French Flibustiers– Wave 2 Blood & Plunder Miniature Preview

Intro

More Wave 2 minis! The Decade of Plunder Kickstarter project recently concluded, but we still have a lot of minis to showcase. Today we have the new set of French Flibustiers, expertly painted by Dr. D.

New Wave 2 Flibustiers Sculpts

This unit represent the classic 17th century buccaneer, well armed, highly skilled, and always eager to take the fight to the enemy.

Details on the Minis

This set is made to compliment the original set (produced more than 10 years ago!). Overall we have some very active poses with more diverse outfits.

The key details on this unit includes a long buccaneer gun, several pistols, and a sword.

You can see some original sketches of these bold Frenchmen in articles on Benerson Little’s blog. Long guns, fancy hats, short pants. The main difference we see here is our sculpts have much fiercer faces than the jolly Flibustiers in the charming drawings above.

Garrett talks about boring 17th century clothing stuff…

The short open leg breeches are called petticoat breeches and I believe later called “Slops”. They were popular during the mid 17th century and later would be worn over breeches (see painting below). It’s debatable here if what we are seeing in the eye witness images are over breeches, but I think they are most likely tied long stockings under the petticoat breeches.

Our minis have very modest short coats compared to the eyewitness images. they have much more fancy cuffs and are showing off their shirts way more. The historical images have some very fancily tied cravats (the fabric around the neck). Our minis have cravats but they seem to be tied for practicality.

The selection of hats not very uniform in this set of minis. One of these guys has the common trimmed hat that we have grown accustomed to expect of the Boucaniers. (Garrett’s note: Both Boucaniers and Filibusters would have been in close proximity and men may have switched “professions” so it’s not that surprising.)

Dr. D’s Comments

I was yet again lucky enough to be asked to paint some of the French models for the upcoming MASSIVE wave 2 from Firelock. When I opened up the box and was told I got the privilege to paint the quintessential French buccaneer unit, the Flibustier, I was beyond excited. I will argue the fact that I think the Flibustier is one of the best 6/7 point units in the game and deserve some modeling love. I admit, at first, I was a little conflicted by the new sculpts since they were such a big departure from the previous Filibuster sculpt design. The previous models have large jackets and big hats that give them a specific visual outline on the table. It created an interesting dynamic in my mind. I LOVED the new sculpts, but would they fit into the previous sculpts?
I think the answer is, ultimately, yes if you keep the color palate pretty close to the color of the Flibustier jackets from the previous sculpts. What I believe is the biggest benefit of these new sculpts is that they make incredible looking Marin Basque or Marins with muskets. The details on the models are in line with the incredible new wave of models and these are going to get used for SURE. I will, for sure, be buying more of these models to beef up my Marin Basque and potentially any sailor unit with muskets since I think they REALLY steal the show in that regard, but man did I enjoy painting these guys. My favorite is for sure the guy with the beanie on his head. That guy just looks like he is having a great time!