25mm Old Glory Medieval - Revolting Peasants - Part 10 - Project Complete!

 The final 24 Revolting Peasants from Old Glory! I don't think I'll have time to set up the entire mob just yet, but I wanted to get this up as its own entry. I started this in April and did little else but them and some odd terrain pieces here and there this year. 169 models done. I'll probably do the Rat Catcher from Mega Miniatures to make it an even 170. 

I did express wonderment at how many retinues I could have done had I not taken this big diversion, but these have so much utility for witch/werewolf hunts, goblin/orc fodder as well as for their intended medieval purposes. Zero regrets! 

The other thing I need to look closely at is if this exercise improved my painting at all with all the practice. I think it rather did. And I really do like the "YouTube" style of painting (base coat, dark wash, build up volumes from there). And yes, I know people have been doing that for years before. My heroes honestly are Steve Dean and Kevin Dallimore, who I think largely eschew the washes altogether, using pure layering resulting in clean delineated lines. So in effect, this was a kind of cheat, using an extra step for a uniform shade of Army Painter Strong Tone. Here, this gives them all a muddy undertone. 

Also, if it's not been explained before, I prime in black, then heavy drybrush in white - I use white ProAcryl Primer for this - before moving on to the base coats, then wash, etc. I also don't fiddle with eyes, which I nearly always do - even in 15mm if they are sculpted! Generally, I stuck to Army Painter Fanatic and ProAcryl for everything, no Contrast or Speed paints anywhere. 

Enough blather - on to the pics! 

These are the last of the armed peasants with a few from the leaders/agitators set - the two butchers and the white-bearded torchbearer. The torchbearer on the far right is from the Looters and Pillagers set. I put all the cool models onto single bases so the dregs get lumped in here where they don't stand out so prominently. 

These are the last from the Looters and Pillagers set. I armed as many as I could with conversions and add-ons in an earlier update, so these, apart from the odd belt knife, are wholly unarmed, right out of the bag, 

All together now!

Let's see how those Victrix bannermen fit in: 

Fine!

Some action shots

The last act of defiance from this crude royal family!

I'll do a new post with all of them together, though I'm not sure I can put together a whole farm just yet, but I did buy the Victrix animal sprues to help with that. I also have a lot of wattle fencing to paint up too. 

As for painting, though, I am moving on to tackling the 100ish Old Glory Voltiguers for the 1812 Retreat game. You've seen the battalion command, the company officers and NCOs, and the remnants of the adjacent 5th company, but not the largest group of all, the rank-and-file Voltiguers.  I've been putting it off for years, and the peasants' exercise has boosted my confidence and appreciation for just muscling through a big project.  

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 9 - The Mob

Here are more 2-figure bases and the beginning of the 3-figure bases. Their footprint shrinks quite a bit, being more densely packed. This brings the total up to 137 models done. Imagine how many knightly retinues I've forsaken for this!

The film, The Uprising -about the peasant revolt against King Richard II- seems to have gotten a lot of mixed reviews. I'll wait for streaming, but its release was a lovely coincidence for this project. I didn't even become aware of the film until I was well into it, but I'm sure it will provide more scenario fodder to consider. 

Incidentally, I quite knowingly painted these peasants in drab colors. There are accusations that The Uprising creators did the same in their costuming selections by accident. People love to bitch about how much cleanliness and color there was in medieval times. I've made room for that. But not for this project. Further, I intend to use these in fantasy settings as well. 

I followed the same formulas here as I've had with their predecessors, but added a few newer colors from ProAcryl - namely the Yellow Green, Camo Green and Gray Green as bases to work from. 

The Yellow Green, when first applied, is exactly the color of Kermit the Frog. Front row, far right, is one in that color. The tunic on the guy second from the left in the front (same body) also has the same color. I like it, but it may be brighter than I was hoping.

The first of the 3-figure bases

The Yellow Green can also be seen on the leggings and hood of the scytheman at far left. 

Just 32 left to do, and this project is complete! About 25 more Old Glory peasants, as well as some Victrix banner men and some other odds and ends. There are a lot more looting models in this final batch, but they still have their utility for any number of encounters. I do have a ton of Wargames Atlantic Knights mounted and on foot in the queue and the same sets from Victrix to build as well as some Dark Age stuff I'll repurpose for fantasy humans, but I'll likely be going back to Napoleonics after this. 

When it's done, I'll share some summary shots of all 170 models together for our mutual enjoyment.

After that, it's time to complete the 100+ figure Voltiguer company for the 1812 Russia game. They've been on the table for years, and I've dusted them off repeatedly, waiting for God knows what. The command, bits of the 5th company, and all the NCOs have been done for years; it's just time to get these guys over the finish line. But I do enjoy this bulk process where I don't have to make too many decisions and can just diligently and robotically apply colors. I suppose to many that sounds awful, but I'm looking forward to it.

