Scots

Between 1418 and 1436, the Armagnac faction of the Dauphin Charles, sought to renew ‘the auld alliance’ and recruit Scots to bolster the fighting against the English and Burgundians. This was despite the fact that James I of Scotland was still captive in England, as he had been since 1406. Around 5,000 Scots were involved in campaigns, contributing to the French success at Bauge, but suffering heavy casualties at Cravant in 1423 and Verneuil the following year, after which their numbers and importance don’t appear to have recovered.
This first contingent are spearmen, continuing the tradition of the Scots ‘schiltron’. However in the first quarter of the fifteenth century they had a mix of arms. It appears that higher numbers of archers were recruited, presumably to deliberately counter the English longbows.
These Perrys have been painted by Jim Bowen (with 3 added by me, as I realised when basing up that I’d miscalculated how many I needed!), many of them bear the Scottish ‘saltire’ badge, although I decided to have them fighting under a French flag.
Scots archers and men at arms to follow.

Sustenance

Just a quick post, with a vignette that I did a few weeks ago. A man at arms, usable for any army, taking on fluids (probably wine not water) after the battle. The camp follower is a Foundry figure from their Swiss wars range. The useful wayside cross in the background is Bicorne from their ECW range (I think). More anon.

Speedos

Four bases of English 'scurrors' painted allegro, using the Army Painter dip. Having read avidly Dave Imrie's Saxon Dog blog over the last few weeks and having been impressed by the quantity and quality he's acheived by brushing on the dip, I thought I'd succumb and give it a go in the hope of increasing production levels, without compromising too much on detail. Also these figures are not 'core' to the English army and may see action on the table only on rare occassions, so I felt I had little to lose.
I'm pretty pleased with the results. I undercoated the figures with a light grey enamel and then just blocked in the colours, using much paler tones that I would normally use - all those Foundry highlight shades look like they may get used after all. This approach felt very odd and distinctly uncomfortable having painted figures with a shade and highlight style for more than 30 years. However just when I was thinking it may have been a bad idea, came the 'eureka' moment when the dip is applied (by brush) and all the figure's details are picked out and some decent shading applied. When dry I then picked out some highlights, with the same colour as the base, on some cloths and on the faces. I chose the 'Dark Tone' dip, on the basis that it would have greater impact on the plate and mail armour. The dip finish is gloss, so figures were matted down with a spray of 'Coat d'arms' matt varnish.
Horses were traditionally done but I will test dip on some soon.
Overall results are a 7/10 for quality (but only if you study the figures close up) and a 11/10 on time saved - doing these 'nomally' would have taken me probably 3 times longer.
Figures are Perry and pennon from LBMS banner sheet. Basework to be completed and photo'd in artifical light - not great pics I'm afraid.

Bedford at Ivry 1424

John duke of Bedford was Henry V's oldest surviving brother, following the deaths of the King and the duke of Clarence. In Henry VI's minority Bedford became Regent of France and as such led the war effort and secured the significant victory at Verneuil in 1424.

The chronicler Jehan de Waurin, one of the key sources for the wars, was in attendance with the English army that year and describes Bedford when the English army besiged the town of Ivry in August. He wore a specially made surcoat, bearing the combined red cross of England and the white cross of France, signifying to all in attendance and behind the walls of the town, his legitimacy as Regent of the two countries, now legally combined following the Treaty of Troyes.

I'm assuming that he continued to wear this for the remainder of that year (at least) and so have made some marginal modifications to one of the Perry commanders to re-create Bedford. I decided to put the French cross on blue (although many contemproary illustrations show it on red) to create some contrast. The figure in the middle of the base is a lovely figure sculpted by the 'count of wymborn' on Steve Dean's website; others are Perrys.

Longbowmen (II)

A small contingent of English longbowmen defend the crossing point of a tributary of the Seine, somewhere in Normandy.

The remainder of the English longbowmen for now; another 9 bases completed here. I'd like to do another three to take the total to 18 and so retain the 3:1 ratio with the men-at-arms. Figures painted by me and Jim Bowen on a roughly 50-50 split. Couple of older Citadels tucked in amongst the ranks including two plastics (before the current plastic 'renaissance'). The commander figure is Sir John Harrington (whose 19th century descendant appears to have invented the water closet!) who I've used as I had the GMB flag! Another St George flag is to be added to these for completeness. The terrain board is made by Keith at Realistic Modelling Services, who has a top-notch product.
Bases with defensive stakes are still to be completed.

literary inspiration?

Those nice people at Amazon have sent me some reading matter - Conquest - the new book on the conquest and loss of English Normandy, from 1417 to 1453. The last blog-related book I read was Anne Curry's Agincourt which was an academic study, well researched and suggesting new insights into the armies, campaign and battle. I'm expecting Juliet Barker's approach to be much 'lighter', indeed the preface is ended with her stating "I hope that the reader will be entertained as well as informed". It looks like Barker's taken a straight narrative approach, using only secondary sources, but hopefully one that's anchored to the existing historical evidence. I've had a quick look at the section covering the battle of Verneuil, where she's taken the established view of the battle - sadly making no reference to Dr Michael Jones recent published reinterpretation. However the read should keep me sufficiently enthused for the next 6 weeks, to keep my project moving, although time spent reading is not time spent painting! I'll post a brief review of the book when read.

The washing of the longbows*

Just a short WIP update. With the launch of the Perrys WotR range looming somewhat (circa 12 weeks and counting down), my focus is now to get both armies to a stage of semi-completeness asap. First up are the English longbowmen, which need several more figures adding to get them to a close-to-planned state, ie 20 bases rather than the 24. I'm testing achieving this by a possibly speedier painting process, on a psuedo-production line basis, as the finished figures will get mixed in when based to achieve a non-uniform medieval appearance.
So I've tried is to use washes more than I've ever done previously - not the complete dipping process (which personally creates a finish to my liking) - but Games Workshop washes, as I've read generally positive reviews about.
I stared using them on the padded jacks of these archers. The jacks were painted in Foundry Buff Leather (mid-tone 7B) and then had GW Devlan Mud & Sepia 50:50 mix washed over. This adds deep shadows in the thin creases of the jacks - which is difficult to achieve by hand - as well as dulling the overall colour and creates some contrasts with the raised surface areas. I've then picked out highlights using the Buff 7B straight from the pot.
For hands and faces I've applied the same method. Foundry Flesh mid (5B) with GW Orgyn Flesh wash and then highlights on nose, cheeks, chin and forehead with 5B again. Not much facial details show with these helmeted figures, but I think next time I'll pick out shadows on the eyes, nose and mouth with my usual method (Plaka Red Brown) post wash and before the highights to achieve more depth and contrasts - although this will add to the overall time to finish a figure.
Overall I'm satisfied with the final figures, and which feel like they've been a little quicker to complete (although no stopwatch was set). Am now contemplating using the washes more; on the other clothings at least. They do create neat natural shadows and exploit the fine sculpting of the castings. However the trade-off is that washes do 'dull' the paint they're applied over and I don't want a 'dipped' finish, so adding the highlights as I'd usually do, will still be needed.
I'll post up the next batch and we'll see...

* with apologies to Donald Morris.