Wednesday 16 September 2015

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys!



The only nuts these chaps are interested in are the ones holding their rather splendid Fez hats on!  On the face of it the idea of a set of 28mm clockwork chimps sounds, and is, ridiculous and yet from the moment that I saw them I knew that I had to have them!  Falling for another Kickstarter campaign, I was happy to pledge for a couple of packs of steampunk monkeys*, not least because the company behind them, 'Westfalia Miniatures', is synonymous with quality.**
*One pack with guns, one with blades.


During the  course of the challenge, I had cause to contact Kawe of Westfalia to redeem a very generous gift voucher for coming out on top in the ‘Myth’ bonus round.  I was hoping to add this to my current pledge, putting it towards a Clocktopus.***  Being a splendid fellow Kawe suggested that this was no problem at all and added that he was happy to dispatch my pledge of chimps early as they had just safely passed quality control.  A couple of days later, ten mischievous monkeys and a zoologist landed on the mat here at ‘Awdry Towers’.   
***Best not to ask!



How they managed to achieve such clean casting on these amazingly detailed sculpts is beyond me, but they really were a joy to assemble and paint.  On the subject of painting, I found it difficult to dislodge Kawe's original choice of colours from an earlier post and went for a sympathetic brass colour.  I was delighted to discover that Vallejo do a metallic range suitable for the airbrush and so was able to achieve a lovely smooth finish with the first couple of coats.  All that remained was to pick out details with washes and a copper colour, not forgetting the splendid red Fezes. 


Their use or purpose may still elude me, but I can safely say that I am absolutely thrilled to have them in the collection, bringing, as they do, some much need levity, that and they are so wonderfully shiny!



85 comments:

  1. They are so cute! Beautiful, great sculpts and paint job...love their hat, nice detail!

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    1. Thank you Phil, they are amazing sculpts, really beautifully cast.

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  2. Good stuff! It's nice every once in awhile to buy and paint up something just for the fun of it. Perhaps just to sit there and be fun to look at. If one is having a bad day how could you not glance at these and not have a smile creep back onto your face? :-)

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    1. Thank you Jason, my problem is that it is often more than once in a while that I am distracted!

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  3. Very original and funny, great job!

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  4. Wonderful stuff Michael. What a fantastic little force which would grace any sci-fi fantasy tabletop. I'm rather sorry I missed the KS for these cuties. Terrific posting :-)

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    1. Thank you Simon, really pleased to have got my hands on these, so much fun.

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  5. Perfect work on them Sir, really looking forward to the Clocktopus LOL

    Ian

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    1. Thank you Ian, the clocktopus looks amazing, so many pieces that I well have to save for this year's challenge.

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  6. Crackers! But very well painted my good man!

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  7. Lovely figures and lovely painting Lord Michael :)

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  8. Lovely paint job! Perfect minions for some evil Victorian mastermind...

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    1. Absolutely Gordon, just don't forget to wind them up!

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  9. Of all the figure I have seen these creep me out! Which is testament to how well they are painted! You Git!

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    1. Thank you and sorry! That made me chuckle though.

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  10. These and their flying compatriots from Reaper are somewhere on my "to-Do" list for the mechanickal menace of Herr Doktor Professor Otto Maton.

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  11. Not seen these before, Michael, but I think we both know that I am prone to impulsive behaviour regarding miniatures, so fully understand the reason these had to be yours! Beautifully painted, as usual. Could they possibly be used as minions of the Toyman, suitably statted up for the Batman Miniatures Game? Could be the start of a new "crew" for you...
    Regards Jez

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    1. Oh my what an idea! Now if I can just find some spare time...

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  12. These look straight up ready for any scenario that needs some chaos interjected. I had the great pleasure of meeting Kawe at Salute this year and did a swap- some monkeys for some of my wooden soldiers. Like you said they are beautiful sculpts and clean casts. Looking forward to building up more.
    Cheers
    Ths

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    1. I couldn't agree more, the quality is just superb. I had no idea that you were at Salute, it would have been lovely to have said hello.

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  13. Splendid chaps, classic bodyguards for a mad English explorer or Ray!

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    1. Or for The Great Roboticus, Most High Ruler of the Brass Monkey Mountains.

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    2. I couldn't agree more Fran and great name Jay!

