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Author Topic: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI  (Read 23870 times)

Offline Gangleri

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 342
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #75 on: July 05, 2021, 04:08:10 AM »
"And in support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."

Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate.
Now what is this whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each one his part, until the manager waves them off the stage?

http://stokefield.blogspot.com/

http://wellrallyonceagain.blogspot.com/

Offline commissarmoody

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 8669
    • Moodys Adventures
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #76 on: July 05, 2021, 04:42:18 AM »
 Happy 4th and happy Sunday to are English cousins.
"And in support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor."

Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate.
"Peace" is that brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.

- Anonymous

Offline Gangleri

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 342
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #77 on: July 19, 2021, 04:55:26 PM »
Hey folks, just a small update to the project.  It's been far too hot to paint much but I did get a bit of terrain done - a nice full barn for either party to pillage.



It's an MDF barn is from Warbases, which I clad with stripwood and S-scale shingles.  I'm not too much of a hand with buildings usually, but I think this one turned out all right.

Best to all.

Offline commissarmoody

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Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #78 on: July 20, 2021, 05:18:39 AM »
It looks pretty good to me.

Offline Grumpy Gnome

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Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #79 on: July 20, 2021, 07:20:48 AM »
Looks great!
Home of the Grumpy Gnome

https://thegrumpygnome.home.blog/

Offline Gangleri

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 342
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #80 on: July 22, 2021, 02:07:11 AM »
Thank'ee, gents!

Offline Mad Doc Morris

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1780
  • Olympus speaketh?
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #81 on: July 29, 2021, 08:31:51 AM »
Not familiar with the original kit, so I can't fully appreciate the amount of work you've invested here. But it sounds like a serious overhaul – and to a very fine result. Well done! :)

Offline Gangleri

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 342
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #82 on: July 30, 2021, 02:47:10 PM »
Not familiar with the original kit, so I can't fully appreciate the amount of work you've invested here. But it sounds like a serious overhaul – and to a very fine result. Well done! :)

Thank you very much.  Like many MDF kits, it's very cleverly designed and easy to build but textureless and of a rather sterile appearance unless one resurfaces the outside.

Offline Cat

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    • Goblinhall
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #83 on: July 30, 2021, 03:09:43 PM »
Like many MDF kits, it's very cleverly designed and easy to build but textureless and of a rather sterile appearance unless one resurfaces the outside.

Yes, MDF kits shine with some detail work applied, and this was applied very nicely!

Offline Gangleri

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 342
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #84 on: August 09, 2021, 11:23:09 PM »
Hello folks.

Some more scenery today.  I have recently been reading from a book on the history of the Boston Post Road which describes in detail the experiences of Enoch Crosby, whose intelligence work later inspired James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Spy.  Crosby was involved in a number of successful attempts to infiltrate groups of local Tory recruits and arrange for their apprehension.  To maintain his cover, he would be arrested and interned with the Tories and then later "escape."  One such undertaking involved his being marched up the Boston Post Road in late 1776 toward the Westchester Highlands, and the description of his travels was very interesting to me.  Even at this early stage, the Post Road was suffering from poor maintenance, with deep ruts going unfilled, fences starting to fall, and vegetation beginning to grow into the roadway.


The text mentions alder and sumac starting to crowd into the thoroughfare.


The sumac didn't come out right - they look too much like normal trees.  You can see the fence rails starting to tumble down on the left (before being carried off for fuel).  Also in the back is a stretch of stone-and-rail fence that one occasionally sees here.

Overall the road is perhaps still in better shape than probably fits the period I am focusing on, but maybe in the future I will make another section in worse repair.


Mood shot of some Continentals on the march.

I have another larger building, and then it's on to the cavalry.  Until next time!

Offline commissarmoody

  • Galactic Brain
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    • Moodys Adventures
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #85 on: August 09, 2021, 11:31:19 PM »
That is a great looking post road.

Offline Gangleri

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 342
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #86 on: October 24, 2021, 08:28:23 PM »
Over the past weeks, I have been slow, but I have not been idle.  Here is my latest update.



Here are the Westchester Refugees, the titular Cowboys of this plog.  I will have more information on them when the unit is complete - still needs some commanders, but I don't like to paint too many horsemen at once. I have most of them in the 1780 uniform, issued presumably to bring them in line with their Southern counterparts, the British Legion, but I include one in the earlier uniform of contract hats and green-faced-white coats (made using a converted 1st Continental dragoon).



Here is another shot with some of the small conversions I've made to make them each a bit more unique.



Some characters for the tabletop.  Left to right: jack of all trades Mr. J. Townsend (see the Townsends Youtube channel), a well-to-do gent, and an escaped slave.



And finally, Mother Hulda, mentioned by Cat early in the blog.



She is based on a Reaper Dreadmere Hag.  I cut her legs a bit shorter, removed or altered her wicked implements, replaced her broom with a musket, gave her a powder horn, and altogether tried to tie her into the 18th century as an odd-looking but realistic figure.



Nobody knows who Mother Hulda was, or even what her real name was.  She had a European complexion, but spoke no English, Dutch, Low German, or Delaware.  A local Weckquaesgeek man, who had traveled far, could communicate with her through a different Indian language, but he did not identify which one.  The best theory I have come across is that she was a European who had been abducted by a tribe elsewhere in the northern colonies as a young girl and had been completely absorbed into that culture.  However, there is some belief (I don't know where it originates) that she was originally from Bohemia.  She lived north of Sleepy Hollow and, though Dominie Ritzema declared she should be avoided as a witch, local people regarded her as a wise woman (hence her name), esteemed for her herbal abilities and skill in acquiring the pelts of small animals.  Presumably ignorant of the affairs of the larger world, she appeared unbidden to help defend the area from a British raid and was killed.  I hope in time to keep adding more figures of local color and perhaps even local legend.

More later,
Gangleri

Offline CapnJim

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3658
  • Gainfully unemployed and lovng it!
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #87 on: October 24, 2021, 10:30:16 PM »
Those figs all look good.  Interesting backstories, too.  Well done!
"Remember - Incoming Fire Has the Right-of-Way"

Offline Grumpy Gnome

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 5333
    • The Grumpy Gnome
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #88 on: October 25, 2021, 03:34:05 AM »
Great stuff mate, especially Mother Hulda.

Offline Ceeteegee

  • Librarian
  • Posts: 107
Re: Skinners and Cowboys - Westchester in the AWI
« Reply #89 on: October 25, 2021, 08:06:28 PM »
Very nice work on the cavalry and on the back story. I do like a narrative and Mother Hulda's own story lends a little gravitas. 

 

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