European Mounted Men-at-Arms (RedBox)

As with the Mounted Men-at-arms set, this has 12 bods and 12 nags. 6 individual poses for the bods, and again, my  only complaint, ..only 2 horse poses and they are the same poses from the Mounted Men-at-Arms set.
There´s two "spare" arms with the set, 2 with each bod sprue so 4 in total, one Holding a Lance and the other a mace. The bod they are intended for has a rather Long peg, way too Long for the hole in each of the arms. Do not cut it shorter so it fits into the hole. Use a thick needle and make a hole all the way through the arm, then push the peg through and using a hot pin weld the protruding part of the peg onto the shoulder  removing any excess as you go. Fill the join between the upper chest and shoulder with glue.
You get a better Picture of the set (the, Flash,  arms and Long peg etc) from the PSR  Scans (no Review as of time of posting this) HERE


10 in total. The bod on the far right. OOB, the flail is in front of and attached to the plume but with a bit of carefull snipping and a Twist of his wrist it Ends up looking more natural

From left to right;

1. Flail and helmet plume removed, flagpole and flag added

2. Using the hot water method, arm Holding the Lance bent, plume removed

 

From left to right;

1. Was Holding his Lance incorrectly(see below), arm and head swop

2. The hammer that came with the changeable arm was too thick so got replaced with a mace from the Accurate Hundred Years War Knights Of France set

3. To make up the numbers, one of the bods from the RedBox Mounted Men at Arms set , Hammer from Valdemar                           

Bods from Both sets added together..a total of 20......I converted another two to add to the original 8 from the Mounted Men - at - Arms set.
I´ll find a Bod to represent Richard III before basing them ...which presents Problems..what did he (and his nag) look like??
With a surcoat and gilded armour (Nag with full caparison and Chanfron/Criniere)
With a shield, plain steel armour and crown ? (nag with Chanfron/Criniere/Peytral and no Caparison)
A mix of plain steel and gilded armour? ( Nag with half caparison and Chanfron/Criniere/Peytral)
Or something more like this....Plain steel, some gilding, shield (nag with Chanfron/Criniere/Croupiere/Peytral/)..basically, the bod  and nag Combo from the redbox men-at-arms set but with a crown

Unlike the first Redbox Mounted men-at_arms set, Flash abounds with this lot. A lot of the  bods and the nags are surrounded in the stuff. It took over two hours of toe curling work using a razorblade to remove it all.

The bod on the right holds his Lance a bit loosely, basically, the fingers don´t surround the shaft so I removed the arm and the Lance entirely and replaced it with one of the spare arms that Comes with the set.
I also replaced the head. Reason being that the torse, the  twisted roll of fabric around the helmet,  is only scuplted at the back.

Example of a Torse

Basically,  compared with the Mounted Men-at-Arms set, there´s a lot more work involved  to get  a decent number of useable bods, re-aranging /re-placing weapons and arms, head swops and removal of Flash but after all that´s over, I like em.

Airfix US Cavalry

This lot,  32nd set with all the poses painted,  brings me a bit closer in my quest to paint all of the   poses from each of the 60* Airfix sets listed at PSR

My idea of sticking to the boxart as a  colour reference failed, mainly due to the bods and nags looking nothing like the ones portrayed on the boxart. After a lot of digging about on the web for a suitable colour scheme, I more or less gave up and painted them using a couple of Basic reference Points.  I mean, which period are These lot supposed to portray? The "war" against the Native americans??, ACW??
PSR gives them a 3 out of 10 for historical accuracy...IMHO, a bit over generous.

Added to the lack of a fixed period, loads of bits are missing or just plain odd and no matter how hard You try, you just can´t paint up a bandolier to look like White braces or make non existant revolvers, saddlebags, neckerchiefs etc hold paint.

All 12 poses

Command. The B/W saddle rolls are after an example found on the web 

Why the cartridge belt Brown at the front and White at the back and not black all over? Two reasons. Firstly I´d tried that and the belt "blended in" almost becoming invisible and two, I liked the look of the Brown and White version. They are basically more or less toys anyway.

What will happen to this lot? Even though the nags are missing a lot of their tack, they still aren´t as bad as some examples so they will get used in a future Project. The bods? Back into the box of obscurity.

*Using the listing at PSR and Discounting the farm animal set, the  two zoo sets and the 5 (?)"type 1" sets.

Monastery Upgrades

A couple of additions to the Airfix Fort Sahara -  Monastery conversion.
A small storehouse and...

.....Garderobe (toilet) added.

A couple of People have commented that the Monastery has no church so a bit of explantion is needed;

Monastery is one of those  Terms that is commonly misinterpreted to mean a building containing several Monks.

Monasteries vary greatly in size, comprising a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds.

Not every Monastery had a church, either inside, attached or seperate to the building..a lot only had (and still have) a chapel,  a room set aside for prayer/Meditation and could be used as an oratory, ie; it could be used in the way a classic church would be with a Speaker talking to the congregation.

A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, and may also serve as an oratory.

Generally as in, not always  ;-)

Logically, Some monasterys having only a singular Monk,  would make having a Chapel, let alone a church,  a bit much to ask of  the poor lonely celibate. This all of course depends on the Interpretation of what constitutes a "church"

In the case of my "monastery" it could theoretically be that the place of contemplation/prayer is inside the main building  in a crypt for example  or entirely seperate from the main building and not in view..and that´s if I was to use it as a Monastery.

Hussite Camp 4 - Wagons

Final part of the Hussites, the wagons.

And Close ups

Basic planking for the  construction and ..

.....the other has Woven sides

The horses dinner

The Hitches and traces I´ve left off as they might get damaged during Transport

Both wagons have removable canvas covers and the one constructed from Planks has a side door that would act as a ramp when opened, which I´ve closed up.
The wagons and canvas tops are made using resin, the wheels, axle and hitches/traces are metal.