Burrows and Badgers Squirrel Knight Sire Juniper

Next up off the paint table is the Squirrel knight who I have named Sire Juniper. Another lovely single piece figure. I really like the pose on this one. The flow of the cloak and the partially armoured tail makes it nice and dynamic looking as if its swirling, swinging and striking out with the halberd.

I really must get some of the other squirrels it was really fun to paint. I am looking forward to doing the foxes as well though I only have the one at the moment.

Burrows and Badgers Shrew Shaman Jingle Jangle

 Great news on Alfie has his blood tests this week and had the results Friday night and they have all returned to normalish levels. Medication continues and will need blood tests again in a few weeks time to see how things are going! So fingers crossed all good, even better he can now go out for walks as normal!

Painting wise I have been working on a couple more B&B figures this week. The Shrew Shaman and the Squirrel Knight. The knights not quite finished but I am hoping to get him done over the weekend as he probably only one more painting session away from being finished.

The Shrew Shaman is another cool figure he has got lots of cool little details like the bones here and there on his cloak and belt. But I like the fact he has got a fur and feather cloak giving me the opportunity to have a play with colours that I want to use on other characters later on (mainly the fox and sparrows I have to do).

The only bit I am unsure about his bag. Most mage type characters can use spell ingredients to boost there spells in game but in order to do this need to be equipped with a magic bag/pouch so I tried to recreate that by making the bag look a little bit fancier. Not sure if it works but happy with it for now.

Group shot of the first 6 figures finished. I think they look good as a group.

Brigade Games Spies and Patriots Kickstarter

Been following this one with interest. Some cool sculpts being added as stretch goals quite like the Henchmen III and British Agent sculpts. Its Heading into the final few days I've backed it for a few packs. Lots of bad guys for those spy and pulp games.

Spies and Patriots Kickstarter link

Burrows and Badgers Jiemba Platypus Hunter

One of the larger  figures finished off  this week. Jiemba is one  that I have dying to paint up as I just love the model. Obviously not a native to the UK the Platypus Hunter is one of the 'Rare' species in Burrows and Badgers meaning you can only have one of his type in a warband. 

I am told that there will be an new profile for him out at some point. The Hunter will feature as a Freelancer. A sort of hired mercenary in the game but this will be once they are updated from the first edition of the game.

This is Jiemba or 'Laughing Star' as it translates in Wiradjuri. Armed with his trusty Bargan and Birrung (Boomerang and club) he stalks and tracks many creatures down in Northymbra before bringing them down with his trusty but simple weapons.

The Platypus hunter comes across as very tribal and natural looking so didn't want to use any bright colours. I had a look at various Platypus skin colours and went for a mid brown for the main fur so that the other items might stand out a bit more. I looked up loads of Australian Aboriginal body paints, weapons and such for ideas seeing as it is the Platypus's native country. It quite surprised me how irregular in shape the boomerangs used by the Aboriginal people were the one modelled on the figure is one used for hunting and is more an L shape. Rather just painting the Birang a flat wood colour I had a look at some traditional Aboriginal weapons on google and spotted a nice orange and red feather type patter which I tried to duplicate.

I added a bit of face paint to add a spot of colour to his bill . Just some simple dots to tie him in that little bit more with the theme. Jiemba's Fur skin cloak (Possum skin apparently) I decorated on the inside with some primitive looking animals rather than leaving it just areas's of flat colour this was more mimicking the studio paint job that was done on him

Burrows and Badgers Adder Mage

Tail end of last week was pretty shit. My young dog Alfie has been struck down with some sort of mysterious illness and has been really quite poorly. It was touch and go as to whether he was going make it Thursday/Friday as he was really lethargic, not eating or drinking and I was having to keep forcing him to drink water using a syringe and eat a little bit of food. Vets haven't a clue what it is but it came on quite suddenly. I am hoping that him being only 2 1/2 means he can bounce back. 


Alfie with his new Bee Squeeky toy I really Love this little guy.

