villagehorse
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 15,718
Such a considerate King, thinking of others.^&grin. Good use of this figure WK. Robin.
WK's Three Musketeers collection (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter White Knight
- Start date
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
This may cost me some fans, but I went and changed the sleeves on some of the witchhunter figures (not on the Witchfinder General himself so far) to be black. I'm still not sure it was the right way to go, as they were so nice before, but along with the original buff coats it does give them a nice sense of uniformity and a more sober puritan look. Will take pictures when light allows.
villagehorse
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 15,718
That's a scary thing to do, let's hope it works out. Robin.
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
Finally managed to get some pictures of my paint touch-ups on the Witchfinders. I didn't touch the Witchfinder general, as he's allowed to stand out, but I did touch up the other members of his faction to better reflect their grim occupation. So, I can now present the updated Witchfinder expedition:
The group shot:
The Preacher
Most of the Witchfinder General's henchmen are merely hired thugs, men of little moral integrity with a penchant for cruelty, but some, like the Preacher, are true zealots. A bonafide man of the fate, the General's right hand man truly believes in the holy mission. An otherwise kind and intelligent man, he will not hesitate to unleash his righteous fury on those he is led to believe are the spawn of Satan. A complex individual and a great swordsman to boot.
This characterful model is another King and Country ECW figure. As with the others in this faction, I took the liberty to make a few changes to better reflect the grim nature of his occupation. The colourful red and yellow striped sleeves were replaced with a more sobre black.
The Captain of the Witchfinders
Originally a King and Country Parliamentary Gun Commander, he's the most extensive repaint as in addition to the sleeves, his dark blue trousers were repainted to match the others and his orange sash was darkened to match the red on the other figures.
The Witchfinder's thugs
More black added. The one with sword and pistol had a highlight added to his trousers to make it match the others even more.
And a small reminder of what most of these looked like before. They were fine models as they were, but I think they make for a more coherent force now, without becoming too dull.
The group shot:
The Preacher
Most of the Witchfinder General's henchmen are merely hired thugs, men of little moral integrity with a penchant for cruelty, but some, like the Preacher, are true zealots. A bonafide man of the fate, the General's right hand man truly believes in the holy mission. An otherwise kind and intelligent man, he will not hesitate to unleash his righteous fury on those he is led to believe are the spawn of Satan. A complex individual and a great swordsman to boot.
This characterful model is another King and Country ECW figure. As with the others in this faction, I took the liberty to make a few changes to better reflect the grim nature of his occupation. The colourful red and yellow striped sleeves were replaced with a more sobre black.
The Captain of the Witchfinders
Originally a King and Country Parliamentary Gun Commander, he's the most extensive repaint as in addition to the sleeves, his dark blue trousers were repainted to match the others and his orange sash was darkened to match the red on the other figures.
The Witchfinder's thugs
More black added. The one with sword and pistol had a highlight added to his trousers to make it match the others even more.
And a small reminder of what most of these looked like before. They were fine models as they were, but I think they make for a more coherent force now, without becoming too dull.
villagehorse
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 15,718
Agree WK, they look better in these colours with a common theme brings them into a tight mean group.
:salute::, Robin.
:salute::, Robin.
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
Thanks, fellows! I'm happy with the result, so future members of the Witchfinder expedition will get the same treatment.
Cheers
WK
Cheers
WK
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
The Duke of Buckingham's guards don't have it easy. His escapades onto French territory frequently put him in harm's way (the things we do for love) and these seasoned veterans are sworn to protect him with their lives. This mounted guard is one of the best shots with a musket to be found in England and as such has the privilege to accompany his Duke on those voyages.
The model is a touched up King and Country ECW figure. I painted the buff coat green, so that he'd be a better fit to the colourful Duke's guards and to avoid confusion with the Witchfinder faction. He has one eye closed, which I also touched up as the original paintjob had his eyelashes at the same height as the open eye, where it should be lower for a closed eye. For some reason, the highlights on the green look a bit stark on the back, they are fine in real life.
The Duke and his bodyguards, so far:
The Duke and his guards get into a confrontation with the Witchfinder General and his thugs, who've been overstepping their boundaries lately...
The model is a touched up King and Country ECW figure. I painted the buff coat green, so that he'd be a better fit to the colourful Duke's guards and to avoid confusion with the Witchfinder faction. He has one eye closed, which I also touched up as the original paintjob had his eyelashes at the same height as the open eye, where it should be lower for a closed eye. For some reason, the highlights on the green look a bit stark on the back, they are fine in real life.
The Duke and his bodyguards, so far:
The Duke and his guards get into a confrontation with the Witchfinder General and his thugs, who've been overstepping their boundaries lately...
villagehorse
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 15,718
Always a imaginative story line WK. You are having lots of fun altering the paint schemes, but they look very professional and continue to enhance, so keep up your excellent work. Robin.
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
Thank you, gentlemen. It's going to take a while for the next update of this thread as I'm working on something special that's going to need a lot of hours put in to complete. 
