Ral Partha Female Ranger - some old figures revisited.

 They befell our village, soldiers, red cloaks,  they proclaimed us as heretic's,  they set fire to our homes, forcing us out into the ope.  A few villagers fought back  yet they were cut down with sword, some tried to flee  yet  were shot with arrow, the few whom survived were taken aroint, i wot what happens to those accused  o'  heresy, belike it would  hast been better  they died that day.  I alone survived, i saw the massacre from the woods near by, i saw the village sear, what could i doth  yet  encave. 

 Mine name is mildritha, i am now a heretic, i am now an outlaw.

Ral Partha Female Rangers 

I bought six of these figures about 6 or 7 years back, I wanted them as archers for a fantasy game I had planned back then.  I remember having to very quickly paint them up.  Since then they have been stored in a box gathering dust.  Time to give these great little minis a new lease of life.

The Original paint job. 

 

Although the minis had been painted up quickly, they still looked reasonably okay but I had painted them as a unit of archers, each figure give the same colours, very uniform, the two photos above show how they all looked, not what I now wanted. In EotSR (Empire of the Scarlet Robe), I did not see there being any units of female archers,  they would be better served as outlaws, wolfsheads and rebel fighters, so I had to get rid of the uniform look.

The infamous five 

That sounded easy enough but the dust, oh the dust, each figure was thick with 6 years of the stuff, I had to very carefully wash each figure, allow to dry and then use a paint brush to remove any remaining dust.  The figures had been based on 25mm as shown in the picture, and I noticed that I had been a bit sloppy with the glue and flock when I originally painted the figures, so I had to remove any static grass that was attached to parts of the figures where it should nor have been.

 

Most of the paintwork was good enough to leave as was, it was just a matter of changing the colours on the cloaks, leggings and tunics, I decided to keep one as it was, only changing the other four.  I don't know what varnish, if any, I used back then but the new paint just did not want to adhere to the old paint, it took several thin coats to get good coverage.  

That said and after only a hour or so's work, these Ral Partha Rangers are now transformed, and ready to go back onto the tabletop, I now have 5 female outlaws ready to defy the EotSR, and they could also fit happily into my Robin of Sherwood games as well.

The grey tunic is how all the figures had been painted

There is a sixth figure, sadly she has lost the top half of her bow, a drop of glue will put her back together but that is a job for another day.

A quick update, the 6th figure has now been put back together and given a new paint job.