Rebasing the French and Indian Wars

I bought these nicely painted figures early last year off eBay and have finally got around to basing them. Originally, like most FIW figures they were based on separate bases. Two pence coins to be precise. They were so heavy attached with glue and filler that I almost gave up the idea of getting them free. Luckily, I pushed on with the idea and with a pair of pliers the guys could run free again.

The figures are really quite nice, it's odd for me to buy painted figures as I'd rather save the money and paint them myself. These must have been at the right price as I ended up with them.

These will need some rocks placing on the bases.

I do plan to go over them when there glued and touch up some details, it would be rude not to. From what I can tell, they have been painted using GW's Contrast paints and maybe a strong tone wash afterwards.

Here are two Huron from my collection. At least now with their coun bases removed they are the same height as the others. I was thinking of just sticking the coins on the larger bases, until I reached for the pliers.

Rogers Rangers let fly some well aimed lead into the thick Canadian forest.

These are Galloping Major figures, my favourite of all miniatures. This is probably why I bought them in the first place. They will certainly help bolster the numbers.

 These are bases for Bonny Blue Flag rules and will fight in units of four bases, with an extra two man base to count as skirmishers. Rather than the four hundred man or so regiments of the civil war, I imagine these groups to be warbands and companies of men. Much smaller in man power but still using the same attrition rules in the game.

Update: Now the glue is dry it's time to stick on some sticks and stones.

This was fun and a bonus for the larger bases, making some tracks with milliput. These are easy to do with a simple sculpting tool. It all helps to set the scene and tell a story.

Garden twigs make great fallen trees.

The Rangers are not far behind and have followed a large group of warriors back to their settlement.

Canadian Basing

Here are my test bases for the French and Indian wars, using the Bonnie Blue Flag rules.

I quite like these bases, they have more character than the single ones for me. Hopefully, these few test bases will inspire me to do a few more and finish the unit.

Galloping Major figures are so nice that you want to do them justice.

These have just been flocked and need a bit of a dusting off.

Mixed herbs make great leaf litter that is a classic look for the ancient Canadian forests.

When painting these figures I used a few coloured fine tip pens to detail the belts and pouches. I also gave them a coat of Dark tone dip from the tin. I was trying to think of a way of speeding up the painting process.

The Huron, allied to the French.

I love the long muskets and rifles.

 Twigs from the garden make for great moss covered logs.

The Terrifying Huron take the dip.

My first batch of Woodland Indians, the Huron. These lovely minis are from Galloping Major and are beautiful. It almost seems a shame to use the Army Painter stain on them, but it will keep them damage free when gaming.

I think my blue warpaint may be a little on the light side but who's to say. At least it will make them pop on the table.

I ended up using the box art from the Warlord Games plastic set as reference for the warpaint. I really enjoyed adding the details on the belts and equipment, My 0.05 permanent pens proved very useful again.

I made sure to add some skin colour on his hands to show the warpaint rubbing off.

I used Black Templar contrast paint watered down to create the charcoal warpaint. I think it worked okay as the skin beneath comes through.

 As for skin colour I used a range of paints. Bugman's glow from GW, get used a lot by painters, so I used this as well as the Foundry Native American paints. Once an ink was added to shade the skin, I highlighted the skin back with Bugman's glow.

The Dark tone dip hasn't darkened the colours too much. Once Matt varnished they should look okay.

UPDATE: I decided to tweak these guys a bit as I'm not convinced with the blue. In all my references for Woodland Indians, I can't find any blue warpaint.

I think the way to use the reference on the warlord games box, is to swop out the blue for black paint. Use the box to copy the patterns but not the colours. Black and red are the way to go.