Second batch of peasants finished - this time with the other half of the monks bringing the petulant orders up to 12. Also from the same set come just some of the agitators.
Old Glory's model is to make a few bodies, then change all the heads, and the direction they are looking (Hey, Steve!), so that you get effectively a totally different figure - an easy way to get a lot of variety. My plan is to try to get one of every type on its own base. The others will be added to the multi-figure bases. There are, what, 150 figures across all five bags? I don't want to move 150 individual models around, and you don't either.
And, as these were made when the pewter had more lead in them, they are quite heavy. I'm certain I could injure someone if I threw that monk with the ham at someone with any kind of force.
I'm going to focus on single models for the next couple of updates, then start doubling and tripling them up. As I stated in Part 1, these will all have the same identical mud bases from Vallejo effects. I will also eschew any colors outside of the earth tones for this project. I'll use more color for models from Foundry, Wargames Atlantic, Victrix, etc.
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| The first 6 are all from the same order - whatever that may be. These I wanted in colors more appropriate to their sculpted style. Thus, the three at left are Franciscans, the middle one looks a little cultish, so I put a black hood on him. He'd be a good derelict priest for a witch hunter warband. |
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| Second from right suggested a mad hermit do he gets a darker brown robe - he reminds me of Gene Hackman as the blind hermit in Young Frankenstein. The one at right has a really distorted face, so maybe he's survived syphilis or leprosy. A black robe, more typical of the Jesuits, matched his energy. |
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| The butcher (second from left) - inspired by Michael Berryman?) and the baker (at right) do not have alternate heads, so their "extras" will be on the multi-figure bases, as will the variants on the torch bearers and the bludgeon or great club guy. |
These are very odd figures as I begin exploring how to paint the various articles of clothing. I may have mentioned that some of these are definitely attired as for the Dark Ages, while others are clad in articles common centuries later, the hairstyles too. They could be regional variations as well as temporal variations. In early medieval Europe, beards were common and associated with masculinity and status, but by the high medieval period (roughly 12th–13th centuries), clean-shaven faces became fashionable, particularly among the nobility and knights. Surveying these models, I see there's an awful lot of scraggly long beards in this bunch.
Further, let's look at the bowl-cut figure 3 with the great club above. He's wearing a crenelated crest of clothing over his shoulders. This is part of what should be the liripipe - the long, trailing tail or tube attached to a hood (called a chaperon). The crenelated edge was part and parcel to it, not a separate piece. Yet, this figure does not have the chaperone or the rest of the liripipe!
I don't really care all that much, but I thought I'd mention that these models are inappropriate across several dimensions when combined into a single mob. I originally bought them to be victims of fantasy humanoid races anyway.
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| 1/5th of this range is dedicated to looting figures. However, these two rapey looking guys clutching their booty were in the agitator pack. There also seems to be an intention to give buyers a way to assemble a Robin Hood type force. Friar Tuck seems obvious from the monks, but also these horn blowers seem like scouts. In the next update are two archers who look suspiciously like Errol Flynn in his 1938 Robin Hood costume. |
To conclude, here are some in-the-wild shots:
Next up will be some missile troops and then a much larger set of women and farmers.
