Kilkenny Witch Trial Chess Set Part 2 : the White Pieces

The Complete Side

 The pawns

These pieces are intentionally nondescript. They represent the many supporters of Bishop Ledrede. 

The Rooks

The rooks are inspired by the round tower at St. Canice's Cathedral. 

The Knights

These represent the agents of the Bishop. 

The Bishops

Since the King on this side has to represent a Bishop, these were made to represent monks. Their design is inspired by the monks' tonsure

The Queen

I found this piece to be the hardest to design. I thought it should represent an ally or second-in-command of the bishop. I decided to carve a person wearing a generic 14th Century hat. The figure represents the children of Alice Kyteler who accused her of several crimes. 

The King

The mighty Bishop Ledrede himself. He was fanatical in his pursuit of Alice and her "witchcraft" 

A picture of the complete set:

Kilkenny Witch Trial Chess Set - the Black Pieces

Background 

In 1324, Kilkenny businesswoman Alice Kyteler was accused of witchcraft after several of her husbands mysteriously died. The local bishop, Richard Ledrede, believed that his diocese was full of heretics and sorcerers. He was determined to assert his authority over the region, and relentlessly pursued Kyteler. The case led to the execution of Petronilla de Meath, the first person in the British Isles to be burned at the stake for witchcraft. Alice Kyteler herself is believed to have escaped to Britain.

The case is among the most famous of stories from Medieval Ireland, and I have been interested in it from a young age. After a visit to Kilkenny's Medieval Museum last year (which I highly recommend!), I was inspired to design these chess pieces. I've spent this week carving the designs into wood. They are made of poplar stained with black. 

My design philosophy was to create a fairly abstract set of pieces. Since this is an event from many centuries ago, we have little idea about the appearances of the different figures in the story. Yet their personalities are clear from the accounts of the time. This inspired me to create simple pieces that illustrated the personalities involved.

I also thought that chess would be a good medium to depict the political struggle of the time. Much like chess, both sides sought to place their opponents' leader in an untenable position.

The Pieces

Here is the complete black side 

The Pawns

The pawns have two points on their tops. These could represent the pointed ears of a black cat or the horns of a demon. 

The Rooks

These represent Petronilla de Meath, Alice's servant. Both Alice and her son William escaped the Bishop's wrath, likely because of their wealth, while Petronilla was executed as a heretic. Several years later, the roof of St. Canice's Cathedral collapsed under its own weight, and some superstitions claim this was an act of revenge by Petronilla. 

I have depicted her wearing a round cap. She wears her hair in a plait. This piece was especially difficult to research, as there isn't much information on the dress of poor servants. 

The Knights

The knights are the most traditional pieces in this set in terms of design. I have sculpted them as horses. They represent the agents of Seneschal Arnold le Poer, who argued against Bishop Ledrede's prosecution of Alice. Le Poer even had Ledrede imprisoned, but nothing would stop him. 

The Bishops

Ledrede's witnesses claimed the devil had sent Alice Kyteler a Familiar in the form of a shadowy man named Robin Artison. He was said to also appear in the form of a black cat. 

The design of the bishops is very similar to the pawns. Again, the two points on Artison's head could represent horns or cat ears. 

The Queen

The "Queen" in this set is William Outlaw, Alice's son from her first marriage. He was accused of taking the riches of Alice's murdered husbands. Owing to his friendship with Arnold le Poer and his wealth, he escaped execution. He was instead ordered to perform penance and feed the poor. Outlaw also purchased a new lead roof for Canice's Cathedral as a display of repentance. 

He is depicted wearing a conical helmet in the Norman style. 

The King

The "King" of the black pieces is Alice Kyteler, a Kilkenny merchant of Flemish ancestry. She was married four times, and each of her husbands died of strange illnesses. This led to the Bishop's suspicion that she was a witch.

 Some historians believe she may really have poisoned her husbands, so that William could financially benefit. She escaped to England, and there is no further mention of her after the trial. 

In this set, Kyteler is depicted wearing a stereotypical "witch's hat". 

