Tlingit: northwest coast North America - Varang update p13

[Bowman]

Here is something to add to this project: I would need some Haida Warriors to flesh out the Pacific Northwest. From earliest times they were feared for their raiding up and down the coast. They even instigated full on naval battles using their beautifully painted war canoes. They were know to some as the Vikings of the North West Coast.

“ Those were stirring times, about a century ago, when the big Haida war canoes, each hollowed out of a single cedar tree and manned by fifty or sixty warriors, traded and raided up and down the coast from Sitka in the north to the delta of the Fraser River in the south. Each usually carried a shaman or medicine man to catch and destroy the souls of enemies before an impending battle; and the women who sometimes accompanied the warriors fought as savagely as their husbands.”

“ Even prehistorically, the Haida engaged in sea battles. They tied cedar bark ropes to heavy stone rings that were hurled to smash enemy canoes and that could quickly be retrieved for subsequent throws. A stone weighing 18 to 23 kg (40 to 50 pounds) could shatter the side of a dugout canoe and cause it to founder. Most tribes avoided sea battles with the Haida and tried to lure them ashore for a more equitable fight. The Tsimshian developed a signal-fire system to alert their villages on the Skeena River as soon as Haida invaders reached the mainland”

From The Canadian Museum of History website:

https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/havwa01e.html

[Raza Decon]

“ Even prehistorically, the Haida engaged in sea battles. They tied cedar bark ropes to heavy stone rings that were hurled to smash enemy canoes and that could quickly be retrieved for subsequent throws. A stone weighing 18 to 23 kg (40 to 50 pounds) could shatter the side of a dugout canoe and cause it to founder. Most tribes avoided sea battles with the Haida and tried to lure them ashore for a more equitable fight. The Tsimshian developed a signal-fire system to alert their villages on the Skeena River as soon as Haida invaders reached the mainland”

This is why i designed the Stone Thrower model for my PNW tribes line -



https://www.paymastergames.com/product-page/pacific-northwest-warrior-stone-thrower

[Bowman]

This is why i designed the Stone Thrower model for my PNW tribes line

The picture didn’t come up for me, but your link did. Excellent, and I will have to have a closer look at your miniatures. Thanks for the heads up.

[Ninefingers]

Thank you! The way to order is to send them a message.  Both times I have ordered, I’ve just specified how many figures I want and which types and he’s sent me a price and shipping costs.

Thanks! Will contact him soon.

[Munindk]

Fireforge games have some medieval steppe warriors and russians that might serve, at least as bases for conversions:

https://fireforge-games.com/mongol-horde/16-steppe-warriors.html You can probably buy single sprues of these on ebay.

https://fireforge-games.com/medieval-russians/286-city-militia-with-spears.html

[Raza Decon]

Personal Update - Sculpting

Day 1

As a old Warhammer Fantasy Battle player from the old days of the gaming hobby. I started playing with 5th edition, and back then it was not uncommon to have large portions of your army that you had to build your self, since the model did not exist. not only that it was not uncommon to have miscasts and gaps in the old metal models. So I have been using green stuff to fill the gaps, and build body parts to finish the conversions i was working on.

When my wife picked up a new hobby (dying yarn) and started doing really well with it. I wanted to try something i have not tried before. So i wanted to play around with sculpting a full model. I already had two full sets of sculpting tools. So i went to Green Stuff World (http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/), and got some Green Stuff, some new tools, wires and rods. My wife found some 28mm armatures in my office that i got some time ago for reasons i no longer remember.

So this is what i am doing. I found a old wood block image of a Nootka Chieftain, Cunnyha. The image looked great for a first attempt.

So i took a armature and started fleshing it out. So here is the first couple of hours. What do you think? Good Start?

[juergen c. olk]

good luck.

[Ninefingers]

Ordered mine last month, but they have been languishing in customs for nearly four weeks!

[cuprum]

Not necessary. Nowadays, many postal items go without intermediate marks. In connection with the pandemic, the postal services have been disrupted and are now gradually returning to normal.

[Mason]

What a cracking idea!
Great painting on some wonderful figures.
 

Also, you can count me as another seriously intrigued with this genre, having no previous knowledge whatsoever.
I shall be popping back later when I have time to properly look into all these links, references etc.

It has been a while since I found a project so 'original' (to me, anyway).
Thank you very much for starting this thread.
 

[WillPhillips]

This has been such an inspirational and impressive read. I'm looking forward to following along from here!

[James Morris]

What a cracking idea!
Great painting on some wonderful figures.
 

Also, you can count me as another seriously intrigued with this genre, having no previous knowledge whatsoever.
I shall be popping back later when I have time to properly look into all these links, references etc.

It has been a while since I found a project so 'original' (to me, anyway).
Thank you very much for starting this thread.
 

Cheers!   I’m taking a break from these right now (although I have based up 130 conifers to start the Canadian forest off...). I will post as soon as I have more under way.

[Atheling]

Cheers!   I’m taking a break from these right now (although I have based up 130 conifers to start the Canadian forest off...). I will post as soon as I have more under way.

Good news that the project is continuing. It's one of the most interesting I've encountered in all my years of pushing lead around. 

[James Morris]

After a few months off, I’m back on project Tlingit.  Been working on some tribesmen allied to the Russians (Varang Miniatures unarmoured Tlingit with some head swaps) and some trial Russians (Galloping Major and Kings Mountain Minis with some conversion work). Varang are apparently working on Russians and Aleuts, but they won’t be available for a while and I’m keen to do some gaming with these guys before Christmas. I also discovered that Victrix Viking heads in furry hats do the job nicely for 18th century Russian fur hunters! Big thanks to Lance at Galloping Major who has been helping me out with advice and samples.

Also been doing some background reading on the Russians in Alaska - many shades of the rough end of colonialism, that’s for sure. Some of it is hard reading.

The photo background is a download from Jon Hodgson’s Patreon site:
https://www.patreon.com/jonhodgsonmaps

[juergen c. olk]

Russians look perfect.