Wednesday, 15 February 2012

Bring out your dead! And a kind donation

So, soon after I posted my last update on here the new dead and wounded set was released by the Perry's and I made sure I got my grubby mits on them sharpish! I plan on incorporating these guys into the first two ranks of my Vorhut to make it look a little more dynamic. As I see it the Vanguard should be the first to meet the enemy and as a result the first to take any casualties. Here they are:



There are two more models in the pack, a dead man at arms and a dead bloke in a jack, I think I'll save them for another unit though. They're really nice models and I debated doing some head swaps with the Swiss heads, but decided just to leave them as they are in the end as I would have probably just ruined them. I did a little greenstuff work on some of them to change the livery tabards into something a little more 'European'.These chaps are by far my favourites:


It's such a characterful model. I used greenstuff to cover the sleeves of the jack on the guy on the left - I intend to incorporate them into my rear ranks, as if the man at arms is being escorted away through the unit, perhaps some sort of small diorama... I also like the fact that if it wasn't for the blood these guys would just look like they were coming home from a night out. Perhaps the Man at Arms has had one to many?..

Another addition to my force has been kindly donated by Simon (aka Painterman). I've been trying to get my hands on the Foundry Swiss musician models for an age, however I'm not willing to pay their extortionate postage costs on a single pack of models. Simon had these three models spare and was kind enough to send them over to me:


I intend to use the hornblower in my Vorhut and the bagpiper in the Nachut. I'm quite tempted to remove the bloke playing the tabor in my Gewalthut and replace him with the drummer as he looks a little more serious, but we shall see.. Cheers again Simon!

Finally on an unrelated note (I hope this doesn't appear to be turning into an archery blog) I succsessfully made my first warbow at the weekend. It's made of Ash and still needs a bit of work but I'm very pleased with it!


I've got another box of mercenaries and some European heads winging their way to me now, so watch this space!

6 comments:

  1. Very nice work indeed! Re: headswaps with the Perry Swiss heads; make sure you drill into the torso or you may end up with a chap with a very long neck. If it's any help you could take a look at my Gewalthaufen Blog there's an article covering such the issues I had.

    Love the warbow, what draw weight is it? Also, did you get lessons from a bowyer or did you manage with a textbook type thing?

    Darrell.

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  2. Yeah, I know what you mean with the headswaps - I did mine with a lot of filing and green stuff to conceal the join. I saw yours though, they look really professional! Like the heads are actually meant for the models.

    Thanks very much - I was pleasantly surprised with the end result. It's clocking in around 70/80lbs at the moment, but I was hoping for something more like 110lbs and so I might have a go at heat treating it or something. We shall see, i'm now really conscious about wrecking it really! No lessons, but I used a guide on the internet called 'The backstreet bowyer' written by a chap called Alan Blackham. I'd definitely recommend it!

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  3. Thanks Hrothgar but I have to admit it did take a lot of experimentation to get it right.


    70/80lbs is quite a draw, is it for personal use? I'll do a search for Alan Blackman, sounds very interesting and would be a great challenge too.

    Fab stuff mate.

    Darrell.

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  4. I can imagine! Yeah it will be, my current Yew bow is around 95lbs though, so I was possibly looking for something a little heavier to help with buiding my strength up slightly.

    Yeah, have a look! This is the link to the guide:

    http://www.alanesq.com/longbow/bsb/The-Back-Street-Bowyer-263.pdf

    Cheers

    Matt

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  5. Thanks for the link mate :O)

    Darrell.

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