The Plan
I'm going to assemble a small set of swashbuckling miniatures for skirmishing and roleplaying. I've decided to primarily use Boreder Reiver miniatures from Hoka Hey Wargaming as I like the style of their sculptor, Jim Bowen, and the Elizabethan/Tudor look is different from the more usual 'musketeer' ranges. I'll be adding to this core set of miniatures with existing civilian models from my Pirates project and my fantasy collection. The Miniatures
I started with a set of personalities with matching mounted versions (which I'd originally purchased to be a lost tribe of Conquistadores for my Pirates RPG), a set of Irish including a pair of monks, bishop both mounted and foot versions and a group of pikemen. Once these were underway i also bought a group of civilians and a set of men with calivers for some firepower. A word on quality. To be frank, the molding on these miniatures is pretty bad. Many have holes in them leading to large interior cavities and several have mis-cast weapons and/or extremities. I decided to proceed regardless, filling and replacing and ignoring where necessary. Their style won out over the quality issues. I also bought some geese from Warbases.
As 2019 draws to an end I've managed to complete my original collection of miniatures for this project except for the mounted ones which I've pt to one side to think about as I'm not 100% happy with them and they were slowing me down as I was spending too much time considering how to aproach them.
As a consolation though, I've painted four Reaper miniatures that I hope will be the player characters. I'm going to be using several existing miniatures for this project, particularly civilian miniatures from my fantasy and Pirates collection, but I want to showcase these two in particular as they're more characterful.
A Reaper adventurer and a Games Workshop duelist that I painted to be Luther Arkwright. Landsknechts
I've always wanted to have a force of Landsknechts and this is a perfect project for them to be added to. I went on to eBay and bought a small selection of old metal and new plastic Games Workshop Empire troops; four gunners, four spearmen, four zweihanders and a (rather costly) commander. I decided to split these into two groups of six, each with a distinctive colour scheme, and have the leader painted in a mixture of both schemes. Here are the first set, the blue and yellow group.. Here are the red and whites with the leader wearing the colours of both groups.
I've painted my two Hovels churches. They need to be based.
Here they are based and ready to go.
The cavalry.
All based and ready to go.
The first of my Games Workshop religious zealots. More of these to come later.
Returning to the Border Reivers I bought another set because they had interesting poses. Sadly, it transpires that these are not sculpted by Jim Bowen (although there are parts of his work in them) and the overall quality is pretty poor. They suffered from the usual holes and miscast weapons that I've come to expect from this range now as well.
I also bought a selection of ECW miniatures from Hoka Hey. These are Jim Bowen miniatures, which is good, and suffer the expected casting imperfections, which is bad. Once again, I persevered and daubed them with colour.
The excellent flag being waved by the member of the command group is from Adolfo Ramos.
Back to the Landsknechts with a gun and crew.
A set of 3D printed resin witches for my witchfinders to...find.
My next set of sealots.
A new addition to my first set of zealots.
Skeletons from Skull and Crown based on paintings by Pieter Bruegel.
Two more groups of Landsknechts, all Games Workshop miniatures. The yellow,red and black shooty set are getting a leader in the near future.
Here are the shooting group with their leader.
An Ian Weekley Italian keep.
A collection of Reaper civilians.
A pair of Sarissa Precision gypsy caravans.
With added Reaper dancing girls and madam and a Lucid Eye Witchfinder keeping an eye on them.
The Lucid Eye Witchfinder.
A second Lucid Eye Witchfinder.
I'm moving this project towards a more Renaissance fantasy setting than I originally intended. Here are some Riders of the Apocalypse from Reaper Miniatures.
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Project Log
This is a list of the miniatures and scenery I've bought for this project and an updated list of what's been painted/built so far. Running total (167) *Painted (167) Unpainted (0) Landsknechts (33) *Artillery piece and commander and four crew (6) *Standard-bearer, three great swords, two drummers (6) *Four hand gunners, two crossbows (6) *Leader (1) *Leader (1) *Six blue and yellows, six red and whites and a commander (13) Civilians (44) *Religious zealots (4) *Religious zealots (7) *Border reiver civilian set (6) *Mounted and dismounted bishop (2) *Three geese (3) *Gypsy wagons (2) *Civilians (17) *Joules the Jongleur (1) ECW (17) *Six muskets (6) *Six pikes (6) *Five command (5) Adventures and personalities (12) *Existing characters *Adventurers (6) *Witch (1) *Warped witches (4) *Witch Hunter (1) Border reivers (36) *Six Irish, six pikes, six calivers (18) *Six mounted reivers and six dismounted (12) *Six bandits (6) Elizabethans (12) *Swashbucklers (12) Buildings (3) *Existing buildings *Church (2) *Italian tower (1) Undead (12) *12 Skeletons (12) Scenery
Scenery is mainly going to be my fantasy/medieval buildings with a few specific new pieces. The first of the new pieces is the brilliant church from Hovels, available in a standard version and a ruined one. The standard version is only £15.00 which is a real bargain. A more traditional witch from Reaper.
An old piece of railway scenery which I've had for 55 years. I added texture to its plain wooden base so it fits in with the rest of my stuff.
Some Foundry Elizabethans. Lovely large miniatures.
I've decided the Fae and the Sidhe will both be features of this world. These are some old Grenadier Dark Elves that I'm using as Fae warriors. I got these from Forlorn Hope Games.
Some Foundry cherubs and Ukko.
Medieval rabbits hunting monks from Skull and Crown.
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