The Three Musketeers - The Flowergirl

Next update is another Lemax conversion for the Musketeers project, and one I'm particularly stoked with as I think it worked really well.

The starting model is Lemax' violet girl, which for once was really well cast and sculpted with really good, fine details. As usual, the paint was splashed on in the general direction of the figure (official pic below is flattering). From the start, I thought this model had a lot of potential for converting to the 17th century (it's practically perfect) and I looked at some pictures of 17th century clothing before deciding on the colourscheme. In fact, she's so perfect that I no longer feel the tomato vendor is good enough to use in this setting, so I may relocate that one to some other project.

 

 

I wasn't originally going to keep the flowers purple, but since I painted those almost last, I more or less painted myself into a corner by already using all the other likely colours on her clothing. No complaints though, I think it worked out well. I also went for brighter colours on this one rather than the drab colours of the others and I think it worked out for the best, so I'll keep going in this direction.

Buy my pretty flowers. They come with a kiss.

I think the paintjob's match to the King & Country figures is as good as it's going to get with my skills. She doesn't stand out next to them as someone who doesn't belong. Size is perfect too, only minor niggle is the thickness of her base, but I did my best to at least round off the edges to make it less noticeable. 

"Some pretty flowers for your lady, Milord?"

"According to my book, those plants are the mark of a witch!" - "Look, I don't want any trouble..."

The Three Musketeers - The Witchfinder General himself

Another character just arrived in the mail that got me a bit excited to post as it's another great sculpt from King and Country: Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General himself. Lots of lovely detail in this figure. Perhaps he doesn't look quite evil or cruel enough, but then I think he probably didn't think of himself as evil either. 

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil...

Here he has joined the preacher and other members of his faction (though it's still possible the two flamboyant figures on the right are split off from this group and assigned to another faction instead).

Get the witch!

The Three Musketeers - Red Guard Number 3 added

I've added a third Red Guard figure to the collection (and at present the last variant being produced by K&C, though I hope they will add more in the future). Like the other standalone guard, this one's armed with a musket. On the official pictures, his head looks a bit oversized, which is why I kept this one for last, but it's much better in the flesh (hard to take good pictures of for some reason though).

I'm just going to stand here and try and look natural...

He has joined his brethren, taking the Cardinal's faction up to five:

Look at all those nice primary colours...

The Three Musketeers - The King's Gardens - Part 3

No update on the fountain (though I did invest in some water effects products and ordered some clear fishing line, so that's progress of sorts).

What I did manage to finish is another repaint of a Lemax item for the garden, this time a bird bath. Promotional picture of the original item below, I should stress that they don't look like that in the stores. Casting flaws and shoddy painting (the birds were three dirty coloured blobs on mine) means they need a bit of TLC to get there.

False advertising at work...

After texturing the base to match the K&C figures and patching up any major casting flaws, I decided to ditch the unrealistic red, blue and yellow and try and give the birds a colourfull pattern that could be found in nature too.  After some googling, I ended up with this:

I may have overdone it a bit...

And for good measure (and indication of size, the King on a stroll in his garden (with a watchful musketeer in the back to keep an eye on him in case the pretty birds get angry)...

My, aren't you pretty lovelies?

The Three Musketeers - The King's Gardens - Part 2

A small update on the fountain and some new topiaries. The fountain has been dismantled, most of the unseemly glue has been removed and I've started filling holes etc... You can see in the pic that one of the statues broke, but it came like that (second hand model) and will be glued back on when it's time to start painting. I noticed the bottom wasn't quite level, so I raised it on one side and puttied it up, so it's more level now. I still need to sand the stand for the centerpiece for good measure and then it should sit straight as it should. I've removed the oversized clear tubing (it felt greasy anyway) and will make some replacement tubing from rolls of putty (a small test piece can be seen in the second pic. Loads to do still, but it looks heaps better already.

Another experimental purchase were the Lemax items seen below. The bird bath is still being worked on, but I did a test piece with one of the topiaries and it came out well, I think. 

Before and after comparison:

Basically I painted over the snow with green paint, covered it in watered down pva glue and dipped that in a bag of coarse flock and let it sit overnight. Then just a matter of carefully brushing and shaking off most of the excess and let some thin glue dripple over it.

And a picture for size. I think they can make pretty useful scenic items and they really cost peanuts.

The Three Musketeers - The Nun

In my quest to find suitable figures, both in size and period feel to use as 17th century civilians, I turned my hand at another Lemax figure conversion, this time of their mother superior figure.

I may be short, but I'm still feeling superior...

This one had the right look and bulk, but was quite short. So I decided to snip off the sides of the base and extend her robes over the edge. Then it would be a simple matter of making a new base to add some height. Which brought us to this:

I did not see that coming

Once painting began, I noticed the casting on the figure was really rough (and my greenstuff work wasn't as smooth as it looked before priming), so in the end I'm not too happy with the result as it's a bit rougher than I'd like. Still, it's serviceable until I decide to try again with another copy of the figure and do a bit more prep time (a good sanding of the robes might have been a good idea).

