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Author Topic: Charlie's 15th century - Some long-overdue Burgundians! (Feb 28)  (Read 152680 times)

Offline Winston

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Absolutely lovely stuff - like the horses in particular - do you use washes on them at all - or is it all just a nice blend of colours?
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Offline Jeff965

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Jaw dropping pike blocks :o

Offline Hunlion

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Hi Charle,

I would like to ask where do you get your flok/grass/grit from?  Thanks :-)


HunLion

Online Charlie_

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Thank you all for your continued interest!

Absolutely lovely stuff - like the horses in particular - do you use washes on them at all - or is it all just a nice blend of colours?

I do rely on washes for most of my horses. At the most basic, they are just some shade of brown or another with one or two coats of Army Painter dark tone wash. The black legs (and ears muzzles) just have multiple further dark washes to get a gradual blended effect. The black manes and tails are just pure black, no highlights.
There are variations on that - some I have re-highlighted with the original base coat, and others I have done a couple of rough highlight layers to start before the wash. I also sometimes use a dark brown wash (a mix of dark tone and vallejo umber).

HOWEVER... all the lighter coloured horses, the standard bearer with the red and green flag in my last post being the best example, are not done like this. They are just lots of layers of highlights, lightening each layer very gradually. They obviously take much longer. I have experimented with various 'cream' coloured horses (palominos, buckskins, etc) in the past and never been really satisfied, but lately I've nailed it - that standard bearer on the palomino is the breakthrough. Takes a long time, but well worth it. I've since done a couple more like this, and this week finishes a white horse I'm really pleased with!

So in short - brown / bay / chestnut horses, mostly quick washes. White, palomino and other light coloured horses, painstaking layered highights.

I would like to ask where do you get your flok/grass/grit from?  Thanks :-)

The grit is just sand. I don't even paint it, just seal it with watered down PVA, so it dries rock hard.
The static grass is from Army Painter, the colour is 'steppe grass' I believe. Apply that quite liberally so there is more grass than bare ground/sand.
And the tufts are from Gamers Grass, three different colours. I'm a recent convert to 'tufts', they really are amazing. The more the better really, they just look great.

Offline Hunlion

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Thanks, Charlie for the information.  :)

HunLion

Offline bluewillow

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Excellent work

Cheers
Matt

Online Charlie_

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #336 on: July 17, 2020, 08:39:47 PM »
So, I've nearly finished the French and Burgundian cavalry, just painting the last couple of batches or riders- I think I've painted my last horse for a good while!

Here's one particular successful conversion I shared on facebook a few weeks ago - another Perry/Steel Fist hybrid. My favourite of the bunch.




Meanwhile, I've been adding a few more light cavalry at the same time, so now I've got a second unit of 10 in open order. I made an effort to make these look particularly Germanic - several in full Gothic harness, and some big feathers (I think that's a German fashion, not just Swiss? Southern German?). With the older unit of very generic light cavalry, there are 20 in total. I will add another 5 more German ones sometime in the future.

It seems some sort of German light cavalry were involved in the War of Burgundian Succession. There is evidence of German horsemen being hired by various towns which resisted the French, and also in Maximilian's armies which were sent to campaign in Gelderland and Luxembourg. Interestingly they were paid much less than men-at-arms, which suggests they were more lightly armoured, and perhaps 'light cavalry', well suited to the raids and skirmishing between the French and 'Burgundians'.
My source is this article - it's in French, but let google chrome translate is and you get a very readable and easy to understand English translation!

Anyway here they are. Most of them are converted in some way or another, including a few hand swaps, and the head of the captain is one of my new helmet/bevor combos. Most are Perry plastics, but three are Perry metals, and two of these ride Steel Fist horses. The head with the huge feathers is from the Steel Fist swiss front-rankers.



















Offline DintheDin

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #337 on: July 17, 2020, 08:48:19 PM »
Very neat painting and an admirable job on metal! You achieved nice postures also! And well painted horses! What's not to like?
Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. – Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi

Offline HappyChappy439

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #338 on: July 17, 2020, 10:32:32 PM »
Excellent work, and thanks for the link to the article too! Nice attention to detail specifically using the German plate harnesses in the bunch as well!

Is the leaning chap at the back of the captain's base a Perry Metal?

