The Whole Bloody Regiment

First post of the year, so happy New Year to all of my readers.

These are actually the leftovers of 2024's painting queue, as I ordered most of the figures back in April I think, so they took a while to complete.

Anyway, here's the entire batch of Bloody Miniatures foot figures, kind of looking like a rag-tag Swedish unit from the Deluge period (at least that was my intention) in an impromptu set-up of two wings of seven shot, two blocks of nine pike, extra officers and Spötte the dog.

By the way I collected the pebbles that decorate the bases in Stockholm (they use this kind of grout there for extra traction when it snows or freezes as far as I can tell), so the figures are definitely extra Swedish.

Bloody Pike and Shot

I was very excited when Bloody Miniatures announced their rank and file figures. Don't get me wrong, I really like the Warlord plastic foot figures, but they just lack variability. Larger pike and shot regiments are economically feasible by using plastics, that's for sure.

Anyway, here's the first dozen painted of that line, with a few Looters and Pikemen en Mélée mixed between them. Some have Empress wire pikes. There is an experimental casualty marker included, which I produced by taking a press mould copy of one of the figure's backs, its front side is entirely featureless. The base accepts a 14mm six-sided die to show the casualty score.

Bloody Miniatures - The Fighting Men

In this third, and most likely final (for a while) installment of Bloody Miniatures showcase, we turn our attention to the warriors and fighting men.*

(*Since then another order has arrived, so I will be able to post some later.)

In the first image, a forlorn hope, fighting with halberds and partisans.

17th century 'Civilians'

Continuing with the Bloody Miniatures theme, here are a few more painted figures, this time perhaps with better lighting conditions. And I also made a makeshift background.

First up, some females armed to the teeth and ready to defend their fief, their honor, and/or the family cutlery.

Captain Alatriste

This is a conversion from 'The Pistoleers' Bloody Miniatures figure pack, depicting the famous fictional (?) character.

I trimmed off the mortuary sword blade and added a longer rapier, a Spanish cup hilt and a longer scabbard. I also made him a moustache with Magic Sculpt.

(It is a nice touch by the sculptor that the figure holds the blade in his left, so the guard is on the reverse side.)

I deliberately gave Captain Alatriste a rag-tag outfit, using muted colours, and a well-oiled buff coat, as he should have appeared on many occasions while fighting in the tercios of Spain.

Bloody Miniatures - Heavy Cavalry

 (And a reminder to learn to take pictures with my phone properly)

I've come across Bloody Miniatures by accident, on the '17th century Wargaming' Facebook group. At first I hesitated to purchase them, because all I had for the period were Warlord plastics, and the Bloody figs were quite bigger than those. 

In the end I bit the bullet, and since then made two more orders (including one for Christmas), because, in all honesty, these figures are amazing and they sort of brought back the enjoyment of painting into my life.

Now these horsemen were in the second order, and I will most likely not post the rest in the order of purchase, just the way I can get them out of their storage boxes.

This is 'The Lobsters' pack of three figures and horses. They painted up rather easily, the only hindrance being that I could not paint the dark bay horse with the rider attached, so I glued them together after painting. I'm not entirely content with the bases so might redo them later.

Usually when I paint larger units, I make the horses uniform as well, but as these figures are a character each, I thought the nags should be a bit different as well. I think the paintjob turned out to be rather nice.