Mo’venber “ So terribly Moorish”

Well that was “Zom’tober” and this is “Mo’vember” for those of you not in the know (and why not?), this is where myself Simon Moore, (and anyone else who cares to join in) spend the month painting figures with some form of facial hair (well at least one a week). This year I don’t have a specific theme instead I hope to clear out some of the figures that have been gathering dust for far too long. So though two of the weeks will include figures from the same range overall I hope it should be a fairly eclectic bunch. All the figures are taken from my “Random painting generator lists”, I just won’t be generating them randomly (if you see what I mean). Anyway on with the painting, and this week’s figures are from Merlin’s list…

Box 7– (4x 28mm SMG armed policemen & 1x chap in bowler hat)

Now this might seem a strange mixture of figures from my “Very British Civil War” collection, but too make up a generally even amount of figures for painting each week some of the boxes have mixtures like this. The four policemen are of course from “Irregular Miniatures” whereas the chap in the bowler hat is from “Black Pyramid Games”.

My “Mo’vember” entry for this week is.., “Dr Simion Moorish”. A new face in town and a bit of an enigma, as very little is known about him, some say he’s a spy for the government, others that that’s not even his real name and that he used to be the assistant to a famous detective, all that is known for sure is that he’s been taking and inordinate amount of interest in a certain “flowery hat wearing widow”, read into that what you will.

Painting the good (or is he?) doctor was begun by laying down a coat of chocolate brown over his suit and hat before this was highlighted with a mix of the same and butternut, then his waistcoat was undercoated in dark red and highlighted in pink burgundy, and his shirt (what you can see of it) was done in the same manner but with coffee and cream. His flesh was painted in European flesh and after his eyes were added this was highlighted with a mix of continental flesh and pale flesh. Then his hair and (all important) beard were painted dark grey and highlighted with a mix of this and white, and while I had the dark grey out I also highlighted his sword canes shaft and his shoes. The blade of his sword was painted chainmail. Lastly I gave his hat and suit a gentle dry-brush with some more chocolate brown just to tone down the brightness of it.

Now my other four figures this week come from my “Very British Civil War” collection that I bought from “Irregular Miniatures” the year before last (wow I really must get the rest of these painted soon!) but I digress. I’ve painted quite a lot of these policemen now so you’ll forgive me if I don’t go into too much detail over the painting of these particular “coppers”. So working from a black undercoat they were first dry-brushed with royal blue before I painted in the wooden stocks of their submachine guns in chocolate brown and butternut, after this I added the metallic parts of the guns along with the buttons and badges in chainmail. Flesh was next European and continental flesh mixed with pale flesh as above being the colours of choice, and then this group was given chocolate brown hair highlighted with chestnut. Next after I had touched up the boots and belts in black these were highlighted with dark grey and lastly I added their warrant “cuffs” in black and white (this is such a pain to do!), and they were done.

As usual they were all given a coat of Quickshade before having their bases painted and a blow over with the matt varnish.

Please be sure and look over what my co-conspirator Mr Simon Moore has been up to over at his most excellent blog… http://fantorical.blogspot.co.uk/

So one down three to go, so till next week, hide the razor and, cheers Roger.