40 Knights in 40 Days

[Little Odo]

Well, here is my first foray into putting up pictures of my historical minis on these illustrious forum pages. I am no great shakes at painting but would welcome constructive criticism. The Normans have all been finished painting-wise, I just need to base, dip and varnish them. As the painting has been completed I will be able to take on board all comments when I get onto my next units (most likely the foot contingents).

I started with 40 Knights but a slight accident saw two of them slip off the painting tray and break irrevocably. So, I am now two men short for my army. I will probably add a pack or two of knights to my order to make up the numbers when I pick up the foot contingents in the near future, and maybe do a step-by-step painting guide with them on my blog (something I always forget to do when I am painting large units - sigh). I was going to try to complete one a day over 40 days but that plan has flown out of the window as my painting was so sporadic. What I will do instead is put up a conroi of 10 (or 9 now due to the accident) every week. This will force me to get my butt in gear and get them completed by the middle of next month and enable me to clear down the paint station (and thus the dining room table!) and so therefore please the other half 

For my first unit I decided to complete the pueri led by a sergens. The pueri were the 'boys' - often well-drilled but often untested in battle. These could have been the squires of the more experienced knights, or maybe just some of those knights who were elevated to knighthood only recently. It is well known that the Bishop Odo 'led' a unit of pueri at the Battle of Hastings (see the scene on the Bayeux Tapestry).

First up is the leader of this reduced conroi (9 instead of 10 at the moment) - a sergens (or sergeant in modern day parlance). He is wearing  scale mail and carrying a round shield, as well as sporting a baculum (or club). This club has been presumed to be a continuation of the use of a vine stick - the vitis - as carried by a centurion of the Roman legions...



Here is the banner bearer of the conroi. It is doubtful that the banner would have been as large as this but hey it looks good and can be easily seen upon the tabletop.



Next up is the unit's musician. He would blow the horn to make sure orders were heard above the din of battle.



For each unit I have created a champion. I doubt this position ever formally existed, but I am sure that the leaders of each conroi would be likely to have the toughest warriors beside them to inspire courage into the rest of the unit. I have armed him with a large axe to separate him from the crowd. He too sports a round shield like the sergens. The evidence suggests that kite shields had replaced round shields as the main form of protection before the advent of the Battle of Hastings. However, if you have already broken your main kite shield in combat, a round shield may have been easier to make at short notice (historical re-enactors may be able to verify this statement). All weaponry from this time was expensive, so it is also possible that this shield could have been handed down by an elder brother or more senior knight after he had bought his first kite shield.



Now here come the pueri themselves - a handful of Norman striplings gagging for a fight. I have tried to keep them looking like a unit by making as many of the shields the same or as similar as possible - in this case I have gone for a red and yellow striped theme. It is doubtful again that this would have happened at the time of Hastings but it looks good when the miniatures are deployed together on the table. I am no great shakes at painting devices, so I used decals (LBMS and Flags of War) for these figures.











Finally I have a couple of group shots from within the unit itself. Here are the command...



And here are the pueri...



Next week should be the first unit of miles.

More pictures can be seen on my blog at...

http://littleodo.blogspot.co.uk/

[Mason]

Some cracking work there, Little Odo.
 

Love the title too.
 

[Paul]

Nice one. I´m also a fan of the "one colour" scheme for normans.

[Jeff965]

Lovely, really colourful !

[CyberAlien312]

They look nice, great work!
Who makes these figures?

[Momotaro]

I recognise at least some of them as plastic Norman knights made by Conquest Games, and very nice they are too.

Nice job Odo, I love the shields!

[Malamute]

Good work.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

Nice work. I like the bases too.

[Little Odo]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone.

They look nice, great work!
Who makes these figures?

The figures are as follows:
1-4 = Conquest Games
5-6 = Crusader Miniatures
7-8 = Gripping Beast
9 = Conquest Games

I have a collection of all of the above plus some from the Perry Miniatures 1st Crusade range. In all I have the 38 cavalry and around 80-90 infantry from all of the above manufacturers. I will likely purchase a few more cavalry and infantry to round out the army to how I want it. The have not been put together with any particular gaming rules in mind but I am sure I will be able to figure something out when they are all completed

Nice work. I like the bases too.

Thanks Mick. The bases are really easy to achieve. They are on 38mm round washers bought at the local hardware store (B&Q in the UK in this case). Here are the steps...
1) The figures are glued on with Araldite and then the whole base is evened up and smoothed out with white all purpose filler
2) The whole base is then painted GW Graveyard Earth
3) Sand is then liberally applied, but I left a few gaps
4) Once dried, it has been sealed with a spray varnish
5) GW 'Grass' flock has then been added in patches
6) I then added Mininatur Early Fall/Autumn tufts (to tie in with the date for Hastings) - one or two plain tufts for all and then tufts with white flowers for troops and purple tufts for the command group to differentiate them

Hopefully there will be another conroi next week.

