Bannockburn (bits and bobs)

More bods are needed which means making more conversions for the Bannockburn Project, which is fun, getting back to the Feeling of the good old days, when Airfix and matchbox ruled the 20mm plastic bod world, metals were rare and expensive and to get something different meant working with the limited range of sets.

Some Spearmen for one of the next two Schiltrons.

 

 

From left to right, Army of Joan d'Arc,(first two, heads turned to face the other way) Army of Henry V (he was an archer) and the kneeling bod, top half from the army of Joan d´Arc, the bottom half from The Scottish Army of Wallace (the kneeling bod holding what Looks like a Baseball bat)

Both from the Shaab set. Like the one on the far left (above) the one on the left is (appropiately) left handed. Apparently Julius Caeser and Alexander the great were left handed, so if it´s good enough for them....:-D

Some other conversions using the Shaab set.

Hammer replaced with an axe, Lever replaced with a spear.

The "arsonist" bod becomes a command bod, the other Lever Operator gets a halberd from Zvezda

A bit more difficult. Bottom half from the Army of Joan d'Arc set, top half from the Army of Henry V set.

Treadwheel Crane

Brilliant devices, they came in all sizes and types with single wheels or double ones. . One 15th century one was found in 1868 in the (then) unfinished south tower of the Cathederal in Cologne.
This one is an HO/OO version in resin from the modelmakers Modellbau Luft
Direct link to the crane HERE .

A video of a treadwheel crane being used for real at the  Guédelon Castle construction site. This one is an advanced version that turns  so the load can be moved from side to side and not just up and down. Fredericus -Rex has recently brought out a medieval crane similar to the one at Guédelon which can be seen HERE

If anyone hasn´t heard of Guédelon..then this vid is worth a look...I really hope I´m still around to see it finished.

A couple more bits of my construction....a second (or is it third?) prison wagon....

..............and a third carpentum.

Life´s a Beach

It´s Holiday season and even the bods have to have a break.


Finally after a Long and ardous journey and  climbing the last sand dune Lord Brashford and Lt. Tompkins have thier first view of the sea.

The brave trio, Lord Brashford, Lt, Tompkins, Achmed  and thier Faithfull mule Dobin. In the Background a beach camp.

Lt. Tompkins  - "CRABS sir! HUGE CRABS

Lord Brashford - "Tompkins!I have absolutely no interest in your personal Problems!!"

The big bods also did a bit of travelling and had a look about.
The For Freedom Museum in Belgium. On the link there´s a virtual visit to the Museum which is way better than my photos. One thing which was a bit of an eye opener was a video of some Archeologists excavating a Messerschmitt BF-110 Nightfighter ...........with a Digger!!!!!

 

Just up the road was another Museum, Sincfala - Museum van de Zwinstreek.

Mostly about the life and times of the locals from the medieval to present, it had some cracking wooden model boats. The ones pictured are all around 1/72nd - 28mm scale.

 

Bunkers!!!! The whole are is dotted with WWII bunkers, most of which you can go inside and look around. A lot of them are in a poor condition, Graffiti, used as rubbish dumps, like this Type 630 not far from the camp site,

Garffiti!! I´m not sure wether the marks on the side are from Shellfire. Apparently the walls are 3.5 meters thick!

Inside the main door.

One photo of the Type 630 at Breskens that the Bunkersite.com People didn´t get..., the turret on the top. There´s steps going down into the bunker but it was too dark to take photos.

 

Behind the Type 630 there was a Type 112a. As with the 630 you could go inside but had a few inches of water inside and frogs living there.

Bunkersite.com is a mine (no pun intended) of info about the bunker Systems in the area of Zeeland / Belguim. There really are masses of them.  One we visited was massive..with loads of bunkers of all different types spread over an area of two footballfields. Unfortunately we´d forgotten the camera..doh!!

 

 

 



Medieval Ambush!

A foolhardy attempt by three rogues living in the Woods to ambush and rob a Knight.

The ambush started well, a well aimed spear thrust brought the horse down, but the Knight quickly recovers

.............and it has ended in disaster for Willard.

His companion Kulp, seeing Willard´s fate, goes mad and attacks

It all happened so quickly and.......Boris can´t believe his eyes. Willard is dead, and Kulp has no Chance of succeeding......stay and help or run?

Scottish archers (Bannockburn)

There weren´t many, most accounts reckon on about 500 archers on the scottish side, recruited from the Ettrick Forest so a Group of 10 (at the Ratio of 50:1) covers them.
Sets used;
The Scottish Army of Wallace
Army of Henry V
Norman Archers


As apparently they didn´t Play a big role at the battle they´re Based as skirmishers

All the short bows have been replaced with longbows made from Florists wire.

This bod, from the Scottish army of Wallace set has had an arrow made from a bit of copper wire

 

Head swop using a head from the spares box (originally from the Red box Hussite Artillery set),bow replaced and bowstring removed (he was originally stringing the bow)  ,

Using the Body from the Linear-b priest in the Tudors set and the head from the airfix Robin Hood set (he Needs to have a beard) this will represent  Abbot Bernard of Arbroath.  I´ll have to make a small Version of the Breccbennach (or Monymusk Relquary), which held the relics of St Columba and Bernard carried at the battle. It´ll have to be small,  it only measures W 112mm x D 51mm x H 89mm. 

Looking about on the web I´ve found an excellent site, Medieval cookery. It´s got a huge collection of recipes and  links to original medieval cookery books from all around the world, dating from the 13th century, in most cases with translations.
The oddities section is interesting..how to cook cats, hedgehogs and just in case you ever have to, advice on determining the Age of rabbits...

Roma Victor!!!

Or, grammatically correct, "Roma Victrix!" but Roma Victor does Sound better.
The command bods from Strelets Imperial Roman Legion 1 which suggests there will be an Imperial Roman Legion 2..
There´s a complete Review of all the sets you get in the box at PSR, a total of 168 bods and 6 nags, this lot are just the command bods, 18 foot and 6 mounted

Mounted bods. I´ve given "Julius" a slightly chunkier nag from another set

Officers on foot

The Junior officers....

"Signo sequute!"
Imaginifer to the left and an aquilifer to the right

The centurion on the left looks like he´s saying "go on my son!"

"Percute!!"

The bod on the right carries a Hastile (stick carried by an optio) but so does the bod on the left whose helmet is that of a Centurions(?) I´ve painted the knobs one metal the other White as I found both variations.