Charlie's 15th century - Exciting photoshoot! (Aug 21)

[Stärn vo Buebebärg]

Looking great! I can't wait to see what you'll do with them 

[Charlie_]

https://fullharness.blogspot.com/

Slow progress

Just a quick post to show some things on the workbench right now.

Slow but steady progress is being made on the next unit of French infantry. This is not all of them, just a selection - it will be a unit of 30 when finished, and I've just now started on the last batch. Will include many of my commissioned sculpts (but only two of the most recent batch in this unit, one of which you can see here.



Here's something that's been sitting around for a while now - a two-horse artillery limber. The limber and horses are from the Perry Miniautures War of American Independence range, and the gun itself is from Avanpost. I plan to make some traces out of twisted wire. My thoughts on making limbers for the late medieval period can be found on a previous post here.



A finally here's a little handgunner conversion I am really pleased with. The body is a 3d print from Warsteel Miniatures, with plastic Perry head and arms, with a hand-swap. I sculpted a crude bag out of green stuff which seems to have turned out ok. I think the post works really well!

[Silent Invader]

Still going strong  Charlie

Such a lovely project and great job on the handgunner - love the pose

[Ogrob]

Great job on the conversion, and the infantry are looking a treat too.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Excellent. Thought about how to model a limbered gun for my Burgundians just the other day.
Also, I didn't know about Avanpost. Great to have some spare models for scenery or custom crews. Much cheaper than the other options (I know of) as well.

In essence, thanks a lot for sharing (again)!

[Captain Blood]

Looking good Charlie. Keep going 
I like the Avanpost gun. Be interested to see it when you’ve painted it.

[Charlie_]

Looking good Charlie. Keep going 
I like the Avanpost gun. Be interested to see it when you’ve painted it.

I intend to keep going!

The Avanpost gun is indeed very nice, there are actually four in the range, including an organ gun and a 'bell bombard', dunno if that's the right term? Looks appropriate for lobbing balls at walls.



The one thing they lack is any form of wood grain texture, so will be interesting to see how they paint up, but very are otherwise very clean and detailed.

Great to have some spare models for scenery or custom crews.

I have quite a few spare artillery now, which will indeed be used for various scenery pieces... siege works etc

[Captain Harlock]

Those guns are really nice! If the lack of wood texture bothers you, you can spread a very thin layer of green stuff and sculpt the texture. Or you can go hard core and insert a needle in an x acto, and scribe the (plastic?) surface directly. The key is to make a light pass first to create a groove and then increase strength while passing again.

[HappyChappy439]

Looking great! Definitely looking forward to seeing how the Avanpost gun paints up, it's wild how detailed 3D printing has become!

[magyar]

Hi Charlie,
The infantry looks really good! A nice conversion, too, - I do like the pose, it seems so natural. And lovely artillery pieces. I might consider getting some.

[Maxromek]

Trememndous work! I've been following your work for so long now and always been very inspired! The Avanpost guns look great, might have to check them out in person

A quick question - you might have answered this before, so apologies if you did. Your French infantry wears the white cross on red, but was a white cross on blue also viable in this period? Looking, for example, at the soldiers joining Henry VII at Bosworth?

[Charlie_]

Those guns are really nice! If the lack of wood texture bothers you, you can spread a very thin layer of green stuff and sculpt the texture. Or you can go hard core and insert a needle in an x acto, and scribe the (plastic?) surface directly. The key is to make a light pass first to create a groove and then increase strength while passing again.

I might give it a go!

The avanpost guns might be tricky to get hold of.... I think the company is based in Crimea? So...
Someone else actually kindly got these for me as part of a larger order, and I'm not sure what route they took before him! I actually don't even know what they're made of - are they 3d prints?

A quick question - you might have answered this before, so apologies if you did. Your French infantry wears the white cross on red, but was a white cross on blue also viable in this period? Looking, for example, at the soldiers joining Henry VII at Bosworth?

Yes, absolutely! I think any colour is fair game really. I think I've read somewhere that red was the most common livery colour, but I really couldn't tell you where that's from or whether it's accurate.
I'm actually starting a unit in Blue next.
I don't want the army to be too uniform, but also not too multicoloured... this is the red unit, this is the green unit, etc.... so I've gone for red for the majority of units, with some in other colours scattered around. I've already got some in red and green liveries. When finished one day there should be a few in blue, some in red+green, some in red+blue  etc... but mostly red. Depending on which units are chosen for each game could lead to very different looking setups each time!

[Maxromek]

Sound plan! It's a very handsome shade of red as well, I think I will make the Bosworthian French in blue just so it's very obvious who they are to non-period lovers 😁

[painterman]

Hi
I purchased the Avantpost artillery - for myself and Charlie  - from this company in Germany, who stocks the brand,
However I cannot see them on the website now, so maybe worth dropping an email to them, if anyone's interested.
Cheers
simon 

https://www.ilminiatures.com/en/c/brands/brands-a-k/avanpost-miniatures

[Charlie_]

https://fullharness.blogspot.com/

Another French infantry unit!



At long last I have completed my next unit of French heavy infantry. Like the previous one I finished over a year ago, it consists of 30 men with polearms, including both fully armoured men-at-arms and more lightly armoured troops. It could perhaps represent men-at-arms of the ordonnance companies dismounting to lead 'lesser' troops such as francs-archers in an assault. But really it could be used to represent any sort of French infantry as required!













Now since that last unit I have had two sets of figures commissioned and sculpted for me by Yannis of Talos Miniatures. This is exactly what they were originally intended to be used for - advancing polearm troops in (mostly) livery jackets to fill the ranks of these large units, so I don't have to rely on using the same few metal Perry sculpts over and over again, and with the right combo of poses and clothing I wanted. Now many of these sculpts have actually found their way very happily into more 'stationary' posed units already, but this was the original goal. Here's some pics of all the Talos sculpts in this unit - the heads are mostly from Perry Miniatures (but not all of them), and the polearms and sidearms are from a variety of sources (many of the glaives sculpted for me by Yannis). I've managed to include duplicates of four of the rear-rankers, with different heads and weapons to avoid them appearing as clones.





Note that some of the most recent commissioned figures aren't here - they are on the painting table awaiting to be assigned to more upcoming units!
My absolute favourite is the chap with riding boots and blue sleeves - being so photogenic he had to go in the most prominent position at the corner of the unit! He's a really amazing sculpt.

Besides the Talos sculpts these are mostly Perry metals, including some conversions - there's actually only two Perry plastics in here.

And here they are side by side with the other unit, and facing off against some German pikemen.