Army Royal

TAG announce work on a Tudor range !

2012-02-20T14:02:00.000-08:00

Here's a sneak at TAG's announcement of a Tudor range;

http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/pages/page.php?English-Tudor-dolls-187

The range is designed to cover Henry's 1544 invasion but the dolls so far mixed with a few other figures would certainly do for the 1522 & 1523 invasions. Also, there are some examples in armour which would suit my present army - exciting stuff !

More WIP

2012-02-12T06:27:00.000-08:00

Bit of a mixed bag this week; Firstly here's the design that I have opted for the banner of the Virgin Mary which is an amalgamation of a number of suggestions, from responses here, TMP and the Tudor History Q&A blog, of which the following abridged suggestion sealed my route forward;

' The Virgin's medieval iconography is extensive. Lydgate's poem points to the Virgin being represented as "Queen of Heaven," an extremely popular cult of the medievals, in which the simple peasant of Nazareth was closely assimilated with chivalric culture and transformed into a regal focal point of worship for royalty.

In the English mythology, the Virgin as Queen of Heaven is served by St. George, the patron of England, and hence by the English king. Miri Rubin's Mother of God states "[Henry V] claimed her as a model of majesty and priesthood, of sacred kingship embodied in his own person ... Mary was a dynastic patron and she merged with the well-being and safety of England."

Moreover, in late medieval theological thought, the Queen of Heaven is also a warrior, leading armies of angels in defence of just causes (to the English, invading France is always a just cause). The choice of the "banner of our Lady" might have attracted influential support from Catherine of Aragon; in Spain, Mary as "Queen of Heaven" was powerfully identified with her mother and the crusade against the infidel - "For Mary was the particular patroness of the reconquest of Spain" (Theresa Earenfight,Queenship and Political Power in Medieval and Early Modern Spain).

So what did the banner look like? The iconography of the Queen of Heaven inevitably includes a crown. Some sources mention a scepter. I have seen images of the Virgin in this aspect standing on the crescent moon, but I'm not sure that this isn't from later centuries. I couldn't find more specific information in my search. Regarding the colors - blue is traditionally regarded as the Virgin's color, but her elevation to regal status might have meant that purple or red were used. There's a letter extant from Richard III to the Wardrobe ordering banners of St. Edward, the Trinity, St. George, St. Cuthbert and "one banner of sarsenet of Our Lady"; these are included in an order with a number of highly detailed clothing requests, and the lack of description for the banner orders may indicate a standardised appearance.'

I did contemplate doing a Flemish master miniature but.......it didn't get much beyond that! Anyway, I hope you like my choice, it's more symbolic / heraldic and works rather well I think.

Secondly, I finished a project which has been on the back burner for a while, this command stand represents Ludvig V, Elector Prince of Palatine, a key player during the German Peasants War; A while ago I had designs upon doing a German Minor States Army but got distracted by the Perry's when they released their first plastics. This stand has lain semi-finished ever since so I took advantage of a day off and finished it, and rather pleased I am with it too. It does not quite fit in to my current army lists (for Maximilian or Tudor) so it's now on Ebay, as is the Duke of Norfolk mentioned in the last post.

Last but not least I took the time to re-base some imperial artillery, these will form part of my Tudor army either as hired gunners or as part of Maximilian's contingent. One key hint I must say is base the gunners first then add the gun, what a fiddly job that was ! I have a few more artillery pieces to do from scratch and i'll certainly follow that notion.

Seeing these figures again has led me on a slight Landsknecht tangent, I have quite a few which need to be painted up to complete Maximilian's contribution to the Army Royal so I shall have them quietly building in the background. They're fun to do as a bit of a break from the Tudors, more on these in future.

That's all from me for now.

All the best

Stuart

Work in progress

2012-02-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

A quick WIP post for you.

I am slowly putting together a unit of bill to accompany the stand of Sir Henry Willoughby, these will also use figures from the Perry Mercenaries box along with some metals from the EA range. In total there will be 3 stands which will represent troops and captains of the Calais Garrison and thus I have elected to represent them as looking a bit more continental.

On the first figure I have had a foray with the green stuff (getting quite confident with it now) to sculpt the shoulders of the jacket onto armoured arms from the boxed set. The appearance of this figure very closely represents what the best equipped troops of the 1513 campaign would have looked like, mainly in the respect of the long coat. He will carry the banner of the Virgin Mary, which was documented to have been taken, the appearance of which I am still researching - your suggestions are welcome.

The second photograph represents a Sunday 'day off' from painting Tudors! I had a spare figure which did not suit the meticulous positioning dry run for the units I have on my schedule so he attained the status of 'spare'. I thought the figure looked a bit like Graham Turner's depiction of the Duke of Norfolk at the battle of Bosworth; http://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/info_BOB_15.html

So that's what it became. I'm quite pleased with it but i'm somewhat slow enough as it is in painting this army and not in need of a side project so this chap may well work his way onto ebay at some point once I decide whether to give him a base or not.

Speaking of distractions I have recently invested in a copy of Henry VIII's Military Revolution by James Raymond and can heartily recommend it. It's in the academic assignment category but is a very good companion to Army Royal by Charles Cruickshank. The book seeks to put down the notion that Henry VIII's army was lacking in theory and development aside its continental rivals and a very good job it does...though I am a bit biased!

That's all for now.

Stuart

Sir Henry Willoughby

2012-01-10T03:00:00.000-08:00

Onward with the last third of the Army, I am now concentrating my efforts upon completing the infantry.

Here we have Sir Henry Willoughby wearing a heraldic tabard accompanied by a picked man carrying his personal standard. I have attempted to nod at a couple of things in this base;

1.) By all accounts Henry was a wealthy and well appointed gentleman, his appearence at this time is unknown though his tomb (d.1528) appears to indicate a transitional armour in that it has slender aspects of late 15c design with tassets but sports more contemporary bear paw sabatons.

Heraldic tabards though outdated on the continent were still not uncommon in the English Army of the period, seperated from the continent, fashions very much developed at a slower rate (in a way the appearence of my whole army rests upon this supposition!), there are quite a few tombs which depict this. Whether this was the choice of the sculptor to represent the deceased in their prime or an indication of the fashion at death is unknown but it certainly is an indication that there was nothing improper in depicting this style.

2.) My first French piece of equipment; Henry and his men advance over a battered and hurriedly discarded pavise bearing the arms of Therouanne, the siege of which saw the only considerable amount of action - I'm quite pleased with this and may duplicate on a few more stands.

I had fun creating this stand, particularly the standard, we love flags !

For those interested, here is a brief biography of Henry and his military career;

Sir Henry Willoughby lived up to his family motto of sans changer (without change) and showed that he must have posessed some aptitude in loyally serving three kings; he was a servant of the royal household under Richard III and a knight of the body to Henry VII and Henry VIII. He was knighted at the battle of Stoke in 1487, and served in Flanders in 1489. Sir Henry maintained his own retinue on behalf of the King, and took them to fight in Brittany in 1491 and to defend a rebellion at Blackheath in 1497.

In 1512 he was appointed master of the ordnance and raised a retinue of 830 men for the Marquis of Dorset's unsuccesful Guienne expedition. In the 1513 expedition to France at the age of 62 Sir Henry commanded a retinue of 200 and served in the rearward (that of the King).

He attended Queen Katherine at the Field of Cloth of Gold in 1520 and died in 1528.

Stuart.

A Scenic interlude

2011-12-29T10:57:00.000-08:00

Here goes my first scenic foray.

For quite a while I have wanted to either make or acquire some scenery to enhance both photography and gaming and the catalyst to make some was spare time and a dead sage plant in the garden; the leaves had fallen off and I noticed that it looked peculiarly like a miniature tree so I cleaned it up and trimmed it into several 'trees' then trawled the internet for some tutorials.

There are quite a few decent step by step guides out there and it turns out people are actually paying for dead sage bushes, just type in 'making sage brush trees' and you'll find them, my favourite is this one, the link is a bit broken but you'll get the gist;

http://www.009.cd2.com/tree_page.htm

Further to the instructons stated I would add that it is worth getting some latex gloves for spraying the black undercoat and especially the spray mount. I also decided to make a few hedges with small trees, the hedges were made from wire wool sprayed black and drybrushed dark green with ochre highlights.

The total spend was £50 and all told it took two days to make owing to drying between stages. Bar some more clumping foliage (£5 a bag) I now have the materials to make the same amount three times over so not a bad investment really and fun to make.

Eager to gather some more 'trees' for the next project I have found that roots or interesting looking twigs will suffice so keep an eye out when you're next out and about - perhaps walking off a hangover on the 1st !

Stuart

Two thirds done !

2011-12-24T00:19:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post to wish you and yours all the best for the festive period and the coming year.

I have been perusing my army list and note that I am almost exactly two thirds done, yep that is a third a year so far ! I'm on the home stretch now so 2012 is going to be good.

