Today we have an update on the peasants. They are progressing quickly as their are much less finicky with their details and layers compared to the Longhats. You can find photos of the completed Longhats in the previous article.
They are armed with flails. The choice of flails for the peasants comes from prints of the german peasant revolts feature peasants armed with flails and similar prints from the Swiss Peasant War featuring two handed clubs. They differ from most of the normal gnomes in in that their garb is tattered and a few have holes in their shoes :( Otherwise they have a similar aesthetic to the rest of the gnome range and shouldn't appear out of place.
I am aiming for 6 rank and file poses and 3 command poses.
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| The first 4 rank and file poses are coming along swiftly. |
I am thinking the standard bearer will have a boot atop his banner like the german peasants' Bundschuh. But I'm open to ideas :) What would gnomish peasants put atop their flag?
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| Once the Longhats were done I started the rest of the peasant gnomes. |
The giants are still being worked on. They are nearly completed and I will be transitioning to making knick knacks for them.
Looking good Byron! I think the flail is a good peasant weapon, but will there be no scythes/pitchforks/wood chopping axes etc? I imagine the peasants to have picked up whatever weapons they had to hand and would not be as uniformly armed as the regular soldiers (although they might all have just been out threshing when the bugle called I suppose)?
ReplyDeleteI like the boot standard idea. An alternative might be something that reflects the peasants' agricultural background - a wheatsheaf or a sickle perhaps? Looking forward to the next update!
JeeEff
That's a good point. I try to sculpt my minis to work well for tabletop wargaming. To me, that means I try to sculpt my "units" to have similar weapons so they can be fielded as a cohesive unit. There are a lot of "adventurer" ranges of gnomes where they have all manner of equipment, and I'm trying to sculpt my gnomes to fit the wargaming market more than the adventurer market.
ReplyDeleteRight now, I am still thinking up the poses for the villager stretch goal. Villagers, as I imagine them, aren't meant to be fielded as a cohesive unit, but more as battlefield decoration or baggage train attendants.
These are my villager ideas so far:
Beggar, Old man, Cobbler, juggler, 2 kids, mushroom farmer, and a goatherd.
But I could maybe throw in a gnome or two holding the tools you mention :)
OR! Or! I just had another idea, since most of the flails are on hafts and most of the poses leave the haft unobstructed, I could just sculpt up some pitchfork tines, axe heads, and scythe blades. Folks who were inclined could just clip the flails off and glue the different heads on. Is that a good idea?
That idea would suit me very well! I know some game systems work on the basis that all members of a unit are identically armed, but I am likely to use these guys for something like Dragon Rampant where I just need to decide what general type of unit they are ("Ravenous Horde" is probably best suited to untrained peasants) and the precise type of weapon held by each figure does not affect the game.
DeleteI like the villager ideas too (I'm curious to see what a mushroom farmer looks like!). Other ideas for you to consider/ discard as you see fit: Butcher, Burgomeister/village headman (with mayoral necklace?), old lady gnome knitting a gnomish hat, and what about a circus style "Stronggnome"?
JeeEff
Gotta run the various tools by Jamie first. Moulds are very expensive and having an alternative tool mould might never prove profitable. I'm not a business partner, just a freelance sculptor. My understanding is it's about 70 quid per mould and he would have to do a master mould then a production mould, setting us back 140 quid just on moulds. Depending on the accessory kit price he might have to sell hundreds just to eek out a profit :/ The margins are pretty small. I just sculpt as a mildly compensated hobbyist. I mostly do it for fun and to develop my sculpting skills with new challenges. (Chains are hard!)
DeleteI like the idea of the old lady knitting the hat. That is wholesome and good, and brings attention to the fact that someone has to make all those hats. I've been thinking about a gnomish mayor for some time - the aesthetics of a gnome merchant type have been hard to conceptualize. (I have tens of google docs filled with different gnomish concepts hahaha gnomes for decades!)
I like the butcher idea too, that would be straightforward to do. (aesthetically I am also trying to stay away from food related items, not because gnomes don't eat, but because food is halfling territory. I put a lot of thought into differentiating the gnomes from traditional halfling tropes and also Dwarves. Hence the focus on melee units, the use of crossbows. and "professional" soldiers as opposed to the traditional militia rabble associated with halflings, while also avoiding the hammer and axes of the dwarves.It can be a hard string to threat sometimes. )
I understand that the additional weapon heads may not be commercially viable, you have at least pointed out that it is theoretically possible to convert the odd flail to a pitchfork or scythe with something from the spares box if I was so inclined.
ReplyDeleteYour comments on the aesthetics are interesting, and I appreciate the thought that has gone into this project. And now I don't want Gnomes armed with axes anymore! Keep up the good work!
JeeEff
Hahaha! Yeah, It's a very narrow aesthetic niche. Thanks again for your comments. I really like the knitting old lady idea. That's a keeper. :)
DeleteSome great looking miniatures coming along Byron. The comments by followers are interesting in themselves. An Old Lady knitting on a fallen log would be lovely. Keep up the excellent work.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Helen