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
It's been a long time without updates, and last time I announced something special, so hopefully this one will be worth it. There are a lot of things I'm not so happy with, but nonetheless, I can now present the King's carriage.
A King always travels in style and none has more style in abundance than King Louis of France. Covered in the royal fleur de lys heraldry, the King's presence is clearly announced and all who witness this carriage's passing will know it holds an important member of the Royal household, most likely the King himself. Not so good for visits to one of the King's mistresses, but no doubt he has more discrete carriages at his disposal should such a need arise.
The King descends from his carriage and is greeted by the Cardinal under the watchful eyes of his faithful musketeers.
The model is based on a Lemax victorian carriage with a heavily modified rider. The casting and painting on the original model was very bad and I did my best to improve it, but some casting flaws were beyond repair. The ugly thread reins were replaced with florist wire. The driver was completely resculpted to wear the King's livery. His hat was donated by a 54mm figure, with some added sculpting to enlarge it. The decals are from an old Warhammer Bretonnian sheet.
The King and Queen returning from a short ride in the King's carriage, still blushing from the... um... excitement.
The downside of announcing the identity of the passengers is having to deal with the occasional assassination attempt.
A King always travels in style and none has more style in abundance than King Louis of France. Covered in the royal fleur de lys heraldry, the King's presence is clearly announced and all who witness this carriage's passing will know it holds an important member of the Royal household, most likely the King himself. Not so good for visits to one of the King's mistresses, but no doubt he has more discrete carriages at his disposal should such a need arise.
The King descends from his carriage and is greeted by the Cardinal under the watchful eyes of his faithful musketeers.
The model is based on a Lemax victorian carriage with a heavily modified rider. The casting and painting on the original model was very bad and I did my best to improve it, but some casting flaws were beyond repair. The ugly thread reins were replaced with florist wire. The driver was completely resculpted to wear the King's livery. His hat was donated by a 54mm figure, with some added sculpting to enlarge it. The decals are from an old Warhammer Bretonnian sheet.
The King and Queen returning from a short ride in the King's carriage, still blushing from the... um... excitement.
The downside of announcing the identity of the passengers is having to deal with the occasional assassination attempt.
villagehorse
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2010
- Messages
- 15,718
It has been a very long time since you have posted WK. This is a fine piece you have resurrected with what sounds like an extraordinary amount of work. You would have to be happy with the end result. Always a pleasure to view your work.:salute::, Robin.
King & Country
Captain
- Joined
- May 23, 2005
- Messages
- 5,043
Totally agree with your comments Robin....Our friend in Belgium has done a superb conversion job on that little coach and the figures.
Very well done ans congratulations!
Andy.
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
Thank you for your kind words, especially from two such esteemed gentlemen as yourself.
Andy, perhaps you might feel inspired to add a coach to the Three Musketeers/ECW range at some stage? Maybe a more generic one that can be used for the Kings of France or England, the Cardinal or Milady, etc...
For now, the Lemax model is spot on sizewise, the horses are in line with the King and Country ones. My main complaint with it is the abysmal casting quality. I filled the largest casting bubbles, but some small ones still remain. There are some casting flaws on the surface of some of the panels that I couldn't correct because the material is rather thin there. I tried it on one window and discovered it was hollow underneath and left a hole I had to fill.
I did hesitate about making it this specific with the adidtion of the French King's heraldry,but I couldn't get that image out of my mind once it took root there.
Here is a comparison with the base Lemax model, though that is a promotional picture and my actual production model didn't look anywhere near this clean, with paint that looked slapped on by a five year old and resin that was riddled with rough surfaces and casting bubble holes.
Andy, perhaps you might feel inspired to add a coach to the Three Musketeers/ECW range at some stage? Maybe a more generic one that can be used for the Kings of France or England, the Cardinal or Milady, etc...
For now, the Lemax model is spot on sizewise, the horses are in line with the King and Country ones. My main complaint with it is the abysmal casting quality. I filled the largest casting bubbles, but some small ones still remain. There are some casting flaws on the surface of some of the panels that I couldn't correct because the material is rather thin there. I tried it on one window and discovered it was hollow underneath and left a hole I had to fill.
I did hesitate about making it this specific with the adidtion of the French King's heraldry,but I couldn't get that image out of my mind once it took root there.
Here is a comparison with the base Lemax model, though that is a promotional picture and my actual production model didn't look anywhere near this clean, with paint that looked slapped on by a five year old and resin that was riddled with rough surfaces and casting bubble holes.
