15 mm Early Medieval Horde (Essex)

As mentioned in yesterday's post here's the pictures of the newly finished early medieval horde, or levy bases. They are the latest bases to be finished as part of my end of year "finishing things" phase and are intended to be driven in front of my Timurid army:

15 mm Medieval Cavalry (Essex)

Towards the end of November I began a period of "finishing things".  I realised I had a lot of small projects that were well over 80% complete and that needed finishing.  I kidded myself that if I painted just a few more figures I could really clear the decks ready for 2021.

The first to benefit were my ACW command and then some more retinue men-at-arms for my War of the Roses army.  The latter haven't been photographed yet but I now have twelve bases: more than enough for ADLG, FOG etc.

Next to benefit from this approach were some "hostage and prisoners or war" to be driven ahead of my Timurid army but they are still in the process of being based and will be posted next year.  In the meantime I found, and painted, a couple of medieval medium cavalry figures to complete this base:

Medieval Russian Flag

At the end of July I posted this command element but with a different flag. At the time I was attempting to represent a generic religious icon. On reflection it didn't quite work. So I switched it for this one:

I have also reset my camera and have thankfully ended up with decent shots of the element without a lot of post processing.

15 mm Medieval Russian Light Cavalry

I have finally finished something! I seem to have been painting for ages and yet , until now, I haven't managed to finish even a mini-project.

So here they are: a collection of assorted Russian light horse to accompany the heavy cavalry I finished one year ago.

Apart from other distractions and commercial work, some of the delay was the complex shield patterns favoured by the Russians. I had to work out how to simplify them for 15 mm which took quite a few attempts. If anyone has any tips or illustrations do leave a comment.

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:

ADLG: Are There Super Armies? (2020)

In 2018, my peak ADLG period, I analysed all the tournament data available from the Art de la Guerre (ADLG) website. I was looking for quantitative evidence for so called super armies. In short, I didn't find any as this 2018 chart showed:

It's been two years since I last looked at the data so I thought I'd see if anything had changed.  The first thing to report is that ADLG has remained an active tournament rule set.  The latest data set contains 40,545 entries up from 27,670 in 2018.

Repairs!

Today I had another of those annoying things happen. Specifically, annoying to wargamers. I was feeling really good having just finished the third of four batches (read packs) of Russian light horse archers when I got carried away and began to prepare the final batch.

I shouldn't have done that. It spoiled a nearly perfect moment.

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.

Lockdown Update (Doesn't Time Fly?)

I've just realised that it's two months since my last post.  In the UK we are half way through week seven of our first COVID-19 lockdown.  But that's only a small part of the reason why I haven't posted anything.

It's mostly down to lots of fiddly jobs around the house, painting display models for Fighting15s, and dealing with the year-end accounts for my wargames business.  Not to mention the April weather; it was marvellous, atypical and didn't exactly encourage sitting indoors.

The one thing I did finish was Volume II of the Hobilar Archive for the Lance & Longbow Society.  I started this project in 2016!

Henry Tudor's Retinue Men at Arms

It's funny how projects grow. In April last year I completed a set of Tudor Commanders for Bosworth but they only came about because I decided to replace my venerable retinue billmen.

I'd settled on the Roundway late medieval range and had started painting the foot when I was "seduced" by the mounted command and sidetracked by making my own livery & heraldic flags.

Since I finished the command bases I've been chipping away at the pile of foot figures and here's the first completed retinue:

15 mm Italian Wars Artillery

I've just completed another mini-project.  This time it's a couple of artillery pieces for my Italian Wars army.  When I saw these figures I was struck by how characterful they were so they've jumped a good few places in the painting queue.

Afghan Light Spear

This is mainly a photo post. The figures are all Roundway and are intended as medium spear or javelinmen for my ADLG Timurid army:

The spear armed figures are RKMA8, the swordsmen are RKMU5 and are from the Mameluke and Mughul ranges respectively. They are yet another example of using a restricted colour palette.

15 mm Medieval Russian Cavalry

Today I finished this mini-project which has been on my painting desk for quite some time. My intention was to replace some older, more generic, eastern medieval medium cavalry with new figures representing Russian cavalry in Lithuanian service as per ADLG list 237:

What I Have Painted Recently

I've finally got around to photographing my latest unit. It's a group of late medieval or early renaissance mounted hand-gunners:

I apologise in advance for my poor photography skills. Clicking on an image will bring up a much larger version which will look much better. Even so I seem to struggle with depth of field and I don't think the dark colour scheme helped either, but I wanted a scheme that reflected the end of the era of "white harness" and the beginning of blackened armour.

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.

What I Have Painted Recently

In the past six weeks I've been busy working on quite a few new hobby projects.  Unusually for me I now have lots of projects underway; normally I only have one or two.  This means I've not yet finished any of them. Typical wargamer I hear to say.

I have however made a lot of progress.  I've nearly finished: my Bosworth commanders, some late medieval mounted hand gunners and some Russian mercenary cavalry for my Lithuanian army.  Plus I have made a start replacing the War of the Roses heavy infantry I sold last month.

In these circumstances what's a wargamer to do? Start another project of course! However, this one was deliberately chosen to be finished in a week and sold on eBay. Here are the results:



I've used a different set up for my light box to match the bases.  I didn't finish the basing so people can easily match their existing basing scheme.

The figures are from Essex and Donington, and the guns from Kallistra.

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: