Conquest Miniatures: Comanches

I'm coming off a deadline week, so not much to report on Lewis and Clark progress. However, last night I felt compelled to run out and pick up some wire so I could begin to assemble the Conquest Comanches I received in the mail. Yeah, I have Spaniards I'm still painting, but I thought this would be useful and give me a break.

First, let me just say that Eric R., the owner of Conquest has a grand vision for modeling many Native American topics. He has a full range of Woodland Indians, a range for the Seminole Wars, and has some flat gorgeous figures for the plains-though that project hasn't advanced very far. I think, that as a small producer, his real life has overtaken his ambition, and his projects are resting on the back burner.

What do I mean? It took a while to get my order, and he had to assemble figures and accessories into a bubble wrap bag and it was kind of messy. On the other hand he was apologetic about the delay and included a few extra figures as well as a gorgeous Comanche acrobat, mounted figure. So, it was all good.

The figures are quite beautiful, and full of detail. Whether it s the feathers in the hair, the necklaces or the bone breastplates, these miniatures have lots of character. Most of the figures I ordered have open hands, and can hold the extra weapons I ordered. There are some great hand weapon-various warclubs, bow and quiver. The gunpowder weapons sprue is just beautiful, with flintlock muskets and pistols as well as later 19th century weapons as well. The tips are also available for spears, together with feathers to decorate them with.

I opted for the spears, and hoped to make them out of florist wire. I'd read about this on TMP and picked some up at Michael's on the way home from work. Usually I use steel or brass wire, but because there is no longer a shop in Puyallup that sells such basic material, I decided to try the craft shop. I brought it home and for whatever reason found it would not bind with CA glue to the spearpoint. Off to Parkland I went, and opted for brass wire. When I brought it home I cut it to usable lengths and took it out to the garage and pounded the spearpoints into shape. I spent the rest of last night assembling the minis and getting the ready to prime. All in all it took about three hours.

I hope finish the Spaniards I'm working on by Monday and get started on the Comanches. Maybe post pictures next weekend.