Better late than never I guess, but here is the first sizeable tranche of my 2026 project, the Little Bighorn in 28mm. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the battle and as I've said before here, I have some stuff planned, so I have to get off my kiester and get painting.
The models here are a mix of Foundry packs - some from the Young
Bloods, and some from the Dog Soldiers packs. Above L to R we have Bear Licks
With Tongue, Three Fingers, and Wolf Looks Back.
Here are Running Rabbit, Goes Walking, and Little Crow. As
you can see from the photos these models are all characters and don't really
lend themselves to "assembly line" painting like the Seventh Cavalry
models do. But I did the skintones the same on all of them - GW Doombull Brown
highlighted with Ratskin Flesh. I hate the name of that paint but I think it
gives a good Indigenous fleshtone.
Lastly we've got Pawnee Killer, Touch the Sky, and Plenty
Coups. I did put warpaint on a few of the models but I may go back and do a few
more as I like the look.
The apex of the Indigenous resistance against white settlement and colonization was of course the Battle of the Little
Bighorn, where a coalition of Indigenous warriors wiped out - to a man - five
companies of the US Seventh Cavalry led by Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong
Custer (often referred to - incorrectly - as "General Custer" owing
to his holding the rank of brevet brigadier-general in the Civil War).
Well there's the first bunch of Plains Warriors
done. Only about 40 or 50 more to go...? Shouldn't be a problem this summer as
long as I can stay away from Khornate distractions. We'll see.
As for the Seventh Cavalry, here's the first bunch. I've painted some troopers here (Foundry) as well as an officer, guidon bearer and trumpeter (not sure who made those!)
This first bunch are mostly Foundry models, I have a lot of them to paint. The command group above are from an unknown manufacturer, I'm sure someone out there knows who. The guidon is of the type used by the Seventh at Little Bighorn and was handpainted by me on paper.
The last eight models in the post are Foundry's "Old Sweats" pack, sculpted by Mark Copplestone.
They're super-nice models as you'd expect from the Foundry. Paint formula is Kantor Blue highlighted with ancient Ultramarines Blue for the jackets. The pants have been troubling for me. The blue should be light blue but not TOO light... these ones were too light and I toned them down with a blue wash, but still not happy with them. Will do some more experimenting with the next group. Black hats, leather equipment and boots were highlighted Dark Rubber. The yellow is Averland Yellow with an Agrax Earthshade wash, then re-highlighted. Rifle stocks are Dark Brown highlighted New Wood.
Anyway here's one interesting thing about the models... when I was at the Little Bighorn battlefield in 2008 I filled a jar with dirt from Last Stand Hill (as you do) and a little bit was sprinkled into the groundwork on each of these models, just to connect the models directly to the place where it all happened. Having the actual dirt also helped me do the colour for the groundwork - it's AK Khaki washed Agrax, then re-highlighted.
I'll keep posting as the project continues!
Dallas
