House of flying Cossacks

Now that I've posted my Halfling gang in the gallery section and made it look easy by condensing the whole process into a couple quick posts, I thought I'd start a project log for my new gang. I have had most of the figures for a while but was waiting on some bases I ordered before beginning. Now that they have arrived, it is officially a WIP!.

I'll be building this gang as a band of chinese bandit / warriors, sort of inspired by the warrior band The House of Flying Daggers, in the movies of the same name. I'll be using the Kislev list to play them.

First some inspiration:

Flying Daggers

I don't think I'll be doing them all green, but I will probably do largely strong rich colors, and have some thematic elements- probably a couple green in homage to the film, and then some with orange/red tops and black trousers perhaps. Heavy monochromatic themes will likely define the gang- as used also in Hero, and Curse of the Golden Flower.



Giant Image

Unfortunately some of the most exciting figures I could use for this are more modern 30-32mm, and won't really fit in well (Anima Tactics, WarCrow, Wyrd, etc), so I'll be using mostly historicals to flesh it out. I still think it will look great when it's done.

I just got my bases last night from DragonForge:



I've been checking out scenic bases from a lot of companies lately, and these are some of the nicest quality I've seen, now that I have them in my hands.

The only problem with using nice scenic bases is it means you have clean up and pin the feet of all the miniautres, which of course takes a while. An even longer while when you're using historical figs with integral flat bases, rather than tabs for slottas.

I worked last night and got about 80% of the bases cut down to the point where all thats left is the small amount directly under the foot. Experience has proven that this is difficult to saw or cut away without damaging the bottom of the foot. On a flocked base this can be covered up by putting grass next to the feet, but since these are going on stone bases, the feet will be visible, thus I want to make sure they look ok. I'll be finishing the last bit of metal removal with a dremel, so I can buzz it away from the sides and bottoom and (hopefully) not remove too much actual foot in the process. I'll upload some pictures of this process later tonight perhaps.

What figures am I actually using for this, and cutting the bases off of? You've been so patient, Ill finally share.

The general troops, and captain and streltsi with hand guns will be pulled from these sets:






Since my main opponent will be skaven, I figure a few cossaks are in order. Since they are supposed to be more grim, I decided to make them look like they are a distincitve sub-sect within the warband. I'll be using two of the armed monks from this pack- with the least samurai armour as possible (probably the two with their heads and faces covered), and with wide straw hats added:



For the bear tamer I've been stuck for a little while. I want something unique, but again, most of the other brands out there are larger than these Foundry and Perry figs linked above.

I think I'm going to settle for a /little/ size mismatch, in trade for a cool figure, and use this kuni witch hunter from the defunct Clan Wars game:

https://www.nobleknight.com/imagecode/resize.asp?filename=MEOL5RCB09.jpg

Not sure what I'll do with his staff... maybe a spear, or a big yari/halberd blade. I might put rings on the end and make it into a shaku-jo like buddhist monks carry. I think that might look pretty neat. The figure has a sword on his back, so I wouldn't feel too bad having him look neat, even if I'll more often fight with his non-halberd weapon.

The bear is from reaper, and is going to take some work to resculpt the head to look more appropriate. Because of course it needs to be a panda.

Anyway, I've got almost all the figures ready.. once I get the feet cleaned up and mounted on the new bases I'll be doing the weapon conversions. Adding in some extra hand weapons, bows, and scabbards etc.

Not only is this more work than the halfling band, but now it's summer, and I have a million other things vieing for my spare time, so I wouldn't be suprised if this takes a lot longer to complete. I'll try and keep this updated, and hopefully that will also help to keep the motivation going to stay with the project.

Cheers!

YES! A fellow Froundry man!,good too meet ya!
Witch guy are you going too use for DCaptain?

I may use General Li Shimin from the CH1 pack above. Even though he's less bandity I think it makes sense to have the leader be in more fancy gear than his followers. My other thought would be to opt for the more bandity look, and go with the guy with the beard on the left.



I tend to like action poses more than the standing around ones, but I might be able to give him a sword upright in his right hand with a little conversion work. If he had the wide brimmed hat with that long beard coming out from underneath, I think he might look pretty cool. What do you reckon?

I also have the lady on the left here:



Who is an awesome figure. I'd planned to make her the Esaul in the warband as she looks more like a bad-ass fighter than a leader. Especially when she has a second sword in a reverse grip out in front.

Whaddya think?

The more I look at things, I'm sure now that Mr. Beardy dude from the bandit pack needs to be the gange leader.

Just incase anyone was curious.

