Pocket Panzers

I had a bit of a break this last weekend for a camping trip (and my birthday), and when I returned to what passes for civilization these days I finished off this second batch of French marine infantry. This forms another skirmish group of six men plus a leader for Sharp Practice. These are from Warlord's boxed set of French marine infantry , sculpted by Conquest. I'm still enjoying this set, and although there are some duplicate poses, they have been altered slightly so that they don't stick out too badly. I tried to coax out the blue hues on their clothing here, compared to the last batch where I was a little more reserved, and I like the effect. It's bright and distinctive while still keeping some deep shadows. I threw in a red-head in this unit, just for variety mostly. Maybe he's an Irish Huguenot. As I've mentioned before, these Conquest figures, both Europeans and Native Americans, have a lot of great detail and are pretty easy to paint and come up with a

In addition to a group of marauding Huron warriors , I recently finished off these stalwart defenders of New France, the milice canadienne. I don't have much in the way of a history lesson on these guys. Based on the reading I've done and the uniforms I see, they seem like a mix of quickly raised militia and experienced woodsmen. They seem better than their British colonial counterparts, especially the later minutemen. At least, in the Sharp Practice ruleset we have been using. With the exception of the leader in the back, these figures are by Brigade Games . They're great sculpts, with a lot of detail and character. They don't paint up quite as fast as some of the Warlord figures, but they're still excellent. They're a little slender compared to Warlord sculpts, but no big issue. My only real complaint is that the musket barrels, though realistically proportioned, are incredibly thin, and give me the impression that they're be very easy to damage. They'

  Well, it's been an incredibly busy two weeks or so of work, but I managed to finish the last big group of native warriors this last weekend. I can't promise I won't buy more, but I only have a handful of native figures unpainted now. Most of these guys are the other part of Warlord's Woodland Indian War Party  box set, really nice characterful figures that are a delight to paint up. I did roughly the other half in the first batch . The exceptions are the leaders, who we'll take a closer look at in a second. These sculpts all have a lot of character and detail, and I was surprised how much they varied from the last group I painted from this box. I like the guy in the captured British regimental coat. They have a lot of small touches like jewelry, sashes, knives, things like that. I love the detail of the locks on their muskets especially. As you can see, I've painted some of them in full and fearsome war paint, while I've left others a little more low key.