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.

The Maid of Orleans

Here's Joan of Arc vignette base, to inspire the French to kick the English claimants to the throne out of the Loire valley castles and back into Normandy (ie a plus one on all morale tests!). She leads one of her aides, Sire de Kermoysan (k 1450) and her personal contingent of herald and flag-bearer. The flag carrying Charles VII's royal arms is a temporary one and will be replaced by Joan's personal pennon (when GMB produce it, I could bring myself to try and paint it, whenI know that GMB's will surpass my attempts by miles). Kermoysan has had a head-swap so that he's not rudely looking at Joan through a closed visor and the banner-bearer is an ex-Citadel figure with bill replaced to hold flag.

Joan passes by a group of Cistercian monks who have travelled from the local monastery to witness and venerate the holy miracle that they have heard about. These have time-travelled from the Perry's Crusader range.

Am now thinking that things should be balanced up a bit with a Henry V or duke of Bedford vignette- better see what ideas I can muster for their layout.

French Crossbowmen II

Thanks for the comments on the basing from the last posting. Taking these onboard I've completed the next French crossbow company; adding casulaties and arrows. These are having to advance into range without any pavise protection and taking the resulting casualties. Figures are Perry (with some converted to carry bows) and couple of older Citadel.

I've purchased some transparent perspex movement trays, from James at Oshiro http://www.oshiromodelterrain.co.uk/index.html to enable the figures to be used for Impetus ruleset, this being designed for larger base sizes. I like the clear perspex as they are less intrusive than others I've seen and I don't have to paint them to fit with my basing style. James will make these high-quality trays to order; mine being 100x50mm - a great service I'd really recommend (as well as the lovely handmade buildings and terrain he offers).

Am now re-planning to see how far I can get to a near-finished state of affairs before those pesky Perrys release the 'Wars of the Roses' range - due 'before Christmas' I've been told.

work in progress

Just a quick update to confirm that there's still life in this here blog and that some painting progress has been made during the family fortnightly vacation to France. However painting al fresco was an interesting and challenging experience, not usually encountered in the UK climate. My main problem was to find sufficient shade and then to cope with the glare of sunlight, plus the problem of paints drying out in the heat - still not something I need to concern myself with now I'm back to the dull and damp British summer!

Pics above are in progress shots - Joan of Arc (nearly complete) and a French knight who'll be part of the same vignette (along with some monks marvelling at the visionary maid!) - the latter has a simple head swop to provide a little variety. The plan is that he'll represent sire de Kermoysan, 'Le Bourgeois' (the Burgess) who has heraldry of 7 white scallops on a red background (wish me luck!). Also the French crossbows completed on aforesaid break.

Looking at these has made me realise how much the final basing really 'finishes' my own figures. I've read many views on when a figure really comes 'to life' and for me the seachange occurs at the basing stage, when everything seems to fall into place. I often feel that i spend too long on basing, in proportion to the figures, but then again it's probably time well spent.

When these are completed, I'll post more pics.