To me, men of England!

Look, here rides Nicolas Walker!

"sir, why is his base unflocked?"

"No idea some, he only just managed to get painted, don't expect too much..."

 

Four lovely painted men, yah! I do have an excuse for the bases; i when out after sanding, but they shall be done tomorrow. Honest!

So, what do we have? Well, we have Nicolas Walker, looking all heroric waving his lance around, three men at arms of various equipment and a billman, currently hiding.

 

Here's Nicolas. The lance has a spiral going all the way up, and on his chest is my family's coat of arms. Well, it was above the stove in our old house in England, so i've done it here. It is a shield, the top yellow bar has a crescent and two stars in it, and the lower section is striped.

Now the PBI's. All are converted some how...

This armour is based on a suit at the Wallace Collection in London. If you haven't been, GO! I'll be going again for sure! His body is English and the arms are from the mercenary set. Added a gorget and rondels from the knight box and voila!

Rear view. If you zoom in (click) you can see the gold on his belt, i saw plates on belts on a drawing so added it to some of my richer men.

I like this one. Parts from several places; legs from an infantry body, hips from the one with breast and back plate, and a mounted body and arms, topped off with a buckler and barbuta. I like how the pose turned out.

Here you can see his face, sorry for poor quality.

And now, the 'other two'.

The billman has had a leg swap with an archer wearing a brigandine shown in an earlier post, and the sallet is from the knight box. He also carries a buckler that i made from miliput.

The man at arms is the result of a dangerous conversion. Remember the three horsemen i wasn't happy with? Well, here is the rest of the man in chain mail (by the way, looking back, they're fine!). I hacked away his arm and made him carry a war hammer, basicly a pole axe with a hammer head added. He is obiously a noble didn't own much gear when the wars broke out, and has to make do with limited gear (an insight from arlequin, again! If you like the 15th century, i can point you to his blog). Enough talking...

 

I have also been thinking about adapting dux britanniarum for the 15th century, such as French and English raids across the channel, France invading Burgundy (or Brittany?) and also Lancastrian northern strongholds riding forth to raid the Yorkists, hoping to win back England for Henry. I have ideas, but without the book i can't really design any fate cards, so i will plan until the book arrives.

Gather me a troop of crossbows

More plastic, no painted! I know, i really need to lower the pile, but i'm (still) lacking the motivation. Perhaps it's the heat...

Today i made some crossbowmen, the first a forester for an English retinue. And yes, English forces did have crossbows (been reading arlequin's posts!). This man was meant to be kneeling, but now he's crouching, moving forward and firing quickly with his weapon. Got ya!

 

Needs some attention on the knees...

These crossbowmen are pretty mundane, nothing special. These will either be French or Danes.

I will get them painted one day!

JonasM, welcome aboard, i do post painted figures on occasion!

Say Peter, look at this 'ere helm

That's what the man on the right said when he found the helm.

Four unpainted Perrys stuck together earlier today. Tried to do some interesting conversions...

Please note they're only on a multi base because i haven't got round to cutting up some 20mm square ones.

So, we have two men carrying pavises, one billman inspecting a helm found lying around, and a sword and buckler raider.

I tried not to go overboard with cutting and putting, as it tends to look bad and has an effect on morale...

So today has only been positive vibes, especially after doing some electronic homework (homework in the summer holidays are just evillllll).

The man leaning/holding his pavise is very simple, just a pike left arm, a right arm found in the bit box with added bill. Of course, the pavise is not glued until painted!

The second pavise man use the bill arms from the English foot set, the one with a jack and chain down the sides. The right hand is from a shooting bow, and the left holds a spear. I tried to make it look like he was running through an arrow storm, slowed by his heavy pavise. An arrow or two on the base or pavise will enhance the look.

The bill man is even simpler, being a shouldered pike with bill head, and the left arm is from a reloading crossbow, now holding a great basinet.

The raider is two archer arms, with a sword and buckler attached.

I also wrote down the numbers of men in each retinue. With my 'kaliads', i changed some to archers to make a small Scottish 'raiding band', armed with some pikes, bows, bucklers, axes, etc, as some border irregulars.  These will be in white.

The Walker retinue will be reinforced with a mounted man at arms and 3 or 4 archers. My French band needs some crossbowmen painted up, and the pikes seen in an earlier post will be Burgundian mercenaries (what a surprise!), and finally i will make a German/Danish mercenary band of half a dozen crossbowmen, some pavise carriers (as above) and two men armed with halberds to protect the archers. These will be led by a man at arms, maybe one i converted using a mounted body and armoured legs (still in painting). Why Danish? I have an interest for Northern Europe (vikings!) and i recently found out about a small war in the 1470's between England and the Hanseatic league. Maybe these men are soldiers on one of their ships, looking for English to board...

