This is the "mounted Indians" pack from Conquest Minatures' "500 Nations" range; three generic natives who will pass for most Eastern tribes in the second half of the 18th century. Beautiful sculpts, but how will I use these figures? They will not see combat as such, but I envisage using them either as scouts for Burgoyne (hence the "Saratoga" label) or as general "scenic" Iroquois for something like Oriskany or the F&IW. As readers know, I'm very keen on putting "extras" on the table to add some colour, and these chaps certainly provide that.
I set out to paint the horses in colours that were not matched by "Western" cavalry, and each colour scheme is a new addition to the colours I use on horses. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what the official names of the horse colours are, or even whether they are appropriate for the mid 1770s. But I think they look suitably "native" and they took a while to do. As a rough estimate, each horse took just over an hour to complete (but then I am a slow painter when it comes to horses...). I decided not to give the Indians themselves any war paint, as they are not really on their way to confront settlers; these chaps are on patrol, not looking for scalps. In the second photo below, you can see how the mounted figures stack up against Perry and Conquest "foot" Indians.
I have to admit, these figures have leapt up to the top end of my favourite sculpts. Sometimes one's painting just "works" and sometimes it doesn't, for reasons that you can't quite understand. I'm sure readers know what I mean. When I post pics of the Hessian du Corps Regiment early next week, you can see figures that don't really work - I have no idea why, but they just look, well, messy. These, on the other hand, seem to have come out fairly well I think. The quality of the sculpts is certainly a factor - these are outstanding and very characterful figures, which look like something out of a Robert Griffing painting. It's odd the way that units which appear on the table the most often are usually "ok", whilst those that have very little wargaming purpose, but are a bit different, are often painted with more effort. Anyway, I'm rather proud of these fellows, which explains the excessive number of photos!
3 figures. Painted October 2007.
3 comments:
oh yes those work alright!
Great horses.
Love the ethnic embroidery on the bag! The spotty horse is an Appaloosa, of course. One arguement is that they came to America from Spain with the Conquistadors so no problem for your period. The Nez Perce were great Appaloosa breeders and the name comes from the Polouse River which ran through their territory. According to my daughter's horse books anyway!
Those are some fantastic ponies! The riders are just as fabulous.
You like doing personality figures so much, you should consider doing some skirmish gaming with your AWI figures. You could probably adapt Brother against Brother for AWI by toning down the casualtys about 50%. The up side is you could use your based figures as Brother against Brother is set up for 9 or 10 figure units.
Something to consider - it would let you use a lot of your personality figures.
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