Battle of Bannockburn - Prelude

Edward Bruce has had Stirling Castle cut off since the middle of febuary 1314*,  and Sir Philip Mowbray, defending the Castle  has made  a bargain: that he would surrender the castle, if it were not relieved by 24 June 1314.

King Edward sends out a call to arms. Villages and....

... towns across the land and from far flung lands ..

...send men and arms to join the greatest Feudal  army ever assembled on English soil.  On 17th June 1314, the army left Wark on Tweed on an 86 mile forced march to Relieve the siege.   

Priests encourage the troops along the way.......

...and the women  look on, wondering if they will see thier menfolk again.

* A rough estimate as to the exact date that Stirling Castle was besieged. All that I can find of any date is that the seige started is during the period of Lent, approximately six weeks before Easter Day and can fall as early as February 4 or as late as March 10, so the middle of Febuary it is.

Last of the Gillies -Bannockburn

The last and final stand of the wee folk is finished!!!! The Flag is that of the Clan Donnachaidh (later clan Robertson) There´s Claim and Counter Claim that they weren´t at bannockburn, but I like the flag and with no definate "they weren´t there" I´ll include them.

Getting hold of bods to fill the ranks using only strelets medieval bods was proving near impossible and some of their Type 1 Dacian Light Infantry had to be drafted in.

The entire force, 40 bods in total representing 2000 "wee Folk"

English infantry (Bannockburn)

 

The final push.....Another (and the last) base of English infantry for the Bannockburn Project.  The yellow / Black is a design picked at random with no reference to any Lord, earl or whatever.

 

The entire force, representing 2,400. Again, as with the archers, way below the numbers that took part in the battle but time´s getting short so it´ll have to do.

More Longbows for Bannockburn

The Project slowly plods to a Close...and about time as well...with only weeks to go to the anniversary.
This lot are a bunch of generic english archers.
Sets used (including some bits from other sets/manufacturers for conversion purposes)
Army of Henry V
Norman Archers
Army of Joan d'Arc
The Scottish Army of Wallace

The comander, from the Army of Joan dÀrc set,  has had a head and weapon swop

The whole Bow and crossbow force. At a Ratio of 50 :1 it makes 1100 welsh and 500 english archers and 500 crossbows, small part of the entire force of bowmen at Bannockburn. Basically, I´ve run out of conversion ideas and without the Million to one Chance that Strelets brings out a set of generic archers in the next week or so, I will never get around to converting and painting another 50 or so.
Also, with a set of english infantry and a handfull of Gillies plus some scenery  to get finished alongside work it´ll have to do.

Roman citizens

Some of them I´d painted up as Medieval civilians, especially the Roman Transport set, and seeing as Scalpere Aedificare needs a lot more civvies it´s back to the painting table.
All the bods come from Linear-b´s Roman Transport  and Roman market set´s.

The  Feminas (women)

The  Viris (men) The one in the  yellow tunic used to be part of a pair (Roman market set) but he got a bit annoyed with his mate leaning on him so has finally given him the cold shoulder..

The complete Roman market set.

Roman Slave Market - Linear-b

Unlike the previous set, Roman Port, which contained a couple of slaves, this set is mostly slaves and a couple of sellers / Guards. 6 sellers and guards and the rest slaves, although one woman could theoretically be a citizen looking on in disgust/shock.
There´s a bit of Flash...but not so much that a bit of scalpel work will deal with.

The set divides mostly into little vignettes;
....Brutal guard beating slaves.......the guard would make another addition to an angry mob Scene.....

.....Brutal guard leading a mothers child away....

....brutal seller displaying his female captives. The female on the left could be either a slave awaiting her turn or a shocked onlooker. She doesn´t appear to have sandals so she could fall into the slave category.

....another guard leading away a prisoner.....

...and lastly, two buyers.

Roman Farmers - Linear-B

14 bods, 11 of them males and two mules and two oxen.

Boss man and two workers.

A Close representation of a small Roman Hand mill.
 



Females collecting Grapes and wheat.

Wheat cutters and thrashers. This lot will also make good rioters or additions to Spartacus´s mob.

On his way to market..or on the way back?

Oxen and Aratrum. Wether this Looks like the type of plough that would have been used in Roman times I cannot discover. It´s a bit difficult to put together, the handles of the plough don´t fir exactly into the bods Hands but with a bit of bending it does work. The Oxen come with the usual rings on thier backs for attaching the yolk, but I´ve made my own yolk. .

Croebern - Möckern

On Saturday the 12th there was a preview of the Exhibition of the Croebern and Möckern dios at the Schmucker Jäger Hotel in Hann-Munden but due to work, I´ve only just got around to  setting up this post.

The Pictures really don´t do the dios justice, they cover a massive area and are impressive not only due to the size but the Detail. Truly awe inspiring!!! I took quite a lot of pics, too many to put up here, so here´s a selection.

This pic, compared to the above photo, (bottom right Hand Corner) gives some idea of how big the dios are.

A couple of Detail pics. 

 

What´s this...??? Another dio!!? :-D The pic in the Background is a clue ;-D 

The town is pretty amazing as well. Parts of the town walls are still Standing and virtually all of it is old timber framed houses, dating back to the 15th Cent. Unfortunately we didn´t have enough time to properly  look around  (didn´t get any pics of the  town hall) but here´s a couple of pics anyway.

Up on the hill, overlooking Munden is the Tillyschanze, an observation tower built from 1881 to 1885 by citizens of the town to remember the siege of the town by Count Tilly in 1626.

 

The timber framing !!!! Sagged a bit eh?

A lot of the buildings are over 600 years old!!! (this sign says the building was built around 1400 and renovated in 1590)

 The Rathaus (Town hall) Pic from Wikipedia.

Worth another visit I think :-D
For anyone interested in seeing the dio and town, here´s a link to the Hotel where the  dio will be exhibited. Schmucker Jäger Hotel. Info for the date of the official opening of the dio can be found HERE