I believe I may have mentioned this matter here
before. I have already had some valuable advice from Clive, John C and others –
for which many thanks – and I have a short term plan which I shall say more
about in a moment, but I thought it might be a good move to air the topic more
widely, to see if anyone has some good ideas.
While reading about the ECW in Lancashire and other, similarly provincial parts of Up North, I have come to understand that a proportion of the infantry - especially Parliamentarian town guard and militia units, were often just citizens armed with anything they could get their hands on. Of course, there are no suitable figures available in 20mm (which serves me right, I guess), so I've been having a good think what I could use for such characters. The idea is that they should be compatible with my Les Higgins/Hinton Hunt armies – a size range that also includes SHQ and (some) Tumbling Dice things.
Irregular are too small, as are Niblet. Mainstream old-style 25mm such as Minifigs S-Range (and there are two very nice armed peasants in the range) are too big, as are Art Miniaturen and the forthcoming Falcata 30YW figures, and so are all 1/72 plastics, sadly – I was impressed by Dux Homunculorum’s clubmen converted from the Imex “Pilgrims” set. I am happy to consider figures from a different (though similar) period.
My present plan is to convert some Les Higgins ECW artillerymen, and maybe some Hinton Hunt artillerymen if I can find spares – give them the odd new hat, remove their artillery tools to give them open hands, animate them a bit and fit them with pole arms (bits of florists’ wire, plus any suitable axes and bits and pieces I can get). I probably need 2 or 3 units – I would go for normal ECW figures for the command, on the assumption that the leaders would be better dressed, so I would need about 60 suitable clubmen, preferably in a suitably disorganised mixture of poses (i.e. at least 3, for preference).
If I can make up some decent converted prototypes I can arrange to get some copies made, but this is all a bit of an unexpected challenge. I knew I was going to have to obtain some Scots at some point, but there are suitable figures by both Hinton Hunt and SHQ. If you are aware of any (21mm tall) 20mm ECW figures which I haven’t mentioned, or you have any good ideas on good donor figures for cunning conversions, I’d be very pleased to hear from you.
While reading about the ECW in Lancashire and other, similarly provincial parts of Up North, I have come to understand that a proportion of the infantry - especially Parliamentarian town guard and militia units, were often just citizens armed with anything they could get their hands on. Of course, there are no suitable figures available in 20mm (which serves me right, I guess), so I've been having a good think what I could use for such characters. The idea is that they should be compatible with my Les Higgins/Hinton Hunt armies – a size range that also includes SHQ and (some) Tumbling Dice things.
Irregular are too small, as are Niblet. Mainstream old-style 25mm such as Minifigs S-Range (and there are two very nice armed peasants in the range) are too big, as are Art Miniaturen and the forthcoming Falcata 30YW figures, and so are all 1/72 plastics, sadly – I was impressed by Dux Homunculorum’s clubmen converted from the Imex “Pilgrims” set. I am happy to consider figures from a different (though similar) period.
My present plan is to convert some Les Higgins ECW artillerymen, and maybe some Hinton Hunt artillerymen if I can find spares – give them the odd new hat, remove their artillery tools to give them open hands, animate them a bit and fit them with pole arms (bits of florists’ wire, plus any suitable axes and bits and pieces I can get). I probably need 2 or 3 units – I would go for normal ECW figures for the command, on the assumption that the leaders would be better dressed, so I would need about 60 suitable clubmen, preferably in a suitably disorganised mixture of poses (i.e. at least 3, for preference).
If I can make up some decent converted prototypes I can arrange to get some copies made, but this is all a bit of an unexpected challenge. I knew I was going to have to obtain some Scots at some point, but there are suitable figures by both Hinton Hunt and SHQ. If you are aware of any (21mm tall) 20mm ECW figures which I haven’t mentioned, or you have any good ideas on good donor figures for cunning conversions, I’d be very pleased to hear from you.
How about the Airfix Robin Hood set? They might be a bit large, but you can easily shave of plastic from the base and I recall some of the miniatures being rather small. Also the fighting poles could easily be replaced by pins simulating pikes or other farm implements (using the glue and paper technique: http://paulsbods.blogspot.be/2011/04/paper-halberds.html.
ReplyDeleteI'll have a rummage upstairs later and see what I can come up with.
Pjotr
Pjotr
That's a pretty good shout - I used to have a few guys from the Airfix Robin Hood set hiding in the ranks of my Airfix Ancient Britons when I had such an army. One of the guys with the two-handed sword had a green-and-white hooped shirt (because he was a "Celt", as in Glasgow Celtic) - we used to call this guy "Kenny Dalglish", in honour of a Celtic forward of the day. We didn't get out much in those days, as I recall.
DeleteI'll check the figures sizes.
Thanks - Tony
Tumbling Dice do some Militia pikemen and when I bought them I got an assortment of weapons - scythes, pitchforks etc. I've added a couple rustic-looking musketeers and one or two unarmoured pikemen for variety and ended up with a reasonable looking rabble. Don't know if that helps.
ReplyDeleteGary - that is extremely interesting - I must have missed those on the TD website. I'll have another look - many thanks - Tony
DeleteGary - I found the militia pikemen on the TD site but - as usual, since they have no pics - I don't know which figures are suitable. If you can be bothered, I'd be very grateful if you could email me through my blogger profile. Regards - Tony
DeleteHow about Plastic Pelisse? He's got a whole page of comparisons using your preferred Les Higgins with other mainly plastic makes. Might give you food for thought!
ReplyDeletehttp://plasticpelisse.blogspot.com.au/search/label/1601-1700%20Seventeenth%20Century
I've used artillery men as rabble. I'm quite surprised that they haven't been produced before.
ReplyDelete