"'Pony Wars' commission 750+ figures! (photos)" Topic

My customer Mark Lodge commissioned me last year to paint the figures for what will be a HUGE recreation of the Battle of Little Big Horn using 20mm metal miniatures. There will be a total in excess of 750 figures once completed. Many are specially commissioned sculpts by Andrew Stadden (UK) riding Qualiticast horses (long out of production here). The level of detail is amazing, for example the correct one side only rein for the Indian ponies and the lack of a noseband for the 7th cavalry horses (which puzzled me before I did the research!).I still have a fair way to go but made a short video yesterday as I packed up the latest batch. Obviously I am very proud of my work on these figures and have a very happy customer :)
I hope you enjoy the photos and the video.
Lee.

Video link.
link

WOW! JUST WOW!

Gorgeous. I just started my Little Bighorn project for a second time in 28mm. Your work is very inspirational.

Wow, words fail me!

OMG!

Can't even begin to think of how much all of this will cost!

The issue campaign hat at LBH was the BLACK M1872 Andrews hat. One company (C) may have been wearing light colored (off-white) hats but the uniform hat ( John Fotd not withstanding) was black until the mid-1880s.
Oh, and ditch the yellow scarves-- they are a Hollywood invention.

Those US Cavalry figures are Hollywood Cavalry. In 1876 they would be wearing the black Andrews hat. They did not wear those yellow neckerchiefs.

You will need a lot of dismounted cavalry and some warriors on foot. Most of the battle was fought on foot. Horses were used for either cover or escape.

Firstly, thank you to those who have responded to my post above and I will try to respond as best I can to comments :)

Firstly Old Contemptible and Steve Miller: Please don't shoot the painter! What you see is based on my customers detailed requests for the commission. Not sure if you followed my video link but I did mention that the grey hats were specifically requested as were the yellow scarfes. I also mentioned that the entire project was inspired by what is a very well known and admired collection in the UK from the 1970's painted by the late Peter Gilder (example photo below). We – both the owner and I – are aware that they may not be historically fully accurate but are a collection of model soldiers produced in a style of past decades, it is what it is and what my customer wanted. He has visited the US to walk the Little Big Horn battelfied and study the history but this is just a collection of model soldiers at the end of the day.

Grattan54, a small fortune is the answer in hobby terms :) Not only my painting time (and I don't come cheap) but also the bespoke sculpts for the cavalry both mounted and dismounted complete with horseholders which were done by respected sculptor Andrew Stadden, son of the late Charles Stadden who designed many collectible figures in the early days of the hobby. Andrew was chosen for his traditional style of sculpting directly into the metal rather than buidling up from green stuff in the modern way. The terrain for the game is also being hand made in a traditional style by the chap at S&A Scenics. So it's a pretty major commitment!

Old Contemtiblle, dismounted cavalry/horses and holders etc are with the casters having been sculpted by Andrew Stadden, 100 dismounted Indians have already been painted and delivered with more to follow.

Cheers all,
Lee.

Photos: Bespoke sculpts for the 7th cavalry, horses by Qualiticast.

100 Indians on foot so far!

Finally, the inspiration for the project 'Hollywood' scarfes and grey hats 1970's style, the Peter Gilder collection.

You don't need to apologize for or explain Hollywood cavalry. Excellent work.

79thPA, thank you for that, really appreciate it :)

Cheers,

Lee.

Wow!

Might not be authentic 1876 but that doesn't prevent many happy repeat viewings of "Fort Apache" and "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," or enjoying the works of Frederick Remington.

42flanker, you get it, thank you! If I say that my customer sent me a CD of John Ford movie soundtracks as inspiration whilst I paint then that's just it :)

Lee.

What happened to the pictures I posted?

Wow, what an awesome project!!! Would love to see these troops in action.
Cheers,
JB

@ Old Contemptible "What happened to the pictures I posted?"

Reno and Benteen left them to be wiped out….

42flanker. Ford rarely used yellow scraves.Check out SWaYR (which was filmed in color and you'll see the troopers are wearing a mix of red and white and blue and white scarves. The other two films were in black and White, but if you look closely, you will see those scarves also have a pattern on them . If you watch a colorized version ( Turner, I believe) they colored those scarves yellow, but that wasn't what Ford used. But, yes, he did use off-white campign hats to copy the Remington look. The army never used those hats- they were black until about 1884, and then they change of tan,/drab that were worn through the turn of the century.At least those cream colored hats were "close" to those tan campaign hats of the 80s and 90s.