I would also like to thank you for your support and cheer, I really enjoy doing this blog, it is definitely an integral tool to my army building and without it I don't think I would have got anywhere near as much done as I have, it's great to have the encouragement of like minded people not to mention the inspiration from the other blogs that are out there . If you were ever considering it, start blogging in the new year !

Thanks also for humouring my occasional alcohol based distractions; the cider is now at its best and hasn't yet led to blindness, I have also recently found a couple of Tudor Ale recipes which may well feature at some point.

A very Merry Christmas or Nadolig Llawen as they say in these parts.

Stuart

King's Spears complete !

2011-12-11T06:31:00.000-08:00

It's been a tough 8 weeks !

The King's Spears comprised of 50 picked men of noble birth (each with three supporters making a total of 200) whose role was to act as mounted bodyguards for Henry VIII, in a sense one of few 'regular' troops in the army alongside the Yeomen of the Guard whom they complemented.

The King's Spears existed in the years 1510-1515 and accompanied the King in the rear ward during the 1513 campaign. A similar body of 'Gentlemen Pensioners' were created in 1539, they still exist today as 'the Corps of Gentlemen at Arms'.

The sources I have used for inspiration with these figures have principally been the following two paintings from the Royal collection;

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/egallery/object.asp?object=405800&row=1281&detail=magnify

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/egallery/object.asp?category=276&object=406784&row=63&detail=magnify

There appears to have been a loose uniform of red and yellow of which contemporary descriptions and the above paintings confirm in the plumes, skirts and horse caparisons. I have adhered to this as I feel it helps to identify the figures as being part of a unit. I also added some other uniform aspects such as the sword scabbards, St George cross' on the breastplates of the knights and the cross design on their skirts.

The one exception to this is the trumpeter who is based upon this image from the Westminster tournament roll;

I really wanted to make this unit quite special and devoted quite a lot of time to each figure, in honesty, probably more than I lavished upon Henry !

The barding, as discussed in the last post, represented the biggest challenge. Having found some damask designs I then looked closely at the sources available and the figures to work out how each 'panel' would look, after that it was just a case of a very steady hand and a lot of patience - needless to say I don't want to paint another caparisoned horse for a while now! Here are some close ups;

I am rather pleased with the unit, it has hands down been the toughest paint job I have done, it really has tested my ability and dare I say I think I have become a better more patient painter for it.....along with honing my champion procrastination skills !

Here are a few more shots, the unit looks particularly stunning fulfilling its role alongside the Yeomen guarding the King.

I'm off for a bit of a rest now and will definitely be doing some nice easy infantry figures next !

Stuart

King's Spears WIP

2011-11-13T06:55:00.000-08:00

I thought i'd offer a sneak peak at my progress with the unit of Gentlemen Pensioners, so far I have 2 done with 2 to go. They are a small unit but very highly detailed, I have done a fair amount of research and pulled out all the stops to get these right.

Whilst painting I have had a number of pictorial references at my disposal much helped by my painting desk. I generally take it for granted but thought I'd share it as it really has been useful of late.

It's an IKEA 'Vika' desk combination, the feature that really helps is the raised glass top with room to slide reference material underneath which is great as books remain flat and don't get splashed with paint or water,plus you can leave the material there when you're not working (this is a bonus for cat owners such as I !)

I also mix paint on the glass which wipes off easily. There are a number of lid and leg combinations, it really is an excellent addition to the painting armoury.

So, reference material close to hand here's the present WIP, a fully caparisoned horse with decorative damask covering.

The image on the right is fully painted in the shade colours and the image on the left is the other side in progress. For the damask designs a trawl of google images has helped, below is a sample sheet which I have utilised for this horse, feel free to use it or see what you can find yourself, there are a lot of designs and stencils out there.

Have I mentioned damask enough? it took me a while to realise that that was the name for the type of patterns favoured by Gendarmes on their barding and clothing (I might be a painter but i'm no decorator !) and once I did realise it was quite a find so damask damask damask!

The unit should be finished soon, I've left the most detailed riders until last, I'm beginning to wish I started with them first !

P.S. I hope the new look blog is to your liking, it has been a bit of a distraction from fiddly painting!

Stuart

Tudor Longbowmen

2011-10-13T05:58:00.000-07:00

Right, this blog is back on track !

Here we have the latest few bases of Tudor longbowmen, essentially rank and file to get the numbers / proportions right and to ensure that there is a good scattering of the Tudor heads amongst the total force of bowmen. They've worked really well, with a bit of patience and trial and error you can really get some expressive poses.

There are a couple of minor conversions amongst these; I have tried my best at a casualty figure and also clothed him with a bend over his brigandine for identification. One of the bowmen also has his archers sallet hanging from his belt.

Aside from a few more bases with standards the infantry are now almost complete, note the 2:1 proportion of bill and pike to bow.

All the best.

Stuart

I'll be with you very soon I promise......

2011-09-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

I have taken a break from the brushes over the last couple of weeks but I hope you will agree my cause to be worthy; I need something to help me through the forthcoming dark nights of painting and if it is alcoholic and free then that's all the better !

Stuart

Work in progress

2011-09-12T04:50:00.000-07:00

Hello there

It has been a while since my last post so I thought I'd post a quick update.

I am presently rather slowly putting together some more archers to add some fire-power to the army, these are the latest, only 4 at the moment but I am quite pleased with their overall look with the Tudor heads, there will be 8 more to come before I base them up. These will be based as rank and file as most of the present archers in the army are all double based with flags so a few single bases will help to show casualty depletion - don't worry, there are a lot of flags lined up for forthcoming units.

I thought I'd also take this opportunity to recommend a book which I have been working my way through for the last few weeks; The Last White Rose, The secret wars of the Tudors by Desmond Seward.

It's a really interesting read and helps to paint a picture of the Tudor mindset. It has really put my understanding into perspective and is a great starting point to put some Tudor rebellion scenarios together for a renaissance continuation of the wars of the roses - one of these could well be the next army which I will put together. If you're interested, here's the link on Amazon;

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Last-White-Rose-Dynasty-Rebellion/dp/184529873X

I'm not quite ready for that yet though as there's still quite a bit to be done before this army is complete to my satisfaction. The goal is to have it done for 30 June 2013; 500 years to the day that Henry VIII stepped ashore at Calais to begin his invasion of France. Whether I reach it is another thing but there's always hope !

The current army list using DBR is as follows;

Commander In Chief, Ln S x 1

Sub General, Ln O x 1

Demilancers, Ln F x 2

Border Horse, LH O x 5

Longbowmen, Bw S x 8

Billmen, Bd O x 12

Landsknecht Pike, Pk O x 12

Landsknecht Arquebusiers, Sh I x 4

Imperial Ally general, Ln S x 1

Burgundian men at arms, Ln O x 4

Mounted Crossbowmen, LH S x 1

Landsknecht Pike, Pk O x 12

Landsknecht Arquebusiers, Sk O x 3

199 figures on 66 bases in total.

The amount remaining to do is;

Sub General, Ln O x1

Gentlemen pensioners, Ln O x 2

Demilancers, Ln F x 4

Burgundian men at arms, Ln O x 2

Longbowmen, Bw S x 10

Billmen, Bd O x 6

Landsknecht pike, Pk O x 4

Artillery pieces and crew x 3

95 figures on 32 bases in total.

Can I do that in 10 months? I'll have a good go at it !

Stuart

Sir Rhys ap Thomas

2011-07-31T07:35:00.000-07:00

Ta daa!

The first complement of demilancers are now complete with Sir Rhys ap Thomas represented as their commander; he served both Henry's very well, knighted at Bosworth, assisted in crushing rebellions in the years after and in 1513 he was in the foreward with both the border horse (recruited under Henry Percy) and his own welsh light cavalry under his command - his reconnaissance role was very much active during the campaign.

I chose to represent him wearing somewhat outdated armour as an indication of his age (65) and heritage, his 1525 tomb effigy also depicts him in earlier armour - I considered this figure just right.

There will be some more demilancers added to this quota at some point, the army list allows for up to 6 bases which I think I shall take as the army is otherwise predominantly infantry in the listings and they'll need some support and shock power behind them.

Speaking of which, it's back to the longbowmen to increase the offensive capability of the army (plus to see how the Tudor heads look on the archer figures)

Stuart

WIP; Demilancers

2011-07-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

No. 3, nearly there !

Here we have the standard bearer for the unit, I just have the commander to go and that will be it for now - I shall reveal him in the next post - unless you can guess it from the standard. He was a key player in the Bosworth campaign and still actively taking part in 1513 at 65 years of age.

For this model I chose to represent the rider as somewhat better off than his counterparts wearing the latest continental armour. The boots were a bit more of a pain to model as the wide 'bear paw' feet of the maximilian armour required a fair bit of filing before I could work with them which even after that made for a fairly wide looking boot in comparison to the others but I don't suppose they would all be uniform in that respect.

Stuart

WIP; Demilancers II

2011-07-15T06:54:00.000-07:00

Here is the completed demilancer no.2.