My former Fresno group has already nearly finished this 1812 campaign and I'm a bit ashamed of how far ahead of me they are on it, and I've been fapping on about it for years.

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 8 - Spouses, Siblings and More

Here we move into using up the duplicates on multi-figure bases.

Many looked like husbands and wives or siblings, from the kids to a pair of bearded fellows. This makes not a whit of difference for any particular game but makes for some unique and interesting pairings, and could help with certain storytelling narratives. It's hard to imagine a game where I'll need all 160ish peasants at once, though now that I think about it ...

First is actually from Reaper Miniatures: Townsfolk XII Pillory & Kids. The kids were mixed in with the OG stone throwers where I had them stored out of the blister. When researching, I saw the man in the stocks went with it and that they were not throwing stones at all but tomatoes. I painted them red before recalling tomatoes didn't show up in Europe until the 1500s, so I threw some magenta contrast on there, making them plums. They were already tagged as revoting peasants in my storage system, so I'm folding them into this Old Glory project: 

The Vallejo Mud effect is till wet on all of these!

Another detour comes from Brite Minis and these 3D printed "Human Corpses." I picked them up at Historicon this year. The print layers are VERY apparent, marring any and all fine detail, and I won't get any more of them, but they were dirt cheap, and from a distance none will be the wiser: 

Finally - on to Old Glory: 

My goodness, how revolting these peasants are!!  Number three is stabbing at some horse droppings. I may need to highlight these a bit more as they blend in with the mud too well. 

These are the old Husbands and Wives

A pair of looters in the center - flanked by pairs of torch bearers. 

The lads on the right struck me as being brothers. 

Group shot!

Here's the whole update - 26 more figures. This brings the count up to a total of 115 rather appalling peasants completed. I'll do some master shots once the project is completed. I'm well past the midway point, but I'm adding bits and bobs here and there that I consider appropriate. 

Some of these would make good witch or monster hunters, and some could be witches themselves. In either case, I'm well set.

Two more updates to go - both comparable but with some peripheral figures from other brands mixed in, a pair of beggars, some revolting royalty, and some carrying holy banners. 

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 7 - Looters and Stoners

 This is the last of the individual models. The rest are on bases of 2-3 models to make moving them around a bit easier. 

Each of these models was, apart from a knife, entirely unarmed.

There are only five different bodies here. OG adds different heads in different positions, and I added the sheathed weapons, shields, and spears. 

I don't have a single bits box, but here I drew from some old fantasy parts as well as some plastic scabbarded swords I snipped off the Perry and Wargames Atlantic sprues I had left over. 

For spears, I used the ol' broom bristles method - super durable, but with just the slightest give. The round shields I got from Foundry at the long gone D&J Hobby near San Jose and the kite shields are Wargames Atlantic leftovers. 

More added shields, spears and swords

This time, and going forward, I've had to add some DAP, Ready Mixed Concrete to build up the ground to the lip of the integrated base. It does add another step, but it takes away the step of having to add second and third layers of the expensive Vallejo Mud basing product. 

Not as versatile as plastic kits, but between Old Glory and I, I'm able to get three quite different models out of the same base body. 

Old Glory very clearly labels these as suitable for Dark Ages through the Early Renaissance, so I've just had to come to terms with that and added round shields, kite shields, and a buckler all together. Odd for strictly historical games, but perfectly fine for orc or goblin victims. 

I can't abide these guys carrying nothing but a pair of stones. Here's where you can see the obvious spear as well as some short swords on the belts - three fairly unique (and armed) figures! 

A bodkin added here ...

... two swords added here. 

Sword and shield for the guy on the left, spears for the other two. 

A shield on one, spears for the others. I had to cut the stone out to give the middle one his spear.

The other half of this pack are carrying sticks, but I painted up every one of the stone throwers. 

Here's all the finished shields. I was going to lighten them back up again after the Strong Tone but thought they looked more revolting unretouched. 

Here's all the spearmen. On to the looters! 

Like the stoners, I didn't want a lot of unarmed miniatures around, so I added more swords, shields, and spears for those who needed something.  

This is one of each of the looting bodies. They all have duplicates with different heads.

All together now! This brings the count up to 89 of around 150 models - well over halfway done.  

Here's the looters making off with their spoils

And here's the cowards that'd rather throw stones than engage in fisticuffs.

And some customary AI backdrop - this one from ChatGPT

... and this one from Gemini, exact same prompt but decidedly inferior. (They both use nano-banana.) Grok wanted me to pay, so I passed. 

Until this project is done, I'm not painting anything else except terrain as my off-ramp exception. Next up are the second batch of multifigure bases - you've seen the women and children already. Husbands and wives, children on their own, and then, brothers? Fathers and sons? A bunch of two-figure bases - back to farm instruments, some duplicates, and then the variations on minis you've seen before. 

And 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