Conquistadores and friends

Two more sets of Hecker & Goros bods finished for Michele´s Diorama world.
Two sets of Conquistadores and South american Indians from the Time of Discovery 1520 range.

Both sets together, basing provisional

Set KSHG 249. The bod behind the native should be leaning on a spear but due to the delcate nature of the parts and it will be sent in the post I haven´t attached it.

Set  KSHG 245.

And for a bit of fun, The discovery scene as Jocelyn de Bodley first sets foot on Bodstonia .

Full story about that fatefull day and it´s consequences HERE

Klynt von Osterholz (Knight-errant)

A lone crusader of few words, he rides from one deed to another, accompanied by his faithfull and equally silent mastiff, Beisser.

Beisser

A early Valdemar bod, but still the face is good.

A a bit of messing about with the colour settings :-D

William de Huntingfield

High sherrif  of Norfolk and Suffolk b.1165-d. 1220(21) and one of the Barons who acted as surety to the Magna Carter.  I´ve chosen this  person, (apart from the fact I like the colour scheme) as he can team up with Robert de Vere as one of the Magna carta barons or......later as Sir Roger de Huntingfield b.1196-d.1257 and go off on the crusade with the other Robert de Vere (even though he never did really ;-D )

Robert de Vere

He´s in the colours of the De Vere family but which one is he? I wanted to paint up a lord,  based in the 13th century, preferably as a crusader, and with a not too difficult colour scheme, so after a bit of searching on the Early Blazon site,  I decided on the colours of the De Vere´s of Oxford.
After painting him and then re-checking sources ...doubt set in!

Robert de Vere, 3rd Earl of Oxford.   b after 1164, d. 25 Oct 1221. One of the barons, who stood surety for  the enforcement of the magna carter, or the son the baron (or in fact the baron) who, in 1250,  died alongside William de Longspee at the battle of Al Mansurah during the 7th Crusade ?  The last seems unlikey as the Baron at the time was Hugh de Vere, 4th Earl of Oxford and thier only son, Robert, became the 5th Earl and lived from 1240 - 1296. There´s also no mention of a Robert de Vere dying in 1250  in the De Vere family tree, but there´s a Robert de Vere buried at All Saints church Northamtonshire, England. The date of burial..1249 and again, no mention of the death in the De Vere family tree.

But, in the Exerpta Historica, (Illustrations of English history) 1831, Samuel Bentley 1835-1868, Page 64, The assault of Massoura;

"The superstition of Louis, King of France, who, during a dangerous illnes, vowed, in case of his recovery, to visit the Holy land, caused a crusade to be announced throughout Christendom by Pope Innocent the 4th on 1245. Six hundred French Knights, among them the kings brothers, the counts of Artois, Pontiers and Anjon, assumed the cross: and thier example was followed by the Bishop of Worcester, William de Longspee, Geoffrey de Lucy, Robert de Vere and many other english noblemen."

Noblemen? So Barons, Earls etc.
He´s mentioned in another source as being the Standard bearer for William de Longespée , not a very eloquent job for a baron but the other source is unsure as to how he´s connected to the Oxford de Vere family, and speculate if perhaps he´s a distant relative of Aubrey II de Vere, follower of William I.

History...can be a real pain sometimes!!! :-D *
Anyway..he´s now definately  Robert de Vere, 3rd earl of Oxford, and at a stretch, the Robert de Vere who fought and died  alongside William de  Longespée at Al Mansurah.

 

And almost to prove my long held conviction, keep away from in depth historical fact when painting bods, it was brought to my attention...the bloody Stars were up the wrong way...they point to the top and not the bottom!!!! DOH!!
So...after a bit of  correcting..

 

Ancient Germans

This lot are from Germania-Figuren and are the set "Marching Germans (Varus Battle)"
Provisionally based and I haven´t given them thier spears as they are going to go in the post at some point to take up residence on a dio....which will appear at Heiden

These also have really good faces..well worth spending a bit of time over

My favourite shot of the line up

Hello to Soldado 38  He´s done a cracking little army...The Nutcracker....excellent idea and really well done.:-D

Medieval Assassins!

12 dark shadows whose purpose is to "remove" people and carry out other small "tasks"  for money.
You have heard that they exist, you may have heard of thier deeds or even met someone who claims to know one but the only time you will ever really know wether they are real or not,  will be the last thing you know.
This set is by Alex for Valdemar and soon will be  available from Fredericus Rex

The Brotherhood together. The bods come unbased so I´ve used some spare bases from the Emhar Saxon wariors set as temporary ones 

Signalling that he´s suceeded in opening the castle gate

Of course I had to paint one up   "Assassins Creed" style

As ever, it´s not only the poses that make these bods really excellent..it´s Alex´s creation of such expressionate faces!!

And now a rare opportunity to see  some of the members of the Brotherhood in action!

In medieval Khandibah,  someone who prefers to work alone is about to leap into the pages of history.

 Meanwhile in Styrow on the Foam, the king  is passing through...but.....

...from the left

from the Right.....

..and to the front, the ambush is about to spring into action.

Native Bodstonian Indian

As the only native American in the Italeri American Infantry set, it must be assumed he´s a scout.
I´ve named him Adahy ("Live´s in the woods") and he´s been given a place in the Bodstonian world.

Adahy at home in the Bodstonian forest

Hello to David Cooke from David´s Wargame Retreat Blog. He´s got some fine stuff, the napoleonic minis are great.

Louis II de Male

Louis II de Male (Count of Flanders) I painted this bod up as Loius II due to a painting comp at the Valdemar Forum..
The "rules" are;
- Medieval king/high ranking knight (mounted, dismounted, running, sleeping)
- One animal (not a horse, but a horse can be included)
- One handpainted shield with heraldic (no need to be advanced)

Usually I would use transfers or printed Heraldry and this is my first real attempt at creating them freehand (and my last! :-D )
The bod is from Valdemar and the hound from Outcast figures Set Nap. Ziv. 03. I twisted the neck of the hound so it ended up looking around slightly.

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A couple of other "style" photos.

While I was painting the dog I used tweezers to hold it by one of it´s legs (it comes unbased)
After a minute or so my concentration would lapse, my grip on the tweezers  loosened and plop went doggy. Also putting the dog down to rest on it´s feet was near impossible so, a flash of inspiration and  I came up with a solution :-D Wrap a small rubber band around the tweezers!

The rubber band is wrapped around the base end of the tweezers, the piece to be painted held and then the rubber band rolled towards the piece until it grips tightly.
This not only means a constant grip is maintained on the piece but it can be put down without any part of it sticking to a surface!


Hello to Francois Simon from WesterNCity N Scale Layout blog. He´s only been blogging a couple of months but already has some great stuff including A really good run through on stage by stage building of a wild west train diorama.

Also..new on the web is a site with all the colour conversion charts you need..plus a gallery, kit instructions (in case you missing them) and more at Scale World

Pieter De Coninck (and friends)

Pieter has already turned up on this blog, HERE...and his new friends have turned up elsewhere before.. not here though...but HERE ;-D

Anyway...they have now travelled back. Peter´s done a fine job on them, all I´ve done is add a standard bearer and base them. .
Slowly a small but determined force builds to fight the enemy in the Battle of the Spurs

Pieter forms his troops into a spear line 

I really love the combination of  yellow and brown!! I´ll be forced to add some more to this 1300´s  Flanders army

It took a bit of experimentation to get the yellow and brown to match the rest