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Under a Blue Moon the saga grows and soon the table will be a very active place. Will need some shapely young lasses molded well in metal to make this work the way I envision it all. One must, afterall, be true to the original Alexander created!
February 11, 2024
I now have all but the somewhat fiddly coaches primed and ready for painting.
Also able to organize the figures into two nicely aligned 'sets', one for the King's friends and another for the Cardinal and his fiends. I can put ten 'forces' on the table with each force having one set of five mounted figures with five 'matching' dismounts, another five figures on foot only, and then a varying group of 'civilians', 9-15 depending on group. A total of 50 fighters for each side - plus the highwaymen.
February 4, 2024
And a few hours later in the day from below, two more photos:
Bottom is the Cardinal's Guard and bottom left eight dead.
This is another view of items from yesterday and dead horses in one of the three storage containers that will be the home of these figures.
Except for assembling the coaches and gluing a halberd or two to the Khurasan foot figures, that is all the figures for this collection ready for priming.
All figures for this collection are now cleaned and a portion - seen in the photo above - are now glued to their circle bases. Bottom right are the Khurasan mounted figures, 24 of of them. To their left are two units of 10 men, also from Khurasan. Farthest to the left are the ladies - 27 of them plus two awaiting execution and their executioner. At the back of the ladies are four men, either wounded or kneeling. Across the back center to the right are 39 men. Once the glue is properly dry on all of the above, I will sort out the 'characters' that will be additional musketeers and match them as best as possible to the mounted figures. Right now it looks like I can pull 16 'fighters' out of the group. I bought two of the Musketeer character sets from Bluemoon in order to have more civilians. Good progress.
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Two more photos of work in progress:
Above are the 26 dead horses - from Donnington Miniatures.
Second photo has 42 dead men plus 4 sitting wounded - the dead are mostly from Donnington, the sitting I think are mostly ECW Bluemoon. On the far right in the back are the two teams of four horses for the coaches and in front of them are the five coach occupants/driver with their hands up (the other coach has seated driver and two pairs of seated passengers. Last bit I will tackle will be assembling the coaches - a minor chore and likely not today.
In front of the coach figures are the three sets of Highwaymen - by painting each set with a different horse color and clothing theme color - say black, brown, and tan - they shouldn't look too identical on the table.
The first 'three wide column' moving left are 12 women and girls towards the back and 18 men and boys towards the front, I think of these as peasants. Figures from Bluemoon ECW civilians pack, two sets.
Next 'three wide column' are 24 various working men such as carters, engineers, pioneers, etc. The front row, behind the seated wounded, on the left, has the two figures as one casting - two men drinking.
Last 'three wide column' is another 24 various men like artillery, engineers, in camp at rest, and even - up front - a set of three men back from a hunting trip with one carrying a rabbit by its ears.
The Musketeer Heroes and King's Guard are glued to bases, just waiting getting the Cardinal's Guard glued to bases before taking a photo - not too far away today (hopefully).
Too stormy today to prime figures and probably the same tomorrow but hope to have all this stuff primed during this week.
February 3, 2024
All figures for this collection are now cleaned and a portion - seen in the photo above - are now glued to their circle bases. Bottom right are the Khurasan mounted figures, 24 of of them. To their left are two units of 10 men, also from Khurasan. Farthest to the left are the ladies - 27 of them plus two awaiting execution and their executioner. At the back of the ladies are four men, either wounded or kneeling. Across the back center to the right are 39 men. Once the glue is properly dry on all of the above, I will sort out the 'characters' that will be additional musketeers and match them as best as possible to the mounted figures. Right now it looks like I can pull 16 'fighters' out of the group. I bought two of the Musketeer character sets from Bluemoon in order to have more civilians. Good progress.
February 2, 2024
At very long last I've started working on this collection of figures - everything is washed and all but two of eight "prep" boxes are 'filed and flashed' and ready to glue to bases for priming. Also decided to base this collection as individual figures - except for one two figure casting; just seems more appropriate. Well, I do have one painted figure I had someone paint for me with the thought to have him paint the whole but I just couldn't justify spending that much money even though his per figure rate was more than reasonable for the quality of work.
I find I have 14 + 1 mounted King's Musketeers with matching foot figures to include the main four musketeers. And I also have 15 mounted Cardinal's guard figures with matching foot. For both sides I also have another 15 foot figures though technically they are all Cardinal's guards as designed but a simple variation in color scheme will realign for my purposes. I also have another dozen mounted figures for each side and another 10 foot figures for each side (but not dismounts) - these from Khurasan, a bit smaller than Bluemoon for some of them but at least a half dozen of the mounted figures and possibly a full dozen I will be able to use as mounts for some of the 'character' figures from Bluemoon.
