Wednesday 1 December 2021

Pirate Rule #11 - Every Crew Must Have a Parrot (More Squat Pirates)

Trouble traditionally comes in threes, and this kind of trouble is the shortest, hairiest kind! Latest off the workbench is another trio of squat pirates (leaving just three more to try and finish before the end of the year).



Part of the reason that there's been such a gap between my last squat pirates and these is related to arms. The metal bodies were intended for use with the plastic squat arms, but unfortunately the plastic arms fit poorly, cover nice sculpted details and don't match aesthetically. As a result, I've spent a long time trying to work up the arm right solution for every squat pirate using bits donated from other models.

The pirate with the telescope and chunky rifle has borrowed his hands from a modern Citadel ratling with sleeves sculpted to blend into his coat.

The pirate with the big electro-gaff has a fantastic 3D printed cyber-parrot from the talented hands of Curis over at Ninjabread. The hand is a plastic squat hand and the rest of the arm was sculpted.


As for the Prussian-looking squat, he got the pistol and sword from a Rogue Trader Imperial Guard figure and again sleeves sculpted to blend with his uniform coat.


Like the other pirates, I believe these were sculpted by Colin Dixon. They have absolutely wonderful faces to paint - full of character.

Pirate Rule #26 - baggy trousers must be made from striped material.



With his baseball cap on backwards, I figured this squat was a young one, so he got a youthful blonde beard!

The monocle lens looks much better in real life, honest!


And the new trio again:



With these three done, it takes me to a 10-strong crew if you include the ogryn.


As mentioned above, I'm aiming to get the final three squat pirates completed in the next couple of weeks to close off the project for the meantime. Wish me luck!







10 comments:

  1. What a great looking pirate crew, if we ever play an Inquisimunda style campaign again I hope I will get to see these across the table :D

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    1. Thanks Jimmy! You just know that they're poised and ready for such an eventuality!!

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  2. Cyber-Parrot is everything this community is meant to be!!!!

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    1. It really is! Who would have thought that it would be possible for fantastically talented people to make such things and then donate one to a super-niche project? What a time to be alive!

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  3. Arrr! How uderrated cyberparrots are! Sweet job, I love them all!

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    1. Underrated maybe, but once you've seen one, you know you want one 😏

      Cheers Suber!

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  4. I love this project! Three great new additions to the crew. If you wouldn't have shown the work in progress I never would have guessed you had to sculpt the arms, they look like they are original. Looking forward to the final mates!

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    1. Thanks Hobbs, glad you approve of the arms. The trick is to find hands that work then pin them into place with wire. The sleeves are just gap filling really!

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  5. Great additions to an already amazing group. You know I love me some Squats, and your clearly unique characters in this team make for a visually and thematically fantastic group.

    And yeah, cyber parrot is so cool. Have to say tho, surprised you didn’t just sculpt one yourself, you have the obvious skills mate. :)

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    1. Thanks Dai! Each and every one of these reprobates deserves some nice attention, so I'm glad they stand out as characters whilst also remaining a coherent group.

      I think I'd have struggled with the straight lines on the cyber parrot though 😉

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