Lockdown Diversion

At the moment I have three painting projects on the go: American Civil War (ACW) Confederate infantry, War of the Roses retinue men at arms and a largish unit of medieval Russian light horse. My current lack of focus means that none are complete.

Of course, my painting commissions for Ian at Fighting15s has slowed down my personal output a touch but I enjoy the variety that Ian's figures provide. They are a nice break from working through a couple of dozen figures that are essentially all the same.

As a seasoned wargamer I responded to this "pressure" and lack of focus by starting a completely new mini-project that may lead to another full blown project:

Rhys ap Thomas's Retinue Men at Arms

I have been working steadily on refreshing my War of the Roses retinues and here are some photos of the latest batch to be finished.

Flag Types During the Wars of the Roses (*)

Or know your standards from your liveries!

Edmund Tudor's heraldic flag.

15 mm ACW Command

At the end of August I posted the result of one of my impulse buys from Britcon: a set of 18 mm Confederate generals from AB Figures. I really enjoyed painting something other than my usual medieval figures. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to try painting a few more.

A little research led me to order a selection of figures from Warrior in Scotland. I liked the fact that each figure had been photographed and I also liked the look of the sculpting which wasn't too fussy. The prices are low and excellent value plus delivery was superb; my small order arrived next day!

I bought both mounted and foot command figures as well as a selection of rank & file advancing figures. Here's the results of my first efforts on unfinished bases:

Tudor Commanders At Bosworth 1485

This completes another small project: a set of Tudor commanders to lead my War of the Roses army. Henry Tudor was finished in December last year but now he has the support of two of his famous sub-commanders:

The figures are all from Roundway. I really like the figures for their late 15th century look and because the sculpting isn't overly complicated.

Fun With Flags (*)

I seem to be doing a lot with flags at the moment. I've currently working on a couple of War of the Roses command elements, complete with multiple flags, but they aren't quite ready yet.

As a change of pace I've been painting some Roundway (yes them again) medieval Russians for use as mercenaries for my Polish & Lithuanian armies. For extra variety I decided to add paper lance pennons:

As you can see I have varied both the size and shape of the pennons but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be.

It's been a while since I did this sort of thing but the first one (far left) went well. However, subsequent attempts failed miserably. I needed a more reliable method.

Wars of the Roses Livery Colours (*)

At the end of September I put the Livery Colours Database online. So began my trip down memory lane.

Henry Tudor At Bosworth 1485

Having managed to track down some 15 mm Roundway figures I decided to put together a new command element. Here are the results:

Wars of the Roses Livery Flags

After I posted the database of livery colours online it struck me this was the first time in years I’d done anything related to one my favourite periods. Then I realised I’d used a typical livery colour scheme to paint some late medieval knights recently. Perhaps my subconscious was trying to tell me something?

In the medium term I plan to upgrade my War of the Roses heavy infantry. To do this I would like some new livery flags. Freezywater do a couple of sets of livery flags but unfortunately not the ones I want. So it was time to design my own.

What follows is a tutorial (of sorts) with a few tips that I hope will help others.

Wars of the Roses Livery Colours Database (*)

Introduction

I've put together this database to address one of history's mysteries.

TYW Saxon Infantry

Update

Mon 10 April,2023. The flags featured have been unavailable since I closed vexillia.com in April 2021. They are too good to disappear altogether so I decided to re-release them as a set via Wargame Vault.

Each set contains 24 flags in five different sizes, from 18 to 35 mm tall, all in one A4 pdf (for the UK & Europe). Just print the pages that fit your miniatures be they 15, 20, 25 or 28 mm.

Original post

These are early Thirty Years War (TYW) Protestant infantry.  My plan is to morph my TYW Danes by painting fresh command stands with different flags. Until recently I was hand painting the flags but these are the first to use some of the recently updated Electoral Saxon Infantry flags originally released through vexillia.com.

For practical wargaming reasons I'm using the yellow and black striped flags as a surrogate "national" flag. This is to "tie" the units together on the tabletop and to allow me to put two flags with each unit.

Transylvanian TYW Flag

Regular readers may have spotted that I’m contemplating painting a Transylvanian ally for use with an Early German Protestant army for the Thirty Years War (TYW).

I’m so keen on this mini-project I’ve already painted all the samples I bought at Britcon and I’ve moved on to considering my next purchase(s). Amongst these will be the figures for a general and his entourage. Obviously, aside from a white horse, he needs a suitable standard so I began looking for a suitable image. I only wanted an idea as I usually paint my flags by hand.

As it turned out Wikipedia was all I needed. An article on the Translylvanian coat of arms provided a concise history of the arms during the period and some useful pictures. Sadly, all the pictures were before 1597 or after 1665; nothing during theTYW. There was however a brief description of the arms in between.

Cilician Armenia - Free Flags & Banners

Strange how things happen. Chris Brantley, of Fanaticus fame, has recently posted some really great, and free, speculative banners for the medieval Armenian Kingdom in Cilicia: