Michiel de Ruyter was a renowned Dutch admiral who played a significant role in naval battles during the 17th century. His mastery of tactics and strategy led him to numerous victories, earning him the respect and admiration of his contemporaries. And while it is unfortunate, that he isn’t currently included in Blood & Plunder (so far), his likeness certainly is present and available for Dutch players.
Dan Carlson recently wrote a fine Pirate Faction Summary for this very blog and as a thank you, I offered to paint up a mini for him and the Dutch Commander model was his choice.
While de Ruyter isn’t really included in the game, but it’s pretty clear that the Dutch Commander mini has taken inspiration from various paintings of Bestevaer. Maybe all Dutch admirals look like the miniature, but the similarities with Michiel are striking.
Painting the Dutch Commander Mini as Michiel de Ruyter
It’s been a while since I worked on 1 miniature at a time. Usually, I’m working on a batch of 4-6 at a time. So I was able to finish this project in just two evenings.
His black coat is a little boring but I tried to give some interest by adding blue to the black in some layers to provide some color interest in my highlights.
In the portrait above, the garment under the black coat is cut from multicolored floral material and I tried replicating that style of cloth with limited success. I was happy with it by the end but it was fiddly. I started with a green base, then stippled a Terra Cotta paint along with two different colors of gold over the Green, then washed it with Agrax Earthshade to tone down the gold, then stippled the Terra Cotta over it again to further minimize the golds.
Misc Photos of the Dutch Commander Mini
No matter what I did with my light, I couldn’t get decent pictures of this guy. The combination of the bright white highlights on the sleeves, the black jacket and the bright orange sash (it’s not as bright in real life) didn’t let me get a good level of exposure that could be kind to all those challenging colors.
As a Dutch commander, I had to pose him on a Fluyt for historical accuracy.
I had to take a quick picture shoot with him before I packed him up and sent him off to Dan.
Compared to my generic Dutch Commander. The camera doesn’t do any favors to yellow clothes either…
Well, that’s all. My version of de Ruyter. Hopefully he’ll enter the game for real sometime and we’ll get a custom model for this legendary commander.
Thanks for reading! And thanks to Dan for writing the Pirate faction article and inspiring me to paint this model.
Related Products
- Dutch Commander Model at Firelock Games
- You could also use a Henry Morgan miniature for this project
- Learn more about the Dutch Nationality and Factions