Blood and Plunder – Dugthefug1644

Just a spare base loaded with off cuts of metal to give it some weight. Some green stuff that had gone bad piled into two mounds and two holes fashioned in them. Then covered in sand and tufts added. Small amounts of Blue tac popped in the bottom of the holes makes it easy to keep the cheap palm trees in place and can be easily removed for ease of storage.

Poundland resin used to make a watering hole. Old freebie dvd as a base. Army Painter swamp tufts. Trees cheaply picked up from Wish. Trees can be lifted out for easy storage.

Wargames Foundry cannon team sailor with carved planks on the base.

I picked up the cannon and team during a Wargames Foundry sale last year.

The guy with the cannon ball reminds me of Hoggle from Labyrinth probably because of his big nose and stubble.

I like the Wargames Foundry minis. They are a bit cartoony but I quite like it. I am looking forward to the OnTableTop updates from Firelock Games.

The last mini will be handy if and when i ever get a ship and want to use a swivel gun. Even before then i can use him as a sailor, especially hidden amongst a gun crew.

Kitbash Pirate. ?

Made from WoSS Warlord Games body and pistol with Essex Miniatures metal musket and a Gripping Beast archer head.

The WoSS are a bit under weight compared to my Warlord Games kitbashes and the official minis, but they have made great unit fillers for my English militia and the occasional pirate like this.

Coffee stirrers planking on the base to give him a touch more height to fit in with other minis in my collection.

Spanish Milicianos.

I know the game is wysiwyg where possible, but I think one Firelock amongst a unit of matchlocks won’t hurt. If he survives his encounter it may well be down to his reliable and state of the art Firelock musket. Sadly I think my crappy dice rolling will be the end of him regardless of how he’s kitted out.

Warlord Games Pike and Shotte pikeman body with the Firelock storming party arms. I needed some Greenstuff to mask the join as it didn’t quite fit. Not a great job on the Greenstuff, but was able to make it look like a torn jacket shoulder.

Coffee stirrers planking to give the mini a bit more height to match in with the rest.

WoSS Warlord Games minis are slightly more true scale than other ranges, but some of them make good converted English Caribbean militia and some of the officer bodies make good pirates.

The head is a Gripping Beast dark age archer head.

Coffee stirrers planking to give the mini a bit more height to fit in with other minis.

The pistol is from Essex Miniatures.

This mini was made from Warlord Games plastics ECW range. The right hand is a cavalry arm. The left, I think, was from an infantry pike sprue as is the main body.

The musket and pistol in the right hand are from an Essex Miniatures spare metal weapons blister.

After assembly I realised that with no powder horn nor “the 12 apostles” (the wooden bottles of measured powder hung from their cross belt, bandolier style), how was he ever going to load these weapons. I found a Gripping Beast plastic Vikings pouch that just offers something to at least suspend disbelief.

Also as a Forlorn hope he would have abandoned most things that would slow him down as he makes his attack. Not sure where his sword has gone. ?

I have given my huge handed Spanish militia man a name.

He is Jorge (Horhey) El Puño.

To his English enemies he is known as George The Fist. ?

Happy with the final look. Carved the planks into a 20mm plastic base again. Milicianos are pretty squishy at times in game, so no point going for Golden Demon effort on a guy that barely graces the battlefield. Had fun with this guy.

Contrast Colour flesh tearers red on the cuffs etc. and Contrast Colour Wyldwood on some of the straps, hair and matchlock. I am finding uses for these paints. They are nice to use, but not sure they are replacing the way I used to paint. More of a compliment to my washes and some paints in paint box than the revolution they were meant to be.

Lost the hands and gun for this mini. Warlord Games plastic ECW minis again. I have some metal matchlock muskets from Essex Miniatures. I could have found a spare set of arms on a sprue I am sure, but chose to have a stab at green stuff sculpting hands. They are heroic scale for sure and not sure whether I should paint them as gloved hands instead to make them more believable. Not worth the time I spent and might have been better cutting hands from other sprues if I wanted to use the metal musket like this.

Not my best work.

It’s hot as hell in the UK this week, but I wanted to get some pieces off of my work bench.

I painted one in roughly my English militia uniform colours just because he had a jacket with the large sleeves etc. Might use him as militia or a deserter freebooters that loved the jacket. Depending on the list. ?

Mournfang Brown is a great colour, but sadly has proved a stumbling block for several projects when used as a primer. This was one of them.

I tried to lift the skin to a believable tone, but not sure i achieved it.

These are great in game as they are good in close combat and don’t have to take reload markers when firing their arrows.

