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Coustillers - one base down.

November 2, 2016, 4:43 am
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Here's the completed central base of the last three planned Burgundian Coustillers - the supporting rank for the Bastard of Burgundy's men at arms.


Two figures are metals and the trumpeter is a plastic. The left hand flagbearer is a Perry giveaway which came with the Light Cavalry boxsets, which the pointing hand has been replaced by a plastic one from the Mercenaries command sprue. The other flagbearer is a mounted page with headswop and open hand created by cutting away the scabbarded sword he's holding and then drilled. He holds a printed generic Burgundian flag, to which I've added the Bastard of Burgundy's personal device of a blue mantlet, which is repeated on the trumpeter's coat (and will reoccur again on caparison on another Coustiller base, to give this unit some visual cohesion).




Now moving on to one of the other bases, which I'll post when done.
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Coustillers for Bastard of Burgundy

November 18, 2016, 3:24 am
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I've completed the coustillers which are the second rank for Antony, Bastard of Burgundy's men at arms. This also finishes off all the mounted troops that are in my initial plan for the Burgundian Ordonnance army.



The extra two bases are all Perry Miniatures plastics (the central base was completed and is in the previous posting here). As per usual there has been some tinkering - green stuff and metal bits - to accessorise the original figures. These have been a bit of a labour of love to get to the finishing line; progress has been glacial at times and I've had to switch from doing small painting sessions on these interspersed with other stuff.





Here's a picture of the full unit, with men at arms on the front rank.


Just a few more pieces now on the list to 'complete' the army against the original plan - a Charles the Bold vignette, a unit of handguns/crossbows and casualty markers - just 12 months behind my self-imposed schedule!
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Culvineers and Crossbows

November 28, 2016, 3:30 am
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A final contingent of shot - mixed crossbows and handguns - for the Burgundian army.


I got these assembled and painted relatively swiftly in the last week. Consequently there are just a few assembly combinations which are different from those previously completed - I've used crossbow arms from the Perrys Light Cavalry box and some plastic open hands with handguns added - and just a smidgen of Green Stuff in evidence. All are plastic figures, apart from one metal (which was painted by Chris Thompson).






Now that I'm close the planning 'finish line', I'll try and take some pics of the army over the Christmas break.
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Crapaudeau

December 6, 2016, 2:41 am
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A relatively quickly assembled and painted artillery piece - a Crapaudeau - which was one of a number of contemporary terms for a cannon with wrought iron barrel looped with iron staves on a wheeled carriage. This has been done as a generic gun, no specific signage or colours for any late fifteenth century army, so it has potential usage with my Burgundians, Swiss or any others

 


The gun itself and carriage is Front Rank (I think...it's been sitting in my stash for some time); wheels from another source. The crew are Perry metals, all with some minor conversion. The labourer's spade has been made into a ramrod, a headswop for the onlooking gunner with folded arms and the master gunner, who is a wagon driver, has a new plastic head and replacement hand (from Ansar box) holding the linstock. The only other work was to add a discarded doublet from putty on top of the barrel; its my first attempt and I'm happy with the overall shape (it just maybe a tad too small).

 



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Schilling Chronicle Vignette (I)

December 8, 2016, 3:15 am
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My thoughts are turning to planning the build of a Swiss Confederation army, to oppose my Burgundians. My primary visual sources for getting a contemporary 'look and feel' are the illustrated chronicles complied during and just after the wars by the cities of Berne and Zurich - to record their civic history, defiance against Charles the Bold and military victories.


Whereas I used to scour publications to find relatively rare images from these chronicles, several complete volumes are now online and I've started to click through the pages for useful references - of which there are plenty. One of these showed an image of a rather panicked Burgundian man at arms being attacked by a Swiss halbardier (Berne Amitliche Chronicle, volume 3 folio 727). So I thought I'd start off my Swiss additions with a version of this.


The horse and rider are from Perry's mounted men at arms, the only major change was to use a horse head from their ACW cavalry box, to provide a bit more movement as it's reins are grabbed by the assailant. The Swiss soldier is a plastic body from WotR box with arms selected from the Agincourt French Infantry sprue and a Swiss metal head. The joins have been covered with green stuff, to represent a coat, rather than the livery vest that's designed on the plastic body (which the Swiss don't appear to have worn), although I've not added a breastplate which the image seems to show. Like the illustration, a discarded lance and halbard will lie on the ground.




