Playing With Fire .

No - not a small shrine to wargaming , One of the problems Johnny Cope had at Prestonpans was a lack of artillerymen , he sent to Edinburgh for some but they got lost and never arrived in time for the battle . To man his guns he had to rely on sailors on loan from the navy (in fact it was only at Culloden that the Government artillery was manned totally by artillerymen ) . So I decided to try and convert some figures into sailors .

Looking through my spares box I found some 30 years war gunners and thought these would maybe do . Rod from https://rodwargaming.wordpress.com/ converts his figures using an electric soldering iron , not having one of these I resorted to a candle and an old craft knife  to alter the figures . The figure on the left has had his 'floppy' TYW hat converted into a tricorne by the application of the hot blade being used to remould the brim .

This man with a linstock has now a period tricorne , the other figures had wool hats which will do as period naval attire  . This was very much a learning process - it's VERY easy to decapitate figures with a too hot blade , the plastic when molten is VERY hot ! and when you use your thumb to press it into shape you end up dancing around whilst sucking the aforesaid thumb and swearing loudly which alarmed  the dog and my wife ! . However think it has been a success as one must suffer for ones art and I hope to get them painted up soon .