"28mm Native American Figures Suitable for 17th C. America?" Topic

I am looking to do a few games involving small skirmishes in early America and was looking for a little help sourcing natives suitable for this time period.

Most of what is out there is all set up for the Musket era and not the Pike and Shot era. Almost every native figure I find is made for FIW which means they are carrying flintlocks and often wearing a lot of bartered clothing.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Eli

They're 25mms, but Old Glory sells some indians with traditional weapons.

I find that OG's stuff scale pretty nicely with some 28mm stuff if you base it right. They tend to have a heft to them that puts them proportionally in the same realm as newer 28s.

I have seen those natives but how are they dressed? Would you say they are appropriate for 17th C. natives?

-Eli

Brigade Games has a King Philip's War selection.

According to "The Skulking Way of War", the Indians were often better armed than the white settlers. The settlers would often settle for matchlocks, while the Indians would go for the best.

Thanks John!

That makes it easier. I had a sneaking hunch that the natives would turn their noses up at matchlocks. I can hear them asking the trader, "Why use a weapon that relies on fire when it's always so wet? We'll take the good ones."

-Eli

Eureka makes an excellent set of 28mm Powhatans, based on the John White paintings from Roanoke 1587. These guys wear only hide garments and wield only pre-contact weapons. Many poses, some specialized, like the guy in a full suit of wooden armor, the chief with breastplate and big spear, a couple of guys sitting around the fire, counciling. Very compatible with Old Glory or Conquest in size and heft.

The Foundry 16th-17th century Indians are back in production. Excellent sculpts, only one or two poses per tribe but quite a few tribes are covered. Some have matchlocks and other indications of trade, about half look like they could be at first-contact. I consider these 'big 25mm' scale, they mix okay with Old Glory and Conquest.

Parkfield has a line of King Phillip's War figures, only about half a dozen Indian poses, some could be first contact. These are 'big 25mm' figures.

The old Rafm Flint and Feather figures are still available. Several of those poses are for first-contact tribesmen. These are true 25mm figures, smaller than modern 28mm, but the standard of modelling and sculpting was outstanding for their era.

Eureka makes a nice set of 28mm Tupi Indians. Tupis are fom Brazil and their hairstyles are unique, but I use them to proxy for Calusas and some other tribes from the Florida region who went mostly naked and fought with bows and big paddle-shaped warclubs.

This is a golden age. We're spoiled for choice. I have a lot to do to catch up on my painting.

I'm looking forward to picking up the Gripping Beast pre-contact Skraelings – no post-contact weapons or clothing at all: link

I couldn't locate the 16th-17th century natives on the Foundry site. Maybe they are unavailable again.

-Eli

Black Hat does a line of Skraelings in 28mm.

Any idea how they line up with Brigade, Old glory, Conquest?

-Eli

King Philips War:

link

Sculpted by Paul Hicks.

Size should be similar to Conquest and OG.

BTW – until Sept 4th we have a free shipping sale for the USA for orders of $50 USD or more and $10 USD shipping for International orders of miniatures only of $50 USD or more.

I will be needing some of those Skraelings

We have recently purchased the old Gladiator Games 25mm skraelings from Black Hat miniatures

They are all armed with pre-conquest weapons & the warriors have been designed with open hands to allow some variety of posing

Please go to cpmodelsminiatures.co.uk to check them out

Mark

Those are nice looking are they true 25s or will they work with 28mm?

As far as I am concerned, all mentioned ranges are "compatible" with each other.
The line exception is RAFM, but only for the scale obsessed. To me, they fit in fine.

I couldn't locate the 16th-17th century natives on the Foundry site

I couldn't find them either. Two years ago when I ordered them, they were identified as:

EA1 Southern Tribes
EA2 Middle Tribes
EA3 Northern Tribes

All packs were marked 'Old West'.

The original line featured 20 poses. All were in the new packs, except for EA 19 'Indian woman, carrying gourd' (obviously from the John White painting, 'A werowance's wife of Secotan') and EA 20 'Dead Indian'. I hope they bring back the werowance's wife, she is a really useful figure and quite unique. She matches the Eureka Powhatans perfectly.

The first six poses of the old line, EA 1 – 6, were Illinois, Coctaw and Creek warriors and chiefs, and were all in the EA 1 pack. These are all first contact types, and all barefoot. Good matches for the Eureka Powhatan.

Pack EA 2 contained poses EA 12-17, all the poses identified as Iroquois in the original list. Most of these figures have roached hair and two poses carry matchlocks.

Pack EA 3 contained poses EA 7-11 and EA 18 'Indian crawling with club'. Most of these poses were originally identified as Algonquins, they have a variety of dress and hairstyles, two carry matchlocks.

If you email Foundry they might be able to dig out a few packs for you.

The Gladiator Games Skraelings are hefty 28mm figures, not 25s at all. I didn't mention them in my survey, because at one time I bought a set of them, found I disliked the sculpting style, and traded them off. However, I must say they look better painted up than I expected them to. With my own limited painting skills, I probably couldn't make them look that good. They should mix fine with other 28mm figures.

I second Eureka's Powhattan's, they would suit Delwaree's too.

The range fits with Conquest and Perry miniatures, you just need to weed out the musket armed figures in these ranges.

cheers
Matt

I suppose you could get two wars for one here. Weed out the Muskets for 17th C. America and then throw more clothed and musket-armed gents in for FIW.

-Eli

Another vote for Brigade's King Philip's War range. Great sculpts that paint up very well.

Foundry Early American Indians
link

For my KPW I have used the Brigade Games range along with ECW figures from Warlord, civilians from various Foundry, Front Rank and Perry.
Indians from Conquest (Warlord), Crusader, Northstar and Perry.
Basically search all websites for suitable figures, not an easy task.