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Duke of Burgundy's command contingent

September 29, 2013, 3:31 pm
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I've added two bases of mounted men at arms to accompany the duke of Burgundy - these now create a completed command unit of mounted men at arms.




All the figures and horses are Perry plastics or metals and have had some element of conversion or additions to them - which have been covered in previous posts. A rear row of coustillers will support these, who'll be carrying a bigger selection of banners, to add a bit more 'medieval glamour'. It's most likely that these men at arms would have been composed of members of the duke's household; those who held positions within the duke's territories and the most prestigious administrative roles. The personal heraldry for many of these is known and whilst most of the figures don't lend themselves to showing this (as they don't wear coats) I may pack out the second row of coustillers and servants with a large number of personal banners for these individuals. Completion of these is now dependant on the release of the Perry's Late medieval Light Cavalry box set, which look like the ideal figures, but I'm guessing these will not be available until sometime next year.




Spending the time adding the Burgundian mouldings to the horse bard seems to have work well and I've got the finished impression that I wanted to portray. However I'm not totally happy with my freehand painting of the flint devices on the caparisoned horse. It's based on some remaining tapestry designs and it should have slightly finer detailing - I'll give it another go (using a different version of the device) on a horse for my other planned command base, which will be Antony, the bastard of Burgundy - Charles' half brother and a military man. I want to replicate the passive stance with this base too and have been searching for options with mounts - would anyone know if the Crusader Minis Wars of the Roses barded horses fit well with Perry plastic men at arms?





Will now take stock to decide on the next figures to do...or maybe it's time for some baggage train items?




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Encore les Gendarmes.

December 4, 2013, 1:43 am
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Apologies for the recent hiatus here - I have returned to the service of the duke following a brief diversion to chip away at my AWI lead pile (one of my 'second tier' collections). I needed a break from doing medievals fairly regularly in one form or another, for the past few years. So refreshed somewhat - and most definitely inspired by David Imrie's Burgundians - and with some potential spare time on my hands between work contracts, I plan to complete another front rank of men at arms, plus hopefully some baggage wagons.



No significant conversions with these, just a few more permutations that can be done with the plastic components. Most of the horses were painted in the summer and so its only the riders that I need to spend time on. Some of them have had St Andrews cross (green stuff) and plumes (my castings) added - a couple of the horse's tack have had minor adjustments too.



Figures for the first base are done, prior to fixing to the plastic stand, which I'll do when all nine figures are complete in case I fancy swopping any around to achieve a slightly different overall look. I also found some re-enactors as Burgundian men at arms on the internet - which is useful reference  - I believe they may be based in Russia or Ukraine? Not sure about those red and yellow plumes complying with the duke's ordinances thought!!

 



Onward and upward.


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Men at arms - second base

December 11, 2013, 5:19 am
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Completed the figures for the second base; a bit slower than planned as having to limit time spent painting, as it's impeding the repair of my tennis elbow. I have however managed to start off a couple of other bits.  The horses are done for the final three riders, so am hoping that this week will see them posted here - all done and dusted.


Post Script: quick picture of the flag bearer for the other base - just completed - flag to be used for this Company is still to be decided. The eagle eyed will note that the horse was the sole output from my summer hols.











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Burgundian men at arms (IV)

December 15, 2013, 8:25 am
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This is the fourth completed unit of men at arms to represent a Company of my Burgundian Ordonnance army.  All of these are from the Perrys plastic box. These will have a supporting rank of coustillers, carrying a few more flags and pennons; the production of which are largely dependant on the release of the Perry Miniatures 'light cavalry' plastics set (hopefully by the 'Salute' show in 2014?).  A Company flag will be added at a later date; not sure which one to represent at the moment, indeed the flagbearer figure is only currently attached with Bluetac and he may be reallocated to the second rank.





