Saturday, March 6, 2010

Two-Fisted Drummer

The Fuselli Fusiliers of Santa Sofia, commanded by Colonel Giuseppi "Big Joe" Fuselli. Trousers are yellow, although they can hardly be seen on most of the figures due to wearing their coattails down.
These are fusiliers from Foundry's new French SYW line. The drummer had 2 right hands, which I fixed by removing the thumb on his left hand and sculpting a new thumb on the correct side of the hand. I also corrected a decided lean to the right of some of the figures by sticking putty under one side of each when attaching them to the washers I base my figures on.

On an unrelated note:More inspiration for Colonial gaming. I just bought a collection of Robert E. Howard stories called "El Borak". Old adventure stories set in places like Afghanistan in the 1930's. A bit late in the Colonial era, but probably still a good source of ideas, atmosphere and inspiration.
Rumors of exotic lands discovered by adventurers from the Soweiter League and Batrachia?

7 comments:

justMike said...

Excellent painting. This is a great looking unit and a credit to it's regent. At the risk of ending this comment on a sour note, one wonders just what the Foundry uses as criteria for quality. It's not as if their minis are in any way, shape or form inexpensive. It's testamony to your talent that the regiment appears as good as it does. Wonderful work. - Mike (St. Maurice)

Bluebear Jeff said...

Well done, sir.


-- Jeff

Fitz-Badger said...

Thanks, guys!
It's a fair criticism, Mike. I seem to find more instances of the putty not being fully smoothed down so you can see where new putty has been added on some of their minis. I can usually correct that with a little filing and paint. But I do wonder if anyone looks closely at each green and at the casts (at least the master casts).
On the other hand I do like all the variety available from Foundry, not just the fighting troops, usually with some variations, but also the vignette pieces, civilians, animals and other bits and bobs.

abdul666 said...

Thumb up (the right one)!

Chris said...

Really nice painting! Also, on your last note -- interesting that you mentioned Robert E. Howard. I've been reading a lot of him myself recently (Conan though -- I've gone into a brief Fantasy interlude). I had never heard of El Borak before. If you paint or game anything based on that, I would certainly be interested in reading about any adventures that might occur in the "exotic lands discovered by adventurers from the Soweiter League and Batrachia"

abdul666 said...

Maybe your band of adventurers / little expeditionary force will have to deal with 'bad guys' from Bossa-Nova?

Will you go to the Indostan (Belchistan? Pukistan?) looking for the wisdom of Argatha, or else to the subsaharian chefferies that the like of Bongolesia, Zumata or Zumisia were by the mid-18th C. (to Afrodizia, maybe?) in search of the King Solomon's Mines and the Lost City of Ayesha? Or for the mysterious ruins in jungle-covered Uroguy? Any can be very 'pulpish'...

abdul666 said...

In *very remote* places of all continents, from the poles to the equator -even underground, your daring explorers will come to those mysterious megalithic ruins of greenish glassy stone. Ruins and mysterious they already were by the Hyborian Age -they are mentioned several times in the Nemedian Chronicles. The Palace of ancient Opar was built around such a block. The height of the ceilings and doors show that their builders were taller, and by far, than modern men. (Dream-induced?) legends describe them as blond giants with a stern face, high cheekbones, narrow chin, maybe slightly pointed ears -and very odd eyes. Scholars generally identify them with the Nephilim of the Scriptures. Yetis and Wendigos are said to have been their servitors.
Now, was not R'lyeh built of greenish glassy stone? Hard to tell, with all that ooze... And nobody ever lingered to investigate.