The End of the House of Lancaster

...well, almost the end.
Henry VI and Queen Margaret, riding around at the edge of the battlefield, ready to either take flight in defeat or line up the captured Yorkists nobility to be attainted and executed in victory.
Figures are Perrys; the pennon bearer is a plastic figure with adjusted arms to hold a flagpole (though not at an exact 90 degrees ...theres a strong wind blowing you know!). Flag is LBMS taken from their HYW sheet.
Having now painted both plastic and metals from this range I fear that the plastics are now going to either spoil us with the extra crispness of the detail, or result in the casting quality of the metals needing to be raised. We get to see the lovely sculpting by both Perrys when they post WIP pics (on TMP or all too occasionally on their own website), but increasingly this detail seems to be getting lost in the mouldmaking and casting process IMHO. Case in point here is Henry's raised hand - the detail just wasn't there and the fingers had effectively fused together - and I'm pretty certain that Michael would not have designed the original figure so.
I say not quite the end of the Lancastrians, as Edward Prince of Wales and the duke of Somerset are still to come and are due to be released as mounted figures, anytime now. Henry's also due to be accompanied by a dismounted herald, from the plasics box which I'm still doing... but too much small-scale heraldry for one painting session.

Burgundian Artillery

Charles the Bold was reknowned for the funds he lavished on acquiring a substantial artillery train, both the very latest field and siege guns, employing master gunners from across Europe . Although partly an outward reflection of wealth and status, Charles did employ his artillery in both battles and seiges (such as Neuss and Morat), although without success - by 1477 most of his artillery appears to have been in the hands of various Swiss cantons. Wheeled field guns such as these had a wide range of names used by contemporary accounts; such as coulourine, crappaudeaul, veuglaire and serpentine. Neither their overall size or calibre appear to have borne any relation to any categorisation derived from their naming, although they were all breach loading.

These are the first of what will be a sizeable artillery train for my Burgundians. They are Perry WotR crew, with the addition of a converted plastic figure. Given the narrowness of my basing (60mm) I decided on crews comprising of just a master gunner and two assistants. Equipment is a mix of Front Rank, Bicorne and Foundry. Two of the guns are the Perry pieces, which are very fine castings that require careful cleaning and patient assembly.

The slightly larger gun is another nicely sculpted model which I believe has something of a rarity value as its from a now defunct, incomplete range of late medievals from about ten years ago... so can anyone try and identify the 'mysterie gonne' ?

No prizes, but I'll reveal the answer on my next posting...

Earl of Devon at Tewkesbury

John Courtenay, 15th Earl of Devon, surveying the field at Tewkesbury on 4th May 1471, the day he would die fighting for the Lancastrian cause. The earl was the younger brother of the earl who'd been attainted and beheaded following the battle of Towton. He was restored to the earldom by Warwick in 1470 when 'the kingmaker' was effectively controlling the Henrician government. He led the Lancastrian left wing at Tewkesbury, opposite Lord Hastings, and died in the fighting.
The figures are Perry WotR; Devon has 'turncoated' from the Yorkist command pack (WR3) and the sculpted soft hat replaced by a visored sallet from the plastics box, to position him as being closer to the front line and ready for the fray - although of course it's most likley that he would have led his men on foot when the battle started. His coat of arms is from one of the new WotR flag sheets from LBMS.
This vignette was done over the last two days and is a welcome diversion from the rank and file I'm doing. Devon will be available for closer inspection at the Perry's Tewkesbury demo game at this year's Salute.

Bosworth Conference

I'm sure everyone is aware of the recent press coverage that the Bosworth battlefield site has been 'rediscovered', or more accurately relocated, to about 2 kms from the current site near Ambion Hill. I attended last weekend a oneday conference on the battle that followed up on the media coverage of the Battlefield Trust's work to review the battle site. What follows is a brief review of what I found to be the most interesting points made by an excellent line-up of speakers and academics. Read on if you're interested...