Mirof
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2013
- Messages
- 1,625
You can not put a Lemax figurine at the same quality level of any other Toys Soldiers makers
They are usualy sold at X Mass time to make a festive village, a figurine costing less than 5 US$
The horse drawn coach you show, was called " The Duchess Arrives "
see here
https://www.lemaxcollection.com/enhancements/entertainment/the-duchess-arrives--set-of-2-73309
and was costing something arround 30 US$
the kind of resine used is polyresine and highly breakable
The only one I know of, is the Emperor coach by Historex but is far to "modern" for Louis XIII period ( first half of XVII cent )
Best
They are usualy sold at X Mass time to make a festive village, a figurine costing less than 5 US$
The horse drawn coach you show, was called " The Duchess Arrives "
see here
https://www.lemaxcollection.com/enhancements/entertainment/the-duchess-arrives--set-of-2-73309
and was costing something arround 30 US$
the kind of resine used is polyresine and highly breakable
The only one I know of, is the Emperor coach by Historex but is far to "modern" for Louis XIII period ( first half of XVII cent )
Best
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
You get what you pay for of course. I wasn't expecting to get the same quality and if you check my other threads, you'll see I've repurposed a lot of Lemax figures for different projects with some clean-up and repaints, so I have a lot of experience with them. This model was just especially bad compared to most of the others.
https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/showthread.php?63988-WK-s-Victorian-Horror-collection
https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/showthread.php?63331-WK-s-Robin-Hood-collection
https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/showthread.php?63988-WK-s-Victorian-Horror-collection
https://forum.treefrogtreasures.com/showthread.php?63331-WK-s-Robin-Hood-collection
Mirof
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2013
- Messages
- 1,625
Some years ago, I bought some Lemax myself; home/shops with lights, singing dwarves, musicians, Santa claus, a horses drawn FD coach, a gazebo, a small bridge, lights, adding some more each years; for the pleasure of my grandson, now of my granddaughters, soon for the next one(s) and let's hope in some years a grandgrandson/daughter. Their eyes sparkling, the smile on their faces, fascinated by the small blinking lights of the X Mass tree, discovering new personnage each year ( 1 or 2) , detailling what is in the windows of the shops .
Best
White Knight
Specialist
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2017
- Messages
- 386
Monsieur de Tréville, real name Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Comte de Troisville, was the respected captain of the musketeers guarding Louis XIII. A close adviser to the King, he is a man of great honour and integrity. He inspires loyalty in his men and gives it back without reserve. Possibly the embodiment of the musketeers' motto "One for all and all for one!".
Captain de Tréville flanked by the musketeers Aramis, Porthos and Athos
As he is based on a King and Country prepainted figure, I only did some minor painting on him to turn him into the good captain. Therefore, I can take little credit for the final figure.
The Captain is a minor modification of the King and Country Gustavus Adolphus mini. It was chosen due to the colours of the model being a close match for the Musketeer uniform. It only needed a change of hair and the addition of the musketeer cross on the back of the cape. While I'm fine converting the cheaper Lemax figures myself, I wanted this model to be perfect, so I enlisted professional sculptor Ian Mountain, whom I had worked with before, to make the conversion. I then proceeded to paint it to match the rest of the figure. With the changes, he no longer looks obviously like Gustavus, at least to my eye.
I wanted to give the impression of greying hair to his flowing locks to indicate his seniority.
"Sire, I have this urgent missive for you."
"What is it? Is Spain on the move again?"
Frequent duels between musketeers and red guards were a regular point of contention between the Cardinal and the Captain.
"Your musketeers were caught duelling again!You must punish them!"
"I will look into it and give them their just deserts."
"I heard you disobeyed the prohibition of duelling again and fought the Cardinal's guards?"
"Yes, my captain, but..."
"Silence! I only want to hear one thing out of you... Did you win?"
"We did, sir!"
"Good."
"This is d'Artagnan, captain. He's the one who bested and injured Monsieur de Jussac in single combat."
"No small feat. I hear you want to become a musketeer, boy?"
"More than anything, captain!"
"Well, at least you're a Gascon."
As he is based on a King and Country prepainted figure, I only did some minor painting on him to turn him into the good captain. Therefore, I can take little credit for the final figure.
The Captain is a minor modification of the King and Country Gustavus Adolphus mini. It was chosen due to the colours of the model being a close match for the Musketeer uniform. It only needed a change of hair and the addition of the musketeer cross on the back of the cape. While I'm fine converting the cheaper Lemax figures myself, I wanted this model to be perfect, so I enlisted professional sculptor Ian Mountain, whom I had worked with before, to make the conversion. I then proceeded to paint it to match the rest of the figure. With the changes, he no longer looks obviously like Gustavus, at least to my eye.
I wanted to give the impression of greying hair to his flowing locks to indicate his seniority.
"Sire, I have this urgent missive for you."
"What is it? Is Spain on the move again?"
Frequent duels between musketeers and red guards were a regular point of contention between the Cardinal and the Captain.
"Your musketeers were caught duelling again!You must punish them!"
"I will look into it and give them their just deserts."
"I heard you disobeyed the prohibition of duelling again and fought the Cardinal's guards?"
"Yes, my captain, but..."
"Silence! I only want to hear one thing out of you... Did you win?"
"We did, sir!"
"Good."
"This is d'Artagnan, captain. He's the one who bested and injured Monsieur de Jussac in single combat."
"No small feat. I hear you want to become a musketeer, boy?"
"More than anything, captain!"
"Well, at least you're a Gascon."