Nic Robson gave me permission to put up these photos of the forthcoming Eureka "Molly Pitcher" and Continental artillery figures. The gun pieces are by Foundry but all the "humans" are Eureka figures. There are two crews, one loading and one firing. The figures are in shirt sleeves and I think capture very well the look of artillerymen in the thick of action. I strongly suspect the poses are taken from the Don Troiani painting of Molly Pitcher at the Battle of Monmouth; see here. Note the pose of the chap with the ramrod who is in an "overarm" position rather than the usual "underarm" pose that most manufacturers use; this pose just looks so much more intense and makes me wonder why the underarm pose is more common. I particularly like the shirtsleeves look - these figures could be used for militia gun crews and add variety to the Foundry/Perry crews in uniform coats.
I can't quite put my finger on it, but these sculpts just look the business. That's why I decided to paint them in a more "weathered" look than usual, with lots of soot, dirt and stains on their uniforms; I also tried to add some powder burns to the faces of a couple of the gunners. There's a certain nervousness in the poses and faces, that I think expresses the look of men in the middle of battle. It's hard to explain - sometimes sculpts just seem to come alive. I gave the figures all stubble to help suggest that "been at it all day" look of the Troiani painting. As for the faces, see if you can spot Homer Simpson and British actor Geoffrey Palmer..... The colours of Molly's clothes are taken directly from the painting. In short, a lovely set. I understand that Eureka are looking at a summer release for these figures. They deserve to shoot to the top of any AWI gamer's wants list. Many thanks to Nic and John Baxter for giving me a sneak peek.
9 figures. Painted February 2008. Guns by Foundry.
7 comments:
Giles......Nice job on the figures.
How did you paint the guns. What color did you use for the tops of the ammo chests? Is that metal or wood? Thanks......Bill
Hi Bill
Yes, I painted them metal and that's completely wrong. I was going to use some newer Perry guns, which have proper wooden tops, but those are 3-pounders and I wanted to use 6-pounders.
I'm not sure where I took the metal top idea from; often it's difficult to tell from photos and pictures what the real colour is - metal, wood, canvas etc. I finally realised my mistake when I visited the Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich last year and saw some guns for the first time.
Hi Giles, I did the same thing as you and painted them as metal. To me they look great. I was excited to see that you painted them metal because I figured you were more accurate than me.
Anyway, what is the proper covering? Thanks for all the great work you do. You are always one of my first stops on the 'net....Bill
Normally I am not a fan of the staring eyes look, but in this case they look just right.
They remind me a lot of pictures of the Somme or newsreels of Stalingrad. The strained faces and blank eyes. These are really the business.
We do like a grubby girlie!
Beautiful as always!
Giles, any chance you could link my own blog that I've been working on? It has a lot of good stuff, and I will be updating it regularly:)
http://lordashramshouseofwar.blogspot.com/
Great stuff, your blog, along with Roly Herman's stuff and the stuff at EchoesofGlory, is my favorite!
Were these figures ever released? They don't seem to be on the Eureka site.
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