Charlie's 15th century - Some long-overdue Burgundians! (Feb 28)

[Charlie_]

Thanks for all the comments people, I'm glad you are enjoying my project!

Having any separate captains/musicians with it?

Not for this one - I wanted as many actual pikes as possible for the wall of pikeheads look, and every model equipped differently would lessen this effect... I have got a horn-blower, halberdier and two-handed swordsman lined up for the Swiss unit though, which will be slightly larger.

What else is on the cards for 2018 apart from another pike block?

Well mostly expanded everything - making units bigger, and starting new ones. In a rough order of priority....

- Making polearm infantry units bigger.
- Start second (Swiss) pike unit.
- Adding more crossbows and handguns every now and then.
- More artillery (currently have two).
- Expand cavalry units, and then start a third one.

And at the same time, adding to the collection of different commanders and flags as we go.

Next post will probably be another look at the by then bigger, better-looking polearm blocks, and perhaps all the infantry together for a group shot!

[Breazer]

I am looking forward to those group shots

[Arkiegamer]

What a beautiful project!

[Charlie_]

I promised the next post would be a look at all 5 expanded polearm blocks, but that will have to wait a week or two - they have been expanded and updated, but I just need to go over each one and touch up some of the older paintjobs so they blend in with the more recent ones better - a wash here, another coat of matt varnish there, etc...

In the meantime, here's some other stuff!


I have now got 46 crossbowmen and handgunners painted up. Currently they are arranged in two generic / German units of 14, and one Italian (mercenaries) unit of 18. These will be added to further in the future.

First off, here's some of my recent favourites. Spot the conversions!



And here are the three units. I tried to make the Italians slightly more colourful. Some of these individual models you will have seen in previous posts.







The movement trays they are in are just for display purposes. In game they will be deployed in open formation.

They all mix crossbows and handguns - I made the generic units predominantly crossbows, and the Italians predominantly handguns. In game each unit will be considered to be armed with the predominant weapon featured, so the Italians will have a slightly different tactical role (less overall range, but more powerful for all of it).










And moving on, here's a small unit of light cavalry.




And here's the start of my wagon fort. I plan to do several more bases of stationary wagons like this, some with pavises propped up between them.





And finally... I got two really big trees. They are 30cm high! From The Model Tree Shop.

[Wellington Bonaparte]

Those trees look great, are they very expensive?
Your painting is superb, love the way you do horses, they look completely natural.
Thanks for keeping the updates coming.

[Charlie_]

Those trees look great, are they very expensive?

Unfortunately yes they are rather pricey. For a while I was wondering whether I could justify getting some of them, but then I found them at a reduced sale price, so I thought why the hell not.
I won't ever be making a whole forest of them though, that's for sure! They will dominate the tabletop just by themselves I feel.
Here they are on the Model Tree Shop large scale trees page... you will see they are £20 each, and they have some even bigger (and pricier) ones.
https://www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk/trees/large-scale-trees.html#undefined
But here you can get two of them for £30.
https://www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk/ls300.html
There are some other really good value deals on the sale page, but to be honest this is the only one I really liked the look of.

Your painting is superb, love the way you do horses, they look completely natural.

Thanks!

[Breazer]

Excellent new additions. I really like the wagons. Very well done.

[Charlie_]

Well as I've been stuck at home for a few days due to the snow, I've had a chance to do what I've been meaning to do for ages - smarten up all my infantry polearm units for a photoshoot.

But first.... cannons!

Here's my little artillery park as it currently stands.



The two on the left are Perry Miniatures, the one on the right is Foundry (so actually also sculpted by the Perrys way back in 1984 apparently). The Perry guns are very fragile and fiddly to assemble and paint, but worth it. The Foundry one is blockier, simpler in design and less fragile (though you do need to provide your own axle for some reason). They go well together. I've also got a larger Foundry gun and a organ gun from Old Glory which will be painted up eventually.

Here's all the artillery crew I currently have, 13 in total, so enough for 4 guns if need be. The first 8 are from the light gun sets, the next 3 are for the bombard set, and the last 2 are converted from the labourers set.



And manning the guns....





Ok, now on to my infantry.

These are not all new, in fact they include some of the very first ones I painted when I started this project 2.5 years ago. Some of the older ones here were starting to luck a bit scruffy compared to the fresher ones, so over the past few days I went through them all one by one, adding a wash here, a repair there, and giving them all another coat of matt varnish so they blend in well with the newer ones.
These units I have already posted back when they smaller, on page 2 of this thread. Now they are bigger, have been re-arranged and have got new flags.
There are 5 units of halberdiers / polearm troops, which currently form the bulk of this project. Current unit sizes are a 3x8, two 3x9s, a 3x10 and a 4x10. The smaller ones will probably catch up with the bigger ones over time.









This last unit is the only one all in livery jackets. When this project started as a Game of Thrones thing, they were supposed to be House Tully troops. I wish I had kept them in 'neutral' colours now, but it doesn't matter. You see I've got lots of extra flags, so each unit can be 're-aligned' for every game, but this one will always be in red and blue. I am thinking some time in the future when the collection is much bigger I will do flags and commanders to make it work for the War of Burgundian Succession, and these could become French infantry with the addition of white crosses.




Ok, here's all 5 units together plus the pike unit I showed back on page 8.



Some more angles....

A forest of halberds.



From behind.



Polearm melee!



Pike vs halberd.





The front ranks of these units are full of the more interesting models, both plastics and metals, including the more heavily armoured men-at-arms. The rear ranks with shouldered weapons are mostly plastics, and it's some of these that are the oldest paintjobs in the collection. Here's a few of my favourites.





I also put a few of the metal 'Swiss' sculpts in there, mostly with headswaps to make them more generic (swapping the hats and feathers for helmets). These are all wearing coats, and are generally in brighter colours compared to the plastics which mostly wear jacks and brigandines.





And that's it for now, hope you like the pics. The next post (give me a few more weeks) will be detailing all the commanders and explaining the flags and heraldry I use (some of which you can see here obviously).

[DintheDin]

Wow!
A host of crispy, well painted minis in a multitude of poses, what more the wargamer wants?
And an impressive artillery park! You have an excellent collection!
Congrats!

[OSHIROmodels]

Excellent 

[Dr. Zombie]

Excellent indeed.

[Sunjester]

Absolutely superb.

[Breazer]

They are so many. Im jealous. Great work mate.

[Big Martin Back]

They're excellent.

[poulppy]

So Great and so inspiring !