Woodland Indians

I recently added five new poses to my range of Eastern Woodland Indians, for a total of ten references. 

The five older figures included warriors in a variety of action poses: standing + firing; kneeling + firing; advancing;  running; springing forward.

The new poses include a war chief in a trade shirt, and four running warriors wielding axes and wooden war clubs, or casse-tête. 

I obtained the war chief converting one of my Canadian coureurs-des-bois. 

I got the other four figures by swapping two different sets of arms on two common body poses.

Most warriors belonging to the savage nations fighting alongside the French went to war half-naked, wearing only trade-cloth breech-clout and center-seam moccasins. Many would also wear leather mitasses or trade-cloth leggings for additional leg protection. Two basic designs existed:  wrap-around cloth leggings, and center-seam leather ones. The leggings were suspended to the warrior’s waist by jeans of narrow straps attached to the breech-clout belt. In addition, colorful ribbon garters were worn just below the knees.

Woolen waist sashes were also popular, while some warrior of higher standing might sport a linen shirt of European manufacture. 

Weapons typically included ore or more knives of varying size, a trade axe, or a wooden war club, and a musket. The latter was most likely a French hunting gun, or Fusil de Chasse, the most popular trade gun of the French and Indian Wars era. A large powder horn and ammunition pouch attested for the ample supply of shot and powder these ruthless frontier warriors were granted by their French comrades in exchange for their gruesome services. Belt pockets, gourd canteens, and small tobacco or medicine bags completed a warrior's kit. 

Hair was worn according to each warrior's own fancy. Apparently, the prevailing style consisted in shaving the front half of the head but leaving the hair grow longer at the back, sometimes with one or more braided or wrapped-io locks being singled out. The crest-like hairstyle was also popular. Bird feathers and plumes were often attached to the warrior's hair, as well as strings of shells or beads. 

In addition, some warrior wore a distinctive porcupine-quill or moose-hair roach, typically dyed vermilion.

I based the faces and hairstyles of my figures on period representations of Eastern Woodland Indians, trying to reproduce the racial features of the native warriors, and to capture their cruel, hideous expressions as they would have appeared to uneasy European observers…