Huron Warriors for French and Indian War - Batch 3

 

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.

A few things I wish this box had: somebody with a club or a knife as their melee weapon instead of a tomahawk, and some sort of loading pose. Ideally someone ramming a charge down the barrel of their musket, as I think the 'priming the pan' pose is a little less dynamic. I know Perry's natives have some of the poses I've mentioned, so I will probably pick them up eventually.

The first leader here is Taychatin, called Le Voyant by the French. A sort of medicine man for his tribe who is known for his gift of prophecy, Taychatin has frequently and fervently counseled his peers against involving themselves in the white men's wars, predicting it will lead to the ultimate destruction of their people. After all, wasn't it the European clamor for beaver pelts that motivated the Iroquois to drive the Huron from their ancestral hunting grounds?

Nevertheless, he and his people have been drawn into the fighting, and he is dedicated to his comrades, even if he believes they are on a doomed path. In game, Le Voyant will serve either as a leader or as a Holy Man, one of the support options offered by Sharp Practice. I have read that the Huron/Wendat did not have shamans, per se, but did have medicine men, so I suppose that's what he is. If I have incorrect information, I'd be happy to learn the truth. I have also read that prophecy was one of the traits that was important for Huron and Iroquois spiritual leaders, as in nearly all human societies.

This is a figure made by Brigade Games, from their pack of Native American leaders. I think it's a really good sculpt, though the Brigade Games figures have more fine detail than the Warlord ones and take me a little more time to paint. It's a Paul Hicks sculpt, so no shock it's good.

On the other side of the coin we have Taratouan, a hawkish Huron headman known to the white men as War Coat, after his most prized possession - a regimental coat stripped from the body of a soldier of the 44th Foot along the banks of the Monongahela River. This prominent warrior led a group of Huron and allied native forces at the battle where Braddock's forces were crushed, making him a formidable leader with a proven record of defeating Englishmen and their colonial lackeys.

He is a supposedly limited-edition figure from Warlord Games that came with the French and Indian War supplement for their Black Powder game. It's a really lovely sculpt with a ton of detail and a dynamic, if slightly static, pose. I picked him up (not with the supplement, but with Warlord's 'medal' rewards) sometime last year, long before the rest of my forces for this project, as a sort of pledge to eventually make an FIW army. And here they are, I guess.

That's all for now, although these aren't the only figures I completed in my weekend of painting. Likely I'll make a post about those figures this weekend, so you have that to look forward to.