Friday 27 September 2019

New Characters for Victorian London


Our latest 28mm sculpts, four new characters  for Victorian London:

Sheraton Howell a Consulting Detective, Dr James Whittle, John Chinaman and Edward “The Tug” Peters.

Read all about Sheraton Howell and his companion Dr Whittle in the ongoing short stories here on the Highgate Miniatures Blog.



Wednesday 25 September 2019

The Fox and Hounds - the chase concludes!

Janek Skorzany, the Vampire Master is fleeing through the semi deserted streets of Limehouse, with the Policemen of Hades Division and Professor DeSenzles  close on his tail trying to reach safety on the other side of town.




Trying to shake off his pursuers Skorzany charges into an alleyway, where Limehouse folk even at this late hour still ply their wares.




But the Scotland Yard detectives knowing the streets and back alleys of London far better than the Master move to intercept him.



Soon they are upon his heels and are close enough to fire their rifles at him time and again as he desperately tries to out run them.



Whilst the bullets do not kill the Vampire they serve to slow his ability to move at speed and he is forced to take shelter in a dark corner of the alley.




Caring little for his own safety Professor Desenzles seeing the Vampire weakened  seizes the opportunity and charges into hand to hand combat with The Master with only one thought to extinguish this foul creature!




But help for the Master is at hand, Lord Hardacre and Lord Luscombe have arrived and their henchmen charge forward to protect their Master.




A titantic struggle ensues, Rifles and pistols fire, cudgels crush and swords and knives cut through flesh! The Professor and the Master trade blows; claw and fang attack Stake and Cross!



The fighting is quick but very brutal. Professor Defenslez manages to drive his stake deep into The Vampire masters heart, but his triumph is short lived having seen the Masters body crumble to dust,  he is beaten to death by the masters enraged henchmen. The policemen are also overcome and many bodies litter this quiet corner of Limehouse.










EPILOGUE...

- Lord Hardacre and Lord Luscombe quickly disappear before more police arrive to contemplate what and how they will tell the Vampire Council about Janek Skorzany's demise.

- Professor Defenzles's friends recover his battered body and retreat to decide their future now that both Skorzany and Defenzles are dead.

- Detective Inspector Straker returns to Scotland Yard to inform his seniors that the Vampire threat to Limehouse has been eliminated.

THE END.


OR IS IT?

Who is this pale figure that lurks and watches from  the shadows?






A new power is rising in Limehouse....



TO BE CONTINUED!

 ;)











The Casebook of Sheraton Howell: Part V An Unusual Occurrence

I found myself at a coroner’s inquest early yesterday morning. There is nothing remotely unusual in such an event as it is a regular occurrence for a coroner. It was held in a rather splendid public house near Hyde Park, not a great distance from the location the victim was discovered in. I would not normally have covered this area, however, I was asked at a very late hour to step in for a colleague taken with sudden poor health. This is somewhat uncommon, but not unusual, despite the fact that the surgeon’s report was not made available until I arrived, giving one very little time to acquaint one’s self with the facts.

The scene was set for the inquest, with the body of the as yet unidentified girl laid out on a table in a side room, re-dressed in the garment she had been found in and covered until such times as the jurors were required to inspect the evidence. She had been found in the park, dressed only in night attire, with a deep and ugly cut across her throat. The girl was perhaps sixteen or seventeen with long dark hair and of slight build. Although her clothing (scant though it was) was of fine quality, her hands, feet and marks about her face suggested a life of hardship, pointing to a girl of little means.



I had mere moments to scan the body. The cause of death was attributed to that deep cut across the throat of the girl, surely made by a person of some strength and with a blade of no small size. Several aspects of the case stood out, however:

i) The laceration to the throat had also caught the neckline of the nightdress, yet little blood staining was evident on the material. I had confirmed with the coroner's officer that the garment was as found. The tear was clearly cut and not simply ripped.
ii) The girl had been found on her back in a park shrubbery and was cold to the touch on recovery. However a quick examination identified that little blood had pooled to those areas where blood would be expected to settle following death and the position of the body. Neither had the blood settled in a different position after death as a light pressure applied to various parts of the body confirmed.

To be continued:

Wednesday 18 September 2019

The Casebook of Sheraton Howell: Part IV A Transylvanian Count

While the coven would appear to be the primary grouping of the vampire, there are also cases of the vampire acting alone, often as outcasts from their coven, weakened by their expulsion, but also of powerful ancients, as in the case of Professor Van Helsing’s tale of one Count Dracula.

