From Mike W: Border Ruffians - The Hired Help #1

This week I have been able ton finish a batch or 16th Century (possibly could be stretched to 17th Century) Highlanders who will act as paid heavies to bolster one of the Border Ruffian Families my-self and other club members are putting together for a forthcoming campaign when we all get allowed out to play again!

Once again, I'm afraid that I'm not sure of the make of these figures, as usual I sourced them as a job lot from eBay. The lot had them listed as Redoubt Miniatures figures and having checked their online catalogue - that certainly seems to be the case.

A cross section of some of my favourite figures from the batch

Four men armed with Calivars, 

Same guys, from the opposite angle

These figures were fun to paint, all with a basic ochre / yellowish theme to represent unbleached or un-dyed materials woven into shirts and other garments.

Four more 'Humblies' armed with Calivars, some of the poses are very dynamic

And the same guys from the front. Note how some Highlanders often
dropped their Plaids to fight, whilst others wore them for extra protection against sword thrusts. 

 There were 21 figures in the lot, 20 are shown here, the last one which is also painted will be showcased in part two of the Hired Help posts , sometime in the future - just because to me he looks like an Irish Chieftain, rather than a Highlander. I'm probably wrong!

Another three Calivar men, two in Plaid, one without. At this time there were no specific Tartan 'Setts'
 for each clan / family just locally weaved cloth made to the maker's favourite pattern.

Closer view of the Calivar men, I did the plaids by blocking in the base
colour then adding the lines using fine nibbed felt-tip marker pens

So my understanding is that Highlanders were often brought in to help add strength to the Border families when they felt out numbered and at risk of serious harm. An alternative to Highlanders would have been Irish mercenaries, which as noted will be subject of my next painting batch...

A group of Highland archers

Archers from the front view, not all the Plaids were chequered, so I left a few plain, for variety.

One final point, these guys came undercoated in black, it was pretty tiresome having to re-undercoat in white, my preferred undercoat colour but that's the joy of sourcing figures on eBay.

The command team! Two drummers, a Piper and a Young Chieftain.

Final view of the command group, the Drummers look very Irish to me,
they may get a transfer when all is done on the next batch!