I went with brownish robes. Both brown and black would work for the period, but I wanted to distance her from the original paint scheme, so she'd look like a proper figure in her own right. Here she is posing with the handsome Aramis:

"Oh my, that looks awfully sharp, my son."

Front, back and sides

"What does a cardinal need to carry a sword for anyway?"

The Three Musketeers - The Witchfinder General Faction Overview

During the chaos of wartorn Europe, the Witchfinder General was free to roam the English country side in his hunt for those who were rumoured to cavort with the devil. While not a part of Dumas' stories, it is only a small stretch to bring his emergence forward a decade or so and have him interact with the Louis XIV era France.

In this post I will try to keep a complete list of the figures in the "Witchfinder General" faction. It will be updated with new pictures as and when I add to the collection.

The collection so far...

1. The Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins

Source: King and Country - PnM072 - The Witchfinder General

2. The Preacher, second in command to the Witchfinder General

Source: King and Country - PnM054 - The preacher (partly repainted)

3. Captain of the Witchfinders

Source: King and Country - PnM017 - Parliamentary Gun Commander

4. Witchfinder thugs

Source: King and Country - PnM065 - English Civil War Duellists 

5. Witchfinder musketeers

To be added...


And a look at some of the models before their paintjobs were touched up to match their occupation and tie them together:

The Three Musketeers - Cardinal's Red Guard Faction

The Red Guard are to the Cardinal what the Musketeers are to the King. Despite their political allegiance, they are all soldiers of France. Their numbers count both honourable men as ruthless rogues and killers.

In this post I will try to keep a complete list of the figures in the "Cardinal's Red Guard" faction for the Musketeers project. It will be updated with new pictures as and when I add to the collection.

The collection so far...

1. Le Cardinal de Richelieu, Armand Jean du Plessis de Richelieu

Source: King and Country - PnM039 - The Cardinal

2. Le Comte de Rochefort

Source: King and Country - PnM051 - Le Comte De Rochefort

3. Milady de Winter

Source: King and Country - PnM075 - Milady de Winter

4. Red Guards with muskets

Source: King and Country - PnM061 - The Cardinal’s Guard with Musket at the Ready

Source: King and Country - PnM060 - The Cardinal’s Guard with Shouldered Musket

5. Red Guards with swords

Source: King and Country - PnM064 - The King's Duellists

The Three Musketeers - King's Musketeer Faction Overview

The Musketeers of the Guard are the King's elite bodyguard during the 17th century. Their main duty is to protect the King, and by extension the Queen. They maintain an ongoing rivalry with Cardinal Richelieu's Red Guards, often ending in tavern brawls in the evenings or (illegal) duels at the light of dawn.

In this post I will try to keep a complete list of the figures in the "King's Musketeers" faction. It will be updated with new pictures as and when I add to the collection.

The collection so far...

1. The King, His Majesty Louis the XIII. Wearing his battlefield armour (his Musketeers make sure it doesn't see a lot of use).

Source: King and Country - PnM020x - King Charles I

2. Monsieur de Tréville, Captain of the Musketeers

3. The Three Musketeers and the country boy: Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d'Artagnan

Source: King and Country - PnM032 - The 3 Musketeers & D’Artagnan

Athos, aka le comte de la Fère

Porthos

Aramis

Charles d'Artagnan

4. More musketeers

Source: King and Country - PnM064 - The King's Duellists

5. Planchet

The Three Musketeers - Tomatos for the Red Guard

65mm civilian figures for the 17th century are hard to come by and so far, there is only one available in the King & Country Pike and Musket range. So one has to be creative and source other figures that have the right potential. In this case, I took a gamble. I knew the Lemax christmas figures had the right size and bulk to fit with the larger K&C models, but could they be made to look like? The apple vendor looked like she was fairly period neutral and would work well in the 17th century. 

A promotional picture of the donor figure. Mine wasn't as well painted...

Matching the K&C painting style closely enough to make it fit in was a bit of a challenge. I didn't succeed completely but I think it's close enough to use. The skintones I picked ended up being a bit more pink than the K&C figures, so I will amend the recipe on the next ones. I do worry that I made the colours a bit too drab in my attempt to make her look like someone from the poorer class. The apple vendor also gained a few years and became a tomato vendor instead.

"What... what did you do to me? I feel old..."

On the next pictures, the base was still unfinished as it still needed the above pictured changes to fit in with the K&C figures. :

"Are you going to finish that?"

Sizewise it's a very good fit as can be seen from her posing with young d'Artagnan here:

Buy some tomatos, milord?

"They look awfully ripe, good woman." - "All the better, in a few days time they'll be perfect for chucking at the cardinal's guards, milord." - "... I'll take ten."

And a quick side by side:

You say apple, I say tomato...