bows and arrows

Here are the arrows that i've had cast up - excellent service by the way from the mouldmaker.com.

Pic shows the two types of sprues that I made in their raw casted state; they are intended to be stuck into bases where troops are attacking longbowmen - mainly for HYW but I'll also use for my Swiss army. Second pic shows how they can be used to add some variety on figures by adding them for 'ready to loose' figures - have also added bowstrings with some thin metal thread found in Hobbycraft (in UK).

I have plenty of arrow castings at the moment(!), so if anyone's interested I'd be happy to sell you some for a nominal fee to cover my costs.

Encore Pavisers

Just managed to miss an April update I'm afraid...but progress has been made.

Oh er, it's ... another French urban paviser unit; this time advancing into English arrows. This unit represents Rouen, the largest town in medieval Normandy, using more of the excellent LBMS pavise transfers.

Although this is the third urban milita (one to go) it was actually the first one I started and has been on and off the workbench for many months now, for some reason I really struggled getting it done and changed the composition many times - the 'rejected' figures are now destined for the last milita.

The arrows are my own castings, nicely made for me by Pete at themouldmaker.com which seems the only way I can to get hold of suffiicient volumes to allow me to place them in most of the French bases (and have some for other future and past Ancient & Medieval projects). The limitations have been my own sculpting abilities, the originals were metal rod with fletchings made from green stuff and Magic Sculpt. The feathers maybe just a tad oversized, but they are good enough for me for what I want to use them for - will post up some sprues of them for closer inspection.

In the interim between militias, I've been gradually adding French Men at Arms and I've just received some pro-painted English longbowmen, ready for basing - more anon.

Salute - new Perrys Plastics

Well, big surprise at Salute today. New 3-up masters for a plastics range that Michael Perry's making were to be on show and although the 'hot money' was on Crimea, low and behold it's Wars of the Roses. The first plastics box will be mixed bills and bows from the pics above, and then (if I recall correctly), a box for men at arms and another for mounted troops. Michael also said he plans to add metals, as per their formula for ACW and Napoleonics.

Afraid the photos I took are poor - the masters were well protected in a glass cabinet - but the detail is absolutely fantastic. Am sure Perrys will post some proper pics on their website now the proverbial cat's out.

Looks to me like the figures will be useful for any North European armies from 1450-1490s. Am already trying to decide on either a complete replacement of my ageing Burgundians or a new Wars of Roses armies... an embarrasment of riches and conversion potential awaits... approx 6 months to them being available ... can't wait!

Fortified Watchtower

This is the piece-de-resistance for my medieval collections to date, which has been made to use with both my HYW and Burgundian-Swiss War collections.

The core structure is a Hudson and Allen resin keep, which has been beautifully enhanced by John Boadle of 'Architectual Miniatures'. The brief to John was to 'modernise' and further fortify the casting to represent a structure as it would be in the fifteenth century. So John's exquisite craftmanship has added wooden pallisade around the main tower, breteche over the doorway, extra loopholes for handguns, a wooden boulevard (which is seperate) to protect the rather exposed entrance and the high gothic windowed room at the top of the heightened tower. John also painted the model.

I was frankly stunned when i saw the finished item, after providing him with an outline of what I wanted to achieve; after all the basic H&A casting is a very nice piece as it stands. John's also added on lots of other lovely details. I now have ambitions to enhance the H&A castle gate and walls to the same standard, but that will have to be a 2010 project. More immediately I'm looking forward to making some artillery seigeworks, and perhaps a terrain base with a moat, as well as using the tower as a centrepiece for some gaming scenarios.

French Crossbowmen

Completed half of the planned crossbows. Four bases armed with pavises, caught trying to advance into effective firing range and coming under fire from English longbows.

The figures are Perry, with a couple of Foundry HYW figures added and some of the Perry have had quivers added to employ them as crossbowmen. Pavises are Kingmaker and Front Rank with LBMS transfers; arrows from the Games Workshop plastic Giant. I now have some homemade arrows being cast up in metal, as I want to have most of my French men-at-arms based up advancing under fire.

