Commander Peter Iberton, The Black Fox of the Coast

The more I thought about it, the more it seemed unlikely that General Paz from San Carlos would be present at this encounter or at least that he would be in charge of any but his own troops and I did not want more than 1 defending  General since part of the idea of the game is to see if command advantages can help offset numbers. So what I needed finally, was a General for the Brethren.

Out came my stock of Zinnbrigade castings. Its been double digits below zero in my casting shop for most of the last 2 months so I am relying on the Fall squirreling away of bits and bodies. One of my favorite officer bodies is the one from the Dragoons. I had a couple available, but what did a leader of Brethren look like? No books to help unfortunately.

7 other variations on the same Zinnbrigade body. The Dragoon officer in the center still has the original cast on head and no alteration except to adjust the epaulette since the arm is designed to point down not up. The rest have had head swaps and one has a hunting shirt added. All 3 arm variations come in the mold. The figure is designed to fit the galloping Napoleonic Dragoon horse but sits well enough on the more sedate 1900 Prussian horses. 

This is one of the issues with semi-historical imagineering. If it was complete fantasy on an alternate world, almost anything could go, if it was historical or fictional armies based on a real one like Faraway, I could check a uniform book. But,no, I haven't even worked out exactly who the brethren are in detail. A mix of men of all races but predominantly European and Atlantican with a sprinkling of others, lascars who jumped ship, escaped slaves and so on.  So, a bit of Buccaneer but 19thC ish, a bit of Metis but coastal not buffalo hunters, a bit Mexican but not Spanish. They have no formal government and thus no army so a civilian General, yet one would expect a rich man of power to look the part and not dress like a common hand.

Some of my pirate officers have plumed hats and tail coats so my first thought was a Green coat and plumed hat but he started to look too military and especially too Frontier Light Horse-ish. Its already established that Northern Atlantica is hotter than the south, most of his followers are in shirt sleeves, so I thought, ok straw hat. I took one from one of my sailor castings and added a head scarf underneath to tie him in with the pirates.. It looked OK but not special enough, I decided to file off the coat tails and add a short jacket worn open instead of buttoned up. Leaving him in long pants seemed right but  something said "boots" so I filed down the overalls a bit and cut in the boot tops. I also had to reverse the epaulette because I pointed the arm up instead of down.

Now for colour. Green with fawn pants is a favorite look but done. A little voice said black. Blue perhaps or is that too Oberhilse? Brown maybe? What if he was head of a Biker Gang? OK Black, black coat, and pants and hat. He started to look a little familiar but not ought of place as a leader of the under trodden seeking justice and freedom, even without a mask. I added some silver buttons and trim to show he has money and power and is not afraid to show it. The small plume became a fox tail.

Now for a name. Not my usual something suggested by the pose or manufacturer. Is there a reason to suggest French, Spanish or Danish blood? If so what effect would that have on the back story? What about the native heritage? Perhaps something neutral. The majority of the Brethren are likely to be British or American in origin so an English version of a common Christian name that could originally have been in another language or not. His nick name can evoke his native heritage. One of  my favorite Canadian heroes was Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville. Not  a pirate but he had his own TV show and led expeditions from Montreal to Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland by land and by sea, capturing forts (and booty) and winning sea battles against the odds.hmmm

Without further ado, I present  Peter Iberton, The Black Fox. Commander of the Brethren..

 

OK, the Brethren have a leader and the last of the in-between base ones have been mounted on washers, tomorrow I can play.