Humphrey de Bohun

Foot command for the english infantry  for the Bannockburn Project.
The mounted bod is Humphrey de Bohun, 4th Earl of Hereford. As the constable of England, He was supposed to been in Charge of the army for the 1314 campaign but he´d fallen out of favour with Edward II so the Job was given to Gilbert de Claire, Earl of Glouchester.
Still, at Bannockburn, on day one,  he got to lead the Charge  in which his Cousin, Henry de Bohun,  famously got his head bashed in by Robert Bruce.
On day two, Gilbert de Claire was killed and Humphrey led a large Company of english/welsh Knights and archers. With the battle lost, he and others retreated but they ended up being taken prisoner, later to be ransomed.
8 years after Bannockburn,  Humphrey met a very sticky end at the Battle of Boroughbridge.

Anyways, as there´s no (or as far as I could find out) single Person named as an infantry commander* on the english side,  I´ve decided to give Humphrey the role.
The lions rampant on the nag´s caparison.  If closely inspected, are representitive, ie; they look the part from a distance. I really can´t paint one Lion rampant that small let alone 24!

As Humphrey (in this role, day 2 ? ) is not charging into the fray,  his Standard bearer isn´t mounted. The bod who got the Job is a converted archer, who was in the process of stringing his bow,  from the Army of Henry V set. Bow and string removed, head re-positioned
The flag, of which there are a couple of variants about, comes from the Krigsspil site - English army at Crecy,  second battle - left wing,  number 2.
In that Version, the Cottises (the  lines to the left and right of the band in the middle) are in White. I painted them yellow.

The bugler. Both top and bottom half are also from the Henry V set.

The Herald  is from the Army of Joan d´Arc set. I wouldn´t fancy his Job having to record all english losses over the two days. I´ve kept his Tabard design simple....the St George´s cross is much easier to paint than Edward II´s coat-of-arms.
Humphrey´s nag is either from the Medieval Britian or the Scottish army of Robert the Bruce set**.  Humphrey is from the English cav of Edward I set. The pose, him Holding his Hand up to his head,  looks less like he´s pushing his Visor up and more like he´s saying to himself,  "what the F... is Gilbert doing!!!?"

*Ok, Aymer de Valence is named as being in Charge of a large force of Welsh archers and spearmen and mainly in the context of leading them to safety after the battle but for the commanders of rest of the english foot,  there´s no-one named.
** It was in the spares box so could have come from either set.

Anyway, enough of the Bannockburn Project for a while...it´s back to the 1329 Teutonic order dio.

Witches...who wouldn´t want a set of Medieval witches?

Linear - A have a poll for Crowdfunding 7 new sets, including an 18+ set of witches. Why is the set 18+ ? TBH, at the Moment no-one knows.

The sets up for voting on are;

A.) Eskimos
B.) Napoleonic - French Pontoniers at work
C.) Medieval - Witches (18 years +)
D.) Colonial - Belgian Legion in Mexico
E.) Medieval - Ambassadors 4 Empires (European, Chinese, Arabs, Mongols) - Set 1
F.) Ancients - Hoplites on the march - Set 1
G.) Napoleonic - French Guard Marine-Infantry

The link for Voting, more than one choice is possible,  is HERE,  but TBH, I mean, witches..is there another choice from the list ? :-)...
Ok, the medieval ambassadors would be good as well.

Welsh Archers for Bannockburn

Ever since Strelets released the English Longbowmen set I´ve had it in mind to add another stand of archers to the Bannockburn Project. I´d already made up two stands of welsh archers (HERE and HERE ) and one of english  (HERE) but another stand helps bring up the numbers.
It´s reckoned there was around 14,000-15,000 english infantry at Bannockburn, a large number of those being archers.
The new archer stand brings the foot up to 106 bods, 48 infantry + 58 archers/crossbows,  so at my Chosen Ratio of 50-1 that makes 5300. Still pitifully low than the total needed, I´d have to paint another 150 - 180 bods, but getting closer.

The entire "English Army" Ranged weapons section

I´m working on  another stand of crossbows using bods from other Strelets sets, not just the Medieval Crossbowmen set. At the Ratio of 50:1, It would be over the assumed numbers of crossbowmen present at the actual battle but it will make an even 6 stands.

Swiss Pike block

A loooong time in the making,  over 5 years,  as can be seen HERE and  HERE, but it´s finally finished. Painting the last 8 bods to fill the ranks wasn´t the Problem...what put me off was the basing.
47 bods from a range of makes, Strelets, RedBox, UltimaRatio, there´s even a Zvezda bod in there.
I´m not too sure about having the flag so far back but putting it there fits in with the placing of the flags in the Burgundian Pikeblocks.

The Hornist who originally  carried a flag but was converted as can be seen HERE

The only Zvezda Bod can just be seen to the right of the second rank (White feathers and Torse)

He´s from the Medieval Field Powder Artillery set (Bod on the right, 3rd row from top) and had a head swop using a head from the Zvezda French Knights set. 

 

Point of contact!!!

Another swiss pikeblock is planned..this time Bern...hopefully it won´t take another 5 years to complete.

1329 bits and bobs

Painted a while back but the post got overtaken with other stuff and forgotten.
Civvies from Toma´s TM0021 Medieval civilians

Pots, bowls, Cups, bucket and a basket

Mixed Medievals for 1329

Another Batch for the 1329 dio...this time a bit of a mixed lot. They all came in one bag but it Looks like there´s two, maybe even  three  sets mixed together.
Definately Valdemar ( I remember some of the labourers from ages back) but the working bods don´t fit alongside the richer looking ones.
The lute Player..what´s he doing among them..a Musical accompaniment to the workers? There was also a Jester but he was broken off his base at the ankles. What was his role? Jokes and tomfoolery to keep the workers Spirits up ?  Attempts to repair him was like trying to Balance jelly on a wet balloon so he ended up in the scrap metal pile.
16 bods (17 if the footloose Jester is included) which seems a large number of bods for a single set. I haven´t been able to track down a single one of them to confirm which set they belong to so I cannot say.

The one laying down is supposed to be Standing and pulling on a rope

 Upperclass bods

Pushing, pulling and carrying

Gaffers*

*Apparently  a contraction of the word godfather. How that works I can´t imagine. Drunkenly slurring the word grandfather could, I suppose, come near to sounding like Gaffer but then for it to be taken as that, in the past, everytime godfather was said it would have to be by someone 9 Sheets to the wind. 
As far as I know, gaffer meant and on Building sites, was a term used for Foreman. In German it means someone who rubbernecks...someone who stands about and watches..so quite Fitting to some foremen, sorry, Gaffers,  I worked for.

Medieval Organ Gun

A large caliber 4 barrelled battlefield clearance weapon.
Multi part, Made of metal, I haven´t a clue which make this is.
I´m not too sure wether the solid wheels are correct, every depiction I´ve seen of Ribauldequins have spoked wheels but seeing as this is a Heavy Version I suppose spoked wheels wouldn´t be up to Holding the weight.

I was going to do a "how to" on painting the Wood but I got into the painting and forgot...:-(

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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