Thursday 28 April 2016

Teutonic Knights (Pt2)

More additions to the 1329 dio, This time a mix of bods from  Valdemar and Toma sets
 
Valdemar VA119 "Lone Rider"
Valdemar - VA162 "Old Knight Brother" The foot bod  is meant to be Holding a spear/Standard but I reckon he Looks better Holding the reins of his boss´s Nag.
Toma Miniatures.TM0018 "Im Zeichen des Kreuzes" (in the sign of the cross)
There´s 5 in the set but two are being operated on..the helmets are far too early for 1329.
The flags , left to right:-
Bailiff of Leske, Part of the Komturia of Marienburg.
The Town of Braunsberg
Valdemar  but from  which set I´ve forgotten

Monday 25 April 2016

Goosey Goosey Gander

Yet another set from the lead pile and destined for the 1329 dio
They are made by Toma Miniatures  under the titel,  "Catch my geese"
As far as I can make out, a lot of Pictures from the Medieval period geese Show the Grey legged Version but I found a couple showing them with the classic pinky orange legs, one source being by Hugh of Fouilloy (aka:Hugo de Folieto  ) from the Bibliothèque Municipale de Troyes from the last quarter of the 12th century.
This site,  Medieval Bestiary, has a slide Show with several Pictures of "Medieval" Geese
Getting the geese to stay up on thier Little legs was a pain but it was finally achieved with the help of UHU second glue

Friday 22 April 2016

Teutonic knights (Pt1)

Another set from the lead pile:
Valdemar-Miniatures: VA202 "Teutonic Cavalry Command"
The Standard is from the Vice Komtur of Elbing. Unfortunately the arm Holding the flag broke off and a bit of Frankenstein surgery (using the arm from another bod) was necessary.

Monday 18 April 2016

B.O.B = Bunch O´ Builders

40 of ém, also from the lead and resin pile, drafted in as either what they were intended for, ie, Builders or as additional "place here and there" extras for the 1329 dio.
"Zombie builders attack!!"
A couple have had small alterations, like removal of measuring devices....
...and Tools. The one still Holding the handle..I lost the top of the pickaxe..I´ll add a sledgehammer type head later), the bod in the middle lost the head of his shovel so the handle was removed and the carrying straps were removed on the one in green.
Well, that makes 45 bods,  2 carts, 3 mules, an Ox and a cow since getting them on the 10th.
Time for a bit of a pause ??
?
?
?
?
?
Nah! I´ve already got some primed and ready to go :-D

Thursday 14 April 2016

Carts, Monks, Mules.........and Dobbin

The first Batch from the Heap of lead....and resin.

First the two wagons. Both are made by Toma Miniatures
Ochsen Wagon. I painted the ox black as most medieval paintings Show either totally black or totally (Cream) White oxen..and it saves a lot of time :-D
Hand cart. This set´s titel is "Faster Daddy, Faster!"
Three Monks (and a mule), also made by Toma

The two pack mules...I think are by Valdemar.
and finally, Dobbin.....also by Valdemar...I think






Tuesday 12 April 2016

A Heap of lead...

..and resin.

A mix of bods, nags, Bullocks, carts etc from Valdemar and Toma Miniatures and all destined to take thier places on the 1329 dio.
There´s two other sets but I´ll Keep those under wraps for now :-D
A quick headcount of what´s in the pic, gave roughly;
35 plus mounted bods
90 plus foot bods
2 carts, and a mix of Bullocks, Donkeys/mules, pots, tables etc.....and;

Thanks Wolfgang, that should Keep me busy :-D

And...the Website for the
DIORAMICA 2016 (LINK)
is now activated

Sunday 10 April 2016

Medieval bits and bobs

Some bits and bobs that don´t Warrant a post of thier own.

The last Batch of  sitting Knights for the 1329 Teutonic dio,
Wilhelm von Neuenahr, Peter von Rosenberg and Friedrich von Stubenberg.
A Fire place for the same dio
and again, for the dio, two chairs
Medieval female with babe in arms. Made using the legs of the priest and the top half of the female sitting from the Strelets Crusader Transport 2
I realised, after I´d made her, that there´s already a Walking female with babe-in-arms in the Strelets Norman Train set......DOH!!!

Tuesday 5 April 2016

Medieval Crested Knights (Emhar)

Multi-part, multi-pose, hard, glueable plastic. PSR gives the set a near perfect score, 49/50. They also say that the heads and arms can, with a Little work, be used on each Torso..but without a bit of fiddling,  it isn´t that easy.

For example; Some of the heads have a Long thin tab under the neck others a small thin one,  that fit into an appropiately sized Slot in the Torso. To make the thick tabs fit the thin Slots would mean cutting some plastic away but in the case of the thinner Tabs it would mean filling the gap.
Also, the raised arms are intended to fit to certain heads (third pic from top in the PSR Pictures) and are missing the tops of the shoulders. The scans at PSR Show more or less the range of possible combinations without having to Resort to cutting and filling.

Another pain is the "peg on shields" which, in some cases,  leaves a horrible indentation in the shield. Why, if the plastic is glueable, have pegs at all??

The nags come in two halves and although they Clip together well enough without glue, it´s best to glue them. Lastly, you can´t just sit any Knight onto any nag you please. Some Torsos tit fine onto one or two nag poses, but virtually all of them Need to be forced into place, small gaps between saddle and kiggits rear end are almost unavoidable unless you slightly bend back the rear of the saddle.

A couple of the nags come with engravings on the Caparisons, two have a Horizontal bar and one a cadency mark. I really wish manufacturers would leave the shields, flags, caparisons etc blank!!!
Crested Knights ?
Anyway...I didn´t want to use them for a jousting Scene and even if they aren´t (armour wise) 100% historically accurate,   they´ve ended up as 13th Cent Nobles to go alongside my other Magna Carta bods * and seeing as the majority of the  Barons, Lords   etc had issue, they can be used for later in the medieval period.
John Maltravers of Lytchet Maltravers
Eustace de Vesci (the annoying engraved stripe marks on the nags caparison are visible)
Aymeric de Sancto Mauro Grandmaster of the Knights Templar in England
William de Lanvellei III,  Lord of Standway Castle
 
William Mallet, Sheriff of Somerset and Dorset
William Hardell, Mayor of London
Richard de Montfichet, Baron
Squire. This is the only footbod in the set. Over at PSR they reckon he appears to be Holding a stick, but I reckon he´s Holding a rein....or the deadly red snake of Hiss-spaniola.


The Baker´s Dozen.
Mixed in with some Valdemar kniggits, painted up as Witnesses to the Magna Carta.

In no particular order;
John de lacy, Saher de Quincy, Richard de Percy, Ranulph de Blundeville, Stephen Langton and his brother, Simon Langton 


*Along with the famous 25,  there were actually  200 plus Barons, Earls, Lords,  Knights etc who took part in the Enforcement and witnessing of the Magna Carta. Why it´s constantly pushed that there was only 25 I can´t imagine.
A list can be found on the Medieval links page,  Brookfield Ancestor Project - Surety Barons, under  the titel Blogs / Sites (Historical/Re-enactment)

Friday 1 April 2016

Airfix CSA Cavalry

Ok..a bit of a false Title and not intended as an April fool, it´s too late in the day for that anyway, but  I thought I´d have a quick go at Converting and painting up a couple as the Opponents to the US cavalry.

I couldn´t be bothered to paint up some new ones so I re-cycled the ones from the US cav Post.
The two sabre wielding troopers have had headswops from the Airfix Confederate Infantry set.