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

[HappyChappy439]

Fantastic work, they look great ranked up!

[Maxromek]

They are a mighty looking unit! The new sculpts are amazing!

[Corso]

That's a great looking unit Charlie 

I like your approach to making this unit, especially the way to make every miniature somewhat distinct without sacrificing cohesion.

[Mad Doc Morris]

Very fine work. Love the mix of armour (or lack thereof) and weapons. Makes for a realistic look.

[Basementboy]

Absolutely stunning!

[Jack Jones]

Fabulous work.

I haven’t made any more progress with my limber, so I shall follow your two horse version with interest.

Cheers
JJ

[WuZhuiQiu]

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.

I'm not sure that much wood texture would be needed - as modelled, it is often as though there are 2 cm tree rings or the wood has been outside rotting for at least a decade!

[Charlie_]

Thanks all!

They are a mighty looking unit! The new sculpts are amazing!

They are indeed aren't they? As I said, the one with the riding boots and the blue sleeves, with the glaive.... He is absolutely perfect I think. Was a real joy to paint up. (His head is a Perry plastic though)

I like your approach to making this unit, especially the way to make every miniature somewhat distinct without sacrificing cohesion.

Thanks, that's the idea! I don't think medieval 'units' should look too cohesive, so even if they is a semi-uniform livery, they should all look distinct in their equipment and clothing, and not be arrayed in overly neat ranks and files. But the overall posing and 'direction' of the unit should be consistent.

I haven’t made any more progress with my limber, so I shall follow your two horse version with interest.

I'll probably do an update on that next - I've managed to craft some rope tracers out of twisted brass wire, and it's turned out really well!

I'm not sure that much wood texture would be needed

Yes, you're probably right.

[Maxromek]

They are indeed aren't they? As I said, the one with the riding boots and the blue sleeves, with the glaive.... He is absolutely perfect I think. Was a real joy to paint up. (His head is a Perry plastic though)

I got a largish order from Steel Fist just last week and been putting every dolly that looks appropriate in a pile I'm going to convert into "dismounted light cavalrymen clean-up crew" with swords, axes, bucklers, etc. Riding boots necessary

[Charlie_]

https://fullharness.blogspot.com/

Back to the baggage train

Just a quick update. A while back I shared an image of a gun with a two-horse limber. Since then I've added traces made from twisted wire. I'm very pleased with how this turned out, both twisting the wire to make authentic looking rope, and how they've attached to the horse harness.

I've also made a similar two-horse wagon setup. Both of these are from the Perry Miniatures American War of Independence range, with the gun obviously replaced by a more suitable 15th century piece. Looking at 15th century manuscript art it seems wagon technology didn't really change much over the centuries, and the ones in the AWI range seem perfectly suitable for the medieval period. Interestingly there are lots of examples of wagons and limbered artillery in the Swiss Chronicles. I was keen to use these setups with two horses in tandem, as they will be much easier to paint than a full four-horse setup with them two abreast!

[Stärn vo Buebebärg]

That's a lovely new French unit Charlie! The sculpts you commissioned work wonderfully with the existing range and add some much-needed variety in the poses with lowered weapons. Your bagage train is also coming along nicely, I particularly like the twisted wire for the ropes, it looks lovely and also falls in a pleasantly realistic way.

[Charlie_]

https://fullharness.blogspot.com/

A new gaming space

Something I've been working on this year.... is a new gaming space. A wargames garage!

Still got some tidying up to do, but it's ready to host some games now. I hope to get the French and Burgundians on the tabletop sometime soon.

It can hold a 10x4ft table, which is about the right sort of size for the games I have planned. Shown here is just a 8x4 setup, you can see the space for two more terrain tiles.

The next big challenge is to see if I can get good quality photos of games in action. I plan to paint a backdrop to make things look prettier too.

I'm going to really get stuck into terrain building this winter. These terrain tiles are ones I built years ago, the first time I'd done it, so I was learning as I went.. They'll do for now, but I'm going to replace them with some better designs.

Another advantage to having a permanent setup is I can do lots of solo gaming to playtest my own homebrew rules. That's not something I've really been able to do before when it required moving furniture around in a small living room to just try out a game!

[has.been]

Nice looking set-up. Enjoy & have fun.

[Captain Blood]

Splendid 

Why waste a garage on a car?

[Charlie_]

https://fullharness.blogspot.com/

Troops on the table!

Today I got to send my figures to war at last in my new gaming garage, with my good friend Jamie.

We played out a fictional skirmish set in 1477, with the French occupation of the County of Burgundy and the subsequent rebellion led by certain members of the nobility. In this scenario, Simon de Quingey led a force of Burgundians and German mercenaries to intercept a larger French force under Gaston du Lyon - he had to hold out until Guillaume de Vaudrey arrived with reinforcements.

We played the game using my own homebrew set of rules, which went pretty smoothly I think.

I was able to take some photos during the game, and can give you a brief rundown of what happened. Perhaps in the future I can write up some more detailed battle reports. The photos came out really well, though I really need to hurry up and paint a backdrop so we don't have to see the garage walls!

Here's a pic of the game on turn one, with most of the French having just entered stage left. The Burgundians have taken up good defensive positions behind the fences and hedges, and are awaiting for de Vaudrey to arrive (he can be rolled for from turn 3 onwards). There's a clash of light cavalry about to happen on the left flank. There are also a few more French infantry units yet to enter the table, and they have a large heavy cavalry unit which can also be rolled for from turn 3 onwards. As it happens both sides reinforcements turned up very late in the game!



The Burgundians and Germans held their positions well under the leadership of Simon de Quingey. They had one artillery piece which managed to slow down and disorder the French infantry advance very effectively. The small cavalry clash went in their favour to begin with, but surprisingly the outnumbered French horsemen did manage to push back and drive off their opponents. When the first French unit reached the fences and attacked the German mercenaries it could have gone either way - they were outflanked by more Burgundian horsemen but held their ground, the cavalry retreating. They were then reinforced by a second group, but things went against them and they were routed, with Gaston du Lyon himself being taken out of action! The Germans had been badly shaken though, and both sides wondered where their reinforcements had got to.

Eventually de Vaudrey arrived on the Burgundian right flank with a large force of German pikemen. The French cavalry reserve entered the field opposite them at the same time. Rejuvenated by the new arrivals, most of the Burgundian line now surged forward into the open field. The French cavalry attempted a charge against the wall of pikes but were perhaps predictably driven back, and with too much of the infantry line having been broken or shaken, and their command felled, things were turning against them and they quit the field. A narrow victory for Burgundy!