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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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Burgundian Captain

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.

Burgundian ducal group - WIP

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

Swiss Crossbowmen (I)

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.

Burgundian Vignettes

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...