Medieval European Mercenaries Light Horse (RedBox)

As with the other RedBox sets, 12 bods in 6 poses and 12 nags in two poses.

All painted OOB apart from the two crossbowmen. One held the crossbow vertically so it had to be freed from the Hand holding it and turned to a more realistic angle.
The other was missing the  bottom arm of the crossbow so a paper clip had to be cut and shaped to replace it. Over at PSR they write;

"Finally there is another crossbowman who also holds his weapon vertically, and might seem a bit better as he is clearly not about to shoot it, yet the bow is obviously at full tension, so again we worried about why the bow was fully set, yet not being used and with no bolt loaded".

To me, it looks like he is in the act of loading. He  has spanned his crossbow and is now reaching into his quiver to to take out a bolt.

One Thing I´ve forgotton to mention, as has PSR, all the RedBox medieval Light cav sets..the Bridles. Every one of the nags is missing the nose band. There are contemporary medieval paintings showing bridles without the nose strap but they aren´t that common compared to ones with a nose strap. Also, it appears that the nose strap is left off mostly on early medieval depictions of nags but not always..the Bayeaux Tapestry for example.
Anyway..I painted them on. 

The entire WotR´s mounted force..so far*

26 heavy cavalry and 23 light
The "Heavies"

The "Lights" (excluding the Hobelars)

The entire force

"My Horses, My Horses, My kingdom for some  Horses!"

*I´ve got a few more from Tumbling dice to be added. 

Teutonic Infantry on the March (Pt 2)

Again, using the Teutonic Infantry on the March set from Valdemar (VA110) I´ve added a bod from the Valdemar Medieval tax Collectors set as a Standard bearer. They will end up as part of the 1329 dio but this time  as Infantry from Danzig (Gdańsk).

Couple of Close ups. The flag was easy to create, all I did was find an online Version and print it but the shields were a real pain. First find a red shield pattern. Then add two cross pattée in White. This meant a lot of pic editing but saved a lot of freehand painting. 

A bit of an update on the 1329 dio

Waiting for King John of Bohemia

Hakenbüchsen or Medieval Gunpowder Castle Artillery Pt2

I knew I´d seen them before!!! ...as I wrote on the Medieval Gunpowder Castle Artillery post

I´ve seen examples of them in print but I can´t remember where. They look  late medieval  or Renaissance.

The pics  come from "das Zeugbuch des Kaisers Maximilian I. 1475"
Digital Version HERE
Look under the titel (left Hand side )  Messinghakenbüchsen
The book shows a whole range of arquebus´s, big,  small, on Trestles, two legged stands, wheels, breech and muzzle loaded. 
Looking at the pics...the "Flaming Brands" depicted on the RedBox Bods now makes sense.

Arquebus from The German Hakenbuchse..a Hand gun with a hook so it can be braced when being fired. 

And...at PSR they are sceptical about the kneeling bod using a pick axe to chip  shot down to size but..what is pictured in the bottom left Hand Corner of the pic below? 

Number 4 is labelled as an Archer..but he´s Holding a crossbow and has a quiver Holding bolts..not arrows

It could be RedBox were being too literal (or not)  by portraying a hammer with two spiked heads but the pic below ..the one on the right has, when viewed from the side,  what Looks like two Points. Even though they aren´t as common these days, so called  "Stone Dressing Hammers" used to be common and they do (did) look a wee bit like small pick axes.

 

Oh...and the bod Holding the guage board..the one with the axe in his Hand. What is it for? The axe not the board.
It´s a Stone cleaving axe, something like...HERE.
IMHO, definately not a tool for shaping shot of the size that would pass through any of the holes in his board but maybe for  cutting bigger chunks of Stone into a rough size.

And just to confirm...here´s a site listing, among other Stone mason Tools,  axes (plain edged)  and Hand picks (Sculptors pick)
The Art of Making in Antiquity 

Medieval Scottish Light Cavalry (RedBox)

Another set with a slightly odd titel as  this lot could be, due to the Equipment, members of any countries army as well as the scottish.
As with all of the RedBox medieval  mounted bod sets (to date) 12 bods in 6 poses and 12 nags in 2 poses.
The Review at PSR HERE

Medieval Gunpowder Castle Artillery

Bit of a mixed titel but seeing as one of the guns seem to be fixed as if mounted permanently on a wall,  it sort of fits all the possible uses the set could be used for, both in defence or seige of a Castle or also, in the case of the handgonners, field warfare.
Made by Ultima Ratio, this is a very nice set. 4 sprues each with 6 bods, a pavise and stand alone Cannon. Flash is virtually non-existant. The Bod Holding the 4 barrelled Handgonne has a bit of excess plastic between his Body and the weapon´s handle but it doesn´t affect the Overall look.
Me, I give it 10/10,  simply for the Quality of the sculpts and the subject matter.

Handgonnes
The Pavise has the message "In Vino Veritas" (In Wine, Truth) on it and a priestly looking type praying to a wine goblet. I´ve done a bit of searching around but found no Pavise with the Slogan on it so maybe it´s an Joke on the part of the scupltor.
The gunner holds a flaming brand to ignite the gun. A slow match or a heated iron would be more accurate but the brand is ok..

The Guns.
I´ve seen examples of them in print but I can´t remember where. They look  late medieval  or Renaissance.
Anyways..only one bod per gun? Surely the one with the enormous bipod gun wouldn´t be able to aim and fire the Thing?
OOB, the bipod is flat along the gun  so  it Needs warming up in hot water and twisting into a realistic Position..hardly any work at all.
The large gun on the stand would more than likely be a fixed weapon on a Castle wall but I´ve made it into a field weapon.
Again..the gunner has a brand

Cannon Ball Masons.
One is Holding a shot measuring board. The holes are numbered from top to bottom I-IV. Why four hole sizes? Possibly the availabe guns come in 4 calibres? Why he´s Holding an axe I´ve no idea.
The bod kneeling has a lot of chipping ahead of him if he wants the shot to fit even hole number IV.

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