The Three Musketeers - Larger than Life! - Update 09/06 - Monsieur de Tréville

[joroas]

Some of the doublets had gold or silver trim, the Victorian artists chose to make all Parliamentary troops have hooped sleeves.

[white knight]

65mm civilian figures for the 17th century are hard to come by and so far, there is only one available in the King & Country Pike and Musket range. So one has to be creative and source other figures that have the right potential. In this case, I took a gamble. I knew the Lemax christmas figures had the right size and bulk to fit with the larger K&C models (because my mum has some), but could they be made to look like they fit in? The apple vendor looked like she was fairly period neutral and would work well in the 17th century for a first try.

A promotional picture of the donor figure. Mine wasn't as well painted...


Matching the K&C painting style closely enough to make it fit in was a bit of a challenge. I didn't succeed completely but I think it's close enough to use. The skintones I picked ended up being a bit more pink than the K&C figures, so I will amend the recipe on the next ones. I do worry that I made the colours a bit too drab in my attempt to make her look like someone from the poorer class. The apple vendor also gained a few years and became a tomato vendor instead.




"What... what did you do to me? I feel old..."

On the next pictures, the base was still unfinished as it still needed the above pictured changesto fit in with the K&C figures. :



Sizewise it's a very good fit as can be seen from her posing with young d'Artagnan here:


"Buy some tomatos, milord?"


"They look awfully ripe, good woman." - "All the better, in a few days time they'll be perfect for chucking at the cardinal's guards, milord." - "... I'll take ten."

And a quick side by side:

[joroas]

Excellent work and a pretty decent match!

[white knight]

The second one I took my hand to in my quest to find suitable figures, both in size and period feel to use as 17th century civilians, was another Lemax figure conversion, this time of their mother superior figure.


"I may be short, but I'm still feeling superior..."

This one had the right look and bulk, but was quite short. So I decided to snip off the sides of the base and extend her robes over the edge. Then it would be a simple matter of making a new base to add some height. Which brought us to this:



Once painting began, I noticed the casting on the figure was really rough (and my greenstuff work wasn't as smooth as it looked before priming), so in the end I'm not too happy with the result as it's a bit rougher than I'd like. Still, it's serviceable until I decide to try again with another copy of the figure and do a bit more prep time (a good sanding of the robes might have been a good idea).

I went with brownish robes. Both brown and black would work for the period, but I wanted to distance her from the original paint scheme, so she'd look like a proper figure in her own right. Here she is posing with the handsome Aramis:


"Oh my, that looks awfully sharp, my son."

Front, back and sides:



"What does a cardinal need to carry a sword for anyway?"

[swiftnick]

Lovely stuff but what a price they are.

[white knight]

Well, I've always bought mine at a 30% discount, which makes it more affordable. It needs time and patience of course and buying the ones that are available instead of the ones you want to have first.

Of course, the Lemax items on the other hand are dirt cheap by comparison.

[Mason]

Another lovely and unique project.
You certainly have a knack for coming up with something new and original.
 


Nice work on the two lasses that you converted and painted.
 

[joroas]

You have made them fit in well.

[majorsmith]

You must have deep pockets WK!

[white knight]

Or bad judgment.

[Malamute]

Great additions, they blend in very well.

[white knight]

They're not perfect, but they are a 10th of the cost of the other figures.

[white knight]

Another lovely and unique project.
You certainly have a knack for coming up with something new and original.
 

Thanks for the compliment.

[von Lucky]

Lovely painting in this thread. Great polishing of the civilians.

[white knight]

I've been looking at proper sized scenery items and have repurposed a few from the Lemax range that will look good in the royal garden.

First are these stone benches that look perfect for the King or Queen to take a rest and admire the scenery. This is how they come out of the box, I haven't gotten around to cleaning and painting them yet as I may get a few more and would paint them all in one sitting.


Another, more experimental purchase were the Lemax items seen below. A bird bath and some topiaries.



I did a test piece with one of the topiaries and it came out well, I think. I've since changed the stone colour of the pot slightly to fit in with the stonework on the bird bath (see pics below).

Before and after comparison:


Basically I painted over the snow with green paint, covered it in watered down pva glue and dipped that in a bag of coarse flock and let it sit overnight. Then just a matter of carefully brushing and shaking off most of the excess and let some thin glue dripple over it.

And a picture for size. I think they can make pretty useful scenic items and they really cost peanuts.


 
Finally, the bird bath. Promotional picture of the original item below, I should stress that they don't look like that in the stores. Casting flaws and shoddy painting (the birds were three dirty coloured blobs on mine) means they need a bit of TLC to get there.


False advertising at work...

After texturing the base to match the K&C figures and patching up any major casting flaws, I decided to ditch the unrealistic red, blue and yellow and try and give the birds a colourfull pattern that could be found in nature too.  After some googling, I ended up with this:



I may have overdone it a bit on the birds, as I'm not sure it works.

And for good measure (and indication of size, the King on a stroll in his garden (with a watchful musketeer in the back to keep an eye on him in case the pretty birds get angry)...



Lemax really never ceases to provide useful additions. Where most of the buildings are of a suitable size to use with 28mm figures, the Lemax figures and accessories are in a 60mm scale that is close to that of the 1/30 toy soldier manufacturers. Well done, tacky seasonal decorations manufacturer, well done.