Offline Ray Rivers

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #339 on: July 18, 2020, 12:56:18 AM »
Wonderful!

I also really like your favorite!

Offline Aesthete

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #340 on: July 18, 2020, 02:05:06 AM »
Inspiring work. Really well done!
Dispatches from the Miniature Front - my occasionally updated blog

Online Charlie_

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #341 on: July 18, 2020, 05:29:24 AM »
Is the leaning chap at the back of the captain's base a Perry Metal?

Yes, he's from 'WR19 Scurrers scouting'. He's in a dynamic pose, originally twisting in the saddle to look behind him, but with a headswap so he's looking straight ahead another interesting new pose is created!

Offline Atheling

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #342 on: July 18, 2020, 06:07:54 AM »
Yes, he's from 'WR19 Scurrers scouting'. He's in a dynamic pose, originally twisting in the saddle to look behind him, but with a headswap so he's looking straight ahead another interesting new pose is created!

It could be a young Richard of Gloucester with his spine twisted like that.

Lovely work BTW  :-*

Online AKULA

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - German light cavalry! (July 17)
« Reply #343 on: July 18, 2020, 08:08:44 AM »
Yes, he's from 'WR19 Scurrers scouting'. He's in a dynamic pose, originally twisting in the saddle to look behind him, but with a headswap so he's looking straight ahead another interesting new pose is created!

Excellent idea {scribbles a note for pinching latter}

Lovely PJs as always

 :)

Online Charlie_

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Re: Charlie's 15th century - Some German handguns/crossbows (August 26)
« Reply #344 on: August 26, 2020, 09:40:59 PM »
So last year I rebased 50 crossbows and handgunners as my first move to (mostly) multibasing this project. However.... to be honest I haven't been quite satisfied with how they look...

I've also wanted to paint up a few more crossbows and handguns to be specifically Germans, for the War of Burgundian Succession.
In 1477 when Louis XI invaded the Burgundian territories, the 'burgundians' were somewhat defenceless, after Charles the Bold's army was mostly destroyed at Nancy. Some of the first mercenaries to be hired were 'germans', apparently mostly handgunners/'couleuvriniers' - many towns recruited them in large numbers. It seems they were keen on going on raids and taking the fight to the French - these expeditions universally met with disaster! They also captured a few castles for themselves temporarily, and some of them went over to the French. All in all they don't sound like they were the best investment.....
Later large numbers of Germans and Swiss were hired - presumably mostly pikemen, though no doubt with some missile troops among them.
Read more about them in this article - it's in French, but google does a very good job of translating it, is perfectly understandable!
https://www.cairn.info/revue-du-nord-2002-2-page-389.htm#

Anyway, I was thinking my existing handgunners/crossbowmen weren't really doing it for me, and at the least would need rebasing.
I have painted up 10 new ones, using a different basing layout. I'm very pleased with them - my plan is to choose the nicest figures from my existing units, rip them off their bases and redo them like this. I won't need them all, perhaps 20 will go in the bin, 30 will be kept, which with these new ones will give me 40 - 4 units of 10 should be plenty.

These are all metal sculpts - no plastics. 8 of them are from the Perry Italian skirmisher sets (fantastic poses!), and 2 are Crusader Miniatures. The small/aborted WOTR range from Crusader has some useful potential for conversions..... It has four handgunner sculpts. My criticism of them is they are all in identical, rigid poses, and like all of that range they have tiny little hands. However I found that just by giving them headswaps, and very carefully positioning their new heads, they don't quite look so rigid/awkward - they look much more 'lifelike'. The small hands I can live with. In their favour, they are very finely detailed, and all the straps, belts, pouches etc are a very nice touch. One of them has a powder horn and a very nice longsword in scabbard.
The Perry sculpts have all had headswaps too, and I've tried to make them look less Italian in the process, and hopefully a little German, including one with a Swiss 'turban'. I've added a few swords and bucklers to those that lacked them, and a couple of Swiss basilard daggers (from Steel Fist).








They are based 5 to a 40x80mm base. Previously I had them 5 to a 50x100. I definitely prefer this layout - they are closer together, but still loose enough to be considered in open order. The smaller footprint I consider to be an advantage. Here's a comparison of the old and new layout. What do you think?


 

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