More Hundred Years War Perry Goodness (Rescued from WaybackMachine)

I've been trawling through my old website again on the hunt for pictures that could be potentially be rescued from WaybackMachine. It is quite a frustrating process as more often then not the images most desirable for rescue will not link and I find myself just left with the thumbnails which are far too small to republish.

What we have here are photo's which were all part of my Agincourt project started immediately after Perry Miniatures began to produce their amazing Agincourt to Orleans range. All the bases were put together for a Warhammer Ancient Battles English army for the Hundred Years War supplement was being written by Alex Buchel of Saga fame. unfortunately GW close the book on WAB just prior to the publication of Alex's HYW supplement but we did get to enjoy a weekend with a taster of what we had missed at Games Workshop in Lenton on one of the WAB campaign weekends. For me, the miniatures for this range from the Dynamic Duo were just so dynamic, so full of action they screamed vignette style basing. To give you some idea of when the collection was started; the range, in metal, was certainly beginning to be released pre-2011 as I had already out much of the army together before moving back to England from Scotland in 2011. 

As I was saying, I made a real effort to set up each of the bases, which in WAB are supposed to be single miniatures based on a 20mm for Close Order or 25mm for Skirmishers/Light Infantry. This basing convention was excessively restrictive and not at all conducive to the vignette style basing I was aiming to produce. I wanted the miniatures to look as though they were in a fight; the high quality dynamic sculpts simply demanded it!

All the imaged are "clickable" though due to the manner in which the WaybackMachine links work, some are larger then others!

Here we have Henry V and his Heraldic Banner Bearer, Sir John Codrington along with the John de Vere, Earl of Oxford. They are based on a 120mm wide unit of three stands of 40mm x 40mm, two stands of 20mm x 40mm and two ordinary WAB bases of 20 x 20mm for ease of casualty removal. The miniatures were not bases in the usual WAB manner which would have been 6 in the first rank, six in the second and finally six in the rear rank, all on 20mm ox 20mm bases(!), which was way too regimented for my taste. The Hundred Years War is a period I dearly love, it brought me into wargaming and I wanted to do the units justice.

A couple of close ups of the above unit.

Here we have Sir Thomas Erpingham with his heraldic banner bearer still holding his famous baton as the archers gear up to the attack. The Stakes vignette at the front made use of the Perry Miniatures, AO5 Archers preparing for battle,hammering in and sharpening stakes pack. It was important to me to find a way to add some effusive energy as well as a feeling of real urgency to the unit and the PM AO5 pack was just the ticket. 

The Second longbow unit was set up as to have the archers in action as the French Men at Arms neared. I wanted the Archers to have that same feeling of urgency as in the former unit. In retrospect I think I over did this as lining up the Archers with some of the miniatures from the Perry Miniatures, AO6 Dismounted men at arms advancing into an arrow storm, produced a unit that was a little too sparse. 

I encountered the same problem with the final Archer unit (or maybe as Alex's HYW WAB event in Notts Approached I found myself running pout of painting time?) which is far too sparse for my taste nowadays. The thing to bear in mind is these were my first forays into vignette style basing and it was very much a learning process for me.

It would be remiss of me not to add my thanks to David Imrie for taking the scenic pictures above at SESWC, my opponent for that night for being patient while we set up the shots and finally to Barry Hilton of League of Augsburg fame for his brilliant Flodden bases, which are no longer in the Gallery on the LOA site but if you pop over to HERE, you will get an idea of how Barry's basing was to serve as inspiration to me.

More pictures dragged kicking and screaming from WaybackMachine:

Another shot of the first base of Longbowmen:

Of the "Stakes" vignette:

Close up of the Sir Thomas Erpingham Longbowmen Unit:

Archers in action unit:

Archers getting "Medieval on their asses" unit- right side, front:

As above but the left side, front of the base:

And again at eye level:

Close up:

Charles, Duke of Orléans and Jean II le Maingre, Marshal Boucicaut reaching the stakes and facing fierce resistance from the Archers. 

Archer nocking and fallen comrade:

And a few pics, again rescued from WaybackMachine of my army in the thick of it at Alex's Hundred Years War Campaign weekend in Notts many a moon back:

A Henry! A Henry! A Saint George!