Order of Alcántara

A break from painting those pesky difficult Tudor cavalry
The Order of Alcántara (Orden de Alcántara) or the  Knights of St. Julian, was formed in 1166 and was formely the order of León . Another attempt at freehand Heraldry...I really must stop trying :-D

The Alcántara bods added to some conversions from the HaT El Cid Spanish Infantry set.


Just basic head swops.....

These two have got new heads from the Caeser  Medieval Knights (Crusaders) set....

..and the one on the left, from the Italeri Templar Knights and the one on the right, from the Zvezda Livonian Knights

16th century Knights (DDS)

I´ve had this lot, Dark Dream Studio´s European Knights,   for a while now...and I´ve never dared to get to grips with it but everytime I look at the pile of "to do" bods,  they look at me sadly and shout "come on..we dare ya!" and after seeing the absolutely stunning paintjobs of Early Tudors from Stuart over at his Army Royal blog, I had to at least try.
The PSR review does them justice, whilst not a lively set, and the nags leave a bit to be desired in the poses department, they are a lovely set and like Stuart I will make them into the  cavalry of Henry VII...........just not as lovely as Stuarts.

All the weapons come with the set, are easy to remove from the sprue, the detail is very well done and best of all, there´s loads of spares when every knight has been kitted out.

Getting the Patina effect was murder. I tried at first to create a consistant pattern but this proved impossible, so the nag had it´s paint removed and the task was re-started, this time I just painted a "sort of" effect.

All the bods and the nags have some lovely little details, the sculptor must have done a bit of study of 16th century armour whilst making this set.

Flagmen, Clubmen, Drummer

Some more recruits for the "revolting" Peasant / Workers army, again with 13th century Gent Guild banners from the Dansk Figursspilsforening site.

Two simple conversions, a body halves swop to the left and an arm swop to the right

The bod from the Strelets Medieval levy (1) set carrying the Barrel makers guild flag, the Plaster´s Guild flag is carried by a Redbox Hussite

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The drummer. There´s not a lot of drummers for medieval bods, as far as I know there are only 3 that have been commercially made, all by Valdemar. Large bodied Tabors may not have been used until the 13th century, and then not in battle, but it´s not hard to see why not.
The body is from Zvezda´s Medieval peasant army set, the head from Zvezda´s French knights, drum and drum sticks from Revell´s Imperial infantry set. The belt is made from Paper.

Portrait of the Minnesinger (medieval German courtly love poet) with his musicians. Illustration from the Codex Manesse, c.1300.
Showing  Drum, pipe, fiddle with curved bow (psaltery)

I´ve been asked a few times to put up pics of the whole collection...I will but it might be next year,,for the Big Army Day (Gloranthan Army blog) on the 14th of June next year. Until then...my medieval army collection so from nearly 2 years ago can be seen HERE
It´s expanded a bit since then, the baggage train is nearly double the size, the same for the Hussites. There´s the new burgundian army, the Normans and El Cid armies. The infantry and cavalry has nearly doubled, the seige park has been added to quite a lot as well,  the Crusaders weren´t even in the pictures and there´s a lot more civilians/ "revolting" peasants now. 

Medieval Travellers, Wanderers, Pilgrims

As the titel says, these are medieval travellers.

The whole set together,,,except that there´s a dog that comes with them, but he, Beisser, has been used as a companion to Klynt von Osterholz

Vladimir to the left and Estragon to the right (from the "Waiting for Godot" post) and an "overheated" priest.

A member of the Bennos forum, Suso. The dog, beisser, is a copy of his own dog and the pair should really belong together..maybe Klynt will decide he works better alone at some point so master and hound can be re-united.
The child is an addition from the children at play set with his father

Three weighed down travellers. The one in the middle would make a  trader taking his wares to market, the one to the right is definately a mercenary type, he carries a sword, shield, helmet and crossbow.

The mercenary. I`ve experimented a bit by giving him a bit of a long term not shaved look.

As ever with Alex´s sculpts, the detail is exemplary. Suso carries not only a bow and quiver, but some rope, two knives and an axe handel..and  details, like on the rucksack  are recreated in such perfection it makes painting these bods a joy.

Quincy and Bigod

Nope, not a firm of solicitors but another two of the barons that were present at the signing of the Magna carta.

