A cornucopia of F&I types. Galloping Major, Cavalcade, and Conquest

[Aaron]

These are from a commission I completed over a month ago. First up are winter troops from Cavalcade. The Cavalcade minis are a bit of a mixed bag. I found the anatomy and poses a bit "off" and the accuracy of the kit is lacking, but the sculpting of faces, buttons, folds in the cloth, etc is actually very good. I really liked the dogs, too.

Rangers





French Troupes de la Marine





Dogsleds!



Next is a pack of Conquest's Indians in winter gear. My only criticism of Conquest miniatures is that there can never be enough of them to satisfy me! Unfortunately the lighting was off on this shot and the photo and brushwork really don't do justice to the richly detailed sculpts.



Last, but defintely not least are Hurons (and a few "Soldiers Free" I think) from Galloping Major. One day I will catch up on my personal backlog and when that day comes I will be rebuilding lead mountain with these figures. These are a bit "bulkier" than Conquest, but they actually work pretty well together. Accuracy, poses, and "character" are all their in spades IMO.











I know the volume of figures is probably pushing the limit for the swashbuckling board, but I'm really lazy about taking and editing photos so they tend to accumulate!

[Calimero]

Really nice paintjob

[Silent Invader]

Lovely...... 

[fergal]

Very inspiring stuff! It's about time we saw some more of your work. 

I really like your use of yellows on the galloping major stuff, it's a color I have denied myself when painting Indians of this era, but I may give it a try after seeing your work.

[Galloping Major]

Really nice to see these Aaron. 

That's right, Huron warriors along with the all 3 Mohawk "Soldiers Free" and the Huron "Soldier Free".

Great painting, love the bold use of colours - at first look my favourite is the Huron in the blue shirt with the red face paint 



www.gallopingmajorwargames.com

[Aaron]

Thanks everyone. I used to be much more restrained in my use of colors on fabrics for Indians. Over the years I have come across references to Indians "painting" (possibly actually dyeing?) shirts and other cloth so I decided to let my imagination run wild from time to time.

Speaking of adding color, last summer I saw a gunsmith at Fort Pitt working on a musket with a blue stock. I asked what the story behnid it was and he said that British traders had painted the stocks of some trade guns blue and yellow, presumably to hide inferior wood used in stocking them. He had discovered it because the Indians refered to it in a list of complaints in some treaty negotiations. So if you fancy arming some of your British-allied Indians with Blue and Yellow muskets you can have at it!

[Shikari Sahib]

Hi Aaron, great works,
The Cavalcade minis are uk or Us company?
Seems nice.
Piero

[Aaron]

Piero,

Thanks! Cavalcade are a US company. It looks like they are direct-order only and are temporarily closed due to a cross country move. http://www.dragonbloodminis.com/cavalcade/home.html

Aaron

[Shikari Sahib]

Hi Aaron thanks, I'll look after the holiday.
Piero

[mikedemana]

Nice stuff, Aaron!  I love the Indian in yellow, holding his musket across his chest as he primes the pan.  Which Conquest pack is he from?

Mike

[Aaron]

Thanks Mike. All six of those are from the "Woodlands Indians in winter gear A" pack. I should note that the snowshoes are very finely molded so you could easily flock over them  if you desired.

http://www.conquestminiatures.com/500-020.htm

[Big Martin]

Has the Cavalcade designer really studied someone firing a musket? And those left-handed firing poses! If you're left handed (like me) you quickly learn to fire a flintlock right handed or get an awful lot of flash burns from the pan being virtually under your chin.
I'm afraid I won't be adding to my FIW collection in that direction.