1:72 Eastern Mercenaries in Winter Dress (Thirty Years War)

A camp in the frost needs different poses from a battle

A figure that is not fighting is a harder task for a modeler than a shooter. It has no weapon held out to set the direction, and yet it has to be doing something: warming its hands, leaning on a stick, sitting on a crate, throwing a cloak over the shoulder. It is precisely such positions that give an encampment scene the calm that cannot be achieved in a battle scene, and they have greater narrative power at that.

The eastern companies brought a different appearance into central Europe, which catches the eye immediately on the groundwork. Longer cloaks, different headgear, soft footwear and fur trim create an outline that the neighboring units do not have. For painting, a simple rule follows from that: keep the fur noticeably lighter than the cloth, otherwise it merges into one dark mass and the whole characteristic shape is lost.

Arranging the group

• Figures turned toward one another make a conversation; turned away from one another they make a watch
• A seated figure needs an object under it, otherwise it is left hanging in the air
• One standing figure among several seated ones establishes who commands the group
• A lower level of the heads looks more relaxed in a camp scene than an even rank

A winter encampment moreover forgives mistakes in the terrain. A layer of snow covers unevenness in the groundwork and the joints between the bases, so the arrangement looks whole even where the figures could not be seated perfectly level.

Anyone building such a scene for the first time will do well to start with two figures and one object between them: a kettle, a crate or a small fireplace. That object gives both figures a reason for standing just there, and the rest then almost puts itself together.