Richard Holmes (military historian) - his excitement about the event was the way that a number of disciplnes had all come together to inform on the battlefield - historians, archeologists, re-enactors, geographic analysis etc. Holmes sees this as the way forward now for sites where there is little direct recorded evidence; basically those in UK before the 17th centuty. On Bosworth he still has questions to be answered about why Richard lost a battle he should have won and why he left a good position on Ambion Hill, where he encamped the night before? On the latter he sees the role of Stanley, who Richard expected to join Henry Tudor, as the key as it forced him to act and attack.

Anne Curry (Southampton University) - gave update on work to assess size of armies, using what direct info exists and what can be derived from other accounts, notably 1475 indentures for Edward IV's french campaign. On Richard's army, Curry noted apparent low numbers of commissions of array and few peers at the battle, suggesting a likely dependence on few peers (Norfolk and Northumberland) and the royal household. Lower volume of arrayed troops may have reduced numbers of archers in the royal army? - army list writers take note! A source shows that an order was made to bring serpentines from Calais - which could be the guns that fired the cannonballs found on the site? Henry's army includes more nobility, many collected en route to the battle, and 'Franc Archers' (maybe 1-2,000?), and there was discussion about their potential tactics, as they were Swiss trained, to out-flank or attack the royal artillery. Overall 259 named leaders are known to have been at Bosworth and more work to be done to build up size of contingents.

Matthew Strickland (Glasgow University) - went thru the contmporary materials and possible military tactics, based on those of the 15th century. The typical composition was a strong 'van', which Vergil says at Bosworth was strong with archers for both armies. Apparently there is work underway reviewing whether in English battles of period archers and men-at-arms fought in their 'lance', eg with a couple of archers side-by-side assisting as a tactical unit - rather than being banded together as large bow units - which could challenge our wargame rules and basing! Strickland's summary was that success in WotR battles was likely to go to the army who could get the opposition to attack them and that defensive tactics was the traditional mind-set of most leaders.

Derek Allsop - reported on experimental firing tests, using cannonballs that match those found at Bosworth. When fired, just 1 degree of elevation of a gun barrel added over 100% to the distance that a ball travels before hitting the ground. Whilst the balls hit the ground around 250 metres, when tested they carried on for 1 km, boucing about 8-10 times, before stopping! Deviation side-to-side was minimal. Therefore more work to be done using forensics used on bullets to show what happened to the Bosworth shot, so that the possible position that they were fired from can be decided, ie where was the artillery positioned?

Glenn Foarde (Battlefield Trust lead archeologist) - went thru how historic maps had made assumptions on the battle site and how reference to the marsh has misled historians. The BT survey focussed on placenames and geographic surveys to find where the marsh had been (apparently not a large one at all, so question on what impact it may have had on the troops positioning and not found as drained in 1530!). More work planned to try and find out where the guns were. also the search hasn't looked for arrowheads, to find the main location of the fighting, as has been done at Towton. Full report by Glenn is in this months BBC 'History' magazine.

Finally a plug for the Battlefield Trust, http://www.battlefieldstrust.com/ which I joined a few months ago; it backed this project and does a great job preserving and developing UK sites. Why not join today!

Normal service will be resumed asap, am still applying the acrylics when time allows...

WIP - Wars of the Roses

I feel obligated to update the blog, so these are only some WIP shots. I've also bought myself a cheap lightbox, so I wanted to try that out too.

These are a few of the Perry plastics that I'm working on for two Wars of the Roses games planned for this year. As both require a large amount of figures to be done (large that is in relation to usual output) the dip-and-highlight approach is being refined. I'm now using both Dark and Strong tones of Army Painter selectively; although I'm a bit concerned that the Dark is too dark and tends to flatted colours after a matt varnish is applied, but it does look very effective on the armour IMHO, so I intend to continue with it. The key appears to be to use very light base colours, pre dip, to compensate. The good news, I keep reminding myself, is the quick pace that the painting conveyer belt is moving along and that basing up with improve the overall effect when they're on the table. These are gaming figures and not ones for close examination in the collector's cabinet.

