his status as a frog, but also because of his general demeanour and way of life. In common with many of my recent characters, he has a Dickensian name, but I shied away from Ebenezer or Jacob (as in Marley) for his Christian name, preferring instead that "pound of flesh" merchant from Shakespeare, the idea being that this fellow would have his pound of flesh, with interest, whereas Ebenezer Scrooge was just mean, but even he turned to the light in the end. I see no turning for this character. I plan to associate him with my pug bounty hunter, Pugga Fett, (see previous post), as every good baddie needs an enforcer. The two of them will terrorise the poor and needy of Scarsburgh whilst portraying their business as honest and respectable.

I have other civilians in the queue for the painting table and big plans for some specific terrain. I have, for example, a broken toy pirate ship, so a dry dock with said ship being dismantled/ repaired might be in order. And every good dockside needs a seedy inn or two. Then there is the idea of Customs and Excise to house, warehouses for general goods, chandlers and shipwrights and sail makers, boat makers and all manner of other bits and bobs. It could be a lengthy process...

But, for now, I give you Shylock Smallweed. Don't borrow from this chap.

G

"Take the money! Don't worry about such drivel as interest, you need the cash, so take it."

I plan to make the bases for my Scarsburgh civilians sort of "urban decay" in nature, hence the mix of earth, grass and slabs shown here. It is not like these characters will feature strongly away from the confines of their town.

I did a fair amount of picture research for this figure, though I make no claim that he is the spitting image of any particular breed of frog, a conscious choice on my part. The eyes, however, were a part of the figure for which I deemed research essential - how they look, what colour they are, the shape and size of the pupil.