Hundred Years War: English (8)

As well as painting the French nobles the English last week received another draft of troops in the form of 18 archers made of components from the two plastic sets English Army 1415-1429 and Agincourt French Infantry 1415-29

The first set is another block of 12 bowmen deployed behind their row of stakes that were used to disrupt the French attacks and protect these lightly armoured troops. These stakes are included on the frames of the English Army 1415-1429 set.

Like the previous set of English bowmen they are made with a mix of the bodies from the French box so that there are some chaps with heavier armour than those made solely from the English set. The French box also contains a few un-armoured bodies in different poses to the English box to add variety.

I have painted these troops in a mix of liveries representing archers from several retinues grouped together. The stakes on the base are a useful addition, some may critique the 'what if they move' but at Agincourt the English picked up their stakes and advanced to within bow range of the French line.

Some close-ups of the individual figures. Many are sporting the cross of St. George that was used as a field sign through the campaign of 1415.

All but the third figure from the left and the last figure in this group were made using French bodies. The one on the second right is a very dynamic pose in the French set that adds some action to the group.

Only the first figure in this group uses a body from the French set the remainder are all from English bodies. I like the green & brown livery so much I plan to paint a whole unit of French spearmen in this scheme, and they shall hopefully be finished this week.

The second group of six archers could either depict a small unit of archers deployed among the men at arms in the centre of the English line, or, if deployed in a more open order a unit of bidets skirmishing on the flanks of the battle.

Again a mix of English and French bodies painted in a mix of liveries.

Again close-ups of the group of six, the two figures on the left are entirely from the English set, the remainder a mash-up.

I also knocked up some blank bases and bases of stakes to either allow casualty removal, or to allow me to make the figures stretch a little further and field a few more units.

I'm now out of bowmen so shall have to concentrate on the French again next week.

Hundred Years War: French (5)

This week we get three French commanders to lead all the mounted men at arms, both already painted and in the pipeline.

The French commanders are all from the same Perry Miniatures French mounted command at Agincourt set. Three dynamic characters who shall lead the French men at arms in glory against the English usurpers.

The first noble is Waleran de Raineval, Comte de Fauquembergue who led the third French battle at Agincourt and was killed during the battle.

On his jupon he is wearing his heraldry of 'arms or on a cross sable five escallops argent'. The Perry's have very handily sculpted this on the figure so it's more a case of colouring-in than free-hand.

The second noble is Louis,Count of Vendôme who commanded the 1600 mounted men at arms on the left wing at Agincourt and was subsequently captured during the battle but survived the massacre of the prisoners.

This figure took a dive on the floor while I was varnishing. His lance was bent double and I had to do a lot of touching up before the photos. Bugger!

Again the Perry's have sculpted in his heraldic detail of 'arms quarterly 1&4 France Modern on a bent gules three lions rampant argent 2&3 argent a chief gules overall a lion rampant azure armed langued and crowned or' I had to repaint that a few times as I kept getting it wrong.

I added the lance pennant from paper and did a pastiche of the arms in freehand.

The final noble is Anthony Comte de Brabant who let 800 mounted men at arms on the right wing of the first battle at Agincourt and was captured in the battle and executed with many of the other prisoners at the pivotal stage in the fight.

This chap is a lovely clean sculpt and is devoid of heraldry, which was quite a relief especially after painting Vendôme!

A delivery from the UK this week shall see more mounted men at arms joining the French contingent shortly.

Hundred Years War: English (7)

I'm now back in the office full time after the Christmas break so of course the painting has slowed a little but this week the English get some attention after all the work on those Frenchmen.

As mentioned on some of the earlier posts the Perry Miniatures French and English boxes are very interchangeable with the English archers being typically much less armoured than the French infantry.

With this batch of archers I did a lot of mixing up of French bodies and heads with the archer arms and a lot more armour is included on these. Some are still made up of only the English bodies and arms but this batch should give you an idea of the possibilities with mash-ups between the sets.

The figures are painted with a black and gold theme, again, not maintaining a specific livery but a common limited palette to bind the figures into a unit but not to have them overly uniform.

The figures are based on standard 20mm Renedra rounds and mounted in the Warbases custom trays that I ordered - I've just contacted them for another batch as I'm running very low on the infantry trays now.

In this group of four the second figure in is a heavily armoured French body with both a mail coif and plate armour for his legs. The third, lightly armed, figure with the dagger is entirely from the French set apart from his sheath of arrows and small shield.

The figure on the left is another use of the heavily armoured French body while the shield on the third bowman is from the French set. The final figure is a French body and head with English arms, a good dynamic pose that is not available in the English set, he also has metal greaves.

The first three members of this group are made from French heads and bodies with English bowman arms. The final figure is an English body with a French head. The option to have additional choices of bodies and helmets does get a lot of extra value out of these two sets.

As ever with the Perry plastics they go together very well and need very little cleaning up and filler in preparation and paint up easily. I'm working on more English bowmen and some French commanders, but this arrived in the post today so I may get a bit distracted.

Hundred Years War: French (4)

This week I have been continuing apace with the Hundred Years War project and another 24 foot have joined the French contingent. As previously all are from the Perry Miniatures range of plastics, mainly the Agincourt French Infantry 1415-29 set, but quite a few mash-ups using components from the English Army 1415-1429 set.

You can find the Analogue Hobbies entry for these here.

The first unit to show is a group of six men at arms, I've tried to apply a bit of heraldry on these and some is done with standard brush work but other ones done using a technical pen, the first time I tried this out.

A second group of six men at arms completes the 'heavy' component, again mash-ups using components from both the French and English sets.

Again I had some more attempts at heraldry and quite like what I did with Phillippe, Comte de Nevers, front and center with the cut off lance, although the fleur de lys could likely use another highlight.

The third unit completed over the weekend is a group of well-equipped infantry in the green livery of the Comte de Nevers as shown in the leaflet that comes in the Perry Miniatures box.

Many of these are mash-ups with bodies from the English set, typically the bodies in the French set have mail coifs while those in the English set have a cloth cowl. I think it gives a bit of variety into the mix. I've made some heavier armoured English long-bowmen that I hope to have done for next weeks update.

Here are a few close-ups of some of the figures, maybe a little out of focus.....

This is one of the infantry bodies off of the standard French frame, he is heavily armoured with at least partial plate so was re-purposed as a man at arms, the heraldry is for nobody in particular.

Another man at arms made entirely from components off of the French men at arms sprue. This was my first go at doing livery with a technical pen, certainly a lot easier than using a brush.

This man at arms is again from the French sprue, and is depicted in a long-sleeved half coat. The French men at arms sprue is a lot more 'dressed' than the English sprue.

The last man at arms here is Phillippe, Comte de Nevers I wanted to show my attempt at his heraldry, this was done using a brush, although a yellow technical pen would have been useful. It could probably use another highlight with the yellow.

View of one of the sergeants with axes.

A very heavily armoured sergeant with axe.

Another sergeant with axe, are you bored yet?

The last man at arms is made using a body and head from the English sprue and arms from the French sprue. He has the cross of St. Denis field sign.

This week the Perry's have released some mounted Agincourt men at arms and I have a box on order, plus spare horses to make up another six. I'm looking forwards to getting my hands on those.