Now on to the painting stage.
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Schilling Vignette (I) - completed

December 14, 2016, 9:57 am
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Paintwork and basing on the vignette all done.


This is based on a detail from a Berne Chronicle illustration, for which see the previous posting. I contemplated adding another Swiss halbardier, but decided to stay true to the illustration. A nice model for my transition from Burgundians to Swiss - the planning for the latter has progressed nicely this week.



More anon.
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Burgundian Vignettes

January 5, 2017, 6:45 am
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I've spent spare time over recent weeks preparing figures for my new units of the Swiss Confederation - halbardiers, pikes and crossbows are being assembled and tweaked accordingly. However in picking out figures from the lead pile, I've rediscovered several castings to be used as Burgundians and so have got some of these done over the holiday period.


These are primarily figures to used as vignettes in the Burgundian camp or siege lines. They're all Perry metals; the man at arms putting on harness was an extra available with one of the plastic set launches. The page holding his armet is a combination of a mounted metal page, cut off at the waist and glued to plastic legs which were then dressed with green stuff to add the lower half of his coat. The table with the rest of the harness are all plastic spares chopped up and laid out ready for the page - a hound waits patiently beneath.



The other vignette shows a wounded Burgundian man at arms being protected in melee by two other soldiers. This'll be used as a marker in a game - I'd like to do more of these and some casualty markers (perhaps as a pleasant future distraction from the Swiss!).




Some Switzers soon...



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Swiss Crossbowmen (I)

January 10, 2017, 12:28 pm
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As mentioned, prep on a first unit of Swiss crossbowmen has been done. As with my Burgundians, these skirmishers will be composed of nine figures, three per base.


All of these use Perry plastics, from the Mercenaries box with extra arms selected from Light Cavalry and Agincourt French Infantry boxes. I've tried to do some work on them to reflect the images in the Berne Chronicles that are available online - these images will be my reference points for all Swiss troops. So this has meant applying some green stuff to either add mail shirts or convert existing tabards to coats.

I'm satisfied with the finished figures; for me using green stuff has to be a gradual process where I can only apply a small area on each figure before letting it set hard, then returning to do the next area. So this has been a relatively slow process, with other painting progressing alongside. I'm particularly pleased with the figure reaching for the spare bolts tucked in the neck of his coat - as spotted in the Tschatchlan Chronicles of 1470s.




Will post again when painted and based up.
Simon.



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Burgundian ducal group - WIP

January 24, 2017, 4:33 am
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I'm flip-flopping between getting on with the Swiss and completing a few outstanding Burgundian pieces. Here's a couple of work in progress off the painting desk of figures for a ducal command group. They were converted by Oliver of Steel Fist many months ago and I've been saving them as a kind of 'final sign-off' vignette for the Burgundians (although likelihood is that I'll keep adding on as time goes by).



I'm currently painting the figure of duke Charles, in his famous hat of pearls to join these two and converting a couple of Perry plastic horse bards as the mounts for them.

Finished model will be posted anon.
Simon
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Burgundian Captain

January 28, 2017, 11:17 am
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So, having had a diversion from Swiss to complete a duke Charles vignette, whilst waiting for green stuff to cure, I've been diverted further to complete a base for a Burgundian captain.


Actually there wasn't much to do for this vignette. The rider is a Perry metal with plumes attached and the flag bearer is a Steel Fist figure with a headswop for a plastic one. The mount was already wonderfully painted by Stefan of Xuletec blog and I've been waiting for a good opportunity to use it. The heraldry on the captain is Claude be Montagu, Lord of Couches and Sully, who was given the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1468 and the flag is a generic one of the Burgundian arms.





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Array

January 31, 2017, 8:23 am
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I've been promising to get the figures out of the cabinet and get some group shots done. So I finally have...

A mixed bag of vignettes and larger displays of arms. All faults in the camera work are wholly mine - despite guidance from my daughter, it's still a bit hit and miss I'm afraid.