In retrospect, I'm pleased with how the addition of the plumes and cross of St Andrew have sufficiently 'burgundianised' these figures. The next mounted men at arms should be another command group, to represent the Bastard of Burgundy and I'm starting to compile some ideas and potential figures for these, but again am tempted to wait to see more Perry designs for the next plastics. In the meantime I've started on a couple of Perry waggons, for generic usage with any of my medieval figures.




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Supply Wagon (I)

December 20, 2013, 2:15 am
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The first of a couple of supply wagons that I'm doing. Such wagons would feature in all of the duke's main battles, either where his encampment was overrun following his defeats or on the table edge supplying the Burgundian siege works. I've left off painting any Burgundian devices on the canvas cover, so that these are generic and can be used with any of my medieval armies.



The only slight adjustment I've made to this Perrys model is to have a three horse harness arrangement. This formation is shown in late medieval and early renaissance illustrations. The trickiest part was attaching the fuse wire traces and in concentrating on this, I realised afterwards that I've glued the front axle in position upside down - too late to change anything! Lesson learnt - which won't be repeated on the next one... The cover has been left loose and not glued on, so that I can swop it with the other wagon that's underway.




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Burgundian supply wagon (II)

December 29, 2013, 3:29 am
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My second Perry Miniatures supply wagon; this one representing a Burgundian wagon being unloaded at an encampment. A clerk checks off the contents, whilst an Ordonnance archer accepts beer from a camp follower.




This time I got the axle up the right way. However my capacity for dodgy assembly continues, as I attached   the chest on the wrong end! Hey ho. I've created a load for the wagon on a plasticard base (using pieces from Front Rank, Fenris, Ainsty, Mirliton & Foundry), which is removable and so can be utilised on my other wagon. Also the canvas cover can be swopped over.






This is my last posting of the year. Looking back I realise that I've managed slightly less postings than in previous years - but I think this was due to making scenery boards and some extras for this year's Cravant game at Salute.

Looking ahead to 2014, I'm both enthused and excited. I have aspirations to get my Burgundian army to a stage of near completion. The outstanding contingents are spear-armed coustillers/second rank for all of the mounted men at arms that I've done, which will be built around the forthcoming Perry 'Light Cavalry', bearing plenty of flags, pennons and some trumpeters, etc. A unit of mounted men at arms representing Antony, Bastard of Burgundy (as he's kindly graced the blog header for so long!) and using the wonderful new Burgundian flags currently being done by Pete. Also some dismounted men at arms comprised of knights of the ducal household, using the other forthcoming Perry plastics. Plus no doubt a few vignettes, using up some of the metal figures left over from other packs.

I may also be able to make a start on the Swiss Confederation too - as I expect to wait for the new Perry plastics to the Salute show - just hope I can keep my motivation going to paint large numbers of pike and halbard troops.

Many thanks for everyone's comments over the year, they are truly appreciated. All best wishes for 2014!


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Berne Swiss Pike - WIP

January 4, 2014, 5:06 am
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I've started preparing and planning a Swiss pike block. This will represent Bernese 'Gewalthaufen' pike, along with allied regions and towns of Solothurn, Fribourg, Thun and Schwyz. At present the plan is to create a 'double sized' unit using the same base sizes as for my Burgundians; this would produce a contingent with a 36cm frontage and depth. I like the idea of the square formation, which should be visually attractive, with flags and halbards in the centre.




These figures are my first ones to test out colours and style - I need to adopt a quicker-than-normal approach as this unit will be about 175 figures. I've decided to start with the rear ranks, where less painting detail should be required. Also as the only dedicated Perry Swiss figures available to date are the marching/walking figures. I've made a few minor modifications to these; a couple of headswops for plastic ones, adding a plume and bend, and helmets and a tankard hung from belts. I will add in plastic figures too, using the metal Swiss heads and do some head swops on the Swiss figures so that some have helmets (not every figure shown in the Berne Chronicles wears a turban!), but the rear ranks will overall be unarmoured. I'm optimistically hoping that the Perrys will produce some more Swiss figures by the time I need to move to the command bases and other ranks(!).




