Well now, sorry for bringing this thread back from Davy Jones Locker, but it is about to get a new lease of life - arrrrr!
I've now acquired most of the Brigade Games releases in this range which I didn't already have, including a couple of very spiffy little Middies from the putty prober of the talented Mr Hicks.
I've also acquired most of the Empress Maori Wars sailors, which (with not too much conversion) will double up very well as Napoleonic era Jack Tars
(I've decided to ignore the fact that they have percussion lock muskets - no-one, surely, is going to notice...
)
Once finished, this lot will give me a completed landing party of 30 or so bluejackets... Nice, but not enough...
I decided I therefore needed that other essential component: Royal Marines.
Problem is, there are none in the Brigade Games range - only a command pack and heads (also by Mr Hicks), designed to fit the plastic Victrix British Centre company bodies (in fact, they were originally done for Victrix, but sold - with all their metal figures - to Brigade Games).
Given that the alternatives are Foundry (too small) and various other manufacturers who shall remain nameless but are all pretty rubbish sculpts, I duly ordered a set of heads and a couple of plastic frames.
I've put the first few together and they look rather good.
Problem is, the Victrix plastic bodies have full webbing for line infantry wearing backpacks and blanket rolls, whereas Royal Marines were light infantry who fought from or aboard ship, and almost certainly didn't wear heavy campaign equipment like this...
I considered shaving off all the unwanted bits of webbing, but decided this would be a hellish task... And I couldn't leave all that webbing going nowhere...
So I've used Green Stuff to improvise a kind of canvas knapsack to sit on the back.
Not historically accurate, obviously, but that's never my overriding concern. I think it will do the job.
They look a bit naff at the moment, but once painted, trust me, they will look peachy.
I've also added tarry pigtails to the back of the hair, because I think it helps give them a bit more of a period feel... I'll be doing this with most of the sailors as well...
Here are the first half dozen. Guess I'll do at least another dozen or so in due course, once I've got these lads painted...
14 November 2007, 11:13:59 AM