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Author Topic: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - Update 09/06 - Monsieur de Tréville  (Read 25323 times)

Offline white knight

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What initially started out as a one time purchase (yeah, we all know how *that* works), grew over time into the start of a new collection. I will say in my defense that all of these were bought at discount prices, so there's that.  lol

Anyway, this project concerns the characters written by Alexandre Dumas and is, at present, based around the fabulous King & Country "Pike and Musket" range of figures, though occasional additions from other sources are likely to appear. For me, one of the main appeals of the K&C range is that the sculpting, while good, does not so much strive for intricate realistic detail as generally seen on high end 54mm models, but instead for infusing character to faces and details, much in the way that a well sculpted 28mm figure tends to have more character and soul than a realistically proportioned model of the same size.

Did I mention they are big? Nominally 60mm, they are in reality closer to 65mm, often not much shy of the 70mm top of hat mark. All in a nice hefty metal too. The paintjobs are good. They are only a three-shade painting style, but it works very well and they look great when viewed at the proper distance and pretty good when viewed up close.

It is also my intention to explore the possibility of using these figures for fun- and action packed skirmish gaming using the "...And all for one" rules you can download for free from the Eureka Miniatures site, which were introduced to me by Vikotnik and are an easy, quick to learn ruleset that allows for fastpaced minigames.

So far, I'm looking at 4 different factions from the K&C range: The King's Musketeers, The Cardinal and his Red Guard, The Witchfinder General and his lackeys, and The Duke of Buckingham and his bodyguards. The latter two should allow me to get double use out of some of the English figures. And of course some Noble and civilian characters. The Kronprinz TYW Spanish range looks appealing for a 5th faction but I'm worried the size will not be a good match. We'll see about that later.

Here are the figures I collected so far for the musketeers faction:



The titular characters:


Athos:


Porthos:


Aramis:


And the country boy, d'Artagnan:


And a generic musketeer because you need your redshirts for the game:



The musketeers need their king of course, so I also have a King Louis (actually it's a proxy using the ECW King Charles figure, but it works):


On the other side we have the Cardinal Richelieu and his Red Guard. The Red Guard are to the Cardinal what the Musketeers are to the King. Despite their political allegiance, they are all soldiers of France. Their numbers count both honourable men as ruthless rogues and killers. This is how far I got, with one more red guard model on the way:



The Cardinal Richelieu (great figure):


The count of Rochefort (my pictures don't do justice to the nice shading on him, he's one of the best figures I own):


Red Guard with musket:


Red Guard with sword (dueling, he's part of a set with the musketeer from earlier):


I've printed out a picture of some ruins on the work printer on an A3 sheet and another one of some grass to use as a backdrop for taking pictures. Works reasonably well.

Afternoon duel, under the watchful eyes of the King and Cardinal:


...turning into a sunset duel because these things take time:


Later updates in this project will show some paintjobs from yours truly as well.

« Last Edit: June 09, 2020, 05:46:44 PM by white knight »

Offline Will Bailie

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2017, 03:42:23 PM »
Fantastic!  I'm in awe  :o

Offline Marine0846

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2017, 04:23:12 PM »
The figures are really cool.
Love them.
Semper Fi, Mac

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2017, 04:51:56 PM »
Splendid  :)

I was thinking of doing a 28mm musketeers project at some point, great inspiration.

cheers

James
cheers

James

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Offline DintheDin

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2017, 05:08:21 PM »
Bright paintjob! Excellent face expressions!
They are a source of inspiration, for sure!
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. – Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Offline Inkpaduta

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2017, 05:09:01 PM »
Excellent job. Love the painting.
Good luck with the collection.

Offline Malamute

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2017, 05:34:08 PM »
Splendid  :)

I was thinking of doing a 28mm musketeers project at some point, great inspiration.

cheers

James

Yep. ;D
These are lovely and a great scale for a 1/1 skirmish game :)
"These creatures do not die like the bee after the first sting, but go on age after age, feeding on the blood of the living"  - Abraham Van Helsing

Offline white knight

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2017, 05:46:21 PM »
Thanks, they're pretty characterful figures. I should point out though, in case my initial post was not clear, that I didn't paint these, that's how they come straight out of the box:-*

I was thinking of doing a 28mm musketeers project at some point, great inspiration.

Me too, have all the unpainted lead and plastic: Brigade Games, TAG, Warlord Games, Foundry, Old Glory and assorted characters. Want to buy them?  lol

Offline white knight

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2017, 05:47:56 PM »
These are lovely and a great scale for a 1/1 skirmish game :)

Yes, I've made a start on some minor scenery pieces, but would like to do some buildings and some facades for the table end. I've been looking at the Petite Properties 1/24 stuff too as that works well sizewise.

Offline OSHIROmodels

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life!
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2017, 09:29:40 PM »
Want to buy them?  lol

Still thinking at the moment  lol

Although I did a google image search for 16th/17th century Paris  lol

cheers

James

Offline white knight

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - Update 22/07
« Reply #10 on: July 22, 2017, 11:32:59 AM »
The third faction makes use of some ECW models from the same range. During the chaos of wartorn Europe, the Witchfinder General was free to roam the English country side in his hunt for those who were rumoured to cavort with the devil. While not a part of Dumas' stories, it is only a small stretch to bring his emergence forward a decade or so and have him interact with the Louis XIV era France.

This may be a bit anticlimatic as I don't have the Witchfinder General model yet (though it is in the mail and I should receive it next week). I do have his second in command, the preacher.



The preacher is really a lovely character. His relaxed, yet menacing pose works really well in my opinion. My pictures don't do him justice as he has the best painted face in the collection.





The Captain of the witchfinders


Sergeant-at-arms


Witchfinder thugs:





These are part of an ECW duel set:



I'm still debating whether to split this group and assign the more colourful sergeant and the duelist with hat to the Duke of Buckingham's retinue and keep the Witchfinder set limited to figures wearing the buff coats for more cohesion. What do you think?

Offline joroas

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - update 22/07
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2017, 12:03:00 PM »
Strange how a company that has such high regard for detail has chosen to make ECW figures in those Victorian inspired rugby shirts?
'So do all who see such times. But that is not for us to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that we are given.'

Offline white knight

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - update 22/07
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2017, 12:03:56 PM »
I didn't notice that. Luckily I'm not going for historical accuracy but romanticised swashbuckling adventure. ;D

Offline joroas

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - update 22/07
« Reply #13 on: July 22, 2017, 12:13:54 PM »
Yes, that would work!  :D

I am certain that older black and white films perpetuated the idea.

Offline white knight

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Re: The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - update 22/07
« Reply #14 on: July 22, 2017, 01:58:55 PM »
Yes, like the 1921 Three Musketeers movie.


 

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