Besides the figures for the Musketeers, I tapped into Blueoon's ECW range to add some additional civilian figures so I have approaching 600 figures for the period now - so a Very Large Skirmish game. Rules will very probably be Fistful of Lead: Bigger Battles.
If all works out as hoped, this period will land on the gaming table this year. Oh, and for architecture I will for the most part be using my pirate era buildings, perhaps not perfect but 'close enough' to fit the era at least.
So, 57 mounted figures for fighting including the highway men - all with dismounts. Another 50 figures on foot for fighting and then perhaps another 24 figures culled from the "civilians" - some being additional musketeers, maybe a few artillerists/engineer sorts for the period. Oh, and a very good stock of dead men, wounded men, and dead horses, mostly from Donnington Miniatures.
Swashbuckling fun ahead.
July 4, 2012
Happy Birthday, America! And color me happy - Blue Moon has posted up the beginnings of their Musketeer range: http://bluemoonmanufacturing.com/index.php?cat_id=101
Can an order be far behind? You bet it can. But will wait for the crowd pack to be available. Not sure if they will offer more than this but this is enough to have a fun game - and love that crowd pack, at least the part seen in the photo. Can only imagine what else might be in there.
October 1, 2012
Well, long time no update here. However, I've had most of the figures for this for a couple of months now. Would have all of them but I made an oops in the follow on order - or mislaid one pack somewhere which I'm convinced I did but darned if I can find it. This follows the fine folks at Blue Moon/Old Glory fixing an omission. But since I missed - or mislaid - I'll suck up and acquire the one needed pack at my expense with my next order.
December 14, 2012
I seem to be in a bloggy sort of mood the last couple of days so I'm going to add the list for this period here today. And keep in mind, my plan is to base all of my figures throughout all of my collection in threes. That might upset some, especially for this era, but that's how I want it to be. Eventually, I'll have a core set of rules with flavor enhancements that I'll use for everything. So, with that reminder, here goes:
The heros: Athos, Porthos, Aramis, D'artagnan, and Planchet (yes, he's a hero for this variation) all get both a mounted and a dismounted version and, of course, in both variants they are accompanied by two others, mounted or dismounted as appropriate.
The villains: being the cardinals guard, also get five stands of mounted figures and five matching stands of dismounts.
Other mounted: three highway men and their matching dismounts.
For those counting, that adds up to thirty-three mounted figures with matching dismounts (11 + 11 bases).
There are also two more stands, or six figures, of highwaymen.
And to provide reinforcements to the musketeers and the cardinal's guard, I have another thirty foot figures, half to be in musketeer blue and half to be in cardinal red.
And, of course, there is Richelieu himself in company with Rochefort and a masked executioner, all dismounted. M'Lady DeWinter makes her required appearance along with a couple of courtly courtesans. Also, for when the occasion requires, a stand with the executioner and 'two' women waiting for their beheadings. (we'll just call the second one M'Lady's lady-in-waiting, in more ways than one).
It wouldn't be right to leave those highwaymen with nothing to way-lay on the highway, so I have both of Blue Moon's version of the coach, standing and in motion. That adds up to six men and four women and eight horses (but not planning on both groups on table at the same time - and do I paint them to match or different??? probably different to be able to represent two coaches, but we'll see).
To accord with the age, I've assigned a dozen figures to being duelists - or assassins perhaps, so four stands there.
Me being me, I need to have civilians roaming about and some are from the higher strata of society and some of lesser standing, a dozen men and a dozen women for each level so forty-eight in total. Yes, there might be a king and queen in there somewhere. Maybe.
And that's it, if I counted it right that's 224 pieces (men, women, horses, and the two coaches) all there is or all that is planned (one pack for above is on order). This is my smallest collection of figures, by quite a margin. Oh, if only I'd exercised greater restraint in other areas! Ah, well, I enjoyed the collecting and now I can enjoy the "deconstructing" down to manageable levels - my kind of manageable.
The nice thing about being essentially done with acquiring figures is now I can focus on the needed architecture. What? Oh, yes, and painting.
