Perry Miniatures Agincourt Mounted Knights - review

So we're back! Sorry for the overlong hiatus.  I've really been focussing my spare time on the Steel Fist Miniatures business. However I'm not going to include anything about the hobby business on this blog, unless there's an overlap with the historical theme of HYW.

I recently received some test sprues from Alan Perry for their new Agincourt Mounted Knights 1415-1429, to paint a few up for his collection and so am using those for a brief review.

The first thing I was struck by is that it is a packed sprue, in total I’ve counted 77 separate parts to construct a wide variety of knights, men at arms or mounted archers for the circa1400-1430 period. The other design note is that Alan has created separate torsos and legs – which both increases build options and enables riders to be posed twisting in their saddles. In total there are 18 pairs of legs and 36 torsos in the box, so by buying 2 more plastic medieval horse frames (at £3 each), you can squeeze 18 horsemen from the 3 sprues in the box - extremely good value.

More pieces means more variety for your figures, but this is achieved by having to glue more parts together (which I appreciate isn’t everyones cup of tea). A typical assembly is torso, legs, left and right arm (although 2 bodies have left arm attached) and scabbard – plus the horse which comprises of 3 parts. Then optional extras can include a weapon to an arm, visor, shield, plume or an arrowbag for the archers. Horses also have optional barding – this period is when evidence of protection for mounts starts and each sprue contains a set of full mail (based on the Harley 4331 illuminated manuscript) in four sections to glue to the horse and a chest protection in 2 halves (the contemporary source for which I’m not aware of and which I've painted as both leather and as steel). Two horse heads with steel chamfons and short crinnets are also provided.

The pack covers typical full steel knightly armour of the circa 1400-1430 period, and much can be seen in Toby Capwell’s book ‘Armour of The English Knight 1400-1450’, although the surcoats and flowing sleeves worn by knights of France and Northern Europe are also included. Two torsos wearing padded gambeson are included, along with arms holding bows, lances and swords, so that other mounted types can be made – including a bow in its cloth cover with a half-circualr strap to add to the figure (which reminds me of the parts you used to get with Brittains toys of my childhood and really shows how far plastic mouldmaking for wargaming figures has come in recent years).

The most fiddly part of assembly for me was adding the mail barding – notably the two halves covering the horse’s chest. I used plastic glue, which effectively melts to join one part to another. The best approach seems to be to attach both sides at the same time to the horses flanks and then glue and hold together the join of the two halves at the front with small pliers, until you get a good bond. The other ends of the mail pieces remain slightly proud and have to be glued down afterwards, again applying some pressure until the glue sets off and creates a solid join.

There is potential to mix these with selected parts from the other Agincourt period boxes – weapons, arms, torsos and heads (with some prudent surgery!) – to create even more variety.

Painting of plate armour and mail is actually pretty straightfoward – a good covering of steel tone and any brass detailings, followed by a wash of black and/or very dark brown, and then picking out some highlights with steel or bright silver.

In summary, this is a box which offers great value for money (as each new Perry plastic set seems to do), combining historical accuracy and much thought in design of components and sprue. So we get many options  to build early 15^th century knights (or for use by fantasy gamers too of course). I’ll be using a few boxes myself to create the duke of Clarence’s mounted charge at the battle of Bauge 1421, for a demo at this year’s Salute show in London.

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Steel Fist Miniatures

As some of you will know by now,  I'm the new owner of the Steel Fist Miniatures business.

I've known Oliver, the business founder and sculptor, for a few years as he's made and converted a few figures for me for my Burgundian & Swiss collection. I have admired his sculpting style since seeing his first figures and like many others in their craft, the quality of his work is continually improving in my opinion. Oliver also shares an interest in both the history and the armour, equipment & clothing of the periods he sculpts, so his figures look just right.

The good news is that Oliver will continue as main sculptor. We will expand all the existing ranges and have lots of ideas for new figures, as well as other areas that we can cover in due course. This is an exciting opportunity for me to get more closely involved in the hobby business and work closely with Oliver.  I will be getting to grips with the sales process as soon as I can, including getting a new website, hopefully next month.

Here's the announcement from Oliver, which sums up where we are at the moment.
Thanks,
Simon.

I'm very pleased to announce that Simon Chick is the new owner of Steel Fist Miniatures.

Simon and I have worked together before. He has a great interest and sensitivity toward the historically accurate details that I like to put into the miniatures. Simon's medieval collections can be seen on his blog https://je-lay-emprins.blogspot.co.uk 

Customers will also be pleased to know that there are plans to expand all the current ranges that Steel Fist produces, with me continuing to act as sculptor. This means that the 28mm Samurai, Renaissance and Later Medieval ranges will all see new figures being added.

For the time being the business will run as usual, but we have exciting plans for the future which we will advise on in the next few weeks.I would also like to take opportunity to thank all the customers who have supported the business and my vision of producing highly detailed miniatures from the very beginning until now.

I'm sure that Simon will continue this vision with the new miniatures.

www.steelfistminiatures.com

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Crecy at The Other Partizan.

So the game was played last Sunday. It was awarded Best Game, which was really pleasing for all of us who'd contributed to the game; Dave Andrews' English army and terrain (using his fantastic towelling method), Matt Bickley's unique conversions and detailed painting of the German nobility (including the blind King of Bohemia), and Dave Imrie's French nobility and crossbowmen (using many of his superb Claymore Castings).

