[Games] More Pirate RPG Miniature Photos
Games Workshop Empire Militia as Pirates
The bulk of my rank-and-file "pirate" minis consist of spare figures put together from the Games Workshop "Empire Militia," or else conversions of other plastic figures with the leftover "bitz" from those sprues. For starters, I just can't beat the fact that several of the optional arms are holding black powder pistols or rifles, and some of the heads are sporting eyepatches, "pirate hats," and/or dew-rags.
The cannon in the background is a spare plastic "target cannon" from the "Weapons & Warriors Pirate Battle Game." I actually scored another one of those on Ebay at the minimum bid; the pirate minis that come with that game are close to classic 25mm scale, so they look a bit short next to the Games Workshop minis, but the plastic tower is usable for terrain, the "pirate ships" can be converted into small support craft (I was inspired by a web site that had instructions for crafting a dhow from one), the longboats are practically usable as-is, with just a bit of Dremel touch-up work, and the palm trees are great once I use some air-dry clay to make bases for them so they're self-standing. But best of all - it's the cheapest source I've found for 25-30mm scale ship-deck cannons, even WITH the shipping & handling tacked on to the Ebay sale price.
The cannon in the foreground was made from leftover "bitz" on an Ogre Kingdoms sprue that had several optional ogre arms holding cannons; I took one of the stubbier cannons and trimmed away the ogre hands/arms, then stuck it on a carriage made from craft wood and a bit of putty, and made the "wheels" from some inverted plastic shields (and more putty).
The character in the upper left with the green-striped pants and red-striped shirt with the harpoon is the figure we've been using for Digital_Rampage's "Barnacle Ben" ex-whaler, until his Reaper model he ordered finally comes in and I get a chance to paint it for him. In the far upper-right, the bearded guy with the rifle is actually an old Mage Knight rifleman, but with its tiny lumpy head (the early Mage Knight minis weren't much for facial details) replaced with one of the spare head "bitz." Right next to him, the guy in the solid green pants is actually a HeroClix "Hawkman" figure with a substituted head, and with the wings removed. (I had gotten several Hawkman minis on the cheap a while back when they were on sale, simply so I could get the wings to make some conversions for harpies for my World of Warcraft campaign, once upon a time. The remaining bodies were perfectly fine for converting into pirates and such, once I replaced the head and touched up the back with putty to repair the area where the wings had been.)
Games Workshop State Troops as Sailors
Digital_Rampage got me a big box of "bitz" that actually had complete figures in it, from a gamer who was unloading a lot of his unfinished projects, in exchange for some miniatures painting of Imperial Guardsmen for 40K. Among these figures were Empire troops in tights and puffy sleeves and such - cannon crews, riflemen, crossbowmen, halberdiers, etc. I modified the figures slightly, as they had rather overly-large-and-pointy codpieces, but otherwise they seem to work well enough for sailors, though the dress would be more 15th century than 17th century, and hence probably better for a "Savage World of Solomon Kane" campaign rather than "Pirates of the Spanish Main." I will likely use them anyway as sailors and soldiers for some well-to-do ship. I have an easier time imagining that someone COULD be wearing costuming that's two centuries out of style, than to have characters dressed in outfits that are two centuries ahead of their time. ;)
The foreground cannon is a resin-cast piece that I got as part of a set in a "grab bag" deal, and I'm really not sure what it's from. I suspect it might be something from Grendel models, circa their "Leviathan" game, but I haven't seen anything like it produced amongst the Grendel remakes I've seen on Ebay.
Kitbashed Boars
Saturday night, I had a bit of a panic situation after my Savage Ghostbusters game. I realized that the "Double Crossbones" scenario I intended to run called for some boars in an encounter ... and I didn't have any! Well, I had ONE metal boar somewhere in my collection, but I couldn't find it in my "Animals" box, and I had one Digimon plastic figure that looked boar-ish, but that was about it. So, I dug around and found that I had some cheap plastic hippos and a rhino from a grab bag of plastic animals I'd picked up for the lions and giraffes and such for conversion purposes for my World of Warcraft campaign once upon a time. They were rather small (maybe 20mm scale?) to use as hippos or rhinos, but with a Dremel I could remove the big snouts, then use Magic Sculpt to fashion piggy snouts, tusks, cheek ruffs, and a "razorback" mane, to give a rough approximation of boars. The feet weren't right at all (they should be hooves, after all), but this was a rush job, so I just went with it.
Kitbashed Pirate Minotaur of the Maze with Cannon
At the last Amorous Armadillo Game Shoppe Bazaar, Digital_Rampage helped me bargain for a spare sprue of cannons and other bitz for some Ogre Kingdom ogres. I used a spare set of arms and a cannon to replace the arms of a "Minotaur of the Maze" Reaper mini I'd picked up a while back, then sculpted him some pants, an eye patch, and a tricorn hat. I painted a tattoo of a "sea cow" on his left shoulder, but the end result is so hard to pick out that it's really not worth the trouble to show off. This is not intended to actually be a crewmember in the game, though, who knows? Maybe there will be some strangeness if the action shifts from the Spanish Main to the Barbary Coast, and the heroes run into some supernatural strangeness somewhere near Crete....