Just want to say thanks to all those who read my blog, my views are almost at 800 now, and while small compared to some i've seen, is a huge number for me! I smiled too when someone found my blog by putting in 'Walker retinue' on Google!

Fresh off the workbench

Finally finished three archers i had started! These three men had been sitting around for weeks waiting for painted bows and belt buckles!

The man in blue is to join the 15th century french.

I'm happy to say i've found a good wood colour, raw sienna wash over white.

Ironically the back view is better focused than the front!

I've also created three light horsemen. In all three cases i saved them from complete disaster: on the left, i did a body swap, but the body was wearing a jack and in the end it looked a bit bizare, so i shaved it down and sculpted a chain mail hauberk over it. He looks normal now.

The middle and right horsemen have had a leg change. The right one looks good, but at first i couldn't make the middle one sit properly in the saddle. After shaving and miliputting, he now sits properly.

The right man was the easiest, just need to sculpt some stirups on his feet.

Click for a bigger image.

And as i bought Dux Brit recently, i decided to make some men, starting with these saxon gesiht. One has the head from the other post while the left hand man uses a viking head with mail face guard made from miliput. Nothing too hard :D

Right, stop it, this is getting far too silly

There's Graham Chapman telling me to put some pictures on this blog.

Seriously, i noticed i've put at least four posts on without photos lately, so i decided it would end NOW!

Starting modestly, i have been playing with the miliput. I recently bought the Dux Britanniurm rules for warfare in Britian circa 5th and 6th century. I don't have any romano british figures, but my saxons and vikings will proxy, at least until i make some (hint at new project, but definatly long term, still got a ton of 15th century to do!)

So, while i had some spare time waiting for the book i tested some 5th century helmets on some spare heads i had. Looking at the gripping beast models and reenactors, many helmets had cheekguards, so i did some on the left hand helmet. I also really like the large face plates, so i tried one on the right hand one.

A close up of the face plate. Closer inspection on pictures revealed that there were raised areas around the eyebrows, nose and mouth which i missed. Never mind, i have plenty more heads to experiment on!

Close up of the chhekpieces; simple and not too shabby.

This does mean i will be wheeling out the saxons and vikings again, who are all nicely based and flocked. I do have some still to paint (an a dozen to assemble) as well as the late medievals so more updates to follow, but i think my time will be filled with gaming soon!

EDIT
Lutdendorff Gravina and Dan, welcome!

The coming of Gautrek and the shadows of the woods

   The boat cruised over the waves, slicing through the water like a knife through soft butter and sending up clouds of spray whenever they hit a high way. The crew sat huddled under cloaks and blankets, their weapons stashed in the ship’s belly, unused and eager. The ship’s captain, a huge man named Gautrek, stood at the ship’s prow, his mane of blond hair billowing out behind him as he watched the closing shoreline.

   They closed quickly, and when they got within distance to see huts, rocks and trees, they pushed out the oars and bent their backs to land even quicker. The men talked in hushed tones, their weapons now across their laps in readiness for the looting to come; the season had been a poor one, and all were hungry for loot and some decent food. Gautrek knew this, and needed silver to keep his men loyal, or he would find himself in a watery grave.

   The inhabitants of this village must not be used to seeing raiders, for they did not run away when they first saw the ship approaching, but instead stood and watched, but when they saw Gautrek with a draw sword, they ran, pulling their children and livestock to a wooden strong house further inland. The boat scraped ashore and the burning began; first the raiders battered down the cottage doors, and took anything of worth such as pots, axes, knives, joints of meat, bags of corn and vegetables, anything. The grain stood was a prime target and a knot of villagers met them with spear and shield, but they were too few and the raiders hungry, and they fell quickly under their iron. All the grain was loaded onto the boat and all the houses burned, their thatch crackling loudly and snapping, throwing up columns of thick, black smoke.

   “What shall we do about the strong house?” Gautrek looked at the tall tower, armed villagers standing at the top and archers waiting at high windows. He would have burned it, but he would loose men, so he ordered his band to return to the ship and sail south.

   The raiders obeyed eagerly, happy now they had loot in the hold and food in their cooking pots. They had lost no men, and as they turned south they dreamed of even more loot, silver and slaves, The Spear sticking out of the island to their right.

   A rider told Gritten the news.

   “Tell me again, slowly. Tell me everything.” The rider took a breathe, paused, and recounted his story again.