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Swiss Crossbowmen (II)

February 13, 2017, 3:47 am
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This posting has leapfrogged my planned next update. I'm awaiting some bases being cut for my Burgundian command vignette (all the figures are done), so I've had time to paint up the Swiss conversions as a first unit of crossbowmen.


The main colours for my Swiss Confederation will be red and black, which I've taken from the city of Berne (who provided the majority of troops for the battles of Grandson and Morat) to visually bind them together.




As usual on 60mm square bases. Happy with the completed look, although I'm trying to improve the quality of mail (added with Green Stuff) with the aid of new shaped tools (and invaluable guidance from Matt Bickley) and more practice. I'm pleased with a mail sleeve I've done - we'll see what the next batch look like.




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Burgundian ducal command - completed.

February 15, 2017, 1:11 pm
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Here is my command vignette for Charles, duke of Burgundy.


I completed these last week. I've been awaiting some shaped mdf bases with pre-cut slots, so individually based figures can then be arranged in different combinations (including other figures I may will add in the future) from Warbases.




So we have duke Charles, wearing gilded 'german' style armour with a velvet covered brigandine, leading his army in either practising manoeuvres or on the battlefield, and sporting his golden hat of pearls which was captured by the Swiss at Grandson in 1476. It was sold by the city of Basle in 1504 for 47,000 'gulden' and illustrated as part of the booty from the wars (see below). It was then broken up for the sale of the individual jewels later in the 16th century. There's a wonderful reconstruction of it I saw displayed in Grandson castle several years ago. Around his neck is a collar for the Burgundian Order of the Golden Fleece.



He's accompanied by a senior commander on barded horse, attired in a harness which has extravagant paldrons, which are based on contemporary images (notably a reliquary sculpture of St George with Charles the Bold) of the later fifteenth century - no pieces like this survive today.

The third figure carries the arms of Burgundy; I had a dalliance with adding a chamfron from putty. The duke is accompanied by two guards, wearing paletots bearing the entwined letters of C and M, denoting Charles and Mary, as seen on a tapestry. These figures are Perry plastics.





The base and individual figures

Same base - different figure arrangement
The conversion and sculpting of these figures is on a previous blog posting.



This vignette is the last planned addition to my Burgundians for the foreseeable future - but you never know... like most of us, I can get easily distracted!

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Swiss front rankers

April 3, 2017, 8:51 am
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I am about to start in earnest with my Swiss Confederation army, circa 1475. The bulk of the troop types will be pike or halberd armed. Using the Swiss Chronicle illustrations as a key guide, it appears that at least the front ranks of these units frequently wore full harness.



So when considering what figures to use, I realised that relevant figures wearing with full armour and holding polearms were a bit scarce. I tried adapting some Perry plastic foot knights - however after drilling out the hands to add pikes I was concerned that they were a bit brittle, with a risk of future damage. So the solution has been to commission a couple of figures, open-handed in advancing poses, to use as Swiss front rankers.


The figures has been designed by Oliver of Steel Fist Miniatures. Oliver is a first class figure sculptor in my opinion and improving all the time. He has a deep interest in armour (both Western European and Japanese) and an appetite to sculpt it with great accuracy. His style also compliments the Perry figures very well.  With lots of assistance from Oliver's experience of casting etc, the outcome are figures and arms which can either be used on their own or alongside Perry WotR plastic figures, by swopping arms and heads to maximise an array of poses.





Oliver completed the sculpting in a very short timeframe and I've been waiting for moulds to be made at Griffin. Here are pictures of the castings I received this week. I have ended up with two bodies in full harness, four pairs of open-handed arms and  four heads (these are pretty generic for any late fifteenth century well armed figures). I also have a halbard (again commonly seen in Chronicles) and a baselard short sword. The helmets aim to extend the styles of Swiss troops seen in the illustrations shown below. The pairs of arms should be useable on either body (with a tiny bit of filling).

My assumption is that these would have been the most wealthy and prominent from urban areas of the Confederation, whose social status put them at the front of the fighting. In fact, full harness is also shown by Swiss using handguns in images of sieges - perhaps the same individuals taking prominent roles here too?

