Happy St. Patrick's Day 2020

My collection of 28mm painted Leprechauns and Irish Banshees

 

Leprechauns by Reaper (1,2 + 4)  and Warlord (3)

I have always had a fascination with Leprechauns, it likely started in the latter half of the 1960s when I was around 6 to 8 years old and saw a film featuring them at a Drive-in theater

The film was the Disney production Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) starring

Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, Sean Connery and Jimmy O'Dea and Directed by Robert
Stevenson.

I am not certain which drive-in theater it was I saw the movie, it  might have seen it at the Britannia drive-in theater or possibly the Aladdin drive-in or the Auto-Sky drive in theater. Ottawa used to have around six drive-in theaters but they had all been torn down by the late 1990s. The drive-in theaters often screened older films rather than first run films so it is not surprising Darby O'Gill and the Little People would have been screened at a drive in during the mid to late 1960s or even in to the early 1970s.

https://britanniaottawa.wordpress.com/2017/01/29/britannia-drive-in-theatre/

The King of the Leprechauns from Darby O'Gill and the Little People and an inspiration for painting 28mm Leprechauns:

King Brian, King of the Leprechauns

Close up of my Reaper Leprechaun with 
a whiskey bottle 

Some more group shots.

Four Leprechauns 3 by Reaper and 1 by Warlord

The four Leprechauns with a more rural backdrop

Below is an image of the lone Warlord Leprechaun I have in the group of four, this image is from  publicity shot from Warlord Games. He is painted as a Polish Leprechaun!

 Marty McGuinness the Leprechaun Banker by 
Warlord, painted by Andres Amian Fernandez

I  opted for red hair and beard on my figure as that is more Irish.  Also I was not entirely sold on the white gloves as that just seemed rather too eye catching for a creature that likes to remain inconspicuous, so I had mine painted with grey gloves.  That being said I am having second thoughts as the grey does not seem very complimentary and does not fit in with the other Leprechaun who are not wearing gloves.  I am thinking about repainting the gloves white, leather brown or yellow.

My Warlord Leprechaun with his pot of gold 
wearing grey gloves

 Somehow those grey gloves / hands remind me of ghoul flesh.

Gripping Beast's Grendel the Ghoul

 

 Update - Warlord Leprechaun Banker's gloves

The solution became obvious - no gloves. Searching through many images of Leprechauns almost none were wearing gloves,  Where I did find images of Leprechauns  wearing gloves were pictures of theatrical costumes mainly worn in St. Patrick's Day parades, and in these cases the gloves were mainly white, one was in grey.   The cool weather in Toronto, Illinois and Michigan in March might have has something to do with the choice of wearing gloves. However these parade images  are more of a parody.

Leprechaun costume 
with white gloves

St. Patrick's Day parade in Chicago Il. - White gloves

 St. Patrick's Day  Parade in Michigan - Grey gloves

What about popular TV programs?

Leprechaun from Bewitched,
 no gloves

Another Leprechaun from 
Bewitched, no gloves

From the film Leprechaun (1993)

Evil looking Leprechaun, no gloves

Older images from the 1800s:

Leprechaun in an 
advertisement circa  1892.

An interesting link on the depiction of Leprechauns:

https://www.countryliving.com/life/a30612495/are-leprechauns-real/

Discounting parade pictures the vast majority had no gloves.  Not even the king of the Leprechauns wears gloves:

King Brian, see no gloves!

There was nothing I can see in the casting that says the Leprechaun bankers is necessarily wearing gloves, so I repainted his hands in flesh tone and I am much more satisfied with the resulting appearance.

Leprechaun Banker in Field 
no gloves

.

Leprechaun Banker no gloves

 

Moving on to Banshees

Inspiration for an Irish Banshee from the film
Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959)

That was a pretty scary ghost / banshee, at least to a child of 6 to 8 years old!

Two of my Banshees by Reaper and a Ghosts by GW

Reaper Ghost Sculpted by Julie Guthrie, 
painted by Reaper staff in florescent green

Reaper Labella DeMornay, Banshee

As you can see the above Reaper Banshee figure is made out of Bones translucent florescent green to create a ghostly effect.  But unfortunately unpainted you can't see any detail.  Apparently if you use inks and paint thinned with acrylic medium you can bring out the detail without losing the translucent effect and get the above to look like the figure below followed by the link.

Labella DeMornay Banshee 
painted by Thes Hunter

https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/51507-77096-labella-demornay-banshee/

I was planning to use my Leprechauns and possibly banshees as part of a Lords of the Wild warband (with some Wood Elves) in a SAGA AoM game to be held near the date of St. Patrick's day 2020. However the Covid-19 virus put an end to those plans.

Using the Leprechauns in a Pulp Alley game is another option in the future. Here is a stats card I created..

Ally: Shamus (Leprechaun)
Brawl     3 d 6
Shoot     ***
Dodge     2 d 6
Might      2 d 6
Finesse   1 d 6
Cunning  1 d 6
Beast: Can’t perform any actions. Select 2 abilities, applied
Speedy: May run up to 16” instead of 12”, over 6” = running
Animal: Applied to Skills
Magic Bottle kit: Once per turn add might dice to brawl dice for brawl combat.