Saer de Quincy, 1st Earl of Winchester (1155 - 1219)
Interesting thing about this one...the blazon. The one I´ve used is listed on the Magna Carta site, but on the wiki link (HERE) it shows another blazon? The magna Carta site uses a pictorial representation of the Barons blazons designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. I reckon he would have got it right so I won´t worry any further :-D

Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk (1182 - 1225) This guy inherited a very nice  house..Framlingham castle!
He bears the Arms of "Bigod Ancient", dropped post-1269 by Roger Bigod, 5th Earl of Norfolk following his inheritance of the office of Marshal of England:

Sir Paul de Bodley (b?-d?)   Lord of Styrow on the Foam and one of the ancesters of Jocelyn de Bodley,  who first discovered the land which has become The Federation of Bodstonia
He, along with several other lords, is in constant dispute with his Neighbor Hugh Jarse

 

Brian the Blessed

A couple more Zvezda Medieval Peasant army conversions.

The foot figs, Brian the Blessed and "Happy" Tim

Brian has got a  crossbow from the Italeri French Knights and foot soldiers set, his bolt quiver came from the Zvezda French Knights set (it is meant for the side of one of the horses)
"Happy" Tim has pinched a Voulge-guisarme from the Zvezda English Infantry of the 100yrw set.

Ok...maybe it wasn´t done that often, if at all, firing a bow from the saddle but Rhobyn de Hud is a strong guy..and a very skilled horseman :-D

The face painting technique seems to be working with "run of the mill" bods.

 

SHOUTING!!!!! I´ll have to re-create this face on a knight bod.

Hello to Maxamillian Walker from Scyld and seax blog. Dark age and Medievals are the mainstay, as he says "English lord exiled in France, I'm raising men to return home and take back my stolen lands! And inbetween all this, I like painting little soldiers."
I´ll bring my armies from the North  and we can divide the island between us :-D

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick maker....

Guild Warriors. In the medieval period they seemed to have a guild for just about every trade going. Every guild had it´s own meeting place and every major town had a hall where all the guilds could gather under one roof...the Guild Hall.
Enough babbling from me..there´s a lot of interesting facts about medieval guilds which can be read up on HERE
I´ll quote one part though, my reason for creating some Guild warriors;
"Guild members were expected to help to protect the town or the city where the guild operated. These civic duties included providing a militia for the town, policing the streets and constructing public buildings and walls to defend the town or city"

A couple of conversions using bods from the Zvezda Medieval Peasant army set and legs and nags from the zvezda French Knights set. The foot bod is just a standard bod from the Peasant army set, his scythe replaced with a flag.

Lord mayor of Styrow-on-the-Foam. He´s the elected head of the Money lenders guild so can afford some decent armour

Standard bearer for the Armourers guild

Standard bearer for the Woodcutters guild

Flags ( for the Guilds of Ghent, ca 1300 – 1450) from Dansk Figursspilsforening (HYW) There´s some really great looking guild banners like these;

 

Hello to Captiain LOL from Figurine Passion Blog. He paints larger scale figs, sculpts etc..and it´s well worth having a look at his blog...his brushwork on the North american woman and her child is really very nice.

Medieval Tax collectors and Handworkers

Both sets from Hecker & Goros. If anything..it´s worth going to their site and looking at thier paintjobs and thier dio collection.
With this lot finished, for Michele from Michigentile´s Microworld Blog, they can now be packaged up and start thier long journey to Michele :-D

The handworkers set.

The tax collectors set.

I´ve just found this site...chock full of info about the middle ages....!!!!!

Conquistadores and friends

Two more sets of Hecker & Goros bods finished for Michele´s Diorama world.
Two sets of Conquistadores and South american Indians from the Time of Discovery 1520 range.

Both sets together, basing provisional

Set KSHG 249. The bod behind the native should be leaning on a spear but due to the delcate nature of the parts and it will be sent in the post I haven´t attached it.

Set  KSHG 245.

And for a bit of fun, The discovery scene as Jocelyn de Bodley first sets foot on Bodstonia .

Full story about that fatefull day and it´s consequences HERE

Klynt von Osterholz (Knight-errant)

A lone crusader of few words, he rides from one deed to another, accompanied by his faithfull and equally silent mastiff, Beisser.

Beisser

A early Valdemar bod, but still the face is good.

A a bit of messing about with the colour settings :-D

William de Huntingfield

High sherrif  of Norfolk and Suffolk b.1165-d. 1220(21) and one of the Barons who acted as surety to the Magna Carter.  I´ve chosen this  person, (apart from the fact I like the colour scheme) as he can team up with Robert de Vere as one of the Magna carta barons or......later as Sir Roger de Huntingfield b.1196-d.1257 and go off on the crusade with the other Robert de Vere (even though he never did really ;-D )