Night Watchmen

After I have been gathering a number of highwaymen and other 17th-18th century scoundrel over the last years it is time to bring some appropriate opponents for these criminals to the table. I always found night watchmen to be equally stylish and characterful and here they are at last!

Night Watchmen are a great faction for 17th to 18th century games. Be it highwaymen, pirates or other criminals, watchmen are a great group of non-player models that players need to avoid during their nightly operations. For missions at daytime they can serve as guards or militia. Because of this, I found it all the more surprising that there are almost no suitable models available. While collecting highwaymen and robbers is relatively easy - mostly thanks to the excellent range from Outpost Wargames Services - this is not the case for night watchmen. The one true night watch model that I had known for some time is Squire Mortimer Bush from Foundry's Smugglers set (CIV007) from the 18th Century Civilians range. This is very much the prototype of what I was looking for: A model in a greatcoat, wearing a tricorne and carrying a lantern.

Resurrectionists (VC017) from
Casting Room Miniatures

If Foundry's models were available as singles I might have bought a few Mortimers to fill up my night watch. There is another nice model available as part of the Resurrectionists set (VC017), which comes from Casting Room Miniatures' range Victorians/Edwardians. Again, this is only one model out of an entire pack and the late Victorian hat is not perfect, either.

I had already accepted the fact that there are no more models to be found and that I might have to get some more highwaymen from Outpost Wargames for converting when I found the Dublin Constabulary set from Trent Miniatures' Great Irish Rebellion range. Like the Victorian resurrectionist they do not have suitable hats but fortunately the figures come with separate heads so swapping them is not a problem at all.

Dublin Constables from Trent miniatures

Surprisingly, again, there are very few head sprues with tricornes available - at least to my knowledge, that is. Black Scorpion Miniatures used to have a pirate sprue which contained a tricorne among other useful bits such as weapons, a parrot and a small monkey. Sadly, it is no longer available. Then, I finally found a head sprue from Ebor Miniatures: Head Sprue (WSSMHS01). These heads are a tad bit small for the constables' bodies but since I didn't find any other alternatives and went with them.

Finally, after being beautifully painted up by Simon Bradley aka stonecoldlead, this is what the four night watchmen look like:

Night Watchmen, painted by Simon Bradley