March 10, 2013
It took some time, but that last pack on order finally arrived at the local hobby shop. Now, I really do have those 224 pieces. Feels good. Budget permitting -- and some needed time passing -- I currently plan to contract out painting all of these figures. It's a small enough collection so it shouldn't break the bank to do so. The only possible fly in the ointment is if my chosen painter opts out or I opt in sooner than he is available to paint them.
Finding suitable architecture is proving quite a challenge and I just don't see myself scratchbuilding a variation of Notre Dame, the Bastille maybe but not the cathedral. Until I sort that out, I can always do lots of rural scenarios. Though I'll need to add a windmill to my collection to do it right.
July 4, 2012
Happy Birthday, America! And color me happy - Blue Moon has posted up the beginnings of their Musketeer range: http://bluemoonmanufacturing.com/index.php?cat_id=101
Can an order be far behind? You bet it can. But will wait for the crowd pack to be available. Not sure if they will offer more than this but this is enough to have a fun game - and love that crowd pack, at least the part seen in the photo. Can only imagine what else might be in there.
October 1, 2012
Well, long time no update here. However, I've had most of the figures for this for a couple of months now. Would have all of them but I made an oops in the follow on order - or mislaid one pack somewhere which I'm convinced I did but darned if I can find it. This follows the fine folks at Blue Moon/Old Glory fixing an omission. But since I missed - or mislaid - I'll suck up and acquire the one needed pack at my expense with my next order.
December 14, 2012
I seem to be in a bloggy sort of mood the last couple of days so I'm going to add the list for this period here today. And keep in mind, my plan is to base all of my figures throughout all of my collection in threes. That might upset some, especially for this era, but that's how I want it to be. Eventually, I'll have a core set of rules with flavor enhancements that I'll use for everything. So, with that reminder, here goes:
The heros: Athos, Porthos, Aramis, D'artagnan, and Planchet (yes, he's a hero for this variation) all get both a mounted and a dismounted version and, of course, in both variants they are accompanied by two others, mounted or dismounted as appropriate.
The villains: being the cardinals guard, also get five stands of mounted figures and five matching stands of dismounts.
Other mounted: three highway men and their matching dismounts.
For those counting, that adds up to thirty-three mounted figures with matching dismounts (11 + 11 bases).
There are also two more stands, or six figures, of highwaymen.
And to provide reinforcements to the musketeers and the cardinal's guard, I have another thirty foot figures, half to be in musketeer blue and half to be in cardinal red.
And, of course, there is Richelieu himself in company with Rochefort and a masked executioner, all dismounted. M'Lady DeWinter makes her required appearance along with a couple of courtly courtesans. Also, for when the occasion requires, a stand with the executioner and 'two' women waiting for their beheadings. (we'll just call the second one M'Lady's lady-in-waiting, in more ways than one).
It wouldn't be right to leave those highwaymen with nothing to way-lay on the highway, so I have both of Blue Moon's version of the coach, standing and in motion. That adds up to six men and four women and eight horses (but not planning on both groups on table at the same time - and do I paint them to match or different??? probably different to be able to represent two coaches, but we'll see).
To accord with the age, I've assigned a dozen figures to being duelists - or assassins perhaps, so four stands there.
Me being me, I need to have civilians roaming about and some are from the higher strata of society and some of lesser standing, a dozen men and a dozen women for each level so forty-eight in total. Yes, there might be a king and queen in there somewhere. Maybe.
And that's it, if I counted it right that's 224 pieces (men, women, horses, and the two coaches) all there is or all that is planned (one pack for above is on order). This is my smallest collection of figures, by quite a margin. Oh, if only I'd exercised greater restraint in other areas! Ah, well, I enjoyed the collecting and now I can enjoy the "deconstructing" down to manageable levels - my kind of manageable.
The nice thing about being essentially done with acquiring figures is now I can focus on the needed architecture. What? Oh, yes, and painting.
March 10, 2013
It took some time, but that last pack on order finally arrived at the local hobby shop. Now, I really do have those 224 pieces. Feels good. Budget permitting -- and some needed time passing -- I currently plan to contract out painting all of these figures. It's a small enough collection so it shouldn't break the bank to do so. The only possible fly in the ointment is if my chosen painter opts out or I opt in sooner than he is available to paint them.
Finding suitable architecture is proving quite a challenge and I just don't see myself scratchbuilding a variation of Notre Dame, the Bastille maybe but not the cathedral. Until I sort that out, I can always do lots of rural scenarios. Though I'll need to add a windmill to my collection to do it right.
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