Hail to the King, baby

Alright you Primitive Screwheads, listen up! You see this? This... is my BOOMSTICK! The twelve-gauge double-barreled Remington. S-Mart's top of the line. You can find this in the sporting goods department. That's right, this sweet baby was made in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Retails for about a hundred and nine, ninety five. It's got a walnut stock, cobalt blue steel, and a hair trigger. That's right. Shop smart. Shop S-Mart. You got that?

When I was maybe 11, I saw late at night a horror movie called Evil dead. It terrified me. So of course I watched Evil Dead II not long after and was also terrified, again. The "humour" in the movie escaped me, and the fact the main hero, Ash, spends a good half of the movie alone, tormented by evil demonic forces really made a number on me. But the worst part was the movie's ending, in which our hero gets propelled back in medieval times, not the happy ending you want for your horror movie.

Lady, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave the store.

And who the hell are you?

Name's Ash. [cocks rifle] 

Housewares.

Two years later, I saw a commercial for Army of Darkness, and I realized it was the sequel to Evil Dead! Finally I would knew what happened to Ash! As I was 13, and the movie was PG-13, I went to see it in the theater. I quickly realized that the sequel was much more lighthearted than the original, and while for a moment it disappointed me I rapidly fell for it's humour, and laughed for 90 minutes straight. 

You found me beautiful once...

Honey, you got reeeal ugly!

To this day, Army of Darkness is one of the movies I've seen the most often, and I can recite most of the movie lines by heart. And they're so many classic quotes in that movie! 

It's a trick. Get an axe.

Good. Bad. I'm the guy with the gun.

I got this Hasslefree miniatures a while back, because obviously as a die hard fan of the serie I needed it, and obviously when I saw the last bonus round theme (TV or movie character) I knew what I had to do! At first I wanted to do a diorama, but after painting the figure the wargamer in me whispered to my ear "you'll want to play with him, are you sure a diorama is a good idea?" That combined with lack of time as I've been working really hard on that Pulp duel with Sander made me decide he would be enough. And who am I kidding? Of course, Ash is enough! 

I intend to use him in Pulp games, and also of course Zombicide! It's a great figure, and I'm really happy with my painting.

Sure, I could have stayed in the past. I could have even been king. But in my own way, I *am* king.

Hail to the king, baby.

Chicago Mobsters (West theme entry for the Analogue Challenge)

So I had to improvise a little (a lot) for the West entry, submitted for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I had what I thought was a very good concept for the Challenge (the Wicked Witch of the West), but unfortunately the world's posts and/or Canada customs conspired to ruin my plans! Indeed, the order I made specifically for this bonus theme round apparently got lost in the mail somewhere, and I was left with nothing! I actually waited until yesterday, hoping it might miraculously show up at the last minute but alas it was not meant to be. I woke up this morning a bit frustrated at the whole situation resigned that I would miss this bonus theme round. But then by mid-afternoon I shook myself up, and since I always join the bonus round (terrain excepted), I figured I had to come with something!

So I frantically went digging into my lead pile. Now, I remembered I had a lone Far West Cowboy figure left, but that didn't excite me, as it seemed an easy way out. I figure a few of the entries would be Far West (nothing wrong with that) and I wanted to do something different than a single Cowboy.

And then by pure luck I stumbled unto two Gangsters figures. They were the remnants of a pack of Copplestone Miniatures gangsters I bought many years ago to paint as a gift to Laurie (she's into everything 1930s, especially the cinema and Film Noir). And my brain started working a little and making associations...gangsters, mobsters, 1920s Chicago, Chicago the Midwest city, often referred as the Jewel of the Midwest...ha! Got it! I'm pretty sure no one does Midwest for this theme! 

It was a bit of a hectic day after that; they needed to be cleaned, primed, based and painted by midnight. 

And success!! 

So my entry is Dean O'Banion and Bugs Moran, the famous leaders of the North Side Gang, the Chicago Irish Mobsters and main rivals of Al Capone's Chicago outfit who fought in the 1920s and 1930s in what is now known as “The Bootleg Battle of the Marne.” 

Dean O'Banion and Bugs Moran

I went with classic Mobsters suits colours of Navy blue and "shiny" grey, and really i'm just happy I managed to not only finish them but making them look decent with very limited time. I won't win this challenge but I'm really proud I managed to sneak in this entry! They will be added to Laurie's Gangsters collection as I really have no gaming use for them.

60 extra points for the challenge (10 for the two figures, 50 for the Bonus round entry)