One of each of the castings

These castings have had a wash of black on to show the details better. I have plans to personalise the figures a little more - by adding items from putty, such as mail sleeves, bends, hoods, plackart, tassets, etc. No two figures the same is my aim - must be on the verge of madness methinks!


Schilling Chronicle image -armour, halbard, turban and helm.

Another Chronicle image - kettle helm.

I'll get some painted up very soon.

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Conductuer's Pavilion (II)

April 14, 2017, 7:57 am
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I'm sure that there's so many of you who have been losing sleep from thinking about what happened to a pavilion build which I started in 2014 for a Burgundian Captain, ...and you've all been too polite to ask! Well, I can sate your ongoing curiosity and provide an extremely belated update.


To briefly recap, this is a composite model which is not directly based on any contemporary illustration, but is an attempt to create a possible pavilion used by higher status Burgundian captain. Since 2014 I changed my plans from a completely canvas tent to one which is a combination of canvas tents and prefabricated wooden sides. The next step was to get the wooden sides done, which James from Oshiro Model Terrain laser cut from thin plywood, to accommodate some pre-cut gothic window frames in HO scale from York Model Rail. The canvas roof of the middle section is from a Curteys Miniatures tent, on which are Madonna icons made by Noch for model railways.

The reverse
After assembly of the parts, I've filled in all the gaps with putty (using Green Stuff, Procreate and Das), so that we're now at the stage for an undercoat and painting. Before the sides were attached I had to complete the internals of the tent which can be seen through the open entrance. These are printed images of a tapestry ('Hercules Initiating the Olympic Games' from the Burrell Collection, Glasgow) hanging on the side and a carpet of the arms of Burgundy on the floor (from my photo of an original hanging in Thun Castle). You can see these a little more clearly through the doorway on the actual model, than I can replicate on the camera.

Tapestry and carpet

A glimpse inside
Once I've painted the canvas I'll add extra horizontal panels around the joint of the roof and sides which will have printed Burgundian mottos stuck on (taken from printed flags) and some guy ropes. I'm thinking whether the entrance needs some simple wooden fencing around it, just to deter any folk of lesser social status from barging in? I'll then complete a base with some figures, as well as encampment bits and bobs around it. Or perhaps I should wait and hope that the Perry's create some 28mm Swiss looters??

Inspiration - wooden pavilion from Berne Chronicles
Inspiration - Burgundian pavilions by Gerry Embelton
This is a model which I've never been quite sure how well it'll work out, since I came up with the design idea - an unusual and convincing piece for the camp, or just a bit naff and odd - hence it's sat to one side for so long. Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before I find out which one it is.

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Burgundian Captains (1 of 4)

April 19, 2017, 2:10 am
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Ok, so I did say that my focus will now be on Swiss...
...however, I recently came across some very nice flags free to download via the Lead Adventurers Forum, which includes some Burgundian leaders. I then realised that I've enough castings to make stands for some captains - using the Sabot-style bases I had from Warbases. So four new captains are planned and the first one is done.


This depicts Jacques de Luxembourg, Signeur de Fiennes. He was born 1443 and made a Knight of the Golden Fleece. He was present at the battles of Grandson, Morat and Nancy and died 1487.  His coat of arms, made of silk and captured at one of these battles, remains today in the city museum of Solothorn in Switzerland. The figures used are Perry metals of Edward, Prince of Wales and a WotR man at arms.



The figures positions swopped on the Sabot base

Flag in Solothurn Museum




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Burgundian captains (2 of 4)

April 20, 2017, 9:10 am
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The second captain all done - this is Nicola de Montfort, Comte de Campobasso, an Italian condottiere from Naples who was employed by Charles the Bold from 1474, along with two of his sons and 400 lances.


Campobasso was conducteur of the 16th Ordonnance Company and is noted as one of the main commanders at the siege of Neuss, although he became ill during the protracted campaign and was replaced. It appears that Campobasso had a turbulent relationship with his employer - by the battle of Morat in 1476 it was his sons who commanded the 16th Company, as Charles had dismissed Nicola from his employment. However by Nancy in 1477 the Comte was again leading the Company.  Perhaps anticipating another Burgundian defeat he deserted prior to the battle to the Lorrainers and took no part.



