Converted Italian Wars Hobbits

[lilljonas]

This thread will cover my stumpling steps as I hope to learn to sculpt entire miniatures on my own. I'll start with converting minis, and work my way from there. Hopefully, at the end, I'll have a new army as well as a new skill. An army of intreprid, blood thirsty hobbits emerging from the chaos of the 16th century Italian Wars.

Wait what?



I've always been impressed by people who can sculpt, but never got the time or gumption to try it out myself beyond fillin a gap or two with green stuff. That time is ending now. I'm setting out to learn at least sculpting basics, as I think it would be very useful as a wargamer. But how? I need something to keep me focused, and keep me motivated. Something like the siren's song of a fresh, new start - a new army.

My club is primarily playing historical wargames, and we've been kicking around the idea of a hybrid historical and fantasy setting for a long time. Focused on the early 16th century, which would both suit a lot of the Warhammer fantasy style and a lot of interesting historical armies. Basically we could use more or less the same armies, only sometimes playing historical games and sometimes the Swiss mercenaries team up with orcish landsknechts to beat the Spanish tercios.

From nowhere, the idea of making a small detachment of halflings sprung up. They could fight as a supporting force for other armies, especially the Warhammer Empire one at the club. They'd be very human-like, so easy to "renaissance-ify".  I can also use a lot of historical bits such as heads and weapons for the conversions.

Starting out, I looked at images for what would be typical early renaissance, and still easy to sculpt. Big collars and coifs turned up on many pictures, and would have the additional benefit of covering up neck gaps. I'm using the Wargames Atlantic plastic halfling set as my starting point, adding perry miniatures heads from the foot knight and war of the roses sets:



The heads fitted almost perfectly, and it was love at first sight once I put these finished diminutive soldiers on my workbench. They will work fine as my green stuff learning course. I even did a bit of an attempt at a breastplate, something I'll need to add to quite a lot of the infantry to suit the period. Since they turned out better than I expected, Project Italian Halflings is cleared for liftoff!

My immediate plan is to convert the 40 halflings in the box, trying out some basic infantry types:

-spears/pikes
-halberds
-sword and shield (rondeleros)
-archers
-heavily armoured men-at-arms

The aim/challenge of this project will be that every single miniature will have at least some part that is greenstuffed. I will also attempt to make a whole hobbit from scratch, no ready made parts (except sword blades etc), before the project is done.

If I can get most of these out of the kit, I think I'm set for a small halfling force. This will be great.

[Irregular Wars Nic]

Hats off to you sir! That's a neat project with some admirable ambitions!

[aircav]

Those heads look fantastic on the hobbit bodies 

[Grumpy Gnome]

Great concept! I am surprised at how well that works. Thanks for the inspiration!

[lilljonas]

Thanks for the kind replies. And yes, I was also pleasantly suprised how well the two kits work together. This far there have been maybe two heads on the entire two perry boxes that were a bit too narrow, but otherwise they've been working perfectly.

After the first small steps, I wanted to try to sculpt something bigger. Breastplates and armour in general would be necessary, and would be a good practice run for two things I've been struggling with before: making sharp lines in green stuff, and making smooth surfaces.

Luckily, it turned out that breasplates were easier than I expected, but most of all - a lot of fun!



I used the perry foot knight bodies as a reference, as well as some other pictures from early renaissance armour. Sculpting these made me start to think about the background, and I imagine that a halfling exposed to European warfare would worry a lot more about upper body armour than leg armour. To protect from strikes from above, the guys in the front ranks will be packed with heavy pauldrons, chainmail and plate armour.

My next problem was that the heavy weaponry from the perry sprue came with arms that are way too long. This meant that I needed to speed up the learning curve a bit and sculpt some entire arms. Beeing able to hide mistakes behind plate armour and puffy sleeves turned out to be a blessing.





These guys are fierce! But they needed some heroic leadership when marching up to men twice their size. A champion, his standard bearer and musician steps up to the plate:



The champion's right arm turned out a bit wonky, but some of the wonkiness of his pose was saved with a pauldron. I wanted him to stand out even more, and found a picture of a Renaissance knight with a big chain over his breast. Idea stolen!

Meanwhile, the standard bearer turned out great and he's one of my favourites this far. The musician's pose is also a little bit off, but I'm happy anyway. After all, as I practice I'm bound to make better minis either by luck or design.

I'm approaching eight armoured halflings, which would make them a playable unit in Saga. I think I'll pause at that point and make more types of infantry first.

[BZ]

Really nice idea and realization!

[HappyChappy439]

These look great! Really fun concept, looking forward to seeing them painted up!

[Bloggard]

my goodness, I don't see an awful lot of 'stumbling' there, rather some top-class skill with the green-stuff!

[Little Odo]

Nice work - your skills are far from just being beginner level. Looking forward to seeing your "full sculpts".

[Pattus Magnus]

There’s something about hobbits in full plate that is just awesome, well done!

[lilljonas]

Thanks for the kind replies! This project is keeping a better speed than I predicted, as I try to find some time every evening to sculpt. It's really fun.

The next group of hobbits are some archers. I imagine that they are are not professional soldiers, but a militia formed during these troubled times. So they will not have much armour or a very uniformed look.





These had not so much sculpting on them, just some pieces to make them look a little bit more renaissance than medieval, such as some puffy sleeves.

With so little sculpting, I was ready to be a little bit more adventurous with the next unit. These are rondeleros, infantrymen with shield and sword:





This type of infantry got popular in this period. They found their niche as more nimble and effective in heavy terrain than the pikemen, but could also dodge into enemy pike formations to make breaches. A perfect job for a halfling! While the name gives away their spanish origin, their fighting style and equipment got popular across Europe. I gave one a morion helmet (a.k.a "conquistador helmet"), and I made some adarga shields. These unusually shaped hide shields were invented by the Berbers in North Africa, and spread into the Iberian peninsula where both muslim and christian armies ended up using them. By the early renaissance, they had spread together with the idea of the rondeleros, especially in Italy where Spanish soldiers fought a lot during the Italian Wars.

After these inital minis, I was ready to take the next step in sculpting. I thought that the small parts that I make would be possible without armatures, but even just an upper arm lacked the structural stability to not droop before curing. So here it is: my first armature!



He's going to be a champion for the rondoleros.

[lilljonas]

There’s something about hobbits in full plate that is just awesome, well done!

Indeed, I think the plate armoured ones are my favourites this far. I didn't expect it, and I basically made a few just to try it out. Now I'm considering making a big unit of "little greatswords".

[Captain Blood]

My goodness

I really like these - well done. Great concept and lovely conversion work. They're going to look great when they're painted 

[lilljonas]

My goodness

I really like these - well done. Great concept and lovely conversion work. They're going to look great when they're painted 

Thank you!

Next up I started to sculpt some heads. This was really hard, as even half a millimeter too big or small really shows. Some are hits and some are misses, but I'll keep making new ones and improve as I practice.



The first guys using homemade heads:

[Lord Borjado]

Impressive work!!