Woodland Indian Warriors of the American Revolutionary War, 1775–1783

Italeri 1:72 Scale Figure Review

Woodland Indian Warriors, American Revolutionary War, 1:72 Miniatures Italeri 6061.

Italeri’s Woodland Indian Warriors make excellent Iroquois, most of whom fought for the British during the American Revolutionary War. Two Iroquois tribes, the Oneida and Tuscarora, joined the American rebels, and they may be portrayed with these figures as well, even if their unique headdress of split feathers has not been recreated in miniature.

Contents

48 Figures in 16 Poses – 25 mm equal 180 cm Height in 1:72 Scale

  • Chief with uniform and musket (3)
  • Warrior with musket, negotiating (3)
  • Warrior waving musket (3)
  • Warrior with tomahawk, signalling (3)
  • Warrior with musket, kneeling, observing (3)
  • Warrior with musket, standing firing (3)
  • Warrior with musket, squatting firing (3)
  • Warrior with discharged musket, standing, reacting (3)
  • Warrior with gunstock-club and knife, standing (3)
  • Warrior with gunstock-club and knife, charging (3)
  • Warrior with knife and ball-headed club, fighting (3)
  • Warrior with knife and ball-headed club, charging (3)
  • Warrior with knife and tomahawk, charging (3)
  • Warrior with knife, brandishing scalp (3)
  • Warrior with musket, biting paper cartridge (3)
  • Warrior cocking musket (3)

Evaluation

Excellent choice of subject, Italeri’s Woodland Indian Warriors are unique in 1:72 scale. Tribal warriors were irregulars, and the 16 figure poses in this set offer enough variety for realistic skirmish actions. The fighting poses are suitable for wargames and dioramas of many campaigns, from the French and Indian War to the Anglo-American War of 1812, and there are several relaxed warriors who may be deployed in more peaceful scenes.

More than half of the warriors are armed with muskets, the remainder carry melee weapons, including the typical ball-headed and gunstock-clubs, knives and tomahawks. Bow-armed warriors, illustrated on the box cover, are sadly missing, even though the bow was still the tactically superior missile weapon at the time.

Most of the warriors wear the mohawk, invented by the Hurons and popularized by the Mohawk-Iroquois. Mohawks regarded their hair as a connection to god, which is why they let it grow long in peacetime. Only when Mohawks went on the warpath did they shave the sides of their head, leaving a narrow strip of long hair in the center. Other Iroquois tribes embellished their Mohawk-style haircuts with feathers and horse- or boarhair caterpillars to create unique and identifiable hairstyles.

At 180 cm height, these warriors are much too tall to represent 18th century Woodland Indians.

Knives and gunstock-clubs tend to snap off easily, because of the relatively hard plastic used for these figures. Some of the miniatures are practically free of mould lines, while others show a significant amount of flash which needs to be removed prior to painting. We used the ZEP-70 regulated soldering iron to iron out the prominent mould lines running across several of the shaved heads.

Historical Employment

  • Hurons (Wyandot) and Iroquois
    • Queen Anne’s War, 1702–1713
    • King George’s War, 1744–1748
    • French and Indian War, 1754–1763
    • American Revolutionary War, 1775–1783
    • War of 1812

Heads with Mohawk hairstyles may be used to convert other 1:72 scale tribal warriors to Hurons and Iroquois.

American Revolutionary War Miniatures