kurigan

New Custom Uniforms 

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I’ve actually been sitting on these since August, but finally found a couple of hours in between to make up a sample of each today. These are based on the same pattern as my naval coats and jackets but for other military roles in my little Lego world. From left to right you’ll see: 

Infantry (Red Coat), Royal Artillery, Royal Marine, Dragoon and Queens Ranger/Rifles. 

 

They are not 100% historically accurate (I know, I know) but they are close enough for my purposes. 

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I had a bit of fun doing portrait shots of each. I guess they came out OK, but whatever, it’s just for fun. 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Here we have the eager young solder boy of a poor country regiment, glad to have found employment somewhere, anywhere; even the far side of the world. 

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Buff facings and wooden buttons, these guys couldn't be more basic, but what they lack in funds, they make up for with zeal for King and Country.

 

See the proud artillerist, showing off his pride and joy. 

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The colors are right but the buttons are wrong. I can only do so much, especially at this scale. Who's to say its not a qurik of this made-up regiment anyway?

 

Cheeky tough he may seem, never doubt the discipline of the Royal Marine 

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These guys would defiantly look more the part with the white cross belts but I haven't had the time to make them up. It'll take a bit of trial and error, cutting and measuring before I have a pattern, so I put 'em together anyway.

 

A typical Dragoon, always on about the quality of his mount. (I’m not really thrilled with how this guy came out. There's just something missing.) 

 

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It doesn't seem to translate well in the image, probably my lighting, but the facings are dark green, not blue.

 

“So angry...” Tread lightly around these Queen’s Rangers, they are a deadly combination of well drilled and disciplined solders and back woods trackers. 

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These guys are a bit of a pet project. Yes they are more than a little inspired by "Turn", which I know is quite apocryphal at points, but forgive me a bit of enthusiasm. I'm still not sure if I want to stick with the 18th c. style tri-corns or if I want to invest in shakos to make them more 19th c. They can't just be the Lego shakos though, so, yeah. Perhaps @woody64 would do me a favor :pir-look:, pretty sure I've seen his guy's wearing something like the right kind.

 

Disclaimer: 

Spoiler

Please don’t go all “keyboard crusader” on me just to say how they lose the “Lego-y-ness", that you prefer pad printing or that I could just have used this, that or the other thing for Lego or professional customizers. Not only does all that miss the point, entirely, but I don't care and I didn’t ask. It’s not a competition and this is not a challenge, I just think they are neat, and thought you all might as well. Enjoy them for what they are (the result of a lot of hard work honestly) and if you can’t say anything nice, kindly, Blok-off. 

Yes, if anyone is interested, I can and will share PDFs. Use them all you like, change them is you want, just, please, don't claim them as your own. They are actually a lot of work and it took a long time to get to this point. It would break me heart to be so betrayed. Send me a PM, though, as I don't have anywhere to host files.

 

Hope you enjoyed them!

Dave

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Wow, those look fabulous for custom Lego coats. I'm sure the geometry to make the patterns is difficult to get right. You mentioned that these were a pet project... how many versions did you have to go through to get these?

18 hours ago, kurigan said:

(I’m not really thrilled with how this guy came out. There's just something missing.)

Maybe it's a chunk of his face? :grin:

 

MAC

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A unique approach, and one that I think holds a lot of promise. The possibility to create proper, regimental-specific uniforms is a great advantage over standard Lego as well as the fact that you can create a proper coat that goes below the waist. You may consider experimenting are ways to get the proper cross belts as this is such an integral part of the enlisted soldier's uniform. 

One thing that looks off is the collar. Maybe I'm just too used to seeing it included on the torso, but here it reminds me of a noir detective's trench coat with the collar up more so than a colonial uniform. I think it may be that the edge gets a little too close to the mouth with makes the collar look too tall, but this may just be a compromise one has to make when working with Lego. 

I do hope that you continue to work with these and further hone your technique. 

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Nice update, Kurigan! The originals were nothing short of excellent, but these updated ones bring a whole new meaning to custom minifigures! Would LOVE to see these kinds of minifigures in larger quantity in more of your builds! Is the infantry with the green uniform based off of the 95th Regiment of Foot? I absolutely adore the history behind them and it would be amazing to see the regiment recreated in a build!