I'm still working on the white pieces, which will represent Bishop Ledrede and his followers. Hopefully I'll have them completed soon. 

"Chill Out" - The KLF Album Review

The KLF are notorious for their aggressive performance at the BRITs in 1992, burning a million pounds (while making a movie out of it) and subsequently all but disappearing. But there's a lot more to the duo than "art terrorism" and rave music.

In 1990, the two men (Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond) met at their studio and created one of the best ambient albums of all time in just one night. That album was "Chill Out".
Chill Out sounds as fresh today as when it was released. It's a concept album, depicting a nighttime journey across the US. Each piece segues into the next, and it's sometimes hard to tell where one ends and the next begins. This only serves to make the album all the more immersive.

The KLF's penchant for sampling is evident throughout the record. Ambient synths are interwoven with moaning slide guitars. Radio transmissions babble as cars zoom past. Elvis makes an appearance.  Everyone from Fleetwood Mac to 808 State are sampled, creating a fascinating collage of sounds. Who'd have thought Tuvan throat singing and sheep baa-ing would work musically?

I think "Chill Out" is an inaccurate title for this album. There is so much more to it than just calm sounds. "Chill Out" is in fact a very moving work of music.

I believe "Chill Out" is criminally underrated. This is perhaps owing to its availability, as The KLF infamously deleted their entire back catalogue. It's available on YouTube though.  https://youtu.be/5S_lktstwrs

"Chill Out" is an amazing album. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in ambient or experimental music. This of course means that it's not the most accessible, and I think most people wouldn't find it interesting, but if you enjoy ambient music, it's an absolute must.

Banners for my 6mm Goblin Army

My friends and I are big fans of DBA, and recently I've wanted to start playing Hordes of the Things (HOTT). I love greenskins so I ordered a Goblin Army from Baccus 6mm. Some of the figures have banner poles, which I find a lot of fun! Painting flags and banners can add a lot of character to an army, as well as provide an interesting challenge.
The banner poles are very thin, and I'm impressed that Baccus were able to cast them so thin. Some of them were broken when I got them, however. This wasn't really a problem. I replaced any broken spears or banner poles by taking a guitar string (a low E string works best), stripping the outer wrapping and supergluing it into the figure's hand. The result is very durable!
So, here's how I made the banners.

First of all, I decided how big I wanted my banners to be. Then I sketched them onto normal paper using a very sharp pencil, a ruler and a lot of patience. I drew two "halves" to each banner so that they can wrap around the poles. It was a lot of fun thinking up designs for the banners. I decided I wanted lots of pennants (long, triangular flags). The left hand design is inspired by old Games Workshop Orcs and Goblins, with "Bad Moons" and checkered patterns. The middle is the White Hand of Isengard from the Lord of the Rings. The right hand banner is a meteor or fireball shooting forward.

Once I was happy with the designs, I went over them with a black ballpoint pen. I left the ink to dry for a little while, just to be sure (sometimes it can take quite a while to dry fully). Then I coated the banners with acrylic matt varnish. This might seem a little bit odd, but it makes a nicer surface for painting and gives the paper strength.

At this point, it was time to paint the banners. There's not a lot to be said here, as each banner will be painted differently by different people. It took a lot of time and patience to get the banners right. It's very important to try to keep your hands as steady as possible. It can be hard to fix mistakes on images this small. Needless to say, a very small brush will save you a lot of stress!

This banner was especially fun to paint. I used watered down paint to try to transition smoothly between colours (as you can see, I didn't do a great job!). 

To attach the banners, I carefully cut them out with a small nail scissors. Then I folded them in the middle, and superglued them to the flagpole, as you can see in this picture.

Then I used some PVA glue to join the two halves of the banner together. This allows the banner to be shaped slightly, so that it appears to be blowing in the wind. 

And with that, the banners were done!

Tiananmen Square Build Part 2

So in the first post, I got most of the base and tank finished. Of course, the true subject of the model will be "Tank Man" himself. My plan originally was to buy a generic male figure in 1/72 scale. However, it's actually surprisingly difficult to get a figure suitable for the conversion with a reasonable level of detail at a reasonable price. Then I had a moment of madness!

