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Author Topic: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)  (Read 2155 times)

Offline Veteran Sergeant

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 32
John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« on: March 13, 2019, 08:58:06 AM »
Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster.  I kinda wanted to get some real progress done before starting the topic. 

After getting intrigued by Coat of Steel and the Perry plastics about a year and a half ago, I set about to doing up some of my own.  I became fascinated by John Clifford because his game traits were "Audacious" and "Bloodthirsty" and when I looked him up on Wikipedia, the first picture was of a guy about to stab a child to death.  Very well then. This guy needed a 28mm figure of his own, and the model we were using was actually in the heraldry of Thomas (his father).

It turned out John Clifford was even more fascinating in real life and pivotal to several major events in the first portion of the Wars of the Roses (1455-61). Almost a quintessential character for the time period.  Violent, merciless, and driven by revenge.

But, I don't know how to do anything simple.  I wanted my figures to be based for Coat of Steel (40x40, 3 figure) and individually. I also get bored of just assembling models off the sprue.  I want every model to be a little unique, and to stand out.  Especially any character model.

So here is the journey so far.   I still need to finish basing and a matte varnish (darned hobby stores were out so I've ordered it) plus some little touchups. I'm a mediocre painter, but I'm patient, at least.  Then I just need transfers for the wyvern livery badges.

So I wanted to sculpt on more bevors, and ones that looked proper. Too many models without face protection in a world of stabby and pokey bits. Very difficult for the Perry models to do with separate heads, so Green Stuff it was.



I later decided I also needed a plackart on my Clifford and the body I'd chosen didn't have one.  More Green Stuff.  Clifford himself is 11 separate pieces, plus three sculpted additions.



I also added a sash to the standard bearer, and gave him a right angry looking fellow with a warhammer to round out the command base:



Clifford’s war axe is a custom, cut down from one of the poleaxes, with the hand repositioned so the head of the axe droops slightly, imparting a sense of weight for the top heavy weapon.




I still need to paint the checkers on his sash.  Pity me, I somehow chose the guy with white livery coats (argh!) and blue and yellow checkers on his heraldry (double argh).  Could a Clifford retinue be any harder to paint? Guess he could some kind of quartered white and yellow livery or something.

Then I strung all the bows with thin gauge wire.





Finally I got custom laser cut bases from LITKO, and mounted everything on 19mm washers. The nice side effect is these are very bottom heavy and don't topple over easily.





Anyhow, hope you guys enjoyed.  I'll update this topic when they are fully completed, but since I published my article on Clifford today, I figured I would post this here.

I've also written up an article with a brief history of John Clifford on my blog if anyone is interested in the historical personality behind this project:
  https://veteransergeant.wordpress.com/2019/03/13/john-clifford-wars-of-the-roses/


Offline voltan

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1175
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #1 on: March 13, 2019, 10:24:06 AM »
Good work, I really like the conversions, simple but effective.
Yvan eht nioj!

Offline Belisarius

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Mastermind
  • *
  • Posts: 1608
    • Yahoo groups Ulster Wargames Society
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #2 on: March 13, 2019, 11:29:41 AM »
Excellent builds and commentary, look forward to more .😎 👍

Offline Wellington Bonaparte

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 243
  • Strike Sure
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #3 on: March 13, 2019, 05:30:46 PM »
Great kit bashing, and the article on Clifford on your blog is excellent  :)
Stand Fast - Strike Sure -  Carry On - Bydand

Offline fred

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4360
    • Miniature Gaming
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #4 on: March 13, 2019, 07:21:50 PM »
Nice work. A very promising start.

I do like metal bases on plastic figures, gives them a bit of heft, and as you say, lots of stability

Offline aphillathehun

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 522
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2019, 03:13:22 AM »
Nice!  Very nice!

Made me look him up on the Citadel Six site.  You can get livery badges and flags for the 8th Lord Clifford, but not the 9th.  Not sure whether the livery changed....

Offline Veteran Sergeant

  • Assistant
  • Posts: 32
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #6 on: March 14, 2019, 11:29:16 PM »
Thanks all.

Great kit bashing, and the article on Clifford on your blog is excellent  :)


Glad you enjoyed it.  The story behind Clifford was what made me want to do him specifically.  There aren't any other really good accounts of Clifford's life out there on the Internet, so I figured I could do up some fun conversions, and fill that knowledge gap with a legitimate historical article too.


Made me look him up on the Citadel Six site.  You can get livery badges and flags for the 8th Lord Clifford, but not the 9th.  Not sure whether the livery changed....
All of my research suggests it stayed the same.  The reenactors at Skipton Castle use it, and attribute it to John as well.  I'm likely to get the CitadelSix transfers.  Not sure which flag option I'll go with.  Citadel's flags are the father's, so that's out. A cheap and quick version of John's person banner actually comes in one of the Perry kits, but I am pretty sure somebody does a version as well.

Not 100% happy with how the checker pattern came out, but oh well. 








Offline bluewillow

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 2280
  • Bluewillow- Matthew Williamson
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #7 on: March 15, 2019, 11:15:39 AM »
good addition, I like the changes you made, checkers are a nighmare to paint, I find painting base coat then fine straight lines then filling in the boxes

cheers
Matt

Offline aphillathehun

  • Mad Scientist
  • Posts: 522
Re: John, 9th Baron Clifford (and other Wars of the Roses)
« Reply #8 on: March 15, 2019, 04:56:44 PM »

Agree on the difficulty of painting checks.  I think if you spend just a little more time touching up the work you've done, you'll be more satisfied.  It looks pretty good, and probably the camera makes it look worse than it is in real life.

The white livery is awesome I think.