Highlanders

[Ignatieff]

It has always pained me, as a good Scot, that I have never managed to find an appropriate highlander figure for inclusion in my back of beyond armies.  I am loathe to convert as I dont have the skill to make a good job of it.  So here, in an attempt at a workable compromise, is a question for the anoraks amongst you:  would the Great War Highlander figures(based on the 1914 kit) do for higlanders in c.1919???  I am comfortable with the glengarry headgear.  The moustaches look a bit 1914, but what the hell. The weponery is OK (though I will need to graft on a Lewis gun or two).  And a kilt is a kilt.  However the pack and webbing arrangement is the bit I am not sure about.  Did this change during the course of 1914-18, and if so, how?

[white knight]

Wouldn't the one in artizan's thrilling tales range work? Or is the equipment on that one too late?

[Trooper]

Ignatieff,

The British army seems to have retained the webbing and equipment from the Great War up until at least 1937, possibly until 1939, so any figures wearing it would do for BoB. I think Gripping Beast are adding highlanders to their Woodbine Design range, and you could add Wolseley helmets to those. The musketeer Highland troops are also nice but would look a little small next to your Copplestone figures. As for weapons, SMLEs, Lewis guns and Vickers MGs would be ok. Hope this helps.

[Plynkes]

Wouldn't the one in artizan's thrilling tales range work? Or is the equipment on that one too late?

Private Campbell? I don't think the British Army had Tommy guns in 1919. And that shirt he's wearing would be non-standard issue for that time (but not totally impossible).

Ignatieff, the 08 Pattern Webbing sees you through to the late 30s. Don't think there's any problems on that account. (Edit: Scooped by Trooper, oops!  )

[Ignatieff]

Guys

top, top team.  The power of The Lead Adventure Forum is omnipotent.  Thanks!  The only dilemna now is whether to wait for the Woodbine releases....

[Plynkes]

If you weren't so dead set against converting another option would be to buy some Woodbine Wolseley helmet heads (they are available separately) and swap 'em on. It's dead easy. If I can do it, you can. Their jackets could be painted as KD or serge, whichever you like. Don't hardly qualify as converting, even. 

[Red Orc]

Are you thinking Central Asia BoB, or are you taking a slightly more historical route and planning BoB encounters in the Archangel'sk-Murmansk theatre in the RCW? I know the Black Watch were up there I think from 1918-20. Not that there seems to have been all that much fighting, though a family story has it that my great uncle was captured by the Reds while up there. Don't really know that much else though!

[Ignatieff]

If you weren't so dead set against converting another option would be to buy some Woodbine Wolseley helmet heads (they are available separately) and swap 'em on. It's dead easy. If I can do it, you can. Their jackets could be painted as KD or serge, whichever you like. Don't hardly qualify as converting, even. 

Ah Plynkes, you are not 'the Royal Bastard' for nothing!  Would those heads work with GW bodies??  Or would I end up with with Gollum like proportions???

[Ignatieff]

Are you thinking Central Asia BoB, or are you taking a slightly more historical route and planning BoB encounters in the Archangel'sk-Murmansk theatre in the RCW? I know the Black Watch were up there I think from 1918-20. Not that there seems to have been all that much fighting, though a family story has it that my great uncle was captured by the Reds while up there. Don't really know that much else though!

Mostly Central Asia/China/Africa for what we do.  Too cold up where you are talking about.  If you follow our adventures, its only ever historo-proximate 

[Plynkes]

Ah Plynkes, you are not 'the Royal Bastard' for nothing!  Would those heads work with GW bodies??  Or would I end up with with Gollum like proportions???

I'll go give 'em a bit of a compare. Get back to you on that one.

[Plynkes]

Zaphod Beeblebrox joins Kitchener's New Army!

Hmm. Works for me, I reckon. The Woodbine head is a bit smaller if anything, but not noticeably so.

[fastolfrus]

The musketeer Highland troops are also nice but would look a little small next to your Copplestone figures. 

Maybe they're wiry young Glaswegians ? :~}

[Ignatieff]

I prefer the two headed versions......."see you Jimmy...and yer pal on the right shoulder..."    Thank you.  I'm sold

[Hammers]

I have purchased the Musketeer Early WWI Scots sets and one from GWM along with a few GB Wolsley heads. That's how I plan tp do my NWF Gordons. I find that 'o8 webbing haversack a bit unsightly and unlikely so I am contemplating cutting them off. I do wish I could convert them to shirt sleeve order but that would mean a sodomite of a conversion, so that won't happen.

[Major Weenie]

Hmm...

<If you weren't so dead set against converting another option would be to buy some Woodbine Wolseley helmet heads (they are available separately) and swap 'em on. It's dead easy.>

You know, you could treat these like sombreros.  Wait for it...   If I want to put a sombrero on a figure with a 'non-sombrero-hat' first I grind down the hat/head flat to the hat line.  Then I find a figure with a nice sombrero and make a drop mould in silicone, or just press the sombrero into some sulfer free clay.  The hat has no undercuts, so I can then cast it up with just about anything (fiber glass resin, nonexpanding urethane, etc.) that I drip into the press mould.  Seems to me that a Wolseley helmet would be the same, as would a W.W.I tin hat.  Just cast up a few, sand them, and glue them onto the (flat) head of the prepared figure.  Ought to work the same....