The Gallowglass

The first of the Irish Pike have arrived to continue the fight against the foreigners and secure victory for Irelands various and fractured Gaelic Kings and sub Kings. DISCLAIMER: This is the first time I have ever used putty and green stuff to convert a miniature and it reminded me of learning to ride a bike, it cant be learned without just doing it, and it wont be pretty at first. Despite falling off many times and scraping metaphorical knees to bits I pushed ahead and put together my first conversions. Dont judge too harshly. We have the original Eureka Miniatures 16th Century Portugese Colonial and the same mini converted to Gaelic Pikeman in Aketon and trews with Morion helmet.  I do hope that when primed and painted it papers over the rudimentary conversion and brings the miniature closer to feeling like a 16th Century Irish pikeman. Here again the original Eureka and my conversion, this time with greenstuff. I wanted to try my hand using both materials and...

I have just received my order of Portugese colonials from Eureka miniatures and in the coming days I will begin converting them to Irish pikemen. While I waited for the Eureka miniatures I had a go at adding a Morion helmet to some Perry Miniatures Kerns with handguns. I also revised my painting schemenin favour of a more toned down and more earthy approach. I made the mistake with the saffron leine on previous figures of applying thin layers of yellow which gave an unintended glaze, rather than building up layers of highlight as I had intended. Compare the above with previously painted examples below, I will leave it to you to decide.

I decided to take a break from painting Kerns with bows and handguns and have a go at sculpting with putty and greenstuff. I have never sculpted or used putty before. I decided to take the leap and just do it. If I ruin my minis or are not happy I can buy replacements and chalk it up to learning. This one above has a simple shot bag sculpted on. Moderately happy with the shields. Not so happy with the flag, but I suppose it was a useful piece of learning and I enjoyed it.