Once again, wonderful job! I look forward to seeing what you add next! :laugh:

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The belts look great. A huge improvement that should also help to differentiate between the officers and enlisted men.

I'm not sure to what degree you're looking for historical accuracy, but a few points you might consider (based on the coats, I assume you're going for a pre-1800 look). 

1) The Queen's American Rangers wore caps, not tricorns (while the opposite would be true for most British line infantry up to 1800). You might consider switching the hats between the two minifigs. 

2) Officers usually had one belt (like the ranger currently has) while enlisted men had two (one for the bayonet and the other for their cartage box). I believe this was also true of rangers, and you may consider giving your soldier the second belt. 

3) If you're ambitious, you may consider painting some lace on the brim of the tricorns. I most enlisted men had white lace while I believe officers (and sergeants?) had a silver lace. 

Best of luck with this project, and I hope you continue to impress.

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On 11/10/2019 at 9:10 PM, iammac said:

Maybe it's a chunk of his face? :grin:

:laugh: Yeah a lot of my figures are "rescues", damaged beyond sell-able condition. Sometimes i  tell my self that they look look battle scars.

Not many versions, but I keep messing it with it on the computer every time I make up something new.

On 11/10/2019 at 9:42 PM, Captain Genaro said:

...a proper coat that goes below the waist...

...One thing that looks off is the collar....

It's like you read my old posts :laugh: but, yeah, that was one of my primary reasons for trying this in the first place. Thing is, they can still sit down.

Ii could try a shorter collar but it might be fragile. As it is theses are pretty delicate. Right now I have sheets of these already printed but i can put some on future sheets to mess around with. 

 

23 hours ago, The Neighborhood Merchant said:

Nice update, Kurigan! The originals were nothing short of excellent, but these updated ones bring a whole new meaning to custom minifigures! Would LOVE to see these kinds of minifigures in larger quantity in more of your builds! Is the infantry with the green uniform based off of the 95th Regiment of Foot? I absolutely adore the history behind them and it would be amazing to see the regiment recreated in a build!

Once again, wonderful job! I look forward to seeing what you add next! :laugh:

Thanks! Humm.. I suppose they could be used for the 95th but not specifically, no. mine is a made-up regiment, inspired by Ben Rodgers Queen's Rangers, which has a similar origin to the 95th, it would seem. In my own tale they were displace after "the last war" with no home to return to, being loyalists, and no means by which to return there. To survive they turned, essentially, mercenary, a path which takes them on many adventures leading eventually to employment on the same island colony around which the stories my MOCs contribute to, center. Which brings us to:

16 hours ago, Captain Genaro said:

The belts look great. A huge improvement that should also help to differentiate between the officers and enlisted men.

I'm not sure to what degree you're looking for historical accuracy, but a few points you might consider (based on the coats, I assume you're going for a pre-1800 look). 

1) The Queen's American Rangers wore caps, not tricorns (while the opposite would be true for most British line infantry up to 1800). You might consider switching the hats between the two minifigs. 

2) Officers usually had one belt (like the ranger currently has) while enlisted men had two (one for the bayonet and the other for their cartage box). I believe this was also true of rangers, and you may consider giving your soldier the second belt. 

3) If you're ambitious, you may consider painting some lace on the brim of the tricorns. I most enlisted men had white lace while I believe officers (and sergeants?) had a silver lace. 

Best of luck with this project, and I hope you continue to impress.

Well, where my Rangers are concerned, i'm less concerned with making them quite like any one unit in history, but more in cramming them, reasonably, into a historic context. Like I said in the first post, I really don't know what head gear i'll settle on. I think the tricorns look pretty good, and they're readily available. I can Use Lego, or make card stock one's of my own. I don't think the marine's shako is anything like the caps rangers wore, really they'r not really like anything any British solders wore, but they're what I have at the moment. The paint lace trim, is a good idea I could give a shot, at least on my red coats.

 

I'm not 100% on the belts yet. the more i look at them the more I think they may be to short. When I get back to it, i[m going to try stretching them out just a bit so they hang lower. I also want to mess with making a sword frog ad-on for the likes of officers.

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@kurigan hello there!! Just found these awsome decals, can you pls send them? ( seems eurobricks isnt letting me send pm)

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