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

"Mininatur Autumn tufts (to tie in with the date for Hastings)"
That is a very nice idea - flowers to go with the date of the battle.

"white flowers for troops and purple tufts for the command group to differentiate them"
That is an even better idea - I may well copy that.
Regards
Mick

[max]

Nice painting and a little history lesson too 

Keeping the shields a similar colour works, i'm not a fan of random shield colours in (my) units.

[Little Odo]

Here is the second conroi of Norman Knights. This time, the warriors are more heavily armoured but are still themed by keeping as many shields the same as possible - a cross motif. I have created these as milites - from the Latin/Roman term for foot soldier that morphed through the ages to represent any soldier when described in Latin. This second conroi is also a little short-changed in the manpower department due to the accident a few weeks back. As mentioned previously, two were damaged beyond repair but a few of the others that were broken in the fall were salvageable and have been re-glued, bent back into shape and then re-painted. Only a few of them are noticable.

First up is the commander of this conroi - a vavasseur. Vavasseur was really just another name for a squire or equivalent but I decided to use that rank as a leader type for a unit of milites. Rather than a spear or sword, I have put an axe into his hand to make him a little different. He is also unusual in that he has a cloak - not the normal attire of a Norman knight at war as cloaks could easily trap the sword arm, become entangled with a spear, or generally just get in the way of combat.



The second figure in this unit is the bannerman. I created the banner myself from an old bit of foil from around the top of a wine bottle. The wine was drunk a darn sight more quickly than it took to paint this figure! The motif on the banner is taken from the Bayeux Tapestry.



The third figure is a musician. It seems Normans would be most likely to have used horns to be heard over the din of battle rather than drums or cymbals that seem to have been used elsewhere by other armies of this period.



Before we get to the actual milites, here is another champion. As stated previously this was most likely not a formal position, but I like the idea of there being one particular hard nut in each unit.



And here come the milites from the understaffed second conroi...











Here is a group shot of the milites in action together...



And finally here are the command group...



More pictures on my blog...

http://littleodo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/40-knights-in-40-days-part-2.html

Next week - the first conroi of Norman Knights.

[Little Odo]

Here is the next bunch of Normans.

This, the third conroi of Norman cavalry, I have designated as actual knights - most have individual designs on their shields to show their identity on the battle field. A few have the same shield design to show that they are a part of the same conroi or household but the rest have their own 'arms'. This is to show a high ranking Norman noble with his retainers and those knights who owe him military service in return for the granting of lands.


First up is the commander...



Banner Bearer...



Musician...



Champion...



Norman Knights...













Norman Knights Command...



Norman Knights...



I was thinking of alternative uses for these knights and decided I may use them as French knights. The leader I have named the baron Simon de Cahors - the reason I chose Cahors is because I spent many fine summer holidays down in that part of France when I was younger. I used to stay in a gorgeous chateau in the small village of Le Boulve, so decided that this area should be the prime target for my attention with these Norman knights. I painted the banner and decided upon the baron's shield design before I had done any investigative work on the medieval period for Cahors. Luckily, it turned out that the colours for Cahors are the same blue and white I have used but are presented as a horizontally split banner rather than the zig-zag design I went for - maybe if I get the foot troops sorted I can use the horizontally split design for their shields to tie them all in to a coherent whole?

Just one more conroi to complete next week. Again, they are knights and will be designated as part of a fictitious duke's household ready for crusade. I think my main leader will be the baron as he is a good charcter to build an army around for a variety of rules sets. The duke and a few of his retainers could be cut out from the main army to build the numbers for the baron's troops for when he goes to war against his enemies, and the duke can be reintroduced for larger games.

More pictures on my blog here...

http://littleodo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/40-knights-in-40-days-part-3.html

Thank you for looking.

[Jevenkah]

Wow! Sorry to catch this thread so late, I don't get off the fantasy board much.   Great jobs on the banners!
And I like the definition of the horses very much.

The knights themselves look cool! I like the muted blue you used for their clothes.

Can't wait to hear about the game I picture the knights thundering through.

Jevenkah
ps- The title of your thread was a source of a good 5 minutes of amusement.

Me (to Teshub) : "Little Odo's doing 40 knights in 40 days!"
Teshub (building a temple): "Of what?"
Me: "Of what what?"
Teshub: "40 nights 'n days of what?"

This went on for a bit before I could get it together and clarify:
Me: "40 knights," mimes riding a horse and neighs, "painted in 40 days."

[Little Odo]

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone. I have now managed to complete the last conroi of the knights. These ones are to represent more actual knights and a few about to embark upon the First Crusade with their duke.

Norman Crusader command...


More Norman Knights...


Norman Duke...


Banner Bearer...


Musician...


Breton Champion...


Norman Crusaders...




Norman Knights...








I now have to get some infantry sorted out to provide support for these guys.

More photos on my blog here ...

http://littleodo.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/40-knights-in-40-days-part-4.html

I have some old Citadel (?) Hobgoblins on the work bench at the moment. Hopefully they should be up on the forum in the next week or two.