When I was at Figureworld last week I picked up a great wee model from Elan 13, which is a little boutique sort of operation run by Rob Lane, who sculpts a lot of the stuff he sells. He’s pretty good.
The piece I got was an English Civil War sergeant with a halberd in a really nice pose, sculpted by Ian Succamore. I was a little uncertain because the last chap I got from Elan 13 with a similar hat was a real pain due to how thin the hat brim was (and the incredible breakability of the sword). Mercifully, they’ve figured out a better way of casting the hats now, so this doesn’t suffer from the same problem.
So, I was pretty excited to paint this guy because the uniforms in the ECW are pretty neat – basically, everyone wore whatever they owned, and then strapped on a sash to tell people which side they were on: red for monarchists, a dark sort of orange for parliamentarians (generally – apparently some regiments wore other colours, or had actual uniforms supplied). I can only imagine that these colours weren’t actually terribly useful in the heat of the battle because, really, dark orange and red aren’t too obviously different when you’re covered in mud and gore.
Anyway, I decided to go with a monarchist because fuck Cromwell. For those who don’t know, Oliver Cromwell led the parliamentarians and ended up dictator (or Lord Protector, or whatever his silly aggrandising title ended up being), and he was a bit of a dick. Just ask the Irish. Or don’t – you might get quite a justified lecture on just how much of a dick Cromwell was.
So, that’s why this guy has a red sash instead of an orange one (also, the box art is a parliamentarian, and I was also keen to use more greens on the model, so monarchist was the obvious choice).
Unfortunately, the pictures don’t really capture the red particularly well – it’s a nice rich scarlet in person – but the buff coat is about right.
The actual assembly was also a complete doddle. He’s only four parts, one of which is the sword that I haven’t put on his belt yet, and they fit together really nicely without much trimming or fiddling. I did need to add a little extra hair around where the halberd pushes it aside, but that’s not something you’d need to bother with if you’re not taking him to a show.
I will be repainting his face, too – it just wasn’t working out for me and it came out a little shinier than I’d like.
In other news, I’ve finally finished sculpting Abe Lincoln’s head (quite terribly), so I just need to batter that a wee bit, and then I can finish Frank up, which is pretty exciting as I’m very pleased with how Frank’s come out so far.
Fet Paints 