Once again some conversion work was done to the rider prior to painting, a head swap and some modelling of boots, I opted for a folded below the knee boot rather than almost to the hip, the former I considered a bit early - i'm no expert but I felt that these just look more of the period and they allow the armoured knee to show through.

I also added a sallet, hanging loosely next to the sword.

On to no. 3...

Stuart

Tewkesbury Medieval Festival

2011-07-10T10:04:00.001-07:00

A grand day out and all for £5.

Along with meeting a lot of interesting re-enactors I was fortunate to meet the artist Graham Turner as he was hosting an exhibition of his WOTR paintings, i'm sure he must get it a lot but I made a point of thanking him for his inspiring work.

I took quite a few photographs, most of which had some sort of 21st c trapping in them but here are a selection of those least affected by that.

None of the battle itself i'm afraid as i was a bit distracted - plus i had some ale in my hand - priorities!

Another point to note is the forthcoming book devoted to the battle re-enactment, have a look at www.1471battlebook.com

Enjoy !

P.S. I was racking my sunburnt mind all afternoon as I couldn't remember the name of the above liveried contingent - guesses anyone?

Stuart.

WIP; Demilancers

2011-07-05T08:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a taste of the unit I am currently working on. The army list I am using (DBR) calls for a contingent of demilancers. I think the term is perhaps more commonly associated with later cavalry but essentially these are light lancers in three quarter armour - a contemporary to the French archer perhaps?

I had always intended to do a few of these but took a while to gather my thoughts as to their appearence c.1513, with some help from the TMP renaissance forum I used this engraving by Durer as a starting point;

http://www.artinthepicture.com/artists/Albrecht_Durer/l-Knight-Death-and-the-Devil.jpg

The figure required a little work, namely careful filing of the legs while retaining the stirrups then sculpting the boots. I intend to have 4 of these to start with using a mix of early and contemporary armours to reflect the budget of the wearer, I might also do a couple of headswaps using the Perry Tudor heads for further variety.

What do you think?

Stuart

Retinue of Henry Algernon Percy

2011-07-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

The ale's all gone so it's on with the painting !

Here we have the base of bill with the Percy banner, there's a couple of lead mercenary figures in there as well which seem to work OK.

So now I have both the banner and standard of Henry Percy I thought it apt to get a shot of his retinue all together (with the St George banner thrown in for effect).

I need to paint up a few more bases of archers to even things out a little but I shall put that task on hold for a while as I think it's about time I painted some horse flesh, quite what i'm not sure, I shall peruse the army lists.

Stuart

Medieval Beer

2011-06-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

An enjoyable foray into brewing !

Ale is mentioned a fair bit in the various books I have of the Tudors so I wanted to look into this in a little more detail, here are my findings;

In Tudor England the most common drink was ale which, during this period was a drink made from malted grains, water and occasionally spices (but not hops) these were all fermented with yeast. The malted grain would be crushed and then hot water would be added and the mixture allowed to work, finally the liquid was drained off, cooled and fermented.

Beer on the other hand was a little different as it contained hops which added bitterness to the drink and also acted as a preservative but this was something still rather peculiar to the continent and rare in England during the early sixteenth century but it would have been available during the campaign as Flemish beer is known to have been victualled.

The ration for an English soldier in the 1513 campaign was 8 pints of ale a day and this was a very important part of the Tudor supplies as it was a source of clean water and kept the troops happy. They were also quite fussy about their ration;

The victualling commisioners in Plymouth reported to the Privy Council in May 1513 that the Lord Admiral had ordered that no more ale was to be brewed in the West Country as the soldiers preferred London beer, particularly if it had been brewed in March. Not only was this a matter of preference but the latter actually kept better as it was brewed from barley rather than oaten malt.

Ideally the preference was to drink ale as soon as it had been fermented (see the demi-john photo above) but it could be kept for up to six months provided it was stored in good quality oak casks.

The above information intrigued me as being somewhat ignorant to the subject I did not appreciate firstly the difference between ale and beer and secondly the difference in the appearence of a traditional beer now to that of those made 500 years ago.

Luckily I have a close friend who has been brewing his own beer for many years and over a few of his wares we agreed to conduct an experiment using a late fifteenth century recipe;

8.5 gallons water
3kg crushed malted barley
2.5kg malted wheat
750g pale barley
250g flaked wheat
wheat yeast

There are a lot of variations to the recipe and in essence this is not too different to modern recipes other than the abscence of hops, the water is not boiled before it is added and the relatively short fermentation of around 2 weeks.

The result?

Well, I tried the ale just after fermentation (see second image) this was know as 'fresh ale' and it tasted like........liquid alcoholic bread ! Without casking it would go off after a few days. Fresh ale was something which the soldiers would have been used to at home, with casked ale being something of a campaign staple, this was the taste I was hoping to re-create so after leaving it for another 10 days and chilling it (i appreciate that could be cheating a little!) the appearance changed quite dramatically to that of the final image and in honesty it tasted great, not disimilar to a blonde wheat beer with an abv of approximately 6.4%. The only thing missing is a name - all suggestions welcomed !

This is by no means an indication of all ales of the time as variation in the grains used will give an entirely different result, for comparison the next brewing foray at some point in the futre will be a darker ale, but I shall intersperse this with some painting.

Stuart

WIP; Banner of Henry Algernon Percy

2011-06-18T04:41:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to say hello. There has been a recent surge in followers which is good encouragement for me as I am quite a slow worker, i'm glad of the interest and hopefully I can inspire a few of you to paint up some Tudors.

The last 3 weeks or so have had a family, friends and beer theme throughout with the painting desk not really getting a look in, good times all the same but I have been missing it.

I have done a little on the research front recently and have found quite a few commanders of the campaign along with most of their standards and banners so I shall try and include as many as I can in the army, particularly those to whom I have details of which units they served in. With that in mind I have a couple of command groups ready to paint to lead the rank and file I completed in the last post; the first being the heraldic banner of Henry Algernon Percy.

Percy was a prominent commander of the 1513 campaign to whom I already have his swallow tailed standard represented in a unit of archers (you can see this in one of the earlier posts from last year). Percy contributed a large retinue of infantry along with almost all of the border horse. In addition to the green and white English livery coats the infantry were provided with hats and other garments of the red and black Percy livery, an added interest and worthy of a bit more attention I thought. Plus the Percy lands (Northumbria) are close to my hometown so there was a predisposition to have a few northerners represented.

The heraldry took a while to find, I had a black and white line drawing of it but no description as to the colours and then I stumbled across this;

http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/microsites/knightsofthegarter/MicroObject.asp?row=10&themeid=455&item=11

There's nothing quite like 'finding' stuff to spur you on to paint.

This figure has had a bit of conversion work with the arms, not something i'm 100% confident with yet but i'm quite satisfied with this one.

I shall post the finished unit soon.

Another sideline which I shall also discuss in future is a recent venture in Tudor brewing - it's still fermenting at the moment but when ready I shall tell you more - it looks a bit like river water at the moment !

Stuart

WIP; Rank & File (2)

2011-05-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

6 bases, all done !

That's the total rank and file complete with respect to bill. I intend to add a few double based units with flags and standards of some prominent commanders of the campaign, one of which I am currently working on, more on this soon.

I have made an effort to emphasise a slightly subdued palatte with this unit both to make the uniform / livery more prominent and to reflect the dyes available at the time so there are a lot of browns, muted yellows and greens and many 'dirty' variations on white for the gambesons. I have used a few more washes to give a bit more depth of colour also, I hope it shows, I really want these to look as authentic as I can get them for the period.

I have also developed a more productive routine which has resulted in a fairly quick turnaround - for me anyway, it's still painstakingly slow in comparison to serious gamers but something i'm quite satisfed with.

Stuart

WIP; Rank & File (1)

2011-05-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

Hello all, here's a quick progress update to show you what I have been busying myself with lately. Further to the last post, it is not often that I get the whole army out to have a good look at them to see what I want to work on next and seeing them all arrayed gives a much better indication than looking at an army list.

I would like to increase the proportion of bill in the army and I intend to do that in one swoop, 10 more new bases which along with the rather meagre existing bases will give me 14 in total.

Depending upon which source you look at for the early Tudor period there are a number of theories as to the proportion of bill to bow; 50/50 or 60/40 in favour of the bill seem to be prevalent but it's a bit confusing as there is little mention of any mercenary input to this figure, would the landknecht pike have been included within the 'bill' in the army rolls of the time? that being the case i'll need to get more archers done, or would it be a happy medium to have around a third pike, bill and bow respectively? Answers on a postcard, all thoughts appreciated....

Anyway, I am presently working on the rank and file and will finish off with a couple of command bases with standards. I shall add some more posts as I go along - i'm particularly looking forward to the flags !

Stuart

Halfway there.

2011-04-24T10:29:00.000-07:00

The last few weeks have been somewhat hectic and devoted to another project; I now have a very tidy garden which has miraculously cured me of an ear ache and will hopefully feed me through the months to come. That's the idea anyway, but I'd much rather be painting Tudors.

