John Bourchier and retinue

He´s been put in charge of the archers and crossbowmen

John Bourchier - 2nd Lord Berners. I´ve painted up the TD Archers and Crossbowmen in his colours so they needed someone to lead them.

Nags from the Zvezda French Knights set as is the standard bearer and the  bottom half of John. His top half is from the Zvezda French Infantry of the Hundred years war set.

Spot the slight mistake with John. 

Standard printed and edges touched up. 

Armoured Crossbowmen - Tumbling Dice

8 Bods in 6 poses and loose crossbows.

The shields are from the MiniArt French Knights with Assault Ladders set. 

They are, like the Armoured Longbowmen from TD, they are painted in the colours of John Bourchier. 

Close ups of the 6 different poses.* 

*As ever with TD bods, I can´t say which poses will be repeats or not. 

 

WotR´s cannons and crew - Tumbling dice

Labelled on the TD site as WR23 Small Cannon and Crew or WR21 Organ Gun and Crew.
4 bods in 4 poses with a single barrel cannon (Veuglaire) or a three barreled Organ gun, both of  which come in 4 parts, wheels, barrel(s) and trail. 
The Bods needed a bit of flash removing as did the wheels but it was minimal and being metal, easy. 

The crew.
Both guns came with 4 man crews but in the same poses. Ok, a couple have different helmets but unless I find time or reason, I´ll leave it at just the 4.

The guns
Veuglaire

Organ Gun

War of the Roses - Armoured Longbowmen

Set WR6 Armoured Longbowmen.
8 bods in the set, one of them is a repeat pose and I broke my rule* of not painting repeat poses unless the bod has had at least some small conversion  like a weapon or head swop, and painted him.

Painted in the colours of John Bourchier - 2nd Lord Benners.
Close ups

Repeat pose on the left

*Not really a hard and fast rule more something to keep in mind so that I don´t end up with dozens of replicas.

PS. In the future I won´t be linking to and I will be altering or deleting any links to Wikipedia.

Happy New Year 2019

"wasn´t I standing here last year?" 

This year wasn´t too bad  Hobbywise
I actually got down to painting about 90% of the stuff I bought and some from the stash, 423 bods, 56 mounted bods, 1 cannon, 3 wagons, 4 pigs, 4 dogs, 1 horse,  5 tables, 4 benches, A Bridge, a house and 1 pack mule.

What became of the plans for this year ? One came to past..the ACW Project was added to but sadly, yet again, Bodstonia got left out 😞 So similar to the Goals of last year.

Plans for next year? More ACW, if not create any storylines I can at least paint up some bods for Bodstonia...and -----?----well, whatever else takes my fancy.          

                                                                                                           
Medieval Guards on duty (2)                          
Medieval Plunder                                            
Medieval scottish Heavy Cavalry                                                                  
Medieval Drinking Contest                            
Medieval Gunpowder Castle Artillery            
Medieval Scottish light Cavalry                                                                    
Teutonic Infantry on the March (Pt2)                                                      
Medieval European Mercenaries light horse                                                
Medieval Organ Gun
Mixed Medievals for 1329                              
Swiss pike block - Uri                                    
Welsh archers for Bannockburn                    
Humphrey de Bohun                                                                                
Medieval Sailors                                            
Medieval Welsh Spearmen                            
Medieval Looting Party                                                                        
Medieval "On the March" 1                            
More Crossbowmen for Bannockburn          
The Three Musketeers -  Mesdemoiselles        
John Stewart of Bonkyl                                                                                
William wallace and Andrew Moray                                                              
Ralph de Grendon and friends                                                                        
Anthony Bek and friends                                                                                
Zombie Dogs and Wolfen                                
Medieval citizens I                                          
Medieval citizens II                                          
Medieval citizens III                                                                
US infantry Standing                                    
Confederate Infantry Standing                    
Union Infantry on the March                      
Confederate Infantry on the March                
Bods and Generals (2)                                                                                
US troops in Attack                                        
Pickett´s Charge 1                                          
US Troops in Attack 2                                    
Pikett´s Charge 2                                              
US Infantry in Attack                                      
Union Generals                                                                                              
Ratmen                                                              
Lizard warriors                                                  
ACW Wounded and Messengers                                                                
Goblin warriors 1                                              
Goblin warriors 2                                              

           

Massed Medieval cavalry (2)

380 mounted medievals* from a wide range of sets, Airfix,  Italeri, Valdemar, Zvezda, Strelets, Caeser, RedBox,  and a wide time line  across the medieval period, Normans, Burgundians, 100 yrs wars, WotR´s etc.

First wave. Normans, Turcopoles, Crusaders/Teutonics. One of the bods (top right Corner, second wave) was tipped over by one of our Cats. This was only noticed after I´d posted the pics.

Second wave. 100yrs war French and English, English WotR´s, Scottish wars of independance Scotts and English

Waiting / Command. 

*Another 50 plus, Magna carter barons, Normans still not based, but they will have to wait as the mounted Fantasy bods are next for basing....it´s too hot to actually paint  anything. 

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. 

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 Scottish Heavy Cavalry (RedBox)

A quick break from painting the 1329 Project bods
12 bods in 6 poses, 12 nags in two poses.
Only a little  bit of Flash to deal with and that mainly on the nags, which is in contrast to the set PSR have reviewed, so as with the Hobelars I painted from RedBox, it depends on which set you get.

PSR reckons that the bods armour and kit is ok for the period, the usual complaint (one which I entirely agree with) about the set having only two nag poses and that the nags are very well armoured, too much armour in fact for all the riders to have such a heavily armoured mount but this  has already been covered on previous Reviews on  RedBox WotR heavy cavalry sets.
I´ll have to think about using some of the spare riders and mix then with some nags from other sets..the Zvezda French Knights for example...but when I have the time.

 The titel of the set is a bit odd. Why have the first two sets labelled as Men -At- Arms and this set is "heavy cavalry". Surely they are, like the previous two "heavy cavalry" sets,  also mounted Men -at- Arms?

As with the previous RedBox  European Mounted Men-at-Arms and the Mounted Men-at-Arms sets, these will end up as part of Richard III´s Body guards...hence all the armour on the nags, which, TBH, I like the look of.

A bit of an odd pose..waving a two handed sword about whilst mounted?

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.

WotR´s Scurrers (Redbox)

....or  scurriers /scourers / prickers or Hobilars...loads of different names and a lot of different ways of spelling them...

This lot are from the Red box WotR´s range and very welcome they are.

 

Arms, armour and clothing are all well done, vitually no Flash, the only one small annoyance, the nags. Like the Mounted Men-at-arms set, there´s too few nag poses, only two in the set which means 6 running or 6 Standing nags.
The Lances. They are a bit too short for my liking, the average seems to been around  9 - 14 feet Long (3 - 4 plus) meters so I´ve replaced them.

 

At first I thought the one shading his eyes had been molded wrong, he just wouldn´t sit flat in the saddle but obviously he is Standing in the stirrups to get a better view.

 

The bod on the left has had the axe replaced with a Lance, the bod on the right is from the Mounted men-at-arms set, with a head swop from the Redbox Town & County Levy set...........

Either he is trying to Keep his balance or waving

...........and from the mounted Men-at-arms set, another two conversions. Basic head swops and the bod on the right has had his mace replaced with a Lance.

I´ll wait with basing up the Scurrers until I´ve got the European Mercenaries Light Horse set. Hopefully there will be enough to make up 3 bases of five per base.