Native Warriors for French and Indian War - Batch 2

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Continuing work on my forces for Sharp Practice during the French and Indian War, I finished off these plastic Native Americans from Warlord (made by Wargames Factory).

I don't refer to them as Huron like the last group, because I actually have a suspicion these might end up seeing more use with my Anglo-American opponent as Mohawks or another of the Iroquois Confederation tribes. Either way, this batch makes a group of six skirmishers and a leader.

I won't go on for too long, but I'm not a great fan of these figures. I find Wargames Factory's offerings awkward-looking at best, though actually I think these may be the best of their kits.

Being multi-part plastic figures, they purport to offer more options for customization. Even their headdresses and hair are modular, to a degree. In my experience, the poses chosen are fairly fixed, with some of the arm connections severely limiting your options to build them in different ways, and the fact that they're bare-chested makes it hard to kitbash. Cloth is relatively easy to sculpt and fill gaps using putty, musculature much less so.

There are some really great melee poses, like the guy bringing his war club down on some poor bastard's head. But the crouching firing poses you see here are your only options for a convincing firing position, which is a bit unfortunate in figures meant for black powder era wargames.

That said, I think they painted up rather well, even if the detail is a little soft in some places.

Here is the leader of this group, the fearsome sword-wielding sachem Tier, called Dutch Peter by the French. He is of mixed Mohawk and Dutch heritage, and is a respected but low-ranking war leader in upper New York.

While I put no great trust in my Google searches, I read that 'Tier' is a Mohawk interpretation of the European name 'Peter', and I was inspired by stories of the mixed-race Mohawk leader Canaqueese, called 'Flemish Bastard' by French missionaries.

Will be rather awkward now if he ends up on the table with my French. Perhaps I can swap out another figure...

Can't forget about this acrobatic club-wielding chap in back.



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