So, as far as points are concerned (305 under DBR) I am about halfway to what I originally set out to do. In saying that the general and sub general account for a high proportion of that so it's a bit of a bold statement but anyway, I thought I would mark the occasion with a photograph. The intention was to post this yesterday as being St George's day it would have been most fitting, but then the sun came out and the beach was calling me, followed rather closely by the pub, damn you willpower !

Talking of occasions; on Good Friday 1513 the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral gave an anti-war sermon before the King and stated, amongst other things that;

' those who went to war out of hatred or ambition, and slaughtered one another by turns, fought under the banner of the Devil.'

Shortly after this the Dean was summoned to Greenwich for a private audience with the king and he soon changed his stance on the matter, that, or discretion took the better part of valour.

You will also notice that the blog has had a name change. I'm not sure whether this will be permanent as yet but I thought it more fitting to my endeavour. Army Royal is the title of a book by Charles Cruickshank which studies Henry VIII's 1513 invasion of France and was very much the spark of enthusiasm which kick started this collection so I wished to give a nod to that, plus it very much captures the spirit of the blog and my efforts thus far.

Stuart

George Neville, Third Lord of Bergavenny (3)

2011-04-02T11:06:00.001-07:00

I'd like to have added this into the comments of the previous post but it doesn't seem possible to do so with photographs (that or i just can't see it, this blogging software has caused me to shout at my laptop a few times!) so further to the previous post here are a couple of shots of the retainer in blackened armour. This effect was achieved with a light drybrush of chainmail, a thin wash of dark blue followed by a light drybrush of chainmail again. Below is the alternative representation of the banner from a 1530 College of arms document with notes added in 1831 (typed in the 1920's.) This shows the banner halved green and white as opposed to red as it was in 1513, note also that the motto is over three bands along with the 'Bergavenny ' references both typed and the original in old English;

Regarding the entymology of Abergavenny the following link gives a good summary; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/abergavenny The title of Baron Bergavenny was first created in 1392 and was held by the Neville family from 1440-1626 This has definately been one of the most rewardinging blog posts i've done in a while; we have looked at heraldry, history, renaissance art and entymology ! Thank you for your comments and interest, it is excellent encouragement. Stuart

George Neville, Third Lord of Bergavenny (2)

2011-04-02T02:33:00.001-07:00

Further to the previous post here we have Neville based with his standard bearer and some men at arms. The figure I chose for Neville is a Landsknecht artillery gunner but I think it works quite well and fits in with the other figures.

I was going to have a couple of billmen on the base but I chose not to as I wanted this base to look slightly different and have more of an emphasis that this is a general. Furthermore, the Tudor army list I have been using (DBR) states that up to 1513 commanders can be based on foot 'in the old fashion' rather than mounted so this gives scope for other lesser known battles of the early Tudor period. One such engagement which springs to mind in this instance is the battle of Blackheath in the summer of 1497 during which Neville was one of the principal commanders under Henry VII.

There were simmering plots throughout the early Tudor period which almost spread into open warfare a number of times, it would be interesting to inject a little license, paint up a few contemporary rebels (Richard de la Pole springs to mind) and game the wars of the roses in the early sixteenth century with artillery and mercenaries much more prevalent.

Now there's food for thought!

George Neville, Third Lord of Bergavenny (1)

2011-03-30T08:00:00.000-07:00

George Neville (1469-1535) Third Lord of Bergavenny.

This is the first of a two part post to illustrate the standard of George Neville along with showing the very first painted examples of the new Perry Tudor heads released earlier this month. The next post will feature the command group based and ready for action.

The image above is a pen and chalk drawing attributed to Hans Holbein the younger and dated to the early 1530's. One of the aspects which drew me to the Tudors was the change in portraiture to more lifelike imagery, you can really get a sense of character in the subject.

George Neville was a victim of Henry VII who fined him the astronomical sum of £70'650 for retaining 471 men in contravention of the 1507 statute of liveries which he put in place in an attempt to legislate against individuals building private armies. Neville was suspected of harbouring Yorkist sympathies and this punishment was an instrument to guarantee loyalty. Neville paid off a small amount and two years later the king died with his son issuing a pardon. Four years later and the rise in popularity is evident as we see Neville a general in middle ward of the King's army of 1513 and, from his own estates and recruitment.....he took a large retinue !

Being one of the principal commanders and with a sense of history Neville was an obvious choice to have his banner represented, that was the easy part..... as what is now a trend in my Tudor flag research, I had to do a fair bit of digging on this one.

Below left is an extract from a document of the College of Arms, dated 1513 (possibly executed to list the principal knights who went on the campaign) it is this example which I have based my final drawing upon. There is another surviving example which is similar but the banner is horizontally parted green and white with the motto over three scrolls, this is dated around 1530 so either the banner changed or there were variations, I chose to go for the red banner as it works better visually and is closer to the period I am interested in. The motto which features upon both depictions is 'Tenir promesse vient de noblesse' this translates as; 'To keep a promise comes from nobleness.'

Below right is the basic line drawing ready for painting along with a colour example, click the image to see the details in full. In the latter I have painted all of the 'fiddly bits' to completion but left the main bodies of colour in their shade tone so that they can be highlighted after affixing to the flag pole and folded.

Here we have the finished flag proudly held by a stoic standard bearer, the sharp eyed of you will notice he has one of the new Perry Tudor heads. This works quite well with the body and illustrates one of the poorer knights who could not afford the latest maximilian armour. As an extra treat here is a trumpeter with another of the heads.

Von Frundsberg & Tudor Scurrers

2011-03-13T07:04:00.001-07:00

Further to my previous post, here is the painted banner of Georg von Frundsberg. The mounted figures were painted a few years ago but in need of re-basing so I took the chance to base him with a good flag and I also painted up a marching Landsknecht to add to the base as a nod to Frundsberg's role in history.

I also painted up another scurrer to add to my Tudor light cavalry, I had four painted and based but the DBR army list requires at least five. That and these being splendid figures was reason enough to do one more. Here for your enjoyment is the whole unit getting the group photo treatment;

Here's the new chap in person.

I'm really pleased with this unit, they really look good charging across the gaming table.

The army list allows for up to eight bases so I shall certainly get some more and give them a standard as well; Henry Percy was responsible for their recruitment so that's a good starting point.

Stuart

Banner of Georg Von Frundsberg

2011-03-02T11:44:00.000-08:00

I am currently in the process of re-basing some mounted landsknechts and have decided to have one of them carrying the banner of Georg von Frundsberg, a key leader of the imperial army.

The only initial points of reference that I had at my disposal were the Osprey books on the Landsknechts and German Peasants war respectively and they were somewhat contradictory.

Off to the internet I trawled, finally settling upon the following contemporary image as a reliable source;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allerlay_Wapen_11.jpg

The heraldry shown does slightly contradict that shown in this portrait which is also near contemporary;

http://www.st-max.org/ae-frundsberg.htm

I chose to settle for the first example as it provided some more detail, from this I created the basic black & white design shown above which will require a little more when painting to bring out the finer details, namely the horseshoe's in the Swan's mouths and the detail on the mountains.

Mountains? yes indeed, thanks to Stephan of Pro Gloria Miniatures, the translation of the Von Frundsberg heraldic charge is as follows;

'In gold there is a levitating five mountain (a mountain with five peaks) which is hollowed down under on a crowned helmet with black gold blankets there grows a golden swan'

I will use the above flag on its own but you could also use the following in addition if you were to represent the general (and enjoy a colourful flag filled base);

The flag on the Right is that of the Holy Roman Empire and that on the left is the Renfahnne, a symbol of office (and flag) of the Arch Marshall of the Holy Roman Empire; This position held the responsibility for the protection of the Emperor and the representation of his interests in the field. Georg von Frundsberg held this position under Charles V.

As a point of interest, a later representation of this flag is seen quartered with the arms of the serving Arch Marshall Gottfreid Heinrich Graf Von Pappenheim who held the position during the thirty years war;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marschall_von_Pappenheim_Siebmacher019_-_Freiherren.jpg

This process has taken me a while so I thought I would share it as there isn't that much out there which is immediately useable for the miniature painter.

I've forgotten how much I enjoyed all things Landsknecht !

Imperial Heavy Cavalry

2011-02-27T08:24:00.001-08:00

This week I have been mostly....... re-basing cavalry.

I'm sort of in a painters limbo at the moment; I have a legion of headless figures awaiting the forthcoming Tudor head packs and I don't want to commit myself to anything too large so this was a good opportunity to use my time well - plus 2 riders were unhorsed by my cat jumping on the table at a recent game so my mind was kind of made up for me!

To give the figures a bit more strength and to defend against any future feline assault I took the time to drill, pin and glue the riders to their horses - something which I think I will do with all cavalry from now on as it's such a tricky job to do to a painted figure.

So here are the results along with a couple of group shots for your viewing pleasure.

