25mm Old Glory Medieval - Revolting Peasants - Part 3 - Archers and Crossbowmen

 The two feathered hat fellows and the two crossbowmen came in the Leaders, Agitators and Mad Monks set - the other bowmen came in the Looting and Pillaging set. There are quite a few throwing stones coming up, but these are the only strung ranged weapons in the lot. 

Obviously, a Robin Hood-inspired figure - I did one to go with and the other to be quite different.

Not much more to say other than I'm working on scythes, pitchforks and a bunch of women for Part 4. 

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25mm Old Glory Medieval - Revolting Peasants - Part 2: More Monks and Agitators

 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. 

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

I mentioned having to pile on the Vallejo - Diorama FX Thick Mud in the first entry. This stuff really tightens up enough to make the integral base stand out - a look I was trying to avoid. But, I found that adding more after the original curing time was completed proved to be a seamless and satisfactory remedy. 

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.

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858

25mm Old Glory Medieval - Revolting Peasants - Part 1 - Monks

 I've had these for years to be victims of evil dwarves, greenskins, undead, or whatever; I had previously written off Medievals in this scale. However, the new Barons' War stuff has really captured my attention. I've all the packs from Wargames Atlantic, many from Victrix, and a representative amount from the official Barons' War line in metal, sculpted by Paul Hicks. While I await the new King John's Sourcebook, I elected to take on another long-term project I may never finish. Five bags, roughly 30 figures each, of armed peasants filled with the requisite amount of ressentiment, defining a project quite appropriate for our current age. 

And as with everything else, I thought I could whip these out quick - not a lot of gear, hardly any straps, extra weapons, etc. But they took longer than I thought, as usual. I really am incorrigible. Nonetheless, where I could, I've snuck away to begin prepping the rest of the roughly 150 figures in this collection. The first pack: Leaders, Agitators, and Mad Monks is primed, zenithaled, and in progress on the desk, crowding out a large unit of Warlord Napoleonic British. 

I thought I'd divide the 12 monks into two groups - this is the first half, being a kind of generic, but common order found in England during this period. I was going to paint the other six as either Jesuits in black robes or maybe even Franciscans, but despite them all being "monks," they seem to be of different orders. If they are to practice tonsure, shouldn't they all be this way? What about the culty-looking chap with the processional cross? I think I'll do the others in the most appropriate colors for the sculpt. Some clearly seem to be of the Dark Ages, whereas others seem more suited to the 14th and 15th centuries. You'll see more of this as the project unfolds. 

The other thing: to give myself some flexibility, I'll be doing these in the 3, 2, 1 basing style. All basic sculpts that are ones of a kind will get individual bases. If there are variants of a basic sculpt, one will be done individually, and the rest will be paired off on a base with similarly acting miniatures. Finally, there will be some made up for three-man bases to make moving them around easier, plus they will be tightly arranged vignettes to represent a mob. The individual models can be used anywhere, even Baron's War, Pillage, or victims or a lynch mob in a medieval witch hunt game.

Here's how they began - black primed, then drybrushed with white. Doing 2-3 layers over black to get solid coverage is too time-consuming, but bringing the levels up in advance makes it much easier, plus I can better see all the haste-related irregularities common to all Old Glory sculpts. Irregular, but endearing, even charming! 

That's Dark Warm Flesh from Pro-Acryl for the skin. Lovely paint - one coat application mostly. Army Painter Fanatics still require a couple of coats, but they are far better than the originals. Tan for the cowls, grey for the robes.

Bootstrap for the shoes, leather, belts, and some of the hair. Ancient Stone was for the rope-style belts.

Pro-Acryl for the wood and weapons, Two Thin Coats Glistening Gold for the larger crosses - odds and ends for the rest it, the ham, rolls, necklaces, etc. Everything has a base coat of something.

I'm doing what I call "YouTube" painting - most of the non-competition painters on that platform do it this way: lay down the midrange base coats, then put a wash (colors vary, but they are always darker. Then bring back the original colors, leaving the darkness in the recesses. BUT my Army Painter Strong Tone has lost some moisture over the years. Further, it was kind of a mess to move around having a jelly-like consistency. I went with it anyway knowing I can fix it with subsequent steps.  

Here I've brought back the original colors on skin, cowls and robes. (Maybe hair?) I like the weird muddy effect it left behind (not just a rationalization) on the bottom third of the robes so I left it there and didn't paint over it. This also made it appear like the robes are not only dirty, but sodden too. 

The next steps were to just bring up the highlights on everything while leaving that bottom part of the robes alone. You can see I've uncharacteristically work away a lot of the primer along the base edges. And I have been poo-poohing using figure holders while I paint!

Finally, I finished the bases with Vallejo's Diorama FX Thick - Russian Mud. Every mini in this project will get this treatment to unify the collection. First time I tried it and it came out great. The peasants have to be revolting mud dwellers after all. Historians may disagree. 

The mud did shrink down a bit after drying, so note to self: pile it up! I also resisted putting any of this stuff on the miniatures themselves. It's quite dark, and I chickened out, though in the end, I don't think it needs it.

I put in a Wargames Atlantic Foot Knight in the mix so you can see how they compare size-wise. They are monstrous compared to modern miniature making, but I love them nonetheless. So don't get me wrong, I love putting together plastic mins, but Old Glory will always be my favorite in any number of projects, as this blog attests. Character matters.  

As always, thanks for looking - questions, comments and followers are welcome and encouraged! I'm doing more and more on Facebook so follow my page there too! https://www.facebook.com/One-of-My-Men-Became-Restless-100659928063858