The Marshall of Burgundy and a great bascinet

This is a straightforward conversion to create a new figure, who'll represent Antonie de Toulongeon, Marshall of Burgundy (1385 -1431) for my HYW collection. The Marshall commanded the Burgundian forces which combined with the English at the battle of Cravant (31 July 1423). Toulongeon was a key man at the Burgundian court of Philip the Good, being appointed ambassador to England, before becoming Constable of Burgundy and being one of the first Knights of the Golden Fleece. His appointment to be Marshall to the duke may have followed the victory at Cravant (I still need to check this out).

The figure is based on the Perrys 'Bastard of Orleans' personality from the AO range. I have removed the hat-wearing head and replaced with the great bascinet from the Perrys new Late Medieval plastic mounted men at arms box. This bascinet is actually a tad late for this period, as it appears to be based on an existing example in Churburg, which is dated to about 1440. However the bascinet was a common style of helm in the first half of the fifteenth century, developing over the decades with minor variations of styling and shape. I've replaced the sword with a plastic axe from the same Perrys box. All the cast-on heraldry has been removed with knife and files and I've smoothed the deep folds in the surcoat a little with GW Green Stuff, to aid the painting stage. The long-legged horse is a metal Perry Wars of the Roses one, again to add some variation.

The Marshall will be the command vignette for a small Burgundian force. My plan is to extend my 1420s collection in order to be able to refight the battle of Cravant, which is another interesting French defeat that on first reading appears that it shouldn't have been so. I'm doing some more reading on this, not well documented, battle - which I'\ll share on this blog. Hopefully I'll be able to assemble the required additional figures and some specific terrain pieces by by the first quarter of 2013...well that's the current plan...