Saturday, January 21, 2012

15mm Minifigs Pirates Part 1

Captain sculpt 1 of 4 - these were part of a Limeys & Slimeys set and I don't recall how they were labeled were you to try and buy some for yourself. I swear it was a blister labeled "pirate crew" in with the ship but I can't recall.

The pirate game I'm building includes all the 15mm pirates I've ever seen: Peter Pig, Eureka, Museum, and now Blue Moon. I started with the Minifigs ones and this whole lot were painted over 15 years ago. I later found I had 36 more armed with long arms I missed that are coming up soon.
Captain sculpts 2-3 of 4. The fourth carries a rifle across their stomach and is in progress and will be part of a second update mentioned above.
Female Pirates - I didn't seal any of these with a dull cote or anything but I damn well should and probably will when I finish the rest of the collection.
Sword and Dagger - these are all of the straight pirate sculpts from Minifigs except 3 - a captain with rifle, a guy firing a rifle, and another with a blunderbuss. All "on deck" and coming soon.

Sword and Pistol - I was going for a Caribbean sun tan on most of these but it's quite a bit darker than I would do today - in fact, all later pirates, of which these represent only a third of the collection, will have skin more traditionally applied (far less dark than seen here). One more layer of highlights would fix it all but I'm lazy.

Sword and Pistol #2 - note the spotted bandana at right ...

Sword and Pistol #3 - note the stripy hats ...

Boarding Pike- I wasn't ambitious enough to do eyes but I did bother doing the ticking on the trousers.

Sword and Pistol #4 - these aren't perfect sculpts but they got character as well as considerable nostalgia appeal. I'll always have a fondness for Minifigs.

This is my absolute favorite sculpt of nearly all the 15mm Pirates across all manufacturers - there's a particularly good Peter Pig one I like and then a few from Blue Moon that are up there but this is the best of the Minifigs I think. My favorite pose of all is guys firing pistols. Note spotty bandanas again. 

Gun Crew 1 of 4 - sandy beach bases or model a gun deck on all these? The former of course.

Gun Crew 2 of 4 - nowadays I endeavor to build up the steel base to that of the figures base to get a nice slope but that hadn't occurred to me at the time and now the sandy step is too apparent on a lot of these.

Gun Crew 3 of 4

Gun Crew 4 of 4 - the figure at left had a lit match that was long broken off and lost - an angry, and empty fist is what remains.

I wasn't in the habit of basing cannon in the old days but I've changed my mind of late. I probably will base these at some point. The other 4 are identically painted but it's unnecessary to show them here.
This is more of a nostalgia update instead of examples of current work. But on the workbench now is another set of 30 pirates near completion painted at my current skill level. (See them here: http://flashman14.blogspot.com/2015/11/15mm-minifigs-pirates-part-2.html)

I have a similar number of finished "government" or Royal Navy crews done for yet another update as well as more finished Peter Pig and Museum pirates to throw up. Stay tuned ...

Thanks all for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged!