It may be summer here in the UK, but I’m already writing and editing articles for our December issue. We don’t exactly go for a Christmas theme in the magazine (partly because there are loads of holidays over this period; why focus on just one?) but it looks like we will have a scenario starring Santa this time. Mind you, it’s not exactly a celebration of the religious side of things; regular contributor Pete Brown has taken inspiration from the opening to the classic 1980s movie Scrooged and will pen a scenario based on the fake ‘film within a film’ called The Night the Reindeer Died. I’ve got to get started on this one early as I need to get a suitable board made as well as source figures to represent Santa, Mrs Claus, the machine gun-toting elves, and the attacking psychos. Most importantly, we’ll need a mini of Lee Majors, armed with a hefty minigun! This may require a specialist sculpt and although I’ve been learning to use Blender over the last year or so I’m not sure I’m quite up to the task! I’ve penned an article for our December issue too. Fitting into our Winter War theme, it looks at incredible Finnish marksman Simo Häyhä and his many takedowns against the Soviets. As well as examining the history, I’ve got some gaming suggestions that I hope will make snipers more fun in a winter environment. There will be a second part on snipers, hitting one of our 2025 issues, with a look at other ranged legends from history and how we can better represent them on the tabletop. Simo takes cover and searches out a new target. This figure will accompany the article as a new Giants in Miniature release! I’m gradually building up my Retinue for Ruckus in between Wi work. With such a low figure count I could probably rush my way through it with a couple of focused painting sessions and a box of Perry plastics, but I’d like each figure to look like a true individual. My first painting project well be a Ragged Staff Watchful Lord, shown below. He felt far too watchful and not anywhere near dangerous enough, so I added a cute little doggy from Warlord's Sláine - Beasts of The Forest pack. I’ll hopefully have the 12 figures needed finished before our December issue is on the shelves but with the rate I'm painting things at the moment I can't guarantee it!
