“Boy With Spitfire.”

“You can almost hear him crying out, budda-budda-budda as he plays being a Spitfire ace."

This 28mm scale metal commemorative figure of the Battle of Britain was given away as a freebie by the “South London Warlords” at this year’s “Salute”, and was sculpted by Paul Hicks. I’ve seen the miniature beautifully pigmented by the incredibly talented Kevin Dallimore as an actual school boy playing with his toy aeroplane, and whilst I was momentarily tempted to try to replicate such a paint-scheme, I eventually opted for something far more straightforward which would hopefully enable the model to see much more tabletop time as an objective marker.

To begin with though, I felt the ‘statue’ should at least be placed up on a pedestal some kind, and having scoured through my collection of resin pieces, found just such a plinth cast by “Telfer Model Design”. Unfortunately, the block’s top was just too small to ‘house’ the model’s detailed base, so rather than build a wide enough ledge myself I simply resorted to flipping the stand upside down instead and hoping that my subsequent paint-job would fill/cover the quite visible casting bubbles on show.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Three Kobolds primed with "Vallejo" Heavy Red

In addition, I had a slight issue with my “Loctite” super-glue whilst placing the figure on its stand, as my previous brand of cyanoacrylate always allowed me a few moments to slide a miniature into position. This new “precision max” variant provided no such leeway, so just as soon as I touched the model down on its column it became stuck fast, and the only thing my frantic tugging and pulling was ever going to achieve was for the sculpt to snap at the ankles – something I quickly decided I didn’t want to risk. As a result, the ‘statue’ is slightly off-centre on its plinth, albeit I think you’d have to look quite closely to spot the mistake.

Luckily, I had no such issues gluing the resin foundation to one of the thin-lipped 40mm plastic circular bases I use for all of my objective markers these days, and once dry set about priming the ensemble with “Citadel” Abaddon Black. The figure was then layered with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, before being given a coat of Brass and a generous drowning of “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.

"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Three Sorcerous Sentinels primed with "Vallejo" German Grey

Due to wanting this statue to look reasonably well-maintained, I decided against adding any patina or weathering to the figure, and simply highlighted it back up with a dry-brush of (more) “Vallejo” Brass. Admittedly, this did make the miniature look a little too shiny for my liking, so I dulled it down a bit more with a second application of “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade. The model’s plinth was pigmented using some “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey, which was later shaded in “Citadel” Nuln Oil (as well as the odd drop of Agrax Earthshade), before being dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Bluegrey.

Alongside this objective marker, I have also been steadily prepping and priming a number of miniatures for the upcoming Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This includes some more of the “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” Kobolds I purchased at “Warfare” 2021, as well as the three (final) Sorcerous Sentinels I own, which I intend to pigment “Vallejo” White to represent some elite Fortress Guards…