The figures are Perry metals again - I've done a headship on the figure of the Comte, for a plastic one and replaced the baton with a mace. Again the models are on sabot bases, so I can do a bit of juxtapositions with them, when they're all done.


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Burgundian captains (3 of 4)

April 26, 2017, 1:29 am
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This captain vignette depicts Phillipe de Crevecoeur, Lord of Esquerdes.


Phillipe appears to have been a military man throughout his life and undertook lengthy service for the duke of Burgundy. He was governor of Picardy and Artois for which he received a salary of £3,000 per annum and he made a Knight of the Golden Fleece in 1468. He commanded the Burgundian army at the siege of Beauvais in 1472 and is known to had been at the battles of Grandson, Morat and Nancy. After the death of duke Charles he entered the service of the French king and fought at Guinegatte. He was made Marshal of France by Charles VIII in 1486 and campaigned in the wars against Maximillan. At the age of 72 he was one of the signatories to the Treaty of Etaples in 1492 with Henry VII of England, following the latter's invasion of France. He died just before the French invasion of Italy in 1494.



The model uses Perry metals on a Warbases sabot-style base. Philipe de Crevecoeur has had a headswop for a plastic open visored sallet and I've attempted to add something vaguely resembling a Golden Fleece on his chain. The flag is from the same source as the previous captains.



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Burgundian captains (4 of 4)

May 2, 2017, 4:45 am
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So that the last planned vignette of a Burgundian captain all done.


These figures are a little more generic - as the guidon is one of St George (based on a captured one still held in the museum of Berne) and which was associated with the Ducal Guard.




Figures are Perrys - the Edward IV figure for the captain (garter removed), plastic man at arms for the guidon bearer, metal horses and an Italian horn blower. The gilding on the captain's armour is based on a carved and painted image if St Florian in a German museum.



Apologies that pics are a tad dark....


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Lion Rampant engagement.

May 15, 2017, 3:28 am
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I was fortunate to have a day's gaming with Stuart of Army Royal blog this weekend. Our original wargaming plans were postponed and so we booked table at Battlefield Hobbies for a day gaming. First up was an AWI historical refight, which got many of my collection on the table for the first time in the 15 years that I've been assembling them. Pictures are here if anyones interested. We then used the same game boards, with appropriate terrain items and squeezed in a game of Lion Rampant, using some of my Burgundians.

The Burgundians deployed
The scenario was 'A gentle Stroll' from the LR rulebook and we applied some of Stuart's amendments to accommodate later period troop types and wheeled artillery, which really worked well. The setting was the revolt of Ghent and Liege towns in 1467/8 and the Burgundians had to cross the table diagonally, whilst harried by Flemish rebels - each side was about 30 points.

Burgundians facing the Flemish wing seeking to stall their progress

Flemish handgunners, with one of Stuart's wonderful casualty counters

The Burgundians move out
The Flemish were split across the other two table corners, with each wing containing pikes, shot and mounted troops and the single culverin placed with a line of sight across the Burgundian's route of advance. The Burgundians initially progressed well, with the English longbow keeping the Flemish at bay and a unit of Coustillers headed out at speed for the centre of the table. However they'd not yet encountered the Flemish mounted crossbowmen, who harassed and caused sufficient casualties to destroy them. This unit of models is now fast becoming notorious in the few games it's featured - having held up an entire wing of Tudor English men at arms in our Battle of the Spurs refight with the Perrys last year (it must be the witchcraft of David Imrie's paintwork on them!).

The notorious mounted crossbowmen do their worst
The culverin then caused another Burgundian unit to leave the field, but thankfully never managed to complete a reload before the end of the game. In the end Burgundian casualties mounted and only a single unit of longbowmen got to their target of leaving the field edge. The Flemish had 4 units intact and so it was another defeat for Charles the Bold.

The other Flemish wing deployed
The good times - steady progress by the Burgundians

Flemish crossbows - foot and with horse
Lion Rampant is an great fun game - it rattles along and we were all done is just over 2 hours - thanks to Stuart's growing familiarity with the rules. This has now got me thinking what other late medieval armies I could assemble for future LR games.
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