Added a Warlord Games English Civil War highland laird mini to the Crew of one of my Blood and Plunder Crews. With his pistol and sword he can fit into a few troop types.

Always loved these Wargames Foundry minis. Elizabethan seadogs is a bit earlier than the Blood and Plunder game era, but I decided that I would get them anyway. If they don’t fit in with the Blood and Plunder era fashions then I will happily build a Rangers of Shadow Deep warband around these minis. The Alladore Navy can wear any fantasy fashions I choose.

The Seadogs in game are an English unit that can man cannons, are armed with melee weapons and pistols and are hard hitting in melee. These seemed one of the easier units to kitbash. If you look at the official miniatures they look quite similar to the Spanish Marineros.

I used a Warlord Games plastic Celtic body and legs. The shield arm was problematic because without a shield the pose looked odd. I put a knife in that hand and the pose began to make more sense. In the raised hand I removed a sword and replaced it with a hammer, that I believe I found on the Warlord Games Pike and Shotte cavalry command sprue. I also added a sword and a pistol to his belt.

Sorry about the photos. I am hoping Santa brings me a fold away photo booth to improve things. I liked using the rule book as a back drop for this one. I will maybe start using a darker @suetoniuspaulinus style backdrop because the exposure issues I am suffering are really hiding any detail or colour choices I have made.

Addition- I added some stripes to the trousers of the Seadog with the cavalry hammer. I know it maybe looks more like a gaul this way, but I think it was too plain and looked unfinished.

This guy is made from GW legs and head with a Warlord Games Celtic warrior torso. It doesn’t look quite right scale wise, he looks hungry but with great leg strength. The pistol is from Essex Miniatures. I will use these metal Essex weapons to help Wysiwyg some of my minis.

I believe this load out makes him OK as a marine / Seadog.

Painting my official Firelock Games minis has been fun. Haven’t had much time for hobby, but chose these because they seemed quick and easy to paint. These Lanceros proved to be just that.

Added pics of the mixture of kitbashed and official range. I think they blend well.

Happy with these 11 English militia guys. Might make more of the plastic ones if I look to expand to bigger points games.

Not worried about the size differences and now looking more earnestly at list building, to see what to complete to try and get a game going.

These Front Rank Figurines were great to paint. Lots of detail. I like the mix of match cords and flintlocks to show the adhoc way they have been equipped. Weapons seem quite chunky compared to other ranges, but otherwise fit in well with my collection. Because they stand a little taller than my plastic Warlord Games minis they also scale better against the official Firelock Games minis.

These were fun to paint. The only thing uniting them is the prevalence of red. For my English I am hoping to make the common colour blue. (apart from the very red coats of militia). I think my sea dogs run the risk of looking very similar to these Marineros.

These will be taller than most of my minis, but I think that the strong sailor type troops would look more imposing than the underfed local conscripted militia anyway.

This model was awesome to create, but it highlights how getting wysiwyg replications of the official line can be quite tough. As an English forlorn hope miniature you need a brace of pistols, a musket, grenades and a melee weapon. Even after using a cavalry pistol in holster, a cavalry musket, greenstuff bag and grenade he still isn’t wysiwyg. I think the teddy bear stuffing strand fuse smoke has come out really well and does identify him, but I am still considering improvements to add the correct weapons, without ruining what I have done so far.

Another Blood and Plunder mini painted above and I have to say I enjoyed it. I think that the ill formed cutlass is not actually as distracting as I thought it would be. The details are fairly soft, but then I have been spoilt with 40k miniatures this year. The latest highend plastics were always going fair well in comparison. The unveiling on Blood and Plunder week that Firelock Games are headed for multi-part plastics is great news. I just hope they drop the scale compared to the metal miniatures by just a millimetre or two so that the occasional 28mm bigger heroic sized kits might be able to kit bash across ranges. If they become a larger end 32mm kit it will still be cool, but slightly unfortunate for those of us that like our conversions.

One of the reasons I bought the blister of marineros was so I could see how best to merge any conversions I might build into the unit, without them just being bland generic seamen.

The wysiwyg rule required for proxies is a challenge. I bought some spare metal pistols from Essex Miniatures, but the scale is a little off. Slightly larger than the Blood and Plunder guns even when the B&P minis are a large scale. Some of my models so far don’t really have an available sling, holster or bag to rest a spare gun on. Sometimes you even need to represent a brace of pistols and this has been awkward. I am considering just laying smoking pistols or arquebuses on the base, to allow the pose on my conversions to go uncluttered by the extra weapons.