Burgundians Siege works (I)

As I obliquely referenced last time, there is plan afoot to put on a demo game at Partizan show in May, based on the Battle of Morat. This will include using all my figures and I am now on a deadline, which feels a lot closer than it really is, to expand my Swiss army and to create some seige lines for the Burgundians. These will be a static disply at one side of the table. The references for these will be images from contemproary chronicles of seiges, there were plenty shown in the Swiss Berne chronicles and elswhere. I recently purchased the excellent and highly recommended book by Graham Turner on the Wars of the Roses and I'm also using his painting of the siege of Bamburgh castle too.

So first start on this has been made, with a vignette of some figures from Graham's painting transposed to Morat. A herald is startled by the firing of a seige gun. The other picture are a few crossbowmen who'll be making their way to the palisaded fence. These are Perry conversions, with a couple of Steel Fist bodies included. At the moment the plan is for 3 adjoining bases of A4 size.

More will follow as I make progress.

Swiss Mounted Crossbowmen

Thanks for all the feedback on the last post. For 2025, I need to turn my attention and pretty much all the spare painting time I have, to expand my Swiss army to a size that I can game with it. Plans are afoot for a demo game and more on that in a later post.

Late last year, I added a unit of mounted crossbowmen. In fact I did 4 bases, which doesn't tally with my usual 3 bases for a gaming unit, so I'll probably need to add more. They are Perry plastic riders, largely from the versatile Light Cavalry box, with some arms pinched from Perry HYW plastics. The inspiration for these were some done by Matt Bickley, the images of which he shared with me - so these are a bit of a homage to those. I took a couple of pics of the asssmbled figures, so you should be able to see some of the attachments of limbs to bodies etc. I decided to use standing horses for these, as my understanding is that crossbows were fired from the saddle - certainly there are images from hunting and warfare of this. Whilst the Swiss Chronicles and the Battle of Dornach illustrations depict horses at the gallop, I decided on showing them firing and loading whilst taking shots from the edge of the battlefield, in a skirmish-type role. So for the horses I had to pick out Perry metals in walking and standing poses, largely from their Wars of the Roses/European Armies range. I also prefer the size of the horse, as they're slightly smaller and so look more akin to modest mounts (not destriers). The fit to the rider is OK, with a bit of trimming of the rider's legs and of course the need to build saddles from putty.

I added small pavises to some of them, as I wanted to use the plastic ones that I have left over from the Perry plastic HYW Knights box. They represent Berne, so a couple of bears were painted.

I'm happy with the results.

Hello world....more Burgundians anyone?

Well, hello again... I have been making some progress with my Burgundian-Swiss figures recently and so I feel it's incumbument on me to restart a few posts. Frankly I've just gotten out of the habit and there are other pulls on my time. I also hve found the ease of just posting on Facebook, so muchquicker and more immediate - a reflection of our times I guess. Plus the technology on Blogspot seesm to have fallen behind a little. But, those are just excuses aren't they, so let's see if I can keep myself disciplined enough to keep post going on here, as I did really enjoy the process in the past. I wonder how many folk are still looking at blog posts these days?

So, lets start off with what happened to those Burgundian archers in riding boots, which I'd converted in the last post. They travelled to Spain for some painting by the talented Rafa. On return they've been based, on my usual 60mm sqaure that I'm using for this collection. Then I've married them up with the kneeling pikemen that I converted oh so long ago and which I finally go around to painting up myself. I had a problem with these figures, as frankly I've never been completely happy with the conversions that I did - the poses seem to work OK, but my putty-work to add the belts etc could have been better. The legs are largely from Perry kneeling metals and the bodies are a mix of Steel Fist metals and Perry plastics cut down and attached, with hands drilled to accept pikes. But they've sat part-painted on the shelf for ages. Getting the longbowmen back was the motivation I needed to get this unit done - frankly to do one using these poses before someonbe else did them!

So the completed unit represents the drill that was defined by Charles the Bold in his 1473 Ordinances, that the longbowmen should dismount and shoot over the shoulders of pikemen who kneel before them. This makes sense in terms of creating a defensive formation, which makes the best of longbowmen, where the pike play the role of stakes which the English traditionally used with success in the open battlefield. We have no information on whether this drill was used on the battlefield - but it cretes a visually interesting unit and I'm sure whatever rules are used can be tweaked to reflect the potentail impact of this formation.

The horseholders that I did previously also compliment this unit. Ideally I'd like to do another unit, to create a bigger impression on the gaming table, but the priority needs to now move (finally) to Swiss, so I may return one day, we'll see. More anon. Simon.

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

 

Swiss - new 28mm figures for 2024

Well, a little unexpected revitalisation for the blog.

As you may know, I run Steel Fist Miniatures as a hobby-business. The sales so far have all been reinvested to create new figures and I've long had a hankering to expand the modest Late Medieval range. As the result of a combination of serendipity and planning on my part, I've finally reached the point where new figures are emerging. These are 'dollies' to compliment the excellent Perry plastics, so provide bodies to which arms and heads from the plastic spares box can be added.

Early in 2024, I will release the first Swiss figures. These are inspired by the Schilling Chronicle illustrations. These figures have been a long time coming - as I actually had the sculpts done early thisa year and have been tinkering with how I best turn digital imahes into metals, with a few false starts along the way. First releases are packs of  open-handed figures in advancing poses, to bulk out the middle and rear ranks of pike and halbard blocks. Heads are separate, to maximise options for different versions and the head sockets should accommodate nicely more Perry plastics, so the overall visual of a block of figures should be a lot of variety.

I'm hoping that the skilled sculptor will be able to find time to add a few handgunners, crossbowmen and command figures next year too.

So I'll be using these - along with other manufacturer's figures - to build up my Swiss pike units and restart my collection. I also have commenced a new Burgundian longbow unit, with some conversion work as usual and I'll share these in the next post.

Toodle pip,

Simon

Blog Recommendation: Hand Built History

 I'd like to recommend a new blog that I'll be keenly following, Hand Built History

It's a blog by John Boadle, who for those who aren't aware of John, is a master terrain builder, great figure painter and thoroughly generous and engaging chap to boot. John's been making high quality models for many years and I'm fortunate enough to have few pieces made by him which are the pride of my collection, when he the spare time to make some for others. John's buildings are all handmade from polyboard, plastic card, balsa and hand-cast items - not a single computer 3D image in sight. He's recently recently been making artillery pieces for Michael Perry's Franco Prussian range.

In the blog John's promising to show a gradual build and so give us an insight into his techniques. A first post shows a Swiss fortified church that he did for me,  pictures of which are below.

   

Really looking forward to reading more on this.

Simon

Burgundian Conductuer's Pavilion - completed

Well its only 4 years - on and off - and it's done. A feature for the Burgundian siege camp, showing a high status temporary living quarters, vaguely based a mix of contemporary illustrations, with a little artistic licence.

To finish it off I've added guy ropes, flags, icons and wooden fence to protect the entrance.

But what's occurring round the back? It's a couple of soldiers using the cover of the pavilion for a sneaky game of dice!

I'll add a few figures to stand near the front - the Perrys make some men at arms in casual poses and I have a Citadel trumpeter from their old Dogs of War range who's had a headswop and looks OK as a an Italiante Burgundian. Also some other encampment ephemera perhaps.

Now, to move to to some fighting troops...

Stay safe everyone.
Simon.