Dutch Garde te Voet (Blue Guard)

Up next in my Grand Alliance collection will be two battalions of the Dutch Blue Guard, that led the attack across the Boyne at Oldbridge. The entire unit first unit will be up for display in a few days, but I am particularly pleased with their officer shown here.

The Warfare Miniature range is still in it's infancy, and although there is a great selection of models so far, after painting a few units I find myself wishing for more officer models. Not to worry, Barry has plans to release another pack of five new officers, but until these are available, I've been trying to make due with conversions. I've pointed out various conversions as I've posted the units, but felt this one deserves the spotlight. It is my my most ambitious conversion from the Warfare line.

The base model is one of the character models from the WLOA08 Command Advancing pack. The original model has his right arm at his side and his left hand clutching the hilt of his sword in it's scabbard. I used clippers and a modeling saw to remove the entire right arm, left hand, and scabbard and used a file to clean up any rough edges. I sculpted the entire right arm and turnback cuff using greenstuff. The right hand and sword came from a plastic ECW mini, which I glued to my sculpted arm at the desired angle. Then I sculpted the left hand and scabbard, using part of the sword as my base.

I don't consider myself a sculptor beyond minor details, but I am extremely happy with the result! More Dutch on the way...