In my collection of unpainted models I had some Napoleonic French in 1/72 scale. I found a drummer in a fairly neutral pose.

For some reason he doesn't have a head! The first thing to do was to cut off the drum and drumsticks with an X-Acto knife and a file.

I cut notches into the figure's shoulders, elbows and knees and bent them to get a "straighter" pose. I filled in the gaps with epoxy putty. Then I cut off the tassels and buttons on the figure's jacket. 

Next, I cut the head off another French infantryman with the X-Acto knife. I sawed off the shako helmet from his head. Then I glued the head onto the "drummer".

I sculpted Tank Man's satchel and shopping bags with Milliput. Since the head originally wore a shako, it was flat on top. I needed to sculpt hair onto the head.

And this is where it started going wrong! I was really unhappy with the detail on the figure's face. I painted washes and a lot of highlights onto the face, but I found it really difficult to bring out the facial features. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to bend his legs so that he would stand with his feet together (as in the original footage). I think my figure's pose looks a bit aggressive because of this, but it probably is the best I can manage. If I find a more suitable figure, I'll substitute it.

Using cheap PVA glue, I glued some felt to the underside of the base. I trimmed off the excess once it was dry.

Finally, I gave the tank a few coats of matt varnish (the oil paint was given a week to fully dry) and positioned everything on the base.

Here are some photos of the finished diorama!

This project was a lot of fun. I'm mostly happy with it but I'm a bit disappointed with how the Tank Man figure turned out. It's certainly encouraged me to build more dioramas, and I hope to do more of them in the future.

Tiananmen Square Diorama Part 1

My friend reminded me of how much I love this image, and being at a loose end this weekend I decided to try to build a diorama of it. This is a picture of "Tank Man", an unknown man who famously blocked tanks as they entered Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. In the famous footage, "Tank Man" stands in front of the oncoming tanks, stopping them in their tracks for several minutes before being pulled away by passers-by. His identity remains unknown, and many believe he is still alive. It's a powerful image.

I ordered this Trumpeter 1/72 scale Type 59 tank kit from the internet. I'm very impressed with the detail on the kit, and the parts were very well moulded, with minimal mould lines or flash.

The kit went together quite easily, but I needed to make a few additions to make the tank accurate to the photo. I added an aerial made from a guitar string ( a low E), and I removed the "wrapping" from it. In the photo, the gun atop the turret has a cloth covering it, and I made this using Milliput. I also sculpted the tank's spare tracks from Milliput. The main gun on the tank has some sort of "cover", so I took a small drinking straw and covered one end with putty. I painted the model with very thin acrylics over a white primer.

The base was quite simple. I used an MDF cake base (I think it was 8" square) and tore off the silver paper. I then covered it in pre-mixed filler. My idea was that the grains of powder in the filler would stimulate the road texture. I think it worked quite well! I then painted the base black and used a sponge to create a broken grey effect. I used masking tape to lay out the road markings. 

It didn't take much time or effort, but I'm happy with how the base turned out.

Once I was finished painting the camouflage on the tank, I gave it a coat of gloss varnish and applied the decals. Unfortunately the tank's "number" isn't visible in the original photo, so I just used the "308" decal that came with the kit. Once the decals were on, I gave them a few more coats of gloss varnish to seal and protect them.

Next, I moved on to weathering. For this, I decided to give oil paints a try. 

I mixed some black and brown oil paint together, and thinned them quite heavily. I wanted to make an "oily" appearance for streaks of grime down the sides of the tank. I painted the mixture onto the model roughly at first.

Doesn't look great right now. The next step was to soften and shape the streaks of oil using cotton buds once the paint had had some time to dry.

Now that looks better! I'm going to leave the model for at least a few days before I matt varnish it, because oil paint can take a long time to dry, even when thinned. 

The project is well on its way to completion, but there are still a few more problems, most notably representing Tank Man himself. I don't think a miniature of him is available in 1/72 scale. My plan is to take a generic figure of a man in a neutral pose and convert it to be Tank Man. 

Thank you for reading my first blog post! Hopefully there will be many more!