Now, what else can I do.......

Photographic musings

2011-01-30T02:45:00.000-08:00

I have been experimenting with photography over the past few weeks. Usually I simply take a photograph on the workbench when I have completed a unit; I construct a white box and use 2 angle poised lamps with daylight bulbs as light sources. The results are reasonable and give a good neutral setting to my brushwork but I have found that they can appear somewhat clinical at times.

So, whenever a weekend has had a good, bright start I have set up a scene on the windowsill to take advantage of the natural light, the first such session being the scurrers I did in the last post.
For the most part I paint rather than game and as a result I don't have a great deal of scenery which really is required for large group shots such as these. However, I popped down to Crusade 2011 yesterday and put that right with some cracking bespoke hedgerows from a relatively new company by the name of Hedgerow Scenics. Their website is currently under construction but save it for reference, I thoroughly recommend them and hope these pictures do them a bit of justice;

http://www.hedgerowscenics.co.uk/

They make an excellent background and help define the image, plus they look much more natural that a lot of the commercial alternatives out there.

I also purchased some Landsknechts as I intend to paint up a few more units of them this year (I have around 150 unpainted but I can't seem to ignore them !).

This is the centre company of the fahnlein that I'm putting together and in due course I shall have some units with pikes and halberds levelled and zweihanders charging out - I've got a few more Tudor units to do first so I'm not sure when, if you've been following this blog you'll be accustomed to my painting speed!

All the best

Stuart

Border Horse

2011-01-23T03:01:00.001-08:00

Starting off my 2011 painting schedule, here are some Border Horse to feast your eyes upon, they were a pleasure to paint and have kept me busy over the last few weeks.

I was umming and arring over what to paint next as I have a legion of headless infantry awaiting the forthcoming Perry Tudor heads so I needed to embark upon a relatively small stop gap project to occupy myself with and these chaps fitted the bill perfectly - and were a little influenced by spending time in the North of England over Christmas; reiver country.

The miniatures required minimal clean up, mainly on the horses but the quality of sculpt on them is fantastic and worth spending a little extra time getting them prepared. The figures come with a light lance which I have kept for my bits box in preference for arming these with light javelins / staves along with a shield.

By all accounts border horse were armed to the hilt so there are a lot of possibilities for adding extras to these such as pistols, targets, crossbows and bows wrapped in cloth, not to mention a sturdy cloak. I have tried to reflect that in the few additions I have made on these but there is much more scope with some patience and experiment so I shall be purchasing some more at some point to do just that.

With regard to the shields I looked around for some decent studded target shields but my search was fruitless. I found a few manufacturers but they didn't quite cater for what I was looking for so I used a plain shield with a simple St. George cross design. As far as I know, this, strictly speaking would be a bit late for the early Tudor period (unless someone can enlighten me) as I think it was mainly something which was used for recognition in the later Elizabethan Irish campaigns. Anyway, a little artistic license if you will, they look good and help to give a unit feel to the figures.

I opted for a palette of muted browns and greys as opposed to the white coats of the infantry as I felt it more appropriate for these troops.

As for the horses, these were all painted in the same three stage method which I generally use but with quite a few washes and extra work thrown in. I used a photographic book for reference; The Ultimate Horse by Elwyn Hartley Edwards, I found it really helped in matching the colours and getting these to look life like.

I might also add a standard bearer at some point, the obvious choice would be that of Lord Dacre of Flodden fame......now there's a thought, i'll get the French campaign army finished first!

So there we go, I hope you like these and they spur you on to get painting.

Stuart

2010-12-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

I've been working flat out in the day job lately and the many lonely Tudors on the workbench have unfortunately not really been getting a look in. To re-charge the batteries I am taking a bit of a rest as we come to the end of the year to see family, friends and so on and i'll be back raring to go in 2011.

All the best to you and yours

Stuart

George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury.

2010-11-02T07:04:00.000-07:00

Further to the previous post here's the finished piece.

Talbot was a lietenant-general in 1513 and commanded the 12'000 troops which comprised the foreward during the French campaign. He had previously fought for Henry VII at the battle of Stoke in 1487 and was made Knight of the Garter in 1488.

I've also taken this opportunity to experiment with some silflor basing materials which have been waiting to be used for the last few weeks, I thoroughly reccomend them!

Stuart.

WIP; The Earl of Shrewsbury

2010-11-01T09:10:00.000-07:00

I've had a fairly hectic few weeks lately with little room for painting but I have managed to find some time here and there to slowly put together a second command group for my Tudor army.

This trio represents George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, commander of the foreward during the 1513 campaign in France.

Just as the stand I put together to represent Henry VIII this has been a very challenging job with a fair amount of intricate painting which is sometimes obscured (unless you see them in the flesh) once they're all based so I thought i'd take a few photographs to give you a decent preview prior to the finished article.

I painted the figures in the order they are here. Starting with the herald, which I considered to be the easiest.....24 lions passant later I was ready for a break!
This is a Perry WOTR figure which I toyed with doing a headswap but decided not to bother in the end as this line is a little more slender than the figures they did for Wargames Foundry.

The standard bearer was fairly straight forward, I gave him a headswap with another cavalry figure and painted his skirt in the Talbot livery of red and black combined with the red cross of St. George (this is shown on a few sources depicting English knights of this period). The Flag was fairly straightforward albeit quite time consuming, i'm pleased with it though.

Finally, the Earl himself; I swapped his baton for a war hammer and painted him in a colourful blue and yellow garb (part of his heraldry) and opted to go for the black and red livery colours for the horse armour. I looked at a lot of sources for the cloth covering depicted upon horse armour of the period and found most to be very intricate. The floral roses I finally settled upon are taken from a wallpaper sample, in fact, that's my big tip for painting renaissance caparison armour, just look up 'black and white floral wallpaper / stencil designs' in google images or scour home decorating websites - i've printed off quite a few for future reference.

The Earl was a knight of the garter so I decided to show this on the armour also.

I shall take my time basing these three and hopefully will have a final finished piece by the end of the week.

Enjoy!

Stuart

Sir William Mathew of Llandaff

2010-10-18T00:25:00.000-07:00

The Christmas shopping has started already, well, the wife has anyway. So, hand in hand with this my clever avoidance tactics are wheeled out again, this time I had a look around Llandaff Cathedral (just outside Cardiff city centre) and noticed two interesting tombs in the area dedicated to the Mathew family.

The first was that of Sir David Mathew, a zealous Yorkist chieftan, some 6 ft tall depicted in armour of the late fifteenth century. He was made grand standard bearer of England by Edward IV and fought at his side at the Battle of Towton where he reputedly saved his life. He was killed / murdered during a riot in Neath in 1484.

Next to him is Sir William Matthew, his brother; born in 1460, knighted by Henry VII at Bosworth and part of the party who accompanied Henry VIII in 1520 at the field of the cloth of gold, he died in 1528. His tomb is interesting as it depicts him wearing a Lancastrian 'S' chain livery collar along with Tudor rose symbols and his armour is in a late fifteenth century Flemish / Greenwich style;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_William_Mathew%27s_tomb_in_Lllandaff_Cathedral.JPG

Here's a close up of the livery collar;

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_William_Mathew_Llandaf_Cathedral.JPG

It made me feel a lot better about the mix of figures in my Tudor army!

Stuart

Tudor billmen with livery banner

2010-10-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

After a few busy weeks I have managed to settle down to finish another stand of bill with a livery banner from the sheets of flags I recently put together. I'm quite pleased with it as it works particularly well with the livery coats that some of the soldiers are wearing.

Just for a treat here's the stand alongside the rest of the infantry I have painted so far. I'm slowly getting quite a decent host to worry many a frenchman!

This particular banner is fairly simple but effective I think, it is taken from a painting of Henry VIII's embarkation from Dover.

I'm currently working on some cavalry; another commander from the 1513 campaign, more on this soon.

On that subject, I received a very exciting email today from Eureka miniatures advising that their 100 club light cavalry / archers are almost ready. I've ordered 15 which is around £100 worth after import VAT and a clearance fee are taken into account but well worth it and great news for my Tudor army list; i'll use them as English demi-lancers.

Stuart

New and improved Tudor flags!

2010-09-25T02:32:00.001-07:00

Thanks to your comments and interest in my last post here are improved versions of the Tudor infantry and commanders flag sheets. They're cleaned up, symetrical and a bit better proportioned.

Flag sheet 3 completes the trio; Cavalry standards of the 1513 campaign. These are based upon contemporary woodcuts and paintings of the battle of the spurs along with the standard of Rees ap Thomas who was the commander of the light Cavalry during this campaign.

The Burgundian standards that I have found are either depicted as above or as a simplified yellow saltire upon either a red or blue background.

The English cavalry for the 1513 campaign numbered 4000 of which 1000 were the Kings Spears, in battle this would have been around 300 heavily armoured men at arms, a relatively small amount but it was the most Henry could muster.

The remaining 3000 cavalry were; 1000 Burgundian men at arms, 500 border horse, 900 mounted archers and 600 demilancers.

