I had hoped to finish the (first or possibly only) highlander and post him this week but too much is happening, I'm afraid, so it will be next week that he appears. Doing the tartan pattern on the kilt is going to be really entertaining (not)! I'll probably do him with the cut-down kilt worn on campaign and not have all that tartan drapery attached to the left shoulder that so many prints show. Otherwise I think instant insanity would follow from trying to draw the tartan round all the curves involved. Or should I simply draw the shape of the kilt and leave the tartan out entirely? That way, it would be done far more quickly and people could then have the fun of drawing their own tartan from scratch. :-) I'll be interested to see if I get any responses to that question!
I had also thought of doing 3 variants: 1) A highlander of the 78th Fraser's Highlanders and 2,3) a grenadier and private soldier of the 42nd Highlanders (with a much more complex uniform than the the 78th's). Any feelings on that? If I get no or little response, I'll probably just do the simpler 78th uniform. In fact, I think I'll post a poll on it! :-)
Being a uniform and flag design service to wargamers and to the imaginary crowned heads of 17th and 18th Century Europe, especially of the Seven Years War period - now By Appointment to the Court of Saxe-Bearstein! (But please note that the uniforms and flags presented here are not fictional - they are genuine 17th and 18th Century uniforms and flags that are as authentic as I can make them from my sources.)
I don't see any problem with doing the cut-down kilt. For those of us using them as illustrations, if we happen to paint some figures in full tartan drapery, it's still going to be the same pattern as the cut-down kilt part.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it's necessary to draw the tartan either. Tartans can vary in the width and spacing of the pattern.
ReplyDeleteYou could always start with the simpler 78th and do the others as/if if strikes your fancy.
Now I just need to find a source of Highlanders that fit in with the rest of my Foundry minis. I might have to go with ECW era lads, since I'm not sure Foundry has 18th century Highlanders. Well, it's not as if I don't have plenty of other lead waiting to be prepped and painted!
Scots in skirts? Russians? Where are the French uniform plates?
ReplyDeleteWe of Stagonia are quickly losing all thoughts of sympathy for you Tippelbruders.
Think carefully about the consequences of flouting our kind request.
Gallia looms as a very large potential market, which you are ignoring. Others also follow the French tradition.
We know that you've been pleading for the cast-off scummy troops of some of your neighbors . . . do you really think that they can stand up to the might of Stagonia?
Forget the skirt-wearing Scots and rude Russians and get on with the uniforms of the great!
(note tied to a paving stone thrown through one of the shop windows.)
I would concur with the drawing of the simpler uniform and leaving the kilt blank.
ReplyDeleteThese can always be "upgraded" later if necessary . . . but what I suspect that most of us want is simply something with which to test color combinations . . . we don't need super detail.
-- Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein
Thanks for the feedback, folks. No time to answer in detail at the moment as it's very late and time for a quick meal and bed. But I'll ponder what you've said and reply later, probably tomorrow if possible.
ReplyDeleteDavid.
And as for those Stagonians - they're not very popular in Tippelbruder at the moment, as you can imagine, so inflammatory notes thrown through windows are not helping! Anyone even smelling very slightly of Stagonia in the streets of Tippelbruder is likely to be lynched right now... And if there are agents of Stagonia trying to stir up trouble in the town, they should beware. A new gallows is abuilding. ;-)
I don't think you can only smell "very slightly" of Stagonia. I think "reek" would be a more fitting term, as in the well-known phrase "reeks like a Stagonian Vile Boar". (From the Stagonian Phrasebook for Travailers; "of coarse, sometimes another term that rhymes with Boar is substituted")
ReplyDeleteI think that's a bit unfair to the noble boar, FB, but I get your point... ;-) I think by now anyone with the slightest sympathy for Stagonia in Tippelbruder has been run out of town or is in very deep hiding indeed. But we will flush them all out in time.
ReplyDeleteDavid.