Chinese Boxer Rebellion / Black Flag Pirate gun crews

I’m working on building armies for both Boxer Rebellion and Black Flag Pirates. Though they are distinctive and separate forces my research has shown that some of the figures can be used for both armies, IMHO. Here are some Chinese gunners converted from 25mm Old Glory Boxer Rebellion minis from their colonial range, codes CBC-01 & CBC-02 Boxers attacking with Swords and Pole Arms. Figure codes below  

I cut away the existing weapons and inserted gun crew tools in place. I left the sword in the hand of the gun commander as any self respecting Chinese gun crew commander must have a suitably large and sharp sword. I added a bucket from the bits box to make him look more part of the gun crew rather than just another sword armed Boxer fig. 

   

                   

                                             

I build all my gun crew teams as (4) man gun crews for my favorite rules system The Sword And The Flame. 

I removed the weapons that the other three figs were cast with and drilled out their hands with a small drill bit to allow me to insert the gunner tools. I made a sponge from .032” steel piano wire rod from Hobby Lobby, a bead, and green stuff, a worm from a Foundry Miniatures Crimea era gun crew set, and a linstock / match from I don’t know where, some of which I fabricated. 

I slightly altered the one fig to add a turban with green stuff to make him more useful to use as a Black Flag Chinese or Vietnamese pirate as well as a Boxer. Not my best work by far, but it would suffice when painted. 

 

                                              

                           “Tools of the Trade”

Here is the completed gun crew. I made grooves in the bamboo hats more pronounced by using a simple exacto knife and layering paint.  

I based these as I always do with painters gels from Michaels Craft Store. I’ve also used Renaissance Inks flocking gels. I mix the desired texture(s) with Delta Ceramcoat Burnt Umber acrylic paint in a small container using a mix of Extra Course, Medium, and Soft Gel to get the texture I want, sometimes adding railroad ballast and sand. This is applied with a small gel pallet knife and a cheap hard bristle brush. It’s left to dry for 24 hours and then I dry brush with the colors below in succession. 

This crew is manning a very large 17th-18th century artillery piece for the spares box, mfg and origin unknown. Here is the painted cannon without weathering or my usual Polyshades Minwax Tudor Brown dip which is a combo weathering, shading, and sealing / protection.

This next gun crew are from Wargames Foundry which I’ve had sitting around for years. They are from 3 different packs of Chinese troops.

Loader:

For the loader I used a lead shield from one of the Chinese Tigermen packs attached with a steel rod drilled through the head to mimic a commonly used Black Flag Pirate headgear.

I was going for headgear similar to this Black Flag Pirate from Gringo 40’s Miniatures.

Gun crew commander: 

I added another bucket for the gun crew commander and  a bamboo hat made of paper card superglued to his head and textured it slightly to give a bamboo /straw feel.

Bore Cleaner with sponge:

I added a sponge from the spares box, most likely from another Foundry gun crew set to this suitably upright standing fig with arm in the perfect pose from the Ever Victorious Army gun crew set, see below. 

Here are the (3) packs of Wargame’s Foundry Chinese

that I sourced figures from for this gun crew.  

 The Black Flag Army used a variety of artillery, here they are pictured with a 3-D printed 28mm age of sail naval cannon that one of my buddies gave me!