Mounted Longbowmen (I)

 Just managed a quick post, before the Festive break.

This is quick update on the Burgundian longbowmen, who are a work in progress. I decided that these should be wearing long riding boots, as they represent mounted English archers in the service of the duke and this is how they are shown in the contemporary illustration by the Master WA.

This means a bit of work on nearly every figure, with scalpel and file to remove the existing shoes and the addition of greenstuff to build up the long boots. Mainly the putty is needed to add the roll-over of the top of the boots, to add the gusset of leather which enables the boot to put on/off and the straps which hold down this gusset. It all takes me time on each figure, with my limited precision, as the putty needs to dry once you've done one of those steps on each model.

So this picture are of the most progressed figures to date. There will be 15 on 3 bases and most will be in shooting/loosening poses, as I want to depict a combined unit of longbowmen shooting over kneeling pikemen. This was a drill covered in the ducal Ordonnance of 1473:

In like manner (they are to exercise) the archer with their horses, to get them used to dismounting and drawing their bows. They must learn how to attach their horses together by their bridles and make them walk forward directly behind them, attaching the horses of the three archers by their bridles to the saddle-bow of the page to whose man-at-arms they belong, also to march briskly forwards and to fire without breaking rank. The pikemen must be made to advance in close formation in front of the said archers, kneel at a sign from them, holding their pikes lowered to the level of a horse’s back so that the archers can fire over the pikemen as if over a wall. Thus, if the pikemen see that the enemy are breaking rank, they will be near enough to charge them in good order according to their instructions.

Image by Gerry Embelton (Osprey publications)

Whether this formation was used in battle is unknown, but it'll be interesting to try it in a game. Figures are mainly Perry plastics, with some Steel Fist bodies used.

I'll press on with the rest and post them up.

Simon