Stuart

Tudor Flags

2010-09-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have taken the time to collate some research to put together these two sheets of flags for Henry VIII's 1513 invasion of France. There's not much out there commercially as far as I can see so hopefully these should help any current or potential collectors of Tudor armies out there.

Sheet one has a few livery flags and banners which I could find of a couple of captains who are mentioned in the books I have. Sheet two has all of the main commanders.

As you can see they are black and white, ready to be printed and painted. I print them onto self adhesive paper and then paint, cut out and stick to the spear / lance which is to hold them. It's very simple and it works with the minimum of mess.

For colour references look at previous posts for the swallow tailed standards with the exception of George Talbot, 4th Earl of Shrewsbury, which looks like this;

I'm not sure what the motto was, there's a chance that it might be the same as his father John, so I'd welcome suggestions from any WOTR gamers out there.

The livery banners are all green on the right side with yellow fleur de lys / portcullis and a Tudor rose, here's an example;

The St George variants are red and white as you may expect with Tudor roses as above.

The Holy trinity is a bit of a guess. It was the same banner which was carried by Henry V's army at Agincourt which is shown as a white / gold shield with black script on a red background. The versions I have been able to track down show the shield in slightly different formats which are either as shown here or with the shield upside down (hope that makes sense!).

Somerset's flag is the royal arms bordered in blue and white with a yellow band, and the two captains of the middle ward, George Neville & Edward Stafford (both recorded as contributing large personal retinues for the campaign) are as shown here;

I have also included the Burgundian cross of Maximilian for the 4000 landsknechts which were hired for this campaign, again, colour notes are shown on a previous post.

There will be a third flag sheet at some point for the cavalry commanders, i'll put these up when I get round to sourcing some cavalry for the army.

Stuart

Arquebusiers (part two)

2010-08-23T10:44:00.000-07:00

Here are the finished units based and ready to go. I'm not the biggest fan of basing miniatures and my procedure so far is an amalgamation of things that i've found to work quite well in the past, such as;

using wooden MDF bases which don't warp when wet pva is applied
using a base of filler so that the lead bases on each figure do not show through
paint and drybrush, followed by
scrub and then static grass

I'm still not completely happy with it, I'd like to add other 'tufts' of foliage to represent tall weeds / wild plants or scrub but I can't seem to find the right stuff. I tend to use less grass than usual in an attempt to represent dry italian earth but I still feel that something is lacking, any suggestions?

I have the same amount of marching arquebusiers again, with the same figures but i'll put that on the backburner for now as i'm a bit Landsknechted out!

Next on the workbench will be some more Tudors, quite what I haven't figured out yet as i'm still assembling a perry boxed set (yes, the allied contingent is becoming an army!)

Stuart

Arquebusiers (part one)

2010-08-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

I have just finished painting some Landsknecht arquebusiers which I have been slowly working on over the past few weeks. The figures are all cast in the same pose with different heads and I thought that this offered a good opportunity to demonstrate how variety can be achieved in the way you paint a unit.

These will be based as two units and I have purposefully waited until they were all painted so that I could see which colours complemented each other the most. In my preparation I used the 'colour in' woodcuts from my Landsknecht painting guide for some of the figures, these and my sentiments further on this subject are stated here; www.stuartmulligan.com/landsknechts.htm

There are a couple of Imperialist field signs in the unit, such as simple crosses and the peacock feathers on the officer's cap, but after some thought I decided not to add a standard bearer so that effectively they're a free company which can act individually or in support of the pike block along with being useful as mercenary arquebusiers for my Tudor Army.

Also featuring on a couple of the figures are two new colours that I have recently added to my palette, namely; British Blue Grey & French Dragoon Green from Wargames Foundry's Napoleonic paint set.

I've really enjoyed painting these as I felt they represented a bit more of a challenge than Landsknechts usually do, being that they're all the same cast. I made an extra effort and scoured all of the source material that I have to inject some individuality and depth into each figure.

This was mostly achieved with the field signs and experimenting with colour as stated above but also in some of the smaller details such as;

the handles on the katzbalger's painted as wood

the lining of the officer's waffenlock and drummer & halberdier's doublets as canvas - (something I have noticed in a few contemporary paintings and in re-enactor's garb),and

painting the lace fastenings on the doublet as canvas or red

If this has been useful to you and you'd like me to photograph the next Landskechts I paint individually along with as a unit please say and I'll try and remember.

Coming up in part two will be these figures as a unit and no doubt a hint at the next item on the workbench.

Stuart.

Work in Progress

2010-08-05T11:26:00.000-07:00

I've altered the theme of the workbench as the old format had a couple of limitations. Some of the older posts need a tweak but all current stuff should look OK and hopefully be a bit easier to read and view.

I'm currently working on some landsknecht arquebusiers to lend some firepower to the pikeblock and also to test some new colours which I have recently extended my palette with.

Stuart

Banner of Maximilian

2010-07-16T09:57:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest landsknechts to roll off my painting desk. This unit represents a couple of things that I've been meaning to do for quite some time now;

Conversions; despite painting for 20 years I have only recently made some attempts at conversion work. The dead figure is a small conversion from a running figure and four of the figures have headswaps from the Perry WOTR boxed set. I'd quite like to have a go using 'green stuff' but i think i'll do bit of research on how it's used first, I'd welcome any web or book suggestions that anyone may have.

The flag; I did mean to put this flag in my landsknecht painting guide (see below) but never got round to it as i was a little daunted by doing it all by hand but I finally got some motivation and spent an evening sketching it out. It was particularly difficult getting the flint and steels to match up, photoshop came to the rescue in the end. Here's the basic drawing;

Feel free to use it, I couldn't find anything on the web that was free. It enlarges, reduces and stretches quite well and could be useful for a variety of armies.

Here's the painting guide; www.stuartmulligan.com/landsknechts.htm

I use the colour in mock ups from this quite a lot.

Stuart

Tudor Livery Banner

2010-06-27T05:12:00.000-07:00

This is the last unit of archers from the Perry boxed set which still has 6 unpainted billmen waiting to go, and all for £15, excellent value!

For this unit I have chosen to use a livery banner rather than a personal standard. This one is taken from a woodcut of the battle of the spurs and I think it works rather well, particularly alongside the livery jackets. The research I have made into the 1513 campaign has two more detailed descriptions of standards; namely Sir Rhys Ap Thomas who commanded the light cavalry and Sir George Talbot who by all accounts terrorised the French population, his hunting hound badge is mentioned a few times. Further to this I have descriptions of red and white livery banners charged with the Beaufort portcullis, a fleur de lys, and a tudor rose, along with quite a few varaints of the St George cross so there's plenty of scope for the next boxed set.

I have experimented with a couple of green and white livery jackets which are mentioned in two sources alongside the 'whyte garded wyth green' which is the mainstay of the majority of the infantry so far.

I have also painted one of the fletchings on each arrow red; this indicated to the archer which side should face away from the bow when the arrow was nocked with the two uncolored fletchings flat against the stave - I don't know whether this was the case with all arrows but it's a nice detail to add and looks good on the figures.

I must add, by way of sharing my frustration, that I had 3 unsuccesful attempts at a dead figure and just gave up in the end; - my strategy was to take a running / advancing torso, squish it a bit and have splayed arms with the head to one side but i couldn't get the legs flat without snapping them - they each looked like an falling dive - any suggestions?

Therouanne & Enguinegatte

2010-06-08T04:32:00.000-07:00

It's been a while but I have been on a long overdue holiday in France.

Whilst there I made a slight detour from my route to have a look at Therouanne & Enguinegatte, the site of the opening phases of Henry VIII's 1513 campaign at the head of a professional army 35'000 strong , arguably the finest in Europe at that time.

Enguinegatte or Guinegate as it is also known was the site of a skirmish referred to as the 'Battle of the Spurs' owing to the haste employed by the French gendarmes to leave the field. The site is a small village in an area of gently rolling pasture a few kilometers south west of the town of Therouanne which was beseiged by Henry's army.

One immediately apparent aspect is that due to a slight dip in the landscape you cannot see Therouanne from Enguinegatte and vice versa, so one can appreciate how the French were unaware of the English army in full array only a few moments away from them.

Therouanne is a much smaller and less greater town now than it was in 1513.

The siege was succesful and the town capitulated , after which Henry's pioneers and artillery, assisted by Maximilian's troops, razed the city to the ground leaving only the cathedral and the houses of the clergy adjoining it. The reasons are unclear for this, but the two main theories are either that Henry did not have the troops or resources to garrison and supply the town, or that he and Maximilian could not decide who should have the city so they destroyed it. For Maximilian's part this was a satisfactory outcome as the staunchly French city was a thorn in the middle of his Burgundian territory.

Being of strategic importance Therouanne was rebuilt and its fortifications repaired within two years of its sack only to be beseiged and razed to the ground yet again by an army under Charles V in 1537, again for the same reasons only this time he did a more thorough job.

