17th century Dutch sailors, militia and captain

My ship the Halve Maen, which I’ve been working on for the past two months or so, is finally finished and ready to set sail! I’m not quite sure, though, how to take decent pictures. My trusty light box works very well for minis, but larger items are always a bit of a struggle. I’ve ordered a sea-themed battle mat from Pwork that should serve as a nice backdrop, but delivery is taking slightly longer than planned. It might therefore take a little while for the Halve Maen to turn up here, but I think she’s worth the wait.

In the meantime, I’ve painted up a crew for her. All minis are by Firelock Games for their game Blood & Plunder. They are definitely scaled on the ‘heroic’ side of the 28 mm range, but the sculpts are absolutely lovely with nice poses and crisp, easy to paint details. I really liked the box art of the Dutch militiamen, so basically copied that colour scheme of yellow with red and white details. I did change the bright yellow to a slightly more mustardy colour, which I think looks pretty cool. For the sailors (zeelieden) I added more browns and blues, but made sure to at least add some of the some yellow, so all minis feel like a coherent group. For the captain I chose a completely different colour scheme of blue and orange, sort of referencing the colours of the Dutch royal family.

The following paints were used:

Dutch militia: Vallejo Medium Skin tone 70.860 for the tunics (it might sound a bit odd to use a skin colour for fabric, but I think it works), white for the collars and under garments, Vallejo Flat Brown 70.984 for the leather and wood, Citadel Mephiston Red for the legs and belt and Vallejo Basic Skin tone 70.815 for the skin. Glorious Gold 72.056 was used for the brass parts of the weapons.

For the sailors I used the same colours, with the addition of Vallejo Night Blue 72.019 and Flat Brown 70.984.

For the captain I used Vallejo Medium Blue 70.963 for the tunic and Bright Orange 70.851 for the sash. Glorious Gold 72.056 was used for the bandolier and brass parts of the weapons.

All bases were painted with Vallejo Flat Earth 70.983.

I then applied a coat of Army Painter Quickshade, after which I highlighted some of the fabric with the original colours. I do like how they turned out, but the contrast created by the Quickshade might be a bit too stark on the lighter colours. And this is supposed to be the lightest of the three shades! Perhaps I’ll do some more experimenting with other products in the future.

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