To get back the momentum, here's work in progress on a Charles the Bold commander figure. I wanted something special and if possible unique to represent the duke himself. This wonderful figure has been created for me by Oliver of Steel Fist Miniatures, a couple of months ago. The model is a conversion of a Perrys plastic man at arms in 'german armour' - with addition of a new kettlehat, bevor, Order of the Golden Fleece chain and arm holding an ornate baton decorated with a fleur-de-lys. Oliver's done a fantastic job of converting my outline requirements into a great looking figure, in a typical commander pose. Will add a mace or axe hanging from the saddle I think.
The horse is a conversion of mine, as I wanted to have Charles riding a mount with cloth caparison bearing the arms of Burgundy. I've used a plastic horse with the barding added on. The cloth covering over the bard has been made by a trial and error process of cutting, adjusting and finally glueing on four thin aluminium sheets - on both sides, front and back. These have been covered with a fine layer of ProCreate putty; with any gaps filled with some GW Liquid Green Stuff - hence the current two-tone appearance (it needs a smoothing down with some fine sanding sticks before undercoating). I think it's just about convincing enough - I need to keep the surface relatively flat to assist with painting the heraldry on each area.
Plan is to paint the duke's harness as a gilded finish, as well as the horse bard where it can be seen. Not yet sure what combination of paints I'm going to use to achieve a nice gilded armour finish. Hopefully I'll end up with a figure that'll stand out on the wargames table and should produce an appealing contrast with the duke's harness and the Burgundian arms on the horse caparison. The figure will be a little different from the well-known Schilling Berne Chronicle illustration (below), which shows barding with painted or embroidered decoration, but I'm saving that treatment for other figures.