When I arrived I was a little confused that I could not find any walls, towers or cathedral until the above was explained to me in broken French / English by the curator of the museum in Therouanne which is well worth a visit; it is only housed in four small rooms but is free and holds a modest collection of finds from the area.

Of particular interest were arquebus balls of various calibre, stone cannon balls from the siege, bodkin arrow heads, lance tips and funnily enough, a few spurs which could have pinpointed the engagement. However, there was also a battle here in 1479 which had heavy cavalry and archers on both sides so the finds could easily have been from that engagement.

There was one artefact which I believe pinpointed the 1513 campaign, this was a harness / bridle buckle with an embossed tudor rose, I must admit, it was definately a eureka moment looking at it in the display cabinet, one which immediately brought to mind looking at the tiny silver boar at the Bosworth museum.

So there you are , Henry got his puissance but not quite an engagement comparable to Flodden. There is certainly scope to wargame a few 'what if' scenarios as two sizeable armies were very close to one another. For further reading, and a couple of useable scenarios I reccomend Charles Cruickshank's 'Army Royal' or the later illustrated version 'Henry VIII & the invasion of France.' Both explain the campaign in astonishing detail and list a number of lesser known skirmishes which took place.

Coming soon, probably some more Tudors!

Landsknecht Headswaps

2010-05-16T08:13:00.001-07:00

I had a few spares left over from the Perry WOTR boxed set, mainly arms but also a few heads, some of which I thought could work on Landsknecht bodies.

I have to say I'm quite pleased with the results; the visored sallet and bevor in particular looks good on the pikeman advancing. The others seem to add a nice Italianate touch to the standing figures, what do you think?

Landsknecht Pike

2010-04-06T10:01:00.000-07:00

These have been waiting a while to be based and I finally got round to it today, some of the figures were used in my Landsknecht Painting guide;

www.stuartmulligan.com/landsknechts.htm

The flag represents the city of Memmingen (and is also in the above painting guide).
These figures are the first phase in a stripping and re-painting project which may be ever perpetual until I die or stop being a perfectionist! - I hope I'm not alone in this idiosyncratic approach to painting.

Tudor Contingent So Far

2010-03-26T05:24:00.000-07:00

I have reached a natural pause in the collection and painting of my Tudor allied contingent; there are twelve figures left to paint from the Perry WOTR boxed set which will be based as single DBR elements without flags (so the hard work is done so far).

The next elements to add to this contingent will be some demilancers and border horse - hence the natural pause as i'm going to await the release of the Eureka lightly armoured gendarmes to represent the demi-lancers and i'm not sure what to use for the border horse - all suggestions gratefully accepted!

Once I have got around this minor problem I could quite easily extend this allied contingent into an army of its own right with the following;

Gentlemen Pensioners (Foundry Gendarmes)
Artillery (already have but could paint up a tudor crew)
Landsknechts (I have lots of these!)
Burgundian Gendarmes (currently painted and in my Maximilian army)
more archers and bill (1 more Perry boxed set)

The Duke of Suffolk

2010-03-26T05:15:00.000-07:00

Here is the Duke of Suffolk with his standard bearer, hopefully these photographs should show off the standard to its best, I had fun creating it.

The Suffolk Standard

2010-03-24T09:47:00.000-07:00

Back to the Tudors!

I have been working on the second, and final archer command stand which will represent Charles Brandon, Lord Lisle (later the first Duke of Sufolk).

The banner was put together using free Heraldry clip art and assembled in Adobe Photoshop. I then printed it onto self adhesive paper and painted the base colours, painting to completion on the heraldic devices.

Once this was done I cut out the flag using a scalpel, peeled off the backing paper and attached to the flag pole, folds were then added and highlights made to the base colours.

The figures are currently being based and photographs will follow soon.

Charles was Henry VIII's brother in law and perhaps his closest personal friend. He was the son of William Brandon, standard bearer of Henry VII, who was personally slain by Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field 1485.

He distinguished himself at the sieges of Tournai & Theouranne during Henry VIII's 1513 French campaign where he served as high marshall (2nd in command of the whole army and with direct command of 3200 men of the middle ward).

He later served as Commander in Chief during the (frustratingly unsuccessful) campaigns of 1522 & 1523.

Charles was appointed Master of Horse in 1513 and given this I may also represent him on horseback at a later date.

Further details of his life can be found via the following link;

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/suffolk.htm

A Landsknecht Painting Guide

2010-02-17T00:07:00.000-08:00

I was recently approached by Richard Knapton of the Renaissance Wargame Society and asked to put together a Landsknecht Painting Guide similar to the medieval one below, for the forthcoming issue of the Reiter.

It soon snowballed as there were a lot of things I wanted to mention, the memory of slight anxiety from when I first painted these mercanaries (15 years ago) still being a fresh one.

There's a wealth of hints and tips, two step by step guides, plenty of links and a downloadable 'Landsknecht Painting Programme (c) ! '

I was unable to give it full justice on here so it has its very own website;

www.stuartmulligan.com/landsknechts.htm

I hope to add more to this in the coming year.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers

Stuart

A step by step painting guide

2010-02-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

I've got a busy few weeks ahead with little room for painting so I have taken the time to put together a step by step guide to my method of painting with a few hints and tips that I've learned over the years. It's also a rough guide to the Tudor uniform I have contrived for these figures / this army.

To start I recommend having some decent source / reference material to hand that covers the period you're focusing on and the equipment and clothing of the models you're working on.

In this instance I have gained a lot from two books; Osprey's Henry VIII's Army and to a much greater extent; The Medieval Soldier (15th century campaign life in colour photographs) by Embleton & Howe. It's by no means cheap but I have found it to be an excellent indispensable resource.

I'm not going to dwell too much on light but I find it easiest to paint during the day with an angle poised desk lamp fitted with a daylight bulb for extra light which is particularly useful for detailed work. When painting at night I have this along with a daylight bulb fitted in the room light directly above me, this really helps to get rid of any shadows which ultimately will stop you creaking your back and/or neck chasing the best light - and that's no fun.

The paints I use are those of the Wargames Foundry paint system. I've used a variety in the past but find these the best for the following reasons;

Opacity, it's just right and really suits a black undercoat, no laborious re-painting or thinning.
The 3 step system is great and the colours are on the whole suited to it, I rarely mix paint now which results in figures being done to a good standard quickly.

Taking the above into account and the amount you get, they're good value - their brushes are good also.

Stage one

Here we have two figures assembled, undercoated black and glued to a cork.

A couple of notes on assembly; This boxed set is excellent and the will to see what all the figures look like fully assembled was very strong here, seriously, I have not been this excited about miniatures in a very long time.

Anyway, take your time and think about the poses you're crating along with the arm, head and body combinations, here are my tips;

Take your time, don't rush in.
Remove everything from the sprues so that you can have a good look at what you have.
Use blu tac to experiment with until you have what you want.
File down each piece with a needle file and then an emery board for a smooth finish.
Don't model archers with a visor-down sallet, it just doesn't look right, especially in a loosing pose.
For those poses loosing or reaching for arrows tilt the head slightly, it's a simple thing to do but it looks much more natural.
I used a thin superglue as opposed to polystyrene cement as I find the latter can sometimes bubble or melt the plastic slightly and is just generally a lot more messy and unforgiving. Furthermore I have found that once thin superglue is dry it's easy to remove arms or heads at a later stage without too much hassle - polystyrene cement isn't always as easy.
Use any source material you have to hand to help you / give inspiration.

Once you've assembled your figures pick one, two or however many you want to go with and glue them to a cork. I used to use 2p pieces and bits of card but my hands and particularly thumbs really hurt after half an hour or so, with corks you can manoeuvre the figures better and they're easier to hold on to.

Stage two

Drybrush any armour or large metal area in the first colour (Foundry Chainmail 35A) Leave out smaller metal areas such as knives, buckles and so on.

Don't load your brush too much. I usually polish armour on metal figures but for plastics drybrush quite thinly leaving some of the black as it helps to give you an idea of the ridges on the helmet and is a good guide for the latter stages.

Stage Three

Another reason for this post is to show how I paint brigandines. I'd normally go straight to stage Five but this is an exception as it's leading to a wash which can get messy and will need a little touching up in black for any areas touching the washed area, so to that effect, stages 3 & 4 are used whenever I decide to use a wash on a figure.

Here I have painted the whole brigandine in Scarlet shade 38A, going over the rivets, these will be sorted later, just be careful to be neat around the belt and try to show some black showing through where plates meet.

Stage Four

Paint the flesh with Flesh Shade 5A leaving a small amount of black wherever the flesh touches another surface and also in the eyes and between the lips.

Stage Five

Mix Scarlet shade 38A, Bay Brown Shade 42A and water in equal parts and apply to the brigandine then add a little more scarlet and water to this mix and apply to the flesh,experiment with the latter wash for different flesh tones. I find that this wash really helps bring out the faces on these figures.

