Essex miniatures Clubmen

Having a large Parliamentarian army now of basic troop types, I thought it would be fun to collect a unit of clubmen. 

These are great fun because they are just a motley mob of thugs. This means they will be fun to paint as they are all civilians with nasty looking weapons.

I saw a bag of Essex miniatures clubmen figures on eBay and didn't do anything at first. A month later they were still there, so I took a chance and grabbed them. There were twenty four figures but only three poses. So I thought I'd better get creative to make this lot look more like an unruly collection of individuals.

I found that by cutting the hands free from the body with a scalpel, I could bend and twist the limbs in different poses to carry weapons. I wonder if they are designed for this...they look like they might be, but I haven't seen it done anywhere else before. Above a man now carries a club rather than holding it by his side.

Having discovered these bendy arms, I went to town coming up with different poses.

When creating a clubman unit, I think pitchforks are really important to get over the rural mob look. So I made sure I used as any as I could in the mix of weapons.

This figure from Bloody miniatures acts as a great leader for the mob. He's obviously someone of great social standing in the town.

 There is another pose that is less easy to pose. The guy with the bag has arms that can't be cut away, so is much more limited. I found by cutting his hand free and bending it, he can hold a pole arm type weapon. He will be useful for the rear ranks.

The third type of pose was one of a man holding a pole arm vertically. The head sculpts were all the same and would of looked a bit odd. So I twisted off the heads and replaced them with some old spare ones from Redoubt enterprises. I made sure to select the peasant looking ones.

These figures could be bent and reposed too, so the effect was quite good. I used my brush bristles again to create scythes that had been straightened. Lots of different, crude weapons straight out of the blacksmith's smithy.

The figures look so much better with a new head and bent arms.

The pole arm crew were taking shape too. I used a few plastic figures from Warlord games to bulk out the poses. I made sure to give them crude farm tools so they fitted in.

The mob.

I don't like the fact that the Warlord games figures don't have hats. This is obviously so you can use plastic ones, but none come in the pack, so they all end up looking bald. I managed to find a few plastic hats but they're not great.

I think these clubmen have turned out really well and I'm glad to took the gamble with the scalpel. The first figure is how they arrive.

Another warlord games figure, again I was annoyed at the bald head so I twisted it off and drilled a spare one on. It looks much better now and has become one of my favourite characters.

More pitchforks to cement that angry mob look.

Here we can see a tweaked figure next to an original.

Scythes are another classic rural mob weapon but are a little clumsy looking. Still, the odd one or two is a must.

Here we can see the mob with all their new heads and weapons. Considering these were all the same, I think they look much better now. The brush bristles weapon were fun to do too. These guys are looking quite organised...that leader must have a military background.