 This fellow appears to have been a being of extraordinary power hailing from the far reaches of Transylvania. Van Helsing and his band of the great and the good chased the foul creature from England, following him to his own land before extinguishing him at the very foot of his castle. In the time that has since passed, the professor has continued to seek out the vampire, discovering the existence of many more than his most disturbing nightmares could have conceived.

 It is his opinion that had Dracula sought out the vampires of the city and subjected them to his rule, then London may have been the heart of an entirely different ‘Empire’. In turn it appears that the ‘civilised’ vampires of London purposely kept their distance from this eastern barbarian, though there are those who may have welcomed him as overlord.

The legacy of Dracula’s journey to our shores has, however, been to show the vampires that mortal men and women have an unrivalled capacity to ignore and forget. Dracula’s failure has given new vigour to the covens’ attempts to grow their power and influence. I fear a new era of dominance of the undead has begun. God have mercy on all our souls.



Addendum: Following our most recent encounter with the fiends, I have heard amongst the whispers that Dracula somehow still clings to his existence and there are those who await his return. How this can be I know not, yet I fear it all the same.

Wednesday 11 September 2019

The Casebook of Sheraton Howell: Part III The Weakness and Organisation of the Creature

The Vampire is indeed a terrifying foe and it would be all too simple to concede defeat and accept their mastery.

Yet they also have their weaknesses. They are repelled by the trappings of God such as the cross and grievously harmed by the touch of holy water. The vampire cannot simply enter a dwelling either, for they must have permission from an occupant to do so, though with their ability to control the minds of others I fear that this may often be of little comfort. They are also only at their apex of their powers in the night, for their abilities largely desert them during the day where they must normally seek refuge in a coffin, tomb, or other such place where the sanctity it once held has been despoiled. However, dear reader, we do know that the creatures may still wander the streets in the daylight, and though they may be far weaker they remain deadly foes.
The vampire that Howell and your correspondent initially encountered was a newly created creature (I understand they refer to them as fledglings) and part of what the vampires refer to as a ‘coven’. This appears to be a group of vampires ruled (for they truly do rule in the manner of the nobility) by the most powerful and ancient of their number, supported by powerful acolytes they themselves have often spawned over the decades. They may also have a number of these fledglings, spawned by the master or perhaps a trusted acolyte, though I daresay a number of such creatures find their way onto the streets outside of the coven. Our work has also identified men and women not yet cursed by this unholy plague who serve the vampires in a parody of many of the great homes of the land. Perhaps they follow for the promise of immortality or perhaps they are kept in a state of permanent confoundment by the powers of their masters?

Friday 6 September 2019

New photos!

Some new pics of  our previous releases:
Doctors and Scholars
Gentlemen Adventurers 2
Fledglings 1





Wednesday 4 September 2019

The Casebook of Sheraton Howell: Part II The Wampyr

Howell is still indisposed, where, I know not, yet I am only mildly concerned as this is not an uncommon situation. This is what we currently know of the creatures that inhabit the night.

The Vampire (or Wampyr)
What appeared to be another missing person case involving a young society girl adrift in the alleyways of London led Howell and I to the shocking revelation that not only do many tales of folklore have at their heart a basis of truth, there are those which are wholly true.

I talk of the vampire, a creature I now know to be as real as you or I. As a doctor of medicine I would, before now, have ridiculed such notions, but that comfort is no longer afforded. The vampire is a being that does not live, but is not wholly dead. The word undead has been spoken in the quiet circles we now move in and I fear that it is an appropriate term. The vampire retains its youth and vigour through drinking the blood of its living victims. This appears to give them some form of immortality and they have the strength of many men and centuries of experience to draw from.

There are also stories of the vampire being able to change form to that of a wolf, dog or great bat. I myself have seen the latter. Some, it is said, can even take ethereal forms, drifting as a mist and able to slip through the smallest of spaces. They can also force their will upon others, perhaps through some form of hypnosis or suggestion. That this appears to work on wilder animals such as dogs and wolves confounds me.

The third release is here!

We are pleased to announce the release of the next packs of figures. These will be in the Oshiro Model Terrain web shop:

https://oshiromodels.wixsite.com/oshiromodelswebshop/highgateminiatures



Resourceful ladies.











Gypsies 1













Fledgling Vampires 2