La Meridiana Miniatures - New release

[Guy]

Art. FR54-28
Huron Warrior (XVII sec.)
Scale:mm 54
White metal
Sculptor: Pongsatorn Kanthaboon
Painter: Danilo Cartacci

click to enlarge
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La Meridiana Miniatures web-site
click here


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[ghamilt1]

I have never seen a historic reference which shows or mentions North American Natives sporting shields of that type (with heraldry!!??), much less the greaves. Should this example be put down to artistic liscense, or could someone enlighten me as to the historic accuracy of this figure?

 

[Anders Heintz]

He was inspired by the Zulu's

 

[AJLaFleche]

This does seem to be a bit fanciful. None of the Woodland Indian books by Osprey show anything like the greaves, shield or "armor." Can't see it clearly, but the gun might be a matchlock, suggesting an earlier period than we usually see.

 

[garyjd]

Look at Osprey's American Woodland Indians, #228. Plate A4 represents a Huron warrior, c. 1625 that is wearing similiar armor based on early French contacts. Look at the image (heraldry) painted on the back of the shield. It looks like a close representation of the gorget-like piece being worn in the plate and on the figure. Unless they have sources to back up the armor the figure is wearing it's a history meets fantasy piece. ~Gary

 

[vergilius]

I want lewis and clark but this one looks alright too

 

[Mark S]

I think its a great looking figure.

 

[Guy]

Knowing the amount of research that Fabrizio puts into a figure I knew he had the references that the Huron was sculpted from. La Meridiana Miniatures is one company that does their research for the figures they release, and in the Huron's case, have documentation to back it up. Plate number 4 as shown by Gary is historically wrong for an Indian to have that long of an armor hanging down and would trip on it for sure.

Below are the reference photos that Fabrizio, La Meridiana Miniatures, has sent me to provide you.

Reference Photos

[click on below images
for enlargement ]



La vie privèe des hommes - au temps des indiens d'amerique "a l'èpoque de la conquete" di Philippe Jacquin - Francòis Davot,
Hachette



Huron:
Great Lakes Indians, William J. Kubiak,
Thunder bay Press



Huron:
described by Gabriel Sagard, 1623/1624

If anyone would like the original images emailed to them just drop me an email and I'll send them to you. [email protected]

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[AJLaFleche]

Thanks for the clarification. Looks like the gray army has a new recruit.

 

[captnenglish]

I knew the figure looked very cool and like a blast to paint , now that there is some evidence that it's fairly accurate, I guess I'll have to consider it

 

[Wlas]

Everything has to do with Time. An armored Huron simply ceased to exist when muskets showed their armor to have no practical value. Most native Indians wore armor at one time or another before gunpowder introduced them to sudden mortality. Fabrizio's work is a bit of an anachronism. His references are probably valid and the Huron would have been fine without the musket.
But on closer examination the musket looks quite early ( not the stuff of Braddock's time ).....so I see it as a valid example of an early Huron.
Nice work.

 

[garyjd]

I'm familiar with the illustrations from the Kubiak book. Though the armor looks more functional than that pictured in Osprey's title that alone does not make it inaccurate. I believe the Kubiak book is from 1970, so it would be interesting to see some up to date research on the subject of early native armor. ~Gary

 

[garyjd]

This looks like it could be a great book.

http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/books/jonnat.html

 

[amherbert]

There's an amazing 'First Peoples' suit of armour in the Canadian War Museum. I'd love to see a figure sporting that outfit!

Just got the La Meridiana figure for Christmas, so I found this old thread. The figure is well cast, lots of parts, but fit looks good.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Einion]

Plate number 4 as shown by Gary is historically wrong for an Indian to have that long of an armor hanging down and would trip on it for sure.

One needs to be very careful about making definitive statements based on conjecture Guy.

Michael Johnson's CV is not light in this area so I'd tend to give him the benefit of the doubt. Saying that, everyone can be wrong sometimes, however check this out

Knowing the amount of research that Fabrizio puts into a figure I knew he had the references that the Huron was sculpted from. La Meridiana Miniatures is one company that does their research for the figures they release, and in the Huron's case, have documentation to back it up.

Okay, why doesn't the shield then match the reference? Where's the stitching? As sculpted it looks like it has more in common with European shield construction than NA crafts.

Then there's the chestpiece; just at first glance it appears to me to have more in common with Plains bone chest protectors. Very little is known for sure about early Woodlands armour but with those huge gaps it would have very little protective value against arrows; according to Elisabeth Tooker in An Ethnography Of The Huron Indians, 1615-1649 their armour was:

"...made of white rods cut the same length and pressed against one another, very tightly sewn and interlaced with little cords."​

Quite apart from all that, the anatomy is not great - look at the poor structure of the arms for one (best seen in this side view).

Einion

 

[TWOMOONS]

Iroquois warriors wore an armor , as similarly described by Einion, for quite a while...and the NW Coast tribes, particularly the Tlingit wore similar armor, made from the wooden rods with greaves also...plus helmets. They fought the Russians in this type armor.
The "heraldry" has existed on shields both in woodland, NW, plains tribes since they were pedestrian...clan affiliation within their own tribe or "magic" as dictated by vision quest or dreams. Totemic eponyms were an important part of Native life, everywhere in the Americas. Not only for war, but for marriage.
For instance, Crazy Horse's "protection" was hail and lightning, and he was reported (no photos exist of him) to paint himelf, his horse and his shield accordingly. I had planned to do an Iroquois warrior pretty much like this Huron (a higher armor on the rear--well above the head) a few figures down the line.
The newer Ian Heath book "Armies of the Sixteenth Century' (Americas) is just a boatload of inspiration of unique and exciting figures for scratchbuilders and converters...well worth the cost, as most of his wargaming books are. Exensive research and info. It shows a warrior wearing armor much like this figure.
I would not really consider the figure as "fanciful" or "fantasy"...definitely based on fact.