Been a while since my last update, so thought I'd show what I'm currently working on. No finished units yet.
I'm currently in cavalry mode, working on opposing heavy cavalry for the French and Burgundians, for the War of Burgundian Succession (a summary of which can be found in my last post, on page 21).
When Charles the Bold died at the battle of Nancy, his army pretty much died with him. Obviously there would have been some survivors who made it home, and many who weren't at the battle scattered across his territories, but suddenly leaderless and seemingly without purpose his Ordonnance companies seem to have ceased to exist as a functioning military force. Towns were surrendering to the French occupiers in both the Low Countries and Burgundy itself, and many of his military commanders defected to the French (including his own half-brother Anthony). So when Mary and Maximilian started getting things together to resist the French, they had to raise new armies. They formed new Ordonnance companies, but they weren't able to raise them in very big numbers, and they struggled to pay them.
So both the French and 'Burgundian' sides have Ordonnance comapnies, based around mounted men-at-arms, i.e. heavy cavalry. The French were more numerous and I'd like to think better organised and motivated. At least that's how I'm going to interpret it - the Burgundian cavalry will be a bit more hit-and-miss, and should be outmatched by the French. That is indeed what happened at the Battle of Guinegate in 1479.
I already have lots of cavalry, so to 'convert' these into French and Burgundians I really just need new flags. I've decided that the French will have smart livery jackets, whilst the Burgundians will not. So I need to paint up several new standard bearers, and some French in livery jackets to scatter throughout the units (perhaps 1 in 4 will have jackets). I currently have enough cavalry for 4 units - I think a good goal will be to have 5 by the end of this, 3 French and 2 Burgundian. All my heavy cavalry are individually based on large movement trays, so the size and number of units can always be mixed up, and no doubt will be every time I paint a new figure.
The question of flags is one I pondered over for a long time. There are lots of Burgundian flags available, but almost all of them are specifically connected to Charles the Bold, often featuring his personal motto ('Je Lay Emprins'). I needed to find some Burgundian flags that are
not obviously connected to him, and are more 'generic' so can be used for the decades after his death. Happily I found a few. Pete's Flags has a small sheet of 5 Burgundian cavalry flags, 3 of which are 'generic', all featuring the Burgundian cross. There is/was also a fantastic website, the name of which escapes me, which has lots of free flags, including loads of Burgundian ones. All of varying quality. I found one which was apparently captured at Grandson in 1476, but looks generic enough for my purposes, and luckily comes as a very high resolution image.
So here are three Burgundian standard bearers. The two on the left are from Pete's Flags, the one on the right from that website which doesn't seem to exist anymore.
The models themselves are a mix-up of Perry and Steel Fist. The Steel Fist late medieval men-at-arms scale perfectly with Perry, and you can happily switch the horses and riders between the two..... though not without a little saddle surgery. For a metal perry rider on a Steel Fist horse, you need to sculpt the front part of the saddle yourself. For a Steel Fist rider on a plastic Perry horse, you need to slice off both the front and back part of the saddle from the horse, as they come on the SF rider, and smooth over the join with a little putty. I've also got some metal Perry riders on plastic Perry horses - in these cases you need to remove the
rear party of the saddle on the plastic horse.
The Steel Fist riders also come with separate heads, and in most of the following examples I've actually given them Perry heads instead.
So the three Burgundians... the first on the left is simply a metal Perry on a SF horse. The middle on is a SF on a plastic Perry horse, with a (metal) Perry head. The third one is just a metal Perry on a plastic Perry horse.
On to the French.... There is a serious lack of French flags available for the 1450-1500 period. But 'that website' had some, including the two below. Now for some reason these came as much smaller, low-resolution images, so I wouldn't sure if they would work, but I think once on the finished models they look fine. I like the black flag in particular. They are variations of the same flags that come in the Perry plastic box sets. I believe it's St Michael fighting a dragon, surrounded by sunbursts. I don't know the historical source for these flags, but they'll do fine for me regardless.
(The guy on the left is SF rider on SF horse, with a plastic Perry head. The guy on the right is metal Perry rider (with a plastic headswap) on a plastic Perry horse.)
I also made some simple flags myself on photoshop - the white cross of France on a variety of different colours, to match the liveries of their units. I'm going to have one big French unit in green and red, and most other units (both cavalry and infantry) in just red. That's the current plan anyway.
(On the left is SF rider, SF head, plastic Perry horse... On the right is SF rider, plastic Perry head, plastic Perry horse.)
So that's enough flags now for up to 4 French units and 3 Burgundian..... I think extra-large units will get 2 flags.
And here's a couple of new French men-at-arms I've painted in their smart green and red livery. The heads are conversions, with added plumes to make them look extra fancy. The sallet and bevor combo on the right is also a combination of two different heads.
And here's a cool conversion I rather like, a captain for one of he Burgundian units. He's the Perry metal Richard III model, with a Steel Fist headswap, on a plastic Perry horse. The horse head is from the Agincourt knights set, with an added big feather from the WOTR cavalry set.
And finally..... a German light cavalryman. It seems lots of German horsemen were hired by the towns across Burgundy who resisted the French. They were paid less than men-at-arms, so presumably were a lighter / poorer sort of cavalry. I'm going to interpret them as light cavalry, in small numbers.
This guy is a metal Perry with a headswap, from the Steel Fist swiss set.... on a Steel Fist horse. I think he works rather well, and looks suitably Germanic!
So that's it for now. Hopefully I can have some finished cavalry units to show you in a few months!
25 May 2012, 09:11:03 AM