A Tartan Workbench Highlanders for the 1745 Rising

 So as a break from the Sikh Wars project I decided to work through a bunch of Highlanders, a mix of manufacturers with more from yet another manufacturer on the way.

These first two are Flags of War, lovely dynamic and detailed figures. The right hand figure has seperate arms to give us more variety, I thought the targe and pistol combination was quite nice. As mentioned before the trews and kilts have more of a nod towards tartan than actual plaid. Something that can be seen from the tabletop but not meant to actually look like a tartan pattern close up, thats my excuse anyway. 

The character with the Claymore is a lovely touch too.

Sticking with Flags of War these two swordsmen are again really dynamic, both in waistcoats and shirts I have kept the pattern on these very simple indeed.

The blue with white in particular is very simple but actually works quite well I think. The blue on green possibly too subtle to stand out. 

The Redoubt figures are a bit more of a cunundrum. They are mostly split boddies with seperate torsos and legs allowing for a great variety of figures. This however doesnt always work and some figures are difficult to balance. Add to this some with dodgy heads, Lovely detailed shields that are far too thick so overbalance figures and the fact that they are designed for 100 years earlier than I m using and you can see they wont all work as well as I would like.

The below two I am happy with, you can however see how thick the shields are in this image.

Lots of nice detail and quite nice faces, I should have cut off the sword hilt on the right hand figure as he now has two swords, doh! The patterns have come out well and the one on the left was a bit of an experiment in colours which I am reasonably happ with.

With these two you see the difference with some Redoubt figures, the left hand one is quite nice but his moustache and chin beard are very 17th century and he is a bit hunched up, the one on the right howver has a head at an odd angle, the kilt looks far too long on the body and I am not sure the tartan colours have worked.

This next figure is a classic example of where the shields are just too heavy, this figure wont stand up without being bolstered, that said he looks ok apart from that.

Will have to be careful when I glue this guy to his base until he is completely dry he will need holding in place.

The three guys in shirts with lochbre axes actually look very nice and dynamic. That said they do very much look like the belong in the ECW and the one on the left will hardly stand up without overbalancing.

The figure on the left was described by Chris as "Prancing" which I feel is a bit much, first use of Khaki as a base colour and seems to work well I think. The chap to the right has brighter red than usual which again works quite well here.

These Bicorne figures are again for ht eearlier period and slightly small ins ature but very nice never the less, the Kneelign figure works really well and the leader reminds me of Billy Connelly.

I have then started to put some of these onto bases to be sent off to York. The command base I have to say is the mutts nuts, really pleased with this.

Flags of War leader, standard bearer and flag with a Front rank piper.

So most of these will go straight to be based, I will keep figures on bases with similar sized figures and from the same broad timeframe so I can use the earlier ones seperately and they dont look odd on the same base.

The Redoubt look lovely en-masse, if I dont mix them with the others they will work just fine.

The Flags of War on the left and Warlord on the right are a closer fit but I will still keep them seperate to help gaming earlier conflicts.

The Bicorne figures whilst having a too early musket do have the advanage of actually being in firing line so really helpful to use as skirmishers.

And another couple of last minutes additions with these two Flags of War chappies.

These bases will be pretty typical of how I mix the troops I think, Redoubt will typically sit with other Redoubt, Warlord I can mix with Bicorne and Front Rank can supplement bases of Flags of War.

I think that will work and give me lots of flexibility. I may well change my mind with individual figures mind you.

Hopefully these will be based in the not too distant future and I can share some finished forces with you, until then stay safe!