We managed to get about 260 mounted knights on the table for the French - just slightly shy of the target - as sadly time ran out for other figures and vignettes that were either planned or prepared but not finished. As we'd not had a dry-run, it was a squeeze to get all the French on the table. Rather than reflect the staggered arrival of the French, we popped all them on the table from the start and played it from there. We will run the game again sometime, with a larger tabletop.

The crossbowmen' pavises stuck in the baggage wagons

We used Hail Caesar rules, with amends prepared for us by Jack Glanville - who heroically umpired and kept the momentum going, so we could play and chat.

Dave Andrews' brilliant Edward III command base

English right battle

English left battle

The brief narrative is that the mercenary crossbowmen followed their predecessors and retired after making some casualties on the English holding the Crecy-Wadicourt ridge. The German knights (led by Matt Bickley) on the left then attacked, but lost momentum on the pot-hole defences dug before the English line.

Initial set-up, ready to play.

The German knights advance

The crossbowmen retire and leave it to their social superiors!

On the French right the Prince of Navarre (David Imrie) led more charges by mounted knights, but again failed to make inroads and the French were attracting to loose contingents of knights, as they retired from heavy casualties. Finally the Germans broke through and forced the English 'battle' on it's right to fall back. Renewed French attacks on the centre with King Phillip (moi) and the right also won melees and pressure built on the English line. The English right and centre was eventually forced back and King Edward (Dave Andrews) was forced to concede and retire back to the Channel coast.

The German attack and breakthrough

Award and fellow Bodkins

An immensely enjoyable day - and rewarding for the other Bodkins who'd been building their collections with immense diligence and patience over several years - nice looking toys and great company from everyone round the table. Also great to catch up with those who came along for a chat.

I'll keep folk advised if and when we run it again - in the meantime look out for some proposed coverage in print and online in 'Wargames Illustrated' mag.

Just some pics from here on in.

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Post Mill - completed

So the last post before the Crecy demo game is a post mill - appropriately!

Painting all done. Loads of great detail on this Grand Manner casting, so dry-brushing and washes does it. I added furled sails, using rolled knapkins and fine string soaked in diluted glue and based on illustrations of working ones at the start of the last century. My aim to show them quarter-furled became too complicated in the time I had left.

According to several chroniclers, it was from a windmill behind the English position that Edward III prepared the positioning of the army for Crecy, and may have commanded the battle from there too.

Thanks for the comments on the knights - will post a report & pics of the game.

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French Knights for Crecy.

My contribution to The Bodkins Crecy demo game, at The Other Partizan next Sunday, is relatively modest compared to the other players. I have bulked out some very old mounted French knights which I did about 20 years ago with some additional bases.

These are mainly Foundry riders on Front Rank mounts, which with a little bit of judicious cutting and filing, seem to fit Ok despite the horses being big sculpts. The horses are nice active poses and so create the sense of movement of charging French nobility needed for the game - plus they also fit those that David Imrie and Matt Bickley have done.

So 12 bases of knights charging recklessly to their fate, and 4 bases of passive Front Rank figures awaiting in the vanguard . Much of the painting has been done at some speed to meet the deadline and I've made liberal use of LBMS transfers on 1st Corps shields, whilst avoiding heraldic beasts where I can. Conversions have been kept to a minimum too, apart from adding some plastic visors and headswops.

If you're going to the show, please do come along and say 'hi', it's always great to meet blog followers.
I will take photos and do a posting about the game.

...also I have some surplus Foundry caparisoned horses, if anyones interested...!!

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Pavise wagons for Crecy

So the Bodkins game at The Other Partizan show in Newark on 20 August, will be Crecy - the first land battle in the Hundred Years War of 1346.

Several other Bodkins have been working on this game for a couple of years; growing their collections of English and French for the mid fourteenth century. My contribution is relatively modest and I'll post more on these next week as I complete them - as well as pictures of the game itself.

First up are a couple of carts carrying the pavises of the crossbowmen from the Italian peninsular, who were employed by King Phillip VI of France via Genoan captains for the campaign, since the English invaded in July 1346 and besieged Harfluer. At the battle the French were confident of victory and ordered the crossbowmen to advance and screen the French noblemen, without the protection of their pavises which had not been unloaded from the baggage. Consequently the crossbowmen took heavy casualties from the opposing English longbows and started to retire, only to then be ridden down by the first wave of attacked mounted French knights!

The wagons are existing ones and I've simply added mix of Claymore Miniatures metal pavises, with LBMS transfers, and plastic Perry ones sandwiched in between the bundles to bulk them out. I decided (based on a lack of visual evidence) that the paves may have been strung together when moved on wagons. These will just be placed on the wagons for the game.
Seems to work OK...

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Post Mill - in progress

Little bit of a hiatus on the blog, finally remedied by start of construction of a medieval post mill.

This is for a forthcoming game - an iconic HYW battle featuring a windmill (possibly two according to some sources) - and which 'The Bodkins' will be playing at the next Partizan show on 20th August. More of this anon...including my modest contribution with some newly painted figures.

The mill is a Grand Manner resin model, to which I'm adding mdf sails from the Sarissa Precision kit (as the Grand Manner ones are cast as a solid piece with no detailing on the rear). I'm considering adding partly furled cloth sails, as just the bare wooden frames don't make a windmill do what windmills do! Now on to the painting stage.


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