"A preliminary appreciation of the Over the Mountain Men" Topic

Or, "The Hillbillies are here!"

I just got a pack of the new Over the Mountain Men from King's Mountain Miniatures. Very nice figures.
If you have not heard of them, they have separate heads to go with the bodies.
I would have preferred that the peg be on the body, and the socket on the head, but when Nevinsrip polled TMP, my opinion lost by a vote of 67-1, so…
I cut the pin short enough to fit in the socket on my first try. That made it difficult to hold the head in place while the superglue set on a cold dry February night. Lesson learned.
So, I drilled out the socket with a pin vise and a bit ever so slightly larger than the neck pin. Drill deep and cut the pin long. You can trim it to fit. This means that the head can sit securely while the CA sets. No big problem, as I have the pin vise and proper bits.

There is very little flash or mold lines to clean up. In fact, there was none in the ones I got.

So, what are they good for? Why backwoods militia, of course!
With the proper heads, they can be FIW rangers. A Scots bonnet! Or just a plain old slouch hat.
With the knit cap or tuque, some can be voyageurs or Coureurs de/des/du Bois.
I see them useful from King Philip's War up to the War of 1812. Some have even suggested the Alamo or Mountain Men.

I would suggest that with the Highland bonnet, many would be great for the Loyalist Highlanders at Moore's Creek Bridge. Sadly, the Scots would probably not have worn kilts or Tartan trews. However, some backwoods garb with a bonnet would be perfect. (Don't let this stop you from using Jacobites from the '45. though. You know you want to…) Take your Jacobites and add a bunch of OMM with bonnets, and you have a fun battle.

They would probably not be "perfect" for 1775 Minutemen in Massachusetts, because they look like they are on campaign, and not a day's walk from home. However, I will use them for that anyway.
New England militia at Saratoga? Sure!
But, they were designed with the dirty war in the South in mind, so have fun.

So, now that I have my samples, I will make up a list of what I need, with "proper" heads to go with them. I would not want to use some of the heads I got with my sample pack, so I will just order the ones I want.

They are by the same sculptor who did the 71st Highlanders, which I had a fun time painting.
My preferred method of white prime, block and dry brush, and the Dip should work out well.

Highly recommended.

Thanks John, very helpful review.

Cheers,

"Hillbillies"?! You must mean "Crackers".

Not here in Pennsyl-tucky. They are "Hillbillies".

Crackers are little baked confections on which we place cheese…

Eric
(who learned that once he moved South)

John, here's a tip I learned throught trial and error. Take a small amount of greenstuff (or blutac or clay) and, using a toothpick, place it into the socket of the body. Maybe enough to fill 1/4 of the socket. Now place the head into the socket and rotate it until you find the position that you want. The greensuff will hold it in place. Now, remove the head and coat the stem with super glue gel. Place it back into the body and position to taste. The greensuff will make sure that the head stays where you want it. The greenstuff has the added benefit of interacting with the super glue gel to form a rock solid joint.

Nice review, by the way.
From someone just as old and slow as you are.

Hillbillies is correct – as one who was born in the back woods of "Pennsyltucky" can attest to. Proud of it, too. :-)

I am going to check these out ….

As James Carville says, Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between.