Irish Lion Rampant Force

[Shirer]

Hi everyone,

I've started an army for Lion Rampant based around an Irish raiding party from the 15th/16th century, featuring a mixture of Gallowglass and Kern. Although I've collected models for a few years, this is the first time I've started painting and assembling a useable army - looking forward to testing it on the field of battle!

The army was inspired by the Osprey Warrior: Gallowglass book, as well as the fact that Ireland retained a number of unique troop types and tactics throughout most of the medieval period - I'm hoping to make a Tudor invading force to face them eventually.



The Gallowglass are Claymore Castings, from their 1388 range - only have one painted so far.



For the Kern, I've decided to use Victrix's Peltasts and Slingers from their Ancient Greek plastics. Admittedly, they're slightly less covered than most of the pictures of Kern that I've seen have been - but I like the models. For the fierce foot Kern, I'll be crafting some jackets as seen in red here.









The 24-point force I'm aiming for is:

2 x Foot Men-at-Arms (Gallowglass)
1 x Fierce Foot (Kerns)
4 x Bidowers (Kerns)

Thanks for reading!

[Captain Blood]

Thanks for posting!

Unfortunately, the picture links don't seem to be working 

[Dr. Zombie]

They work for me. And they are really nice.

My only nag would be that the javelinmen are perhaps a bit to uniformed.

[commissarmoody]

They look great 

[Gangleri]

Very interesting subject, and near to my heart since I'm currently working on something similar for my Stoke Field project.  The kern look very nice, but as Dr Zombie said they look a bit uniform.  Perhaps sculpting the glib on some of them might make them a bit more Irish?

I'd also be interested to hear your opinion on the Claymore miniatures.

[Shirer]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Comments about the uniformity of the Kern are very fair - I was going for the traditional Irish leine (Saffron shirt) look, which was ubiquitous for Irish soldiers of most ranks through the medieval period. The individuality on the battlefield would come from the decorated (and very colourful) jackets, or from the thick cloaks worn prior to battle - neither of which the minis I've used have, so I think there's a definite case for adding some Green Stuff detail and then overpainting it - which I'll have a go at once I've built my confidence up!

Very interesting subject, and near to my heart since I'm currently working on something similar for my Stoke Field project.  The kern look very nice, but as Dr Zombie said they look a bit uniform.  Perhaps sculpting the glib on some of them might make them a bit more Irish?

I'd also be interested to hear your opinion on the Claymore miniatures.

I like the Claymore Gallowglass - I had a look at a few other options, including Sgt Major Minis, but these seemed better proportioned, and also better suited for the period I'm after. I wanted these helmets more than the Morion-style ones adopted through the 16th century. I also tried to think of ways of converting plastics, but there was only one body on the Conquest Norman infantry sprue that I thought properly suited the look - so I decided not to go down that route!





Comparison with a Perry WotR plastic - the Claymore mini is slightly smaller.



And finally, here's the second completed Gallowglass. I'm really enjoying painting these so far - my next step is going to involve finding some cheap 28mm cattle for use as objective markers, so any suggestions welcome!

[Steve63]

Irregular Miniatures for the cattle.

[Lowtardog]

Very nice, the only other decent kern I have seen so far are the single pack in the crusader miniatures range

[Gangleri]

Thanks for the info on the Claymore miniatures.  They always seemed like very characterful sculpts, though I'm sorry to hear they're a bit smaller than Perrys - ironic for men selected for size and strength.

Altogether a very nice project.  Keep 'em coming.

[Salibaba]

As for the cattle, I've found that the Pegasus 1/48 farm animals work pretty well with 28mm, as do "O" scale railroad farm animals.

I've got some of both, if you'd like I can take a comparison shot.

[Lowtardog]

These were the pack of kern I mentionedhttp://www.crusaderminiatures.com/prod.php?prod=189&cat=5&sub=15&page=1

[Dr. Zombie]

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Comments about the uniformity of the Kern are very fair - I was going for the traditional Irish leine (Saffron shirt) look, which was ubiquitous for Irish soldiers of most ranks through the medieval period.

Ohh I did not know that. In that case just ignore my criticism.

[Shirer]

Thanks for the cattle tips - I've ordered some so I'll see how well the scales match. I do like the look of the Crusader Miniatures Kerns too, something to consider when I expand the force!

I was wondering whether anybody knew of any companies that sell weapon sprues with glaives, like the one in the picture below? I've done a search, but all I've come across are futuristic power-weapon style ones!
 

[Shirer]

Ohh I did not know that. In that case just ignore my criticism.

I still think it's a fair point - even if I just vary the tone of the yellow slightly, which I think I'll test on the next batch.

[Lowtardog]

Thanks for the cattle tips - I've ordered some so I'll see how well the scales match. I do like the look of the Crusader Miniatures Kerns too, something to consider when I expand the force!

I was wondering whether anybody knew of any companies that sell weapon sprues with glaives, like the one in the picture below? I've done a search, but all I've come across are futuristic power-weapon style ones!
 

Redoubt enterprises

halberds
http://www.redoubtenterprises.com/shop/?page=shop/browse&category_id=eb73981cf64d4b195808a2977a1bfb79

SGMM when vendel used to sell the range

front rank

http://www.frontrank.com/product-category/medieval/medieval-equipment/

Also worth looking for are Lochaber or other pole arms axes in ECW ranges

http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/index.php?prod=1000

Always an interesting army, I did one a good few years ago with Vendel miniatures and added in others, I used old glory Kerns but kept them in separate units as they were quite small, some were ok but others had randomly strange poses

I think I have a box of painted ones somewhere when I dropped the box so chipped paint, broken weapons and shields (fallen off) I will dig them out and post here if you are interested. I think amongst them there are the crusader ones that I converted a few too