Winkie Guards And Metal Man

I have been thinking for some time how to make Winkie guardsmen. I finally settled for using the Hat Napoleonic Prussians. All I had to do was cut away the musket and build up the fur hat after trimming the existing one. I also trimmed down the lower legs and added putty to simulate hair boots.

The replacements for the muckets included a Warhammer Dark Elf lance, not to thin despite being for 28mm and a length of wire with a spare skull (from an old Hero Quest set - again not too small despite belonging to a smaller scale set).

Next painting and the flag. I had some flags from the Wars of Ozz  but I thought they lacked lustre for such a striking unit. Instead I used an old Warhammer flag sourced from an old White Dwarf ,magazine, I think.

As for paint scheme, if I went by the Judy Garland movie I think the coats were a greyish purple. The Wars of Ozz army list gives a colour scheme of orange coats with purple cuffs, which sounded garishly cool. The Wars of Ozz had figures with shields but I decided halberds or similar weapons were the go as they looked effective in the film. In the film the guards are show to have armour over their great coats so I painted the coat as if their were breast plates. On reflection they also had bands of armour on the upper arms so I might add these on the next figures by adding putty.

Actually, it is not that apparent unless you look closely but I have given the figures yellow skin (as described in the book although the skin is green in the film). I also added putty to one of the soldier's noses to make it look more witchy lik they look in the film..

 Oh, and here is another metal man. The figure is a Wizz Kids one with a BMC Mexican shako head and an added aze. It no longer has arms but I figures this figure is just for chopping with a sword and axe and the shoulders rotate to achieve this chopping action. Unfortunately, I haven't made enough of these fellows yet to use them in the upcoming game.

        But I did not want to miss out on using the Winkies but I ran out of time to make a regiment so I pulled out another wargame unit with halberds - my medieval Fezians/Saracens. These are mainly painted silver plastic copies of Britains Detail with also some original Detail. Eventually I'll make more Winkies and reduce the Saracen component. The thing is I have the regimented disciplined look I want for an elite guard unit.