I've decided to paint them in small batches, largely of the same pose, using the same colour pallette. This will speed things up and I'll ensure that these figures don't get based next to each other, to avoid a uniform look. On which subject, I'm going to avoid the option of attiring my Swiss in cantonal colours. There is evidence that some Swiss Confederation towns issued clothing of specific colours; St Gallen sending it's troops to Grandson in red coats with Confederation white crosses attached. However, I'm pretty sure that this was not sufficiently widespread to create the types of 'uniforms' of later centuries. So I'm going to attempt to have red and black, representing Berne, more prevalent among coats and hose - hopefully to create an overall impression, with full cantonal colours being largely limited to captains, flagbearers and musicians.

Therefore, expect a few more 'work in progress' posts to be forthcoming for this pike bloc!


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Berne pike - more WIP

January 9, 2014, 3:22 am
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These are a few more Swiss Confederation pikemen for the rear ranks of my pike block done this week. I'm not going to post all my works in progress, as it'll undoubtedly get awfully tedious, but I'm also fiddling with a new camera I purchased at Christmas, trying to get a grip of the best settings for indoor pics of figures. Not sure these are an improvement on my previous (cheaper!) camera - colours look quite different on the models to my eye, but I'll persevere.



These are Perry plastics (all bar two) with heads from the Swiss heads pack. Next batch will be the opposite -  Swiss metals with plastic heads to add a selection of helmets.




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Putty pushing...

January 21, 2014, 2:00 am
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...of the most basic kind!

These are some pictures of a few of the Swiss Confederation pikemen, who have had helmets from various Perrys plastic boxes added, to create some variety from the turbans.


The cast on heads were removed with a small hacksaw and the new heads glued on. However the joints were a bit ugly on several, so built the collars back up with 'green stuff'. I also added a couple of small bags/purses whilst I had spare putty. The bareheaded figure has his turban hanging down from his neck, an image which I spotted in a Schilling Chronicle illustration. A couple more be-headings and helmets to add; then I'm onto painting the last batch of rear rank pikemen.



The horse will be used for another Burgundian man at arms. I used green stuff again to extend the depth of the barding, to enable me to possibly paint on a device and I attempted to add a chamfron too. These represent the limit of my sculpting skills. My key learning from this is to complete it in small steps. I've let the putty harden before tidying up what's been done, with scalpel and smoothing files, before adding the next step with more putty. This takes more time, but at least I'm getting modest results, which I'm happy with.





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More supplies.

January 27, 2014, 4:23 am
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The third and last supply wagon that I plan to do for the present time. When I first saw pictures of the 'greens' for this model, they had a real wow factor - so I can't quite understand why I've taken so long to paint it up. This is a straight forward paint job; I didn't add the bracing struts over the wheels on this wagon, as aligning and fixing them was getting too tricky.




I've put the pair of oxen on a separate base, so that I could use it in a static position in an encampment. I'd already used the drover supplied on another model, so I have added a whip to the hand of one of the new peasants from the Perrys AO Range. I've not glued in the wagon contents, to give more flexibility - and the family members are also just leant on for now. That woman must have a damn good sense of balance, stuck up there on uneven fifteenth century roads I'm thinking! My tin of Humbrol Matt Cote is getting a bit old and seems to have lost it's wonderful matting properties, so regrettably the oxen and woman and child are too shiny for my liking (which I'll remedy another day).



So back to all them Swiss pikemen I guess...

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Berne pike - rear ranks done.

February 14, 2014, 4:56 am
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Phew, I've finished the painting of the rear ranks for my Berne pike block.





A total of 52 figures done, with a mix of colours but with an attempt to show a predominance of red and black to visually 'key' them together. The models have some elements of conversion (about a third in all), mostly head swops on the Perry Swiss EA1 pack of metals with a few plastics to add variation. Perhaps a few more figures wearing helms are needed to be added?





