Wednesday 10 February 2010

Iroquois (5)


These are more figures from a couple of years ago, which I realised I forgot to post at the time. They are Perry Miniatures "woodland indians"; lovely sculpts which are full of character. As I've noted before, I base indians on 25mm x 25mm squares, this being the standard skirmish frontage in the "British Grenadier!" rules. There's no reason why you can't base them in twos or threes on larger bases; I decided to go with single bases to give me some flexibility for skirmish games as well as larger AWI engagements. I have some 60 indian figures in total now, so an inter-tribal or F&IW skirmish game is viable.

I never used to worry about "indian flesh" being different to "white flesh"; it seems to me that in this scale and on the tabletop there's unlikely to be much variation in colour between the red man and the white man and much of the flesh will be covered by markings and war-paint anyway. I imagine that different tribes from different parts of America no doubt varied in colour anyway. That said, I've seen very effective techniques for native Americans, particularly Apache and the like. Foundry have recently released a "native American flesh" palette and this post is also a prequel to my next post, which will feature two Conquest Minatures figures painted using this new Foundry palette. In fact, I've been trying out the various new Foundry flesh colours over the past few days and I'll post what I think of them over the next week or so.

The von Mirbach musketeers are currently on hold, 5 figures from the end, because I realised I didn't have their flags and so had to place an order with GMB (which usually takes a couple of weeks to arrive). Taking their place are the new Perry figures for Lee's Legion, which I'm pleased to find are quick and easy to paint (once you've bitten the bullet and decided that it's ok to paint them in bright purple...). I'm also going to be painting some French infantry, which will be a bit of a departure for me in that I'm going to use a grey undercoat for the first time and may see what happens if I ditch "black-lining".

6 figures. Painted May 2007.




9 comments:

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Great looking work Giles.I want to pick up some of these myself.

Cheers
Christopher

Sire Godefroy said...

What I admire the most are the patterns you've managed to add to their clothing. I'm blundering even at basic geometric designs, so hats off to you, sir!

You're also right about the not-so-different flesh tones. Just out of personal taste (and irrationality), I've chosen a certain Hollywood-approach here.

Curious to hear what you think about the new Foundry triads. If you're fine with them, some shall be added to my collection soon as well.

Cheers
SG

RTB said...

Very nice Giles.

What wine do you recommend when painting native Americans? A gentle Pinot noir or a blunt and fruity Californian Zinfandel?

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

The extra time to detail the beadwork on the bags, belts and pouches really shows on these. Nicely done!

Andrew said...

Yes, I definitely like the beadwork patterns you added to the bags (can they be called bandolier bags if it's not owned by an Ojibwe?) I've been enjoying all your Indian photos. The war paint is so fun I don't know why more people don't game colonial America. I have my Brigade Games King Phillip's War Indians primed (haven't painted them yet)

Paulalba said...

I have no knowledge of the period but gorgeous looking figures. Really like your painting style.
Cheers
Paul

Doc Smith said...

The Indians look terrific Giles - like they just stepped out of 'Last of the Mohicans' and taking potshots at Daniel Day Lewis! (one of my favourite books AND movies BTW) I just finished reading 'Empire's Collide' by Wm Fowler Jr. - its an Osprey book on the French & Indian War of 1754-63. There are endless battles and skirmish possibilities to game - your beautiful figures have tempted me to collect yet another army or two!

Cheers,
Doc

Bob Courtney said...

I cannot for the life of me paint Indians! Good thing the great Howard Whitehouse lives close by to paint them for me!
I promise to get my 7th Foot posted shortly!
Great work again Giles!

Anonymous said...

Great looking Indians Giles and their making me pine for mine which I sold.

Can you drop me an email as I have some buildings you may be interested in.
Cheers Paul