Crawler Lane

To be clear at the start, I am at heart a medievalist when it comes to painting, collecting and (occasionally) gaming. All this stems from a long-held interest in medieval history, which I carried on to degree level, but which failed to turn into a related job. For me, very little matches the aesthetic appeal of a well painted medieval army, with full panoply of heraldry, flags and armour. Although the popular view is that the medieval period lacked colour, it’s probably not the case when you look closely at the evidence. Military matters apart, everyday life was full of colour; parish church walls, rood screens and ceilings were all decorated with brightly painted patterns (some of which survives, such as Pickering in Yorkshire) and, icons and saints although carved of wood or alabaster were painted in life-like colours. Also dyes for clothing was not restricted to dull, earthy browns and greys; just look at Flemish paintings of the time.
However, in wargaming terms the collation of an accurate army comes at a terrible cost – time.
For the poor collector must have the greatest challenge and the longest task ahead of him (or her) of all the periods that can be chosen. The nub is that no two figures are the same.. there is no degree of any uniformity that for instance a collector of armies from the 17th century or even state-organised ancient armies, such as Greeks and Romans, would recognise. Now I’ve collected non-medieval forces too, having both AWI and WW2 collections, and I appreciate that there are at times tedium in painting uniformed figures…another 20 black tricorns or another 40 rifle butt highlights, but at least it’s all relatively quick. It’s only mixing one colour and it allows you to ‘production line’ the process and see a unit build up in front of you, allowing you to add in any personalisation and minor differences at the right stage. For the poor medievalist though, the best you may look forward to as a speedy process maybe limited to a dozen spear shafts or some plate armour.
Now, it’s not all doom and gloom of course, surely this proverbial glass is half full and not half empty? We have benefited, perhaps on a par with Ancient gamers from the ‘great leap forward’ that’s occurred in the last few years - high quality transfers and flag printing. We should offer our deep thanks and open our wallets readily to the likes of LBMS, VVV, GMB and Freezywater (among others) who have transformed the appearance of finished figures. Banished are the days when a medieval (or ancient) army only looked good when viewed through a squint and at ten feet distance. There is no way that I would contemplate the task of painting twenty pavises, bearing the complex arms of late medieval towns, if I had to paint them all - firstly due to time taken, but mainly as the chance of getting any degree of a consistent finish was minimal. At best, heraldry used to end up being simplified from the actual designs, in order to achieve something that prevented you going either blind or half-crazy with frustration of re-painting numerous errors in the fine detail.
However, the essential challenge remains. Medieval soldiers did not stand side-by-side their counterparts and see a mirror-image of themselves in terms of their apparel. In fact, a nobleman would not wish to… differences in armour and dress displayed personal wealth and all-important status. Heraldry too, although starting to be used less on the battlefield for personal attire in the fifteenth century, was by its very nature unique, differentiating one landed family from another. For troops of non-noble birth, from professional soldiers, to retained yeoman, most were attired in their everyday clothing, with whatever addition of defensive garb that was required or could be afforded, from plate or mail armour to padded jackets, gloves, leg protection and various helmets. Although similar troops would be joined together in the field, e.g. crossbowmen, both weapons and clothing were made to last, so styles of dress and equipment were likely to embrace several decades of style and design. Any ‘uniformity’ derived largely from tabards, badges or insignia relevant to either the recruiting lord or captain or the campaign. Even then, if the responsibility lay with an individual to provide, for example, his ‘white cross’ to signify French loyalty, then the size, position and material used was likely to vary from man to man.
So, the only solution in bringing the prospect of this visual feast to fruition on the wargames table is to treat each model as an individual, utilise the full paint palette, knuckle down to your heraldry, exploit the few shortcuts made available and stay in it for the long haul. Don’t expect to dip into the period and quickly produce results beyond a skirmish game.
Its just keep trucking – stuck very firmly in the crawler lane in the motorway of wargaming.

The English (II)

Brief update on the English; five bases of men at arms now completed. Three more are planned. Figures are Perrys with a couple of older Citadel Brettonians converted as flagbearers. Flags included for John, Duke of Bedford (Henry V's brother, died 1435), Sir Gilbert Umfraville (killed at Bauge 1421), William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk (d 1450) and Edward Mortimer, Earl of March (d1425). These flags by GMB. The standard is from LBMS, and I've failed to date to identify which English nobleman is it - would welcome any thoughts please.