The figures are only placed on the bases for now; I'll not glue and finish basing any until I have all the figures done. I've taken a picture of the proposed plan of the entire pike block, which is a large one to represent the gewalthut, which consisted of the largest volume of Swiss Confederation trooops in the battles against the duke of Burgundy. It may still be too unwieldily on a wargames table, we'll see. The bases with flags are nicked from my other pike block and are only there for show at the moment - I have the relevant flags ready from the excellent Pete's Flags. I'm planning to add a few halbardiers guarding the sides of the pike block, thats why theres a gap on the edges at the moment, as indicated by the unpainted castings. The front bases will have pikes horizontal, hence the proposed placing of two ranks of figures only at the rear of the bases.



For now these may have to be put aside and await whatever additional Swiss figures are released by the Perrys later this year.


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Old Burgundian Army (& Swiss) ON SALE.

February 20, 2014, 7:06 am
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I'm planning to sell my OLD collection of Charles the Bold's wargames army, plus the smaller units of Swiss that I did in the late 1990s. These are comprised of the great and very varied 25mm Citadel (now Wargames Foundry) range that the Perrys sculpted. The sale is to fund other historically-based hobbies and I've got to a tipping point with my more recent Burgundians and Swiss collections.

They're planned to go on ebay at the weekend. A couple of pics to whet any appetites (I have taken more pictures for the ebay sale - I'm yet to photograph the Swiss.). Below is the draft entry for the sale. Should anyone here be interested, then I'd be happy to discuss further. My email for this is simon.chick@tesco.net  I've added new flags to all the men at arms. 
Note that these figures need to be collected/handed over - they will not stand a postal journey!






A complete 28mm army of Charles the Bold’s Burgundian Ordonnance, for his battles and campaigns from 1465 to 1477.

All figures have been painted by me and collected over a number of years. Elements of this army have featured in photographs in ‘Wargames Illustrated ‘ magazine.  Figures are from Wargames Foundry/Citadel and designed by Alan and Michael Perry. They are painted and based to a high collectors standard and mounted on plasticard or plywood. Flags are a mix of printed or hand painted.

This is a unique collection, which is being sold to fund other historical-related interests. The opening bid price represents an average cost of less than £3.00 per figure and less than £5.00 per mounted figure.

The army comprises of:
2 command bases, representing the Duke of Burgundy and Antony Bastard of Burgundy, with mounted men at arms (total of 8 mounted and 2 foot figures)
12 bases of mounted Men at Arms/Gendarmes (total of 70 riders & horses)
8 bases of pikemen, comprising 2 units (total 72 figures)
6 bases of longbowmen (total 64 figures)
2 bases of handgunners (total 11 figures)
3 bases of crossbowmen (total 30 figures)
4 bases of halbardiers (total 24 figures)
1 base of dismounted men at arms (total 11 figures)
6 bases of wheeled artillery with crew
2 bases of siege bombards with crew - plus 2 swinging mantlets and 600mm of wooden siege defenses.
3 vignettes.

Total of 78 mounted figures and 212 on foot (exc artillery crews).

All bases are 100mm wide, with varying depths dependent on the types of figures. This is ideal for rules such as ‘Impetus’, but they could easily be rebased for other rulesets.

IMPORTANT  - PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COLLECTION NEEDS TO BE COLLECTED BY THE BUYER!!
This collection is not going to withstand the vagaries of the postal system and would most likely suffer damage. Therefore the agreed sale is on the basis that THE BUYER COLLECTS (from NN7 in UK) or I will travel up to 50 miles from NN7 to meet and hand-over the figures at a mutually convenient date. Consequently I regret that I cannot offer this sale to non-UK buyers.

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Communal tent - WIP

February 23, 2014, 6:57 am
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Several Swiss and Italian medieval illustrations show encampments with open-ended tents; basically canvas sheets laid over three simple pre-fabricated wooden frames. These appear to be used for either storage of items from the weather or as an accessible area where foods were prepared and possibly served from. So I thought my encampments ought to have one too.