Alfie has reacted well to the steroids and anti-biotics that the vet has given us to give him. I am hoping he will make a full recovery and that there will be no long term effects fingers crossed. Alfie is showing signs of his normal playful and cheeky behaviour but we won't know until next week what the score is until he has more blood tests and they shows signs of improvement.  I am kind of scared to be to optimistic at the moment for fear of being disappointed. We lost our other elderly labrador Brandon in January and its not been a fun year so far.

As you can see we are very close and sits by me when painting or working on my laptop even as I write this post.




Anyway I've not had much time really to do a great deal of painting but after finishing the Shrews last week I decided to have a crack at painting a snake. Reptiles and especially a scaled skin is something new for me to paint so this was another interesting figure to paint up for me.

Now being B&B being based on British Woodland creatures I had a look at what snakes there were in the UK which isn't many! However I found a nice picture of an Adder so decided to try and duplicate its markings. As a mage though I made his eyes a little brighter than what would be found in real life.

In the end I use Rotting Flesh washed with soft and a thinned green tone. Then used matt black high lighted with oak brown for the black scales.

I really like how they have done the snakes poses. Its quite dynamic and I like how he (or she) is coiled around the staff and has numerous piercings with feathers, teeth and other trinkets.  There is a second one that is not available yet in a more traditional pose but coolly has armour. I used less foliage as I didn't want to detract from his skin tones.

The name has been the trickiest part to sort out. Carmen my daughter asked me if he was good or bad and wants to name him Kaa if he is bad and Haa if he is good lol.

 I ended up searching for mythical serpent names. Grootslang or Lotan were both ones I really liked but as not being based on British myths seemed wrong. In the end I found a site with various British myths around serpents/wyverns/dragons and spotted the Sockburn worm and really liked the sound of it. The Sockburn worm was a Wyvern and you can read more on the legend here.

Burrows and Badgers Shrews Grifty and Mimsy.

Thoroughly enjoying these figures from Oathsworn Miniatures this time we have a pair of pirate themed Shrews. The figures have nice chunky details which are nice and easy to paint and lots of great textured fur areas. As a bonus everything has been in a single piece so no filling or faffing with bits to pin!

Tough decisions ahead on which one to paint next. Hmm Squirrel Knight or Adder Mage?

Burrows and Badgers Tobias the Ranger

Had a few hours spare here and there this week. So got my first Burrow's and Badger's figure finished. They are really nice to paint plenty of detail yet simple enough to do without any fiddly bits. I have decided to name this one Tobias and he is a Mouse Ranger.

The base was my usual putty method painted Gorthor brown, washed in strong tone ink then once the figure was finished and varnished. I added some Coarse Flock, Winter tuft and some Clump Foliage. I tried to place it so it looked like he was tracking or sneaking through.

The next two characters are also wip this time the two Pirate themed Shrew's not sure what to do with the female ones jacket and top as yet. Once fully basecoated will begin the shading washes.

Review: Burrows and Badgers by Oathsworn miniatures.

Well its been rather quiet lately on the hobby front. Training courses, a weekend away with the family and the prep and packing involved with that has result in not much time painting. There has been some additions to the project log. So this will be my 'not going to salute loot post lol' Having sold all my Batman collection (well nearly all of it) I had a large sum of paypal burning a hole in my pocket. Some of it has gone on various purchase towards my Joe Project mainly weapons, heads, and equipment as well as a few more bodies for conversions. But as always with saying goodbye to the old we can say hello to the new! Please note the images are not from the rulebook just some I fond based on Redwall that I particularly like

As you can see at Brummie Towers the banner has changed to a rather marvellous looking mouse fellow possibly based on Martin the Warrior from the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. I have been admiring the miniatures produced by Oathsworn miniatures for there Burrows and Badgers range a while now. A few online friends have been sharing their painted figures online as well and I had a good look at Michael and Jo's fabulous display stand at the Derby World show last year and the figures look gorgeous.

