Monday 27 February 2017

Spanish Pirates and Indians by JohnSe (45 points)


I've completed just a handful of figures this week as I make the first dent into the Blood and Plunder Kickstarter package I received a few weeks ago.



After visiting the fort at St. Augustine and watching the first season of Black Sails, I decided to go with a Spanish crew to face off against my opponent's English sea dogs. I'm excited to get in some games of Blood and Plunder (their example game videos convinced me to back the project), and I was thrilled with the ships, dice, coins, cards and rulebook I got from the Kickstarter. The figures on the other hand aren't quite up to snuff.

From a distance I think they'll look great. I appreciate the variety of poses and ethnicities, but there's just something off about them. I'm chalking it up to the conversion of 3D renders to physical metal minis. I love chunky models like Mark Copplestone's, and I've even had some success with model's that were either created as 3 ups or 3D rendered (the Perry and Fireforge plastic figures for example), but these Blood and Plunder figures are both overly large and have a lack of detail. Features are indistinct, hands are tiny, and clothing ripples and wrinkles react strangely to washes. They're just... odd. Not terrible, but different from what I'm used to.

Lanceros, spear armed Spanish troops


Indios, native islanders put to work
defending Spanish outposts in the New World.
Despite my reservations about the figures, I did have some unexpected success with some Vallejo paints. Using the paints and instructions from the Vallejo Leather and Wood paint set, the deck planking of the bases came out better than I'd hoped.



I also did a quick paint up of an Imperial Assault figure as we're sharing the burden of getting our game master's set finished up.


All told that's 8 pirates and 1 medical droid for 45 points by my calculations.

MilesR: John the pirates are really very nicely done - I like the decking format you used for the basing!

16 comments:

  1. Very nice! The B&P KS sets have to made their way to Oz yet...

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've been following this Kickstarter with interest, I'd not seen the Indians, which look particularly nice! Great work John!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loving the pirates, really great work

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great work John - enjoy the plunder.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Those pirates really look sharp!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've been following this, I didn't do the KS and sounds like the figures are a little odd. I'm tempted to pick up the game though.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. the game looks great (haven't had a chance to play yet) and the ships are astounding. Maybe the issues with the figures will get sorted during the next Kickstarter!

      Delete
  7. Nicely done. Like the colour schemes.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good looking finish, I like the muted colours.
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your experiences with the figures aside, these look fabulous John. They have a wonderful salty, bleached and sunburned look about them that really conveys their piratical nature. I've enjoyed the Vallejo leathers very much as well and now what to try their wood after seeing yours here. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  10. An exciting band of sea dogs! I quite like seeing my ancestors sprinkled into the lot! Very nice skin tones on them too! The medical Droid turned out superb as well! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Very well done! Those pirates are excellent.

    ReplyDelete