   “It was dark, there was no moon. Jatgeir had wanted to sneak up on Falfanar’s hall and take him alive, but he came to us.” They’re not called the Night Swords for nothing. “They came howling from the woods, firing arrows and making lots of noise. I think they must have had some people with pots on the other side for I thought we were surrounded, but they came at us from the right. Falfanar led them, and they cut down several men quickly. I saw one of Jatgeir’s riders fall, his horse butchered and they dragged him from the saddle. Jatgeir’s oldest son fought Falfanar, but his horse got a spear in the chest and it fell, and Falfanar pulled him off, bleeding and faint. Jatgeir tried to rally some men, but a group led by Falfanar and his son attacked him and beat him down.”

   “Is he dead?”

   “I don’t know.”

   “What of Reidr’s men? And Armal’s?”

   “Armal’s men ran first, they were at the back of the column. And Reidr’s, they were to the right, so perhaps they are dead.”

   “How did you escape?”

   “I was with Jatgeir’s pack horse, and when I saw the fighting, and his men being cut down, I climbed up and rode away as quickly as I could.”

   “You did well to come to me.” Gritten handed the servant a horn of beer and left him on the bench as a servant gave him some food.

   “What happened?” Maren, Gritten’s wife, asked when he entered his private chamber.

   “Falfanar ambushed Jatgeir as he approached Valfar. He killed a good number of his men, and he and his son are either dead or captured.” He sat on the bed and ran a hand through his hair. “Two things will happen now; Daras will have to fight Falfanar, it has gone too far to be sorted out in court now. And with Jatgeir captured others will seek to become lord of Drikilvarr.”

   “Summon the nobles.” Maren advised. “Call them in a neutral place and there you can sort all this out. You are now the most powerful man on the island, you must stop the fighting.” Gritten nodded but he knew it would be harder than that. “You have the upper hand; Armal was defeated, and Reidr is not very powerful on his own. Only Falfanar is a problem, but you have the Elards behind you, and combined you can intimidate him into listening.”

   “Armal will listen, but I feel that Falfanar might make a claim to the lordship. He defeated him and shown his power. He might try to get Armal behind him, which won’t be too difficult.” I must act first, less more feuding destroys our peace. “Iolin! Sent a rider to the Hrodals, tell them I summon them to a council at the Old Man’s Rock in the name of the peace.

Impetus lists

I started this post while my cousins were here, but i have only found the time to finish it now. Today i will share some of my lists for my fravorite large battle game; Impetus.

If you don't know it, impetus is a game for fighting battles using DBx style bases, albeit larger. I use the free, basic version, which i prefer because i like a smaller amount of units. I sometimes play with my figures but normally i play using 15mm size counters, being easy to store away and cheap.

For my fantasy setting i have wrote several lists for the main factions/nations, which i shall share here. I shall also share a draft list for fighting battles in G. Martins fantasy setting A song of Ice and Fire. Use 'em, change 'em, do as you like with them, and most of all, enjoy them if you play Impetus!

This link will take you to the basic impetus page, where there are official lists and the rules.

First up, the generic Seven Kingdoms list:

Nr       Type      M         VDU         I         VD         Notes

             CP        8             7             3          3           Knights/ Heavy cavalry

             CP       8              5             2           2          Sergeants/ bannermen

             T         6              3             0           1          Short bow A levy archers

             T         6              3             0          1           Crossbow A Lord's archers

             FP       5              6             2          3           Foot knights                                                      

             FP       5              5             1          2           Foot bannermen                                                       

             FP       5              4             1          1           Pikes Levy foot                                                       

             S         8              2              0          1          Shortbow B

This is a very generic list as i have only read the first book. Lannister forces could include more cavalry units, Stark and Riverland forces mess cavalry but their infantry could be tougher.

For the Dothraki, the Mongol lists from the impetus site could be used.

Discovering the wars of the roses

For saying i'm into the wars of the roses lately, i don't know much about what actually happened. I know the names of some battles and the kings, but other than that i'm blank, so i've got reading.
At the moment i'm reading a book about Edward IV, a not too long book my dad got back in england. He's got a whole collection of them, from Alfred the Great all the way through the middle ages and into the 20th century. It's proving to be very interesting and enlightening, and complicated :p I also have another book about the wars that i bought in england, as well as a couple of others about the battles in more detail.

I have also been painting, but have got no finished figures yet, just some basing done and figures part finished. I slightly lost motivation for a bit and this morning i wasn't too happy with a couple of things i'd done, not to mention i painted a livery wrong and had to start again >=(  But the black cloud is floating away and i should finish them tomorrow, then i'll have cousins around so i'll be on halt for
a week.

Maybe i could convince them to play a game?

The saga of Drikilvarr will also continue, so don't go far!
Sorry for the lack of interesting posts at late, things just seem to get in the way of blogging.