Stage Six

Complete the flesh with the mid-tone and highlight. Leave the bottom lip untouched from the wash, the highlight only going on the bridge of the nose, forehead,chin and knuckles. At this point in can be handy to look at any faces - particularly photographic, in your source material to help you get an idea of facial muscles and natural furrows and lighter areas.

Completing the flesh at this early stage gets the hardest job out of the way early and gives the figure character and depth.

Stage Seven

The cross and green guarding are painted onto the coat, (Scarlet 38A & Phlegm Green 28A) this is so that in the next stage a very fine black outline can be left around these areas giving the figure more depth - it's also a lot faster and easier than painting these areas after the rest of the coat has been done.

Stage Eight

Apply the remaining base colours to the rest of the figures, the colours here are;

Canvas 8A for the coat, arrow shafts and jack sleeves.
Scarlet 38A for the leg.
Arctic Grey 33A for the striped leg and arrow fletching.
Phlegm Green 28A for the arms.
Deep Brown Leather 45A for the belt, chinstrap and archer's bracer.
Chestnut 53A for the satchel and purse
Spearshaft 13A for the bill shaft, bow and bollock knife handles
Metal 35B for the buckles, arrowheads, splints and as slight highlight on the helmets and bill head
Base coat is left for the legs and re-applied to the rivet heads on the brigandine in preparation for the final stage.

Not too many colors with some on both figures making for a swifter job, the black undercoat really helps at this stage giving you a nice outline around everything along with any areas which are to be black being already done for 'free' so to speak.

Furthermore, if you need to field an army fairly quickly you could halt at this stage, it looks OK, particularly because the flesh is complete - just don't varnish them and you can return when you have time or after the battle.

Stage Nine

Midtones. All I can say really is take your time and be neat, ensuring you apply these within the colours already laid down and not over or outside them, this will contribute further to the depth. Notice the bow only has the midtone applied to the horn ends and the outer edge. The colours used here all the midtone shades of those mentioned above. Again, you could stop at this stage if you wished.

Stage Ten

Highlights. Just as stage nine really; make sure you only apply these within the area of the latter stage so that they are a highlight rather than blending into the other colours / stages. It is important to get this stage right. For the red areas I have sparingly applied a further highlight of Orange shade 3A. At this point the rivet heads are painted in Burning Gold 44B.

Stage Eleven

Job done!

So, that's pretty much it, for reference this took me around 3 hours.

I'll do horses and high detail (patterned areas such as gendarmes barding and gowns ) guides at some point.

I hope this is useful to you and gives a few pointers.

One of the things it shows I think is how it is possible to do a conversion to a figure just through the way that you paint it.

I have painted for 20 years now and practice does count towards a lot. However, I really do think that if you get a decent set of paints and brushes, use a black undercoat, and above all take your time the rest will just fall into place.

Feel free to ask anything in the comments.

Cheers!

Stuart

First unit of archers are finished!

2010-01-30T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here's the first division of Archers fully based and ready to go. I'm really pleased with the way they've turned out.

They're mostly uniform in appearance but each with its own character. The brigandines and jacks posed a challenge in the way the white coat should be represented, for the brigandine I have kept these simple and painted them as red or green with gold / brass studs. As for the jacks I have chosen to paint them mostly white with a red cross as here;

These are unvarnished as yet and I think I'll leave it that way for now - do plastics need varnish or suffer knocks and flecks as easily as lead figures?

I've not painted plastics in a very long time and there were a couple of little mistakes / learning curves along the way so here they are;

* Use filler when basing as without, even with thick PVA for the sand and static grass you'll get a predominant circular raised outline at the foot of each figure (I based one stand twice!)

* Finely smooth the mould lines with an emery board, particularly on the bows, arms and helmets - even then give each figure a second look over before you undercoat it.

The Percy Standard

2010-01-10T11:02:00.000-08:00

This was not a straightforward job to do!

Henry Algernon Percy, the 5th Earlof Northumberland, had a large contingent in the 1513 invasion of France. It is from this contingent that perhaps some of the more detailed information survives with regards to the uniforms and equipment carried by his men and as this was the best source I could find to 'Tudor-ise' the archers from the Perry boxed set I decided to represent him in my force.

The main source I used for information was the Osprey MAA book; Henry VIII's Army, as this has a colour illustration of the flag. There is also a reference to its appearance and heraldic charges in the Osprey MAA Wars of the Roses book, although this does somewhat contradict the illustration in the former as it mentions a white unicorn with a gold crown around its neck.

I decided to omit the unicorn as the flag is quite busy to start with!

To begin I scanned in Henry VIII's flag from Ian Heath's Armies of the 16th century so that i had the correct shape. I then removed Henry's charge and left the cross of St George at the hoist and the diagonal strips for the motto.

It was then a case of finding a lion passant and crescent in jpeg form to add to the banner. I removed the lion's tail as it is represented slightly differently than usual - this along with the hunting horn, manacles,motto (esperance en dieu - hope in god) and falchion I painted on freehand.

So here it is ready to be attached to the standard bearer. I have fully painted the heraldic devices but left everything else in its base colour to highlight once the flag has been attached and folded.

For reference, I have printed the flag design onto an A4 adhesive label sheet, this will then be cut out, peeled off and attached to the pole - no glue, no mess.

As mentioned, this wasn't an easy job so I thought I'd share it's process with you as it was very much trial and error, feel free to use the illustrations if you wish.

Further reading on Henry Algernon Percy is available via this link;

http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/henrypercy5.htm

Photographs of the command group will be uploaded soon.

Tudor Longbowmen

2010-01-06T11:00:00.001-08:00

With Henry done I thought I would start with the core of the contingent; Longbowmen.

I decided to use the recently released perry plastics WOTR boxed set, a little early but not too much and in absence of any decent figures by any other manufacturer i thought I would buy a box and see what i could do with it.

The first step was to do some research and the points of reference I've used are;

Osprey; Armies of Henry VIII & English Longbowman
Ian Heath; Armies of the 16th Century
Embleton & Howe; The Medieval Soldier
Charles Cruickshank; Army Royal / Henry VIII & the Invasion of France
A few books on heraldry

The main challenge was how to get figures designed for 1455-85 to look a bit more like 1490-1513 and 1513 ideally.

As this is an allied contingent on the continent I knew that these had to be wearing white coats with the cross of St George.

Given the amount of money that Henry VIII lavished on his army for his cross-channel invasions i opted for a relatively uniform appearance in that there would be some variation in the coat (be it long sleeved, short sleeved or sleeveless) but not in the cross and the fact that each coat would be 'guarded in green' as is described by contemporary accounts of troops serving both in France and at Flodden.

The rest of their kit is non uniform but i still wanted to give them a professional, well paid look.

The first unit (4 bases of 12 figures in total) will be based with a flag to represent the Duke of Northumberland who commanded a contingent in France at the time. His flag is shown in the Osprey MAA book but curiously without a St. George cross at the hoist which i think i will add - more on this as i do it.

With these troops representing his contingent there are elements of black and scarlet (the Percy family) in the hose, sleeves and accessories.

Here's the Longbowmen that I have painted so far;

I'm quite pleased with the results, they're not quite 1513 but certainly 1490-1500 so close enough as far as I'm concerned. Plus they were a joy to paint, there's a lot to be said for decent figures.

I am currently working on a trumpeter and standard bearer.

Tudor Allies

2010-01-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

Currently I am working on a small allied contingent of English troops, these will be composed of;

8 bases of longbowmen (24 figures)

4 bases of billmen (12 figures)

2 bases of border horse (2 figures)

2 bases of demilancers (4 figures)

C in C, Henry VIII (4 figures)

So far I have Henry;

There isn't really a decent range of figures for a Tudor army of the period so for this base I used Wargames Foundry gendarmes (which are perfect) along with two marching Landsknechts painted to represent Yeomen of the Guard which I think work quite well also, I chose a larger base than the usual 60 x 40 mm as I wanted a centrepiece and this really was a labour of love, 6 weeks in all.

I wanted it to be something of a challenge and it that it was. Henry is based upon a painting of the Battle of the Spurs, this clearly shows him in some detail although his horse is obscured so for this i used some imagination.

The workbench so far

2010-01-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Hello there

I have slowly been collecting and painting a Maximilian Imperial army c. 1494-1518, I am basing to DBR rules along with using their army lists.

Here's the army so far;

Pike block, this contains figures painted 10 years ago (foreground) and landsknechts added more recently in the centre. I think I will eventually strip the old figures and repaint them as the difference in painting styles are noticeable; I used to paint from a white undercoat with a lot of washes and drybrusing whereas now i use a black undercoat and the quality of the paints are better.

Gendarmes; these are more recently painted, notice the mixture of flags this army can easily represent the German minor states also.

Spanish; I have a small Spanish contingent, this was the nucleus of a project to also have a Spanish Imperial army but i stopped as i couldn't find any decent pikemen - i tried TAG, old glory and front rank and i just wasn't happy with them so that got mothballed.