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  14. Very nice! A rules system like IHMN allows the player to create stats for anything they can think of (or have miniatures for). I don't know how many other rules systems offer such flexibility, but those Victorian Sci-Fi rules do.

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    1. These could be such a blast for IHMN, thinking caps on.

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  15. Those minis brought a smile to my face - excellent Michael

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  16. Crazy, funny, brilliant!
    They need some with winged now, just to top it all off :-)

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    1. Thank you Paul and yes some airborne brass monkeys would be superb!

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  17. Marvellous job mate they look excellent.

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  18. Sublime!

    I wonder if my Rogue Trader Jokaero would make robots of themselves????????

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    1. Oh that is a brilliant idea. You're a lucky sod, to have some Jokaero.

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  19. Very cool, the red fezzes really make them stand out!

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  20. Lovely job on some lovely models!

    I got the chance to meet the chap from Westfalia miniatures at Salute, seemed like a thoroughly nice fellow!

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    1. Thank you and I couldn't agree more. All my dealings with Kawe have been absolutely first class so it was lovely to finally meet the man - very tall I seem to remember!

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  21. I haven't seen these before. They're really cool!! I can seeing them fitting into all sorts of humorous encounters.

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    1. The really are great fun and just fabulous to work on.

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  22. Well done! They are great little miniatures and the parts fit together much better than a lot of multi-part minis. They almost snap together they fit so well. And so cleanly cast, too, as you noted.
    I didn't get the clocktopus and have yet to assemble the crabs. But I did finish the simians as seen at my little erratic blog: http://talesofmirth.blogspot.com/2015/08/whats-more-fun-than-barrel-of-monkeys.html

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    1. I couldn't agree more the castings were sublime, they way they went together was amazing. Off to go and have a closer look at your blog, thank you for the link.

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  23. Absolutely splendid Sir Michael! Great looking shiny steampunk simian sidekicks.

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  24. Super nice painting and posing, Sir Awdry!

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  25. jajajajaa que monos y nunca mejor dicho
    que graciosas estas minis
    un saludo

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  26. Excellent polishing of that metal Michael! Bring on the Clocktopus!

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    1. Thank you Rodger, the clocktopus is definitely getting close.

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  27. Nice work and for sure full of character!

    Christopher

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  28. Those Vallejo metallics certainly are up to the job - lovely finish on those little chaps!

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    1. Thank you Evan, great coverage with the paint, which made everything else rather straightforward.

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  29. Oh my, those are super cool, Michael! I even started to hear the Beasties Boys' "Brass Monkey"!

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    1. Thank you Dean and Beastie Boys, that takes me back!

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  30. Blimey, those are nice! Thoroughly quirky and cute. I'm sure you'll find a niche for them somewhere on the gaming table.

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    1. Thank you A.J. I'm sure they will see the table top at some point, some great suggestions in the comments so plenty to think about.

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  31. An interesting review on those monkeys and a superb paintjob as always. Thanks for sharing those pics.

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    1. You are more that welcome Stefan and my thanks for the kind words.

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  32. Those really are some amazing minis! Extremely characterful stuff.

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    1. They certainly caught my imagination and the rest of the range is equally as wonderful.

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  33. Great job with the metallic's Michael.

    With each post your collection is growing more and more wonderfully bizarre.

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    1. Thank you Pat and you are not wrong, the whole collection seems to be spiralling out of control, but I love it!

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  34. Those are weird and wonderful! Great work on the metallics.

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  35. Excellent minis and painting. :)

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  36. Great job Michael on what is to me a very unique group of minis.

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    1. Thank you Sir, they are certainly a little out of the ordinary.

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  37. Clocktopus? Sorry. You did say it was best not to ask.

    Great job on the clockwork chimps, sir. Made me chuckle too.

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    1. I keep looking at the Clocktopus and think, that I really must have a go at assembling it, but so many parts!

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  38. These are some real corkers! Well done.

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  39. I have the cutlass wielding pack (I'm thinking of using them in In Her Majesty's Name with random movement to act as mobile dangerous objects in some way) and agree they are moulded without a hint of flash & paint up like a dream. And Kawe was an extremely nice chap to deal with - I missed the kickstarter but he arranged to sell me a pack direct before they were ready for commercial sale

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    1. Glad you liked them as well and I couldn't agree more about Kawe, such a great chap.

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