These images are from the Companie of St George reenactment group in 2011 and Gerry Embelton drawings (copyrighted) taken from Swiss Chronicles. 

My work to date shows the timber frames cut from bass wood and I plan to add canvas made from thin pewter sheeting. I've assembled basic furniture, boxes, sacks etc from various manufacturers and have some nicely sculpted plates with foodstuffs from Mirliton. So lots of fiddly items to paint. Of course all this internal detail will be slightly obscured when the plain canvas cover goes on! 



I've also started an attempt at creating a couple of chaps to sit at the table - using cut-down Perry plastic bodies with added bent legs. Early days on these - just started bulking out the wire legs - although already the thighs look too long, but they'll be hidden under the table, so I may just get away my poor sculpting!!




More anon....

23 Feb...quick update...guys are now booted up!!







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Communal tent - more WIP

February 28, 2014, 1:59 am
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Just finished painting nearly all the bits and pieces of camp ephemera that will be placed inside and around the tent. A goodly selection of foodstuffs being prepared! The woodwork is actually grey and not the tone of blue that's been created by my camera used under the desk lamp.



Plus the soldiers and camp follower for in the tent (and a scavanging cat, who'll will be sniffing at a plate) are nearly done too.



That is all...
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Communal tent - completed.

March 7, 2014, 3:08 am
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This is the finished communal tent, which can be used for either my Burgundian or Swiss armies. It represents an open-ended canvas covered tent, which is used for preparing and serving foods, and which were prefabricated and simple to put up as required.






There are two soldiers eating - one appears to be demanding some additional serving from the cook. The tent is also used for storage, drying washed clothes and is a sheltered spot for a dog to sleep.
The construction of the frame and converted Perry figures have been covered in previous posts.




The canvas cover is a painted sheet of thin pewter and I've left it to be removable, so that the internal features can be seen. Having spent a fair bit of time on this, I didn't want it all obscured by a very pain cover! I have another flag post and orb, on which I'll attach a small flag of a Swiss canton, so that the tent can 'switch sides' when required.




The plated food is from Mirliton (as is the thieving cat); other various boxes, barrels etc have all been collected over several years and I can't recall all the manufacturers. The clothing hanging on the line is made from green stuff and are vaguely recognisable as a hose and doublet.




I will add an open camp fire with some cooking pots and chopped wood, to be placed nearby.


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Medieval Hounds

March 19, 2014, 11:34 am
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These are the greens for a set of medieval hounds, that Steve May has kindly sculpted for me. They are based on illustrations of 'alaunts' - a breed of dog which are commonly shown in medieval illustrations and tapestries, but appear to now be extinct. I'm not an expert on dog breeds, but they would seem to have similarities to modern day greyhounds, but a bit bulkier. I'm really pleased with Steve's wonderful sculpting talents,  matching my request for a pair of active and pair of more static hounds, the poses are really great.




The sculpts will be sent off to be cast up in metal quite soon. Plan is then that they'll be available to buy as a set, should anyone be interested. I'll post more info on this, when I have the castings.

So seems like the right time to create a Burgundian nobleman riding out, to be joined by his pack of hunting hounds. 



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Bernese Halbardiers

March 30, 2014, 7:13 am
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Just a quick one - as I've finished a few halbardiers, who'll protect the sides of the Berne pike block, who've been lingering on the painting table for too long.


Three metals and two plastics - I'm concerned about the fragility of the polearm heads on the latter, you have to cut the moulded pike and attach a halbard head. The joint has been glued with plastic cement and a thin covering of liquid green stuff, but it snapped from only being knocked over on the painting table. I'll have to ensure they are not too vulnerable when based up.



Some head swops on two of the Perry metals and the odd one out is Citadel 'Dogs of War' figure (sculpted by the Perrys) who's had a Perry Swiss head added, new halbard and some metal greaves smoothed off - but will fit in OK as a different pose.