Above pics are fom Earl of Devon's contingent for a 'Salute' game; the completed unit will be a body of household men at arms and billmen, with two 'sleeve' bases of longbowmen. I've drilled out the hands for flags on metal rods, partly as I do have a slight concern with the plastic ones snapping one day, but mainly as I will 're-cycle' these as alternative units for the Northampton game via a swift change of flag and standard. That said I'm hoping to get some waterslide decals made up with livery badges on, so hope no-one will be too eagle-eyed to spot this! The retainers wearing livery coats are therefore patiently awaiting arrival of the decals before a brush on of dip.

Dippers

Ho hum, there I was on the straight-and-narrow, making a good start to my Burgundians when I go and get distracted!
These are some test figures for a potential demo game later this year, not yet definetly fixed up, for the 550th anniversary of a Wars of the Roses battle that's near to where I live. I need to see if I can possibly create at least 300 figures to a decent standard, in a few months, for both armies. Given the limited free time I'll have, I've tested a dipping approach - well, to be accurate a brush-on of 'Army Painter' dip.
The figures were white-undercoated and then the main colours blocked in, in shades that are much lighter than I would normally do, using the mid & light shades in the Foundry triads for example and the black clothing was painted as dark grey. I've then brushed on 'Dark tone' dip. The non-armour areas have been matted with Humbrol Matt Cote. This dip tone seems to work really well on the armour, pooling in the right areas such as the helmet rivets and joints in plates and giving a nice worn-steel finish. Where I'm a tad concerned is on darker clothing, which get dulled and there are no highlights post-dip. Also, from previous experience, the dark tone is too strong to go on whites. I may therefore use mid-tone on clothing and dark tone on armour?
Overall, the speedier process may just allow allow me to get these done, with an acceptable level of detail (thats already in the figure castings) brought out by the dip.

More test figures needed me thinks.

Burgundian Ordonnance longbowmen

Every (snow) cloud has a silver lining!

As I can't commute to work I've completed my first Perry plastics - 3 bases of bowmen, based on 60mm squares, which I'll combine in either twos or threes as fighting contingents on the table. I’m pleased with both the raw figures and the results. As per my previous blog entry, I’ve added wire bowstrings to all and scarves on helmets to some. The flag is a ‘Dansk Flag’ free download; these are particularly fine flags for the Burgundian range, but if I use more of them I’ll have to access a better quality printer to do them justice.

I’ve read a couple of reviews of the plastic ‘Bills and Bows’ box which have been a tad mixed in people’s responses to them. Apparently some have experienced prominent mould lines or small depressions in the plastic on the backs of the bodies; I’ve checked all my boxes are they appear fine. It’s impossible of course to avoid mould lines completely and most are easy to remove with the side of a new scalpel, the ones which are noticeable are on the legs and front of the bows. The hardest to clean are those running across some of the helmets, where if you’re not uber careful the fine detail of the rivets, that hold the helmet linings, can be lost – I’ve used a fine needle file here.

What you do get, for only £15 we should remember, are some beautiful, historically accurate and finely detailed figures, and the small amount of extra time required for gluing and preparing, provides you with loads of variants (and there are metals to come). I think for many, perhaps used to painting metals from other designers where undercuts are deep and belts etc sit proud, the detail on these can be too fine and hence trickier to paint. I’m wondering if the best results with this range maybe to use more washes and let the detail do the work for you, particularly on the faces, belts and folds on the jacks (the latter being where I have used a wash followed by a hand painted highlights)?

Another ‘issue’ to deal with is their lack of weight. I’m sure this is 80% a psychological response, as we’ve all been used to metal figures for so long now, and 20% a practical one, as the bases may tend to sit lightly on terrain etc. I did glue all of these onto small washers, to try and add some weight, but frankly you can hardly tell when you pick them up and it creates a deeper base to cover with filler and sand etc. I don’t think I’ll bother again and just accept it – hopefully most future bases will have at least one of the forthcoming metal castings on them anyway.

Next up on the bench are more archers and then some Ordonnance halberdiers.