Just some preliminary work on the gang:

The first one cleaned all the way up and integral base removed. Pinned to a resin base, and added the axe for extra hand weapon which looks adequately choppy I think.



And I'm going to need a few extra hats too, so I'll try and make an extra one or two:

Well I think the beard and hat would look cool
And could you make the beard nice and bushy
And what about a fu man chu mustash too go along with it?

You certainly are putting a lot of thought into your War Band; this should pay dividends in the final product. NICE choice of minis; the Warrior Babe is REALLY cool. If you're planning on GSing it, I vote for a long wispy beard with a Foomanchu moustache...for whatever that's worth .
The bases ROCK! Keep up the GOOD WORK!

just a small update here- I've got most of the tabs ground down off the minis and am working on filing away the last of it without ruining the
sculpting on the feet. Each time I get a set of feet done, and the rest of the model cleaned and mold lines filed as needed, I get it glued to one of the bases, and do any requisite weapon conversions. So far, I have 4 done. Slow progress, but it has been a very busy summer- mostly painting my house- and no time for minis.

I've also had good success with the hat mold shown above. I think now everyone has a hat that needs one:

That's a really cool trick with the mold. Are you just pressing uncured green stuff into a well-lubed, cured green stuff mold?

Yep. I coat it with vegetable oil to keep them from fusing together. Then trim it up with a blade, and rough it up to match the straw pattern at the edges.

Small update! I finished 5 more figures today- weapons swaps/additions, and basing.

Two of my favorites of the batch are the warrior monks. They will be used as Cossaks in the kislev list. The figures are Perry Bros with 2handed weapons from Wyrd Miniatures fantasy weapons pack:



I finished a couple regular henchmen too.

My goodness my gracious, it only took me like 9 months, but I finally got some paint on this gang. :)Only two so far, my monks:I'm shooting for a middle of the road paintjob. I want them to look nice, but I also want to get them on the board before summer. I seem to have a lot less time to paint lately, so if I'm going to get them done that means I need to hurry up a spell. Probably tackle the two youths next.

Wow! Nice paintjob! Worth to wait so long for it, I think

VERY NICE! The choice of colors is EXCELLENT...especially the robes. VERY WELL DONE!

This warband is going to look great when completed. I like your choice of models and color scheme, both.

Yellow? I didn't expect that

turned out very well I must say. Love how you a lot of effort in the details as well.
Keep painting like this, it's great!

Those look great! Hadn't expected them to turn out so well when looking at the mini packs you posted in the beginning. You have a good eye for seeing the hidden potential of a mini!

Thanks for the kind words all. @Mithras - I hemmed and hawed and scoured the internet a fair bit before deciding on these, so I was /reasonably/ sure they'd do what I had in mind, but thanks for the compliment. Its always nice to get a little reassurance, eh? ;)Next up, two youths. They don't have full status in the gang yet, so I painted them without uniformss- just assuming they'd wear whatever they had when they were recruited. The left one had some weirdness in the casting going on around the eyes, and that was hard to cover up or fix, but whatever. We'll just say the lad's got personality.

I love the way you paint their clothes, looks professional
I think the whole warband will be great.

You have a VERY NICE touch with the blending of shades & choice of colors. The bases look TERRIFIC. VERY WELL DONE!

Wow.. awesome mini' selection!! great paint job! and I love what you did with the hats.
Keep up the good job and keep us updated!

Great addition! The guy with the "deformity" does fit Mordheim I think. You could think up some fluff for him, how he was so miserable being bullied by his family that he left home to look for fortune elsewhere. And that he was then picked up by the gangs leader etc...

A couple updates! The main batch of figures is getting along well: most of the clothing is done, hats are done, just working through weapons and details. This is the style that the majority of them will be getting:



I've also picked up a few Alkemy figs. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to convert them, but some careful work with a pinvise has got me closer to what I want. These are a bit exotic, but I'm doing them as special characters - if I want to hire an assassin or pit fighter, I'll use these suitably menacing looking specialists:



I'm pretty happy with the swords. The conversion isn't flawless but given the delicateness and size of their resin hands, I'm pleased that I got it down to this level at all.

Since my camera was having trouble focusing on the blank plastic, here's what the Shadow of the Cobra guard look like originally:




I think they'll be a challenge to paint, but I couldn't pass up the figs. Back the green pajamas this weekend, hopefully more substantial updates before too long.

I friggin LOVE the straw hats you made
A great idea, and a great looking warband!

The guys in green are superb! I really like the shading-bending of green tones you used on the clothing, very asiatic-like, reminds me of some chinese army uniforms you see in movies.

And the Alkemy figure it's just magnifcent, lots of style and a meanecing pose!