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Vignettes (I)

May 11, 2014, 6:42 am
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Ooops, I'd not intended for the hiatus on the blog to have been so long as it's been. I had got a little weary of medievals to be honest; my 'mo-jo' had dropped as some would term it. So I diverted into adding a couple of units to my AWI last month, which was a good decision as they provided the change of focus that I was needing. (I'm not planning to kick off a blog for my AWI, but they have been posted on Steve Dean Forum).




So whilst I await new figures from the Perrys - be they plastic or metal, HYW or later fifteenth century - whichever come first - I've delved into the lead pile and sorted out two vignettes (with a couple more in progress). It's always useful to have some of these bases to dot around the table and the Perrys recent book showing photos of their ranges, reminded me that most of my Burgundians are based as units and so a few more vignettes, or single figures, would not go amiss; plus they don't take too long to complete.




I also had wanted to try out some blue'd armour - having seen some of 'Captain Bloods' wonderful armour finishes some time back on LAF forum. So I added one to each of these bases. I did these using my usual method for plate armour - black undercoat, followed by 'heavy' drybrush of GW Runefang Steel, then a wash of black and brown mix. The blue tone was applied with a couple of washes, using GW Guillman Blue and a small amount of black wash added. Then a very light touch of silver drybrush again. The finish is probably lighter than actual armour was, but I always feel that small figures need to finished in brighter tones due to their size. Anyway, I'm happy with the finish (particularly on the dismounted man at arms) and plan to add a couple to my next unit of figures in full harness.






So, like my knightly miniature friends, it appears I'm 'back in the saddle'...and looking forward to starting a unit of dismounted Burgundian household knights, with the forthcoming Perry plastic box!

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vignettes (II)

May 25, 2014, 12:11 pm
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A couple more vignettes completed; the first being a Burgundian messenger, dismounted from his horse and passing written instructions to an Italian mercenary captain.


Most of the preparation work went into getting the positioning for the messenger right. His arms are different ones selected from the bows and bills box, with the hand holding the letter cut from one of the crosssbowman's hands I think. The long riding boots were added from green stuff for the turnovers and the liquid green stuff to bulk out the rest of the legs. The man wearing the coat uses the plastic arms of the drummer from the Mercenaries box, with an altered hand and a bit of cutting away to hold his sword.






The halbardier, who's biding his time, is a metal artilleyman with a simple swop of ramrod for halbard. The herald is also out of the box, but on a HYW horse, as I wanted a passive pose.





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Release the hounds..!!

June 5, 2014, 1:29 pm
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I've received the castings of my medieval 'aluants' - very crisp moulds from Griffin Moulds that really bring out the detailed sculpting skills of Steve May.



I've fast-tracked the painting of a set of four, to show them off (the man at arms was already done and waiting to be joined by his pack). I need to investigate a good colour pallet for the dogs, but a quick look at the medieval illustrations I have seems to show few markings; really having just a single colour coat. My favourite pose is the one sniffing for the scent of a deer or boar. The picture below shows the castings, with just a wash of GW Nuln Oil. You'll now spot these little chappies turn up in many future vignettes of mine no doubt!


I currently have some spare packs, which I'm able to offer to sell if anyone's interested. I guess the dogs could be used across the medieval and early modern period, and probably for the ancient period too?
I've costed them at roughly what they've cost me, as this is not a commercial venture, but equally its not cost-effective to just have handful cast up.

So, there are 4 dogs per set (as per the photo) and cost is £3.55 including postage to the UK, and £4.25 for postage to Europe. Payment can be made by PayPal please, made AS A GIFT, to my Paypal account which is h.chick@tesco.net
IMPORTANT - Please also add your delivery address to the Paypal payment (or send me a separate email), as I've discovered that Paypal don't always provide this when I get the funds notification!
Many thanks.


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