Thursday 7 June 2012

Ordonnance men at arms - variations on a theme



I have to admit to making slower than planned progress with my second Ordonnance Company of mounted men at arms. It does take more time to prep and assemble the excellent Perry plastics, but I've been attempting to make modest enhancements to the figure before painting. This has resulted in me having a go with the ProCreate putty,  and a combination of my rudimentary modelling skills and needing each stage of applied putty to harden before moving on,  has all been rather time consuming.

So this is another interim post, with some pics of some of what I've done so far. I've varied the horse tack again on some of the mounts. 'The Count of Wymborn' suggested that I use putty rather than metal foil and despite my misgivings beforehand, I've cleaned off all the moulded tack on a couple and replaced with different styles of trappings, taken from contemporary illustrations. I'm pleased with the results and will be doing some more on each unit.

I've also pinched ideas from The Lead Adventurers Forum (where several people are doing some really wonderful conversions on the Perry WotR plastics) to cut assembled horses into front and rear halves and reassemble to obtain different and more passive poses. More Procreate work (and time) required to fill and smooth the inevitable gaps when halves are glued back together.




Most of the men at arms have had a cross of St Andrew added - again with putty - and I'm happier with the results compared to my first unit which were done with foil. The last conversion is to use the Perrys Joan of Arc figure from the Agincourt to Orleans range. Although the figure wears harness of approx 40 years earlier, and is of a young woman, I had a spare casting and love the pose. So after a compassionate beheading, I added some slightly larger pauldrons and tassets with putty to try and 'modernise' the armour. I removed the square besagews, as these do reflect a distinctly early fifteenth century style, and glued on plastic 'german' style ones cut from spare plastic arms. A plumed sallet was then added and I think it'll fit in OK when it's part of a unit.

Now, on to the painting...

11 comments:

  1. A lot of behind the scenes work going on in these pictures. Looking forward to seeing these painted up to your usual excellent standard.

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  2. You understand that if I see that last figure across the table I will have to go through the whole Tom Baker skit from Blackadder II: Capt Redbeard Rum, 'You have woman's hands my lord etc...'

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EfW9znJYjw

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  3. Very nice conversions !

    Best regards Michael

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  4. Lovely conversions. Looking forward to seeing the painted results.

    Regards,
    Matt

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  5. Looking good simon, it looks like you have been bitten by the sculpting bug! Do you find it easier to work with than expected?

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    1. Not so sure it was that easy - I know my limits! However it was very satisfying, but patience needed to progress via small steps before moving on to the next bit - must take you ages to do a full harness on a figure?

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    2. hey sorry for late reply, im sure you will keep improving with this yes it used to take me weeks to make a knight but im geeting quicker the problem now is concentrating on just one not 10! keep it up though as i love checking this blog!

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  6. Very much, very excellent work! You well done it is very pleasant to watch your blog.

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  7. Good looking so far, the converted Joan looks pretty good, so I think it works. Painted up it should look great.

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  8. You're definitely getting the hang of this. I've had misgivings about sculpting but once you put your mind to it the sky's the limit with what you can do, i think it's just method and confidence really, there's a few videos on youtube with some sculpting tutorials - from a fantasy angle as you might expect but good pointers nonetheless.

    I shall have to try the horse tack myself I think.

    Thanks also for the LAF link, the artillery crew set up is very tempting - you could create a limbering / un-limbering diorama - just a little seed there to add to no doubt a pile of ideas!

    Smashing stuff, please do keep doing these WIP pieces as it's good to see and gives plenty of inspiration.

    Stuart

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  9. Great stuff Simon really will be a one off army!

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