Peasantry / Militia

[Foxglove]

Howdy guys and gals, my fellow Castle enthusiasts,

I've a question to lay at your feet today. In a couple of recent posts I've mentioned constructing a peasant militia to supplement my Crownie army.

The problem I'm running into at the moment is the idea that the Crownies, all in the same uniform and weapons classes, are meant to be very similiar. Peasantry are not.

I'm finding it hard to find enough variations to give them a dishevelled, grabbed-what-I-could-for-war feel. I've used ideas like Viking torsos, KK2 shields, a pitchfork, D-baskets and quivers on men who have no bows to make use of them.

I've used several Bricklink orders to get unique-looking heads, brown spears and halberds, peasant-ish torsos etc.

What I'm facing is that even though I've endeavoured to put as much variation into them as I can, I'm still getting a sense of same-ness when I look at the mass of men.

Thoughts?

[ClassicCastlesetsftw]

I would also use some of the tan luke skywalker(i think its luke skywalker, im not sure as i am not a star wars lego fan) torsos and a few of the forestman torsos if you can get a hold of them.

[eggplant wizard]

if you wait until next year, there should be some different torsos available from the medievil market.

[Foxglove]

That's a good idea, actually.

I haven't purchased any through Bricklink as I've still wanted my Militia to have an armoured feel - hence the Viking torsos. I realise that with the upcoming Marketplace set ther'll be a new torso or two that doesn't have any armour, so I'll definetly take your advice into consideration.

Cheers.

[Foxglove]

Woah, I have no idea what happened there. I most definetly did not hit submit five times.

Edit for relevance: My reply was to ClassicCastlesetsftw, but eggplant snuck in while I was typing.

[shmails]

The best way to get variety is through some custom torsos. There are many ways to do this, print your own, order from Roaglaan or Kam, use some of Lamanda's alternate torso colors, etc. There are also many options for stickers, waterslide decals, painting, etc to get the effect you want.

This is exactly what I do, when I needed more Ninja, especially white ones, I found the prices out of control. I learned how to make waterslide decals, and now I have a huge army of white ninja with various designs so they look similar but different. I order torsos of different colors from LEGO.com, brasso off the designs, and add my own. Once you get the hang off doing it, you can make an army very easily, cheaply, and give them the exact look you want.

Other ways of getting variety is give the weapons, hats, cloaks a more weathered look with paint, buff'n'rub, and other crafts effects.

Good luck!

[Dr.Cogg]

You can also get some good torsos from themes like,Harry Potter,Star Wars,adventurers,etc.

[Foxglove]

The best way to get variety is through some custom torsos. There are many ways to do this, print your own, order from Roaglaan or Kam, use some of Lamanda's alternate torso colors, etc. There are also many options for stickers, waterslide decals, painting, etc to get the effect you want.

This is exactly what I do, when I needed more Ninja, especially white ones, I found the prices out of control. I learned how to make waterslide decals, and now I have a huge army of white ninja with various designs so they look similar but different. I order torsos of different colors from LEGO.com, brasso off the designs, and add my own. Once you get the hang off doing it, you can make an army very easily, cheaply, and give them the exact look you want.

Other ways of getting variety is give the weapons, hats, cloaks a more weathered look with paint, buff'n'rub, and other crafts effects.

Good luck!

I should have mentioned I'm a purist.

[Foxglove]

You can also get some good torsos from themes like,Harry Potter,Star Wars,adventurers,etc.

I've used the torsos off the Durmstrang ship for a couple of them. I'll upload some pictures soon.

[lord azreal]

Ive always been interested in making militia myself, but Im in the same bucket as you, the Crownies are a uniform faction and I cant think of a way of doing the militia in this method, Ive tried using the surcoat torso with ransom arms etc but they still look too military

[Patron of the lego]

separate your militia into two groups. One group is the semi professional infantry hailing from Flanders or Italy, they typically wore a brigadine, jakke or a layer of mail and had "decent" equipment. The other groups, well give them a shovel or pitchfork, a a typical peasant's torso.

[The Wolfpack Boss]

I'll say this ... there are many Lego torsos that are armored, but don't have any emblems or sigils representing a faction in particular.

Granted, using Forestmen torsos for peasants is nothing new (although I tend to keep them either "woodcutter" or "Robin Hood" myself).

But the excellent classic plate mail torsos, which came in black, red and blue, and the scale mail torsos, which came in red and blue, come to mind immediately for me as "militia".

They're easily integrated into Crusader or Black Falcon or even Black Knight legions because the colors can be matched up with those original three factions, but the plate and scale mail is very simplistic in design and works well for a "local man" who is part of the militia.

Other bits of armor that would work well for Militia are the Fright Knight black cuirass, Fright Knight gray "leather armor" looking torso (I would say it's a Gambeson with the studs) ... the brown Dark Forest leather armor (another Gambeson) ... and the leather armor of the Bull Knights from KK1.

These torsos all, in my eyes, represent cheaper armor, not as well cared for as the shining suits of heavy armor professional knights would wear - or the emblazoned tunics, symbols of errantry, which professional soldiers would be wearing over plain chainmail. (Falcon tunic, Crusader Axe Tunic, Crusader Lion Rampant tunic).

[castlestrike666]

You could use next torsos:

- Wolfpack
- Star Wars! (Especially the elder sets had quite some nice peasant-ish torsos!)
- Harry Potter has some nice torsos too..
- Robin Hood
- Typical peasants you can buy as minifig
- Ninjas & Orient Expedition has some nice ones too Maybe you can check those! I have some here at home, and I'll use some of them as peasants too.

Weapons:
- Pickaxes, small chrome & grey knives, axes, halberds, swords, brooms? , pitchforks, small (fireman) axes! , maybe pirateswords, ...

I have a broken pickaxe here at home. Normally there are 2 sharp points, now there's just one. And I must say, it does the job! Nice looking, but broken though

[wobnam]

Good suggestions. The problem with using most of the older torsos, though, is that unless your militia is a small band of local farmers, it will take a generous donation of your hard earned dollars.

[Foxglove]

A few of you have mentioned Star Wars torsos. Would it be too much trouble to ask for some examples to be posted?

The reason I ask is there is so much Star Wars lego out there.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!