Geoffrey. Fetch Me My Blunderbuss!

Used the Easter weekend to paint a few figures:

In the immortal words of Professor Elemental:

"If there's rumpus, you're able to run I trust?

Geoffery - fetch me my blunderbuss! " 

Geoffrey! Been wanting to work on this project for a long time. He started out as a footman, well, foot-orc from Alternative Armies' Londinium Coach.  Took off his head and replaced it with one sculpted from green stuff.  

Haven't decided how he should be based just yet.

As we all know a Gentleman's Gentleape is an indispensable companion for any adventure. 

In the center above are two officers of the Royal Regiment of Orang. They started life as Orc foot officers from Alternative Armies. I used some green stuff to augment their faces and did hand swaps so they could hold the wire banner poles.

The Other Ranks either side are bog orcs studio painted by the good folks at Alternative Armies to my faux orangutan specifications.

The rabbit is a standard Burrovian, uhh, standard bearer. Painted him to carry Sir Kev Blynge's banner as he trudges through the Heart of Darkness gathering carrots.

Some of you will remember Sir Kev as the renegade colonel of the Chavchesters. In the photo he can be seen in dismounted form as provided by the staff of Alternative Armies. I painted the traditional Burberry tartan on Kev's trews and headband.

Finally here is the Riosotter. He will be running afoul of Giglamps in the future in "The Wind and the Otter".

Mrs. Petiteorcus Alive, or Risotter Dead!

The United Provinzes of Fruit and Veg

The Prince of Orangs

Should he take up these arms?

As mentioned previously the Prince of Orangs rules over the United Provinzes of Fruit and Veg located in Urop.

His principality is often an unhappy one. The Orangs of the north do not always agree with the Burrovians to the south. Indeed at one point the Emperor Mordred attempted to set up a cony state, the Burrovian Republic. As with all of Mordred's triumphs however, this too was short lived.

Or do these suit him better?

 The Prince is rather fond of noting that his is the only herbivorous state in Urop and it is perhaps this shared trait of both Orang and Burrovian that keeps the principality together.

Yet there is a dark side to this seeming fairy tale land. The Burrovian lust for carrots is so great that cony explorers have scoured the globe seeking the finest of them all.

They have found that the wild carrots of Afri are the most desirable and have set up a colony, the Burrovian Konga for the sole purpose of extracting what they call orange gold from the hapless Halfling tribes who inhabit the region.

Nevertheless and to the dismay of Albion's Friends of Afri Society, the Prince has remained on good terms with His Majesty's Gov't. Indeed during the dark days of the Burrovian Republic, the Prince, in exile, served on the staff of the Duke of Wheelingturn in the Catalucian theatre.

The burden of leadership weighs heavy on his prominent brows.

Now to the point of this post, in so much as there even is a point...

I have gathered an escort for the Prince composed of Burrovian Cuirassiers. This his personal guard will also bear his standard.

So which of the above designs do you, dear reader, prefer?

Should one of them be the entire banner or only appear in a corner of a more conventional flag?

Or perhaps like the Kingdom of Italy, the arms should appear in the center of a tricolour?

Really can't decide and looking for some inspiration!

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

Update:

Nick H. has kindly suggested the above pattern. This assumes that carrots were not bred orange to favor the House of Orange and instead were left to their natural tendency to pale hues. It also nicely adheres to the rules of heraldry by exchanging the colour orange for the metal silver.

Prince of Orangs: Take Two!

"Damn! Damn! Damn! Damn! 

I've not grown accustomed to his face...  "

I just couldn't let well enough lie. As you may know an adult Orangutan has very dark grey skin and my chaps were just too light. So I once again took up the brush.

Of course when painting miniatures the trick with any dark color is to not make it so dark that the figure loses definition.

Also the historical Prince of Orange did not sport a mustache and my original Prince of Orangs was so painted...but an orangutan without his mustache just looks...odd.

So this time around I used Vallejo black mixed with Army Painter Ash Grey to varying degrees to darken the Prince's skin, with  Vallejo Brown Orange (or it might be Orange Brown!) mixed with varying degrees of Vallejo White to fix the facial hair situation.

Better? I'm not sure. However I am done monkeying around on these figures for now.

Yes. I went there!

Thanks for stopping by...again : )