The game is set in Northymbria a sort of alternate England type map ( which of course makes your imagination run wild for some fun places to name). The warbands are comprised of anthropomorphic animals. Mostly with a Woodlands theme so expect to see Mice, Shrews, Dormice, Rats, Ferrets, Stoats, Weasels, Toads, Squirrels, Snakes, Bats, Sparrows, Foxes, Badgers and Hounds to name a few as well as a few exotic creatures which are fun to include but restricted as rarer creatures.

The game is aimed at Skirmish/Campaign play with rules for both one off games and playing through a campaign. Model count is quite small with anything from 5-10 figures per side. All creatures can be taken and mixed if you wish. There are four themed factions with there own rules so you can theme your warbands. Also there are rules for single race factions as well so you can take all mice or rats etc.



There are ways of creating your creatures and some natural stats are better than others but anyone can be ranged, melee or magic users.

The characters are defined by several stats which use different dice values to represent skill level so so starting at D4 and some can potentially go upto D20's (with advances during campaigns) Most test use opposed rolls. Movement is an obvious one though it is listed as dice value. What i find interesting is you can move upto you max value over normal terrain but when crossing some obstacles or entering difficult terrain you roll the dice to determine how far you can move through it.
Strike is your combat statistic and when attacking your opponent uses the dice under the block value. There is also Ranged vs Nimbleness, Concealement, Awareness, Fortitude and Presence.

Dice are rolled and to attack for example adding any relevant modifiers the winner being the one with the highest score and the difference being how many wounds are cause. If you roll the top value on a dice you also score whats called a perfect roll. A Perfect roll adds +7 to your score which allows even smaller creatures a chance of hurting and harming those biggers ones. Without going into the maths to much your far more likely to get a Perfect roll on a D4 (25%) versus a D10 (10%).

All creatures have 16 wounds each and various skills offset that so bigger creatures will be naturally tougher to bring down as they will soak some damage up.

The recent kickstarter saw the rule book being reprinted after updating and streamlining the first edition of the rules. I don't know the differences but I am told there are quite a few between first and second.

Some of the figures from the recent Rogues and Vagabonds kick starter are still to be added to the webstore as they are currently fulfilling that one. Thats expected to be added in 3-4 weeks. However there are still a ton of  figures to choose from.

So after much nail biting descion making I made my mind up and place my first order. (I have to say whats great is free shipping when you spend over £30!)  The order arrived last Monday and I have to say the packaging was absolutely top notch. Arriving in a firm card carton the figures where in a plastic box with layers of bubble wrap and packing peanuts securing the figures wonderfully.

The rulebook is hardback, full colour and weighs in at around 126 pages. Including some excellent drawings and photographs of painted figures. Its laid out in a straightforward format. Including the usual warband sheets at the back (which are also available online to download and print). I have to add that by ordering direct you get an extra scenario printed on coloured card and a free Mouse Burglar figure!

 My selection of Woodland animals. I mostly went for what I liked the look of the most. I have a soft spot for Owls and birds so they were high up on my to get list. So I got both Sparrows and the Barn Owl.

 As you can see they vary in size. With mice, shrews and bats being small creatures are around the 20mm height. Then moving upto medium creatures which are 30-40mm in height. The Barn Owl was the largest but I think the biggest creature that is done is the male badger model.

Fox Rogue, Hare Knight and Platypus Hunter!

 Bat Necromancer, Sparrow warriors and Adder Mage!

Mice and Shrews various, maids, warriors, mages and Pirate Shrews! Oh and a Shrew Errant Knight riding a Stag Beetle!

 Some close ups of the bigger characters the details is fabulous I am looking forward to getting these painted.

 Basing and clean up begins. The usual filing off of moldlines (I have to say very minimal)

The only issue I had was a slightly miscast owl which had a crack running all the way round the centre. But a quick email exchange and a replacement owl was recieved by Thursday which is absolutely spot on customer service. So not wanting to waste such a gorgeous model I have filled in the crack and added some 'boob' armour to the breast plate to create a female Barn owl. I also added a helmet inspired by the Guardians of Ga'Hoole. I need to file it smooth and base it.

Exciting times ahead hope you all keeping well I've had a catch up this morning on what everyone has been upto as well lots of exciting hobby projects going on.