Anno Domini 1666 - The Old World without the Warhammer

Johannes Faust was a German alchemist, astrologer and scientist from the German Renaissance. Oh, and magician. He was supposedly a magician. By the people of medieval europe he was often referred to a heretic and was rumoured to be a protestant. This colourful life gave rise to the folk legend of Faust, a man who made a deal with the Devil, who sent his servant Mephistopheles to serve Faust for 24 years in exchange for his soul. In the legend Faust is a successful scholar but is unsatisfied with his life and makes a deal with the devil under which he can experience all of life’s knowledge and pleasures. He uses the power given him by Mephistopheles to seduce a young woman named Gretchen who, upon giving birth to Faust’s illegitimate son drowns the child out of shame. She is tried and sentenced to death for murder, however she is saved by her innocence and is allowed to enter heaven. Faust, on the other hand has a different fate depending on who tells the story. The popular version has him being saved by God when the term of his pact with the Devil ends through the pleadings of Gretchen and is allowed into heaven. However in earlier tellings of the story, he is described as utterly corrupted and is carried off to hell by Satan. Whichever version you choose, the word “Faustian” came about to mean the sacrificing of ones values for personal gain. Faust is somewhat anachronistic in Anno Domini 1666, having been born in 1480. However the folk tale doesn’t really make any distinction as to time frame and, with this particular imagining of the man having actual magical powers, I think we can allow it as being based on the folk tale, not the historical figure.

After many, many months I can finally paint again. I had an ambition at the start of the year that I would paint the entirety of Anno Domini 1666. Then life happened. Work has absolutely exploded, I am currently try to undertake three roles at work (obviously, only getting one salary) and working away almost every week. I worked away 18 weeks straight between April and mid August, coming home Thursday night, leaving again early Monday or late Sunday every week. At weekends my daughter comes to stay with me and after she has gone home, it’s time to pack that suitcase for the week after. So there has been precious little time to paint. In March I also moved house meaning all my painting equipment was boxed up from February. And so now I am likely not even going to be able to paint a single faction of 7 miniatures before the end of the year, let alone the whole bloody lot.

But, as a little bit of a milestone, I only had two miniatures remaining from the Chamber of Curiosities set, which is one of the sets that really starts to give the game its weird history feel. I started painting Johannes Faust way back in July and I got him almost to the point of completion. I had a few hours painting on a Sunday afternoon but didn’t quite have the opportunity to complete him. But last week and this week I get to work from home and so I completed him at last! It was actually quite interesting painting Faust as blue isn’t a colour I often paint and have often found quite difficult, perhaps because of the sheer number of shades of blue out there compared to other colours like red. But I am quite pleased how this guy turned out (with the usual disclaimer that this is a PVC miniature and the detail isn’t very crisp)