A Sequel to Hastings?

BBC News:

Read about it HERE!

Bye for now.

Hastings Demo; Bad News!

It is with a great deal of regret that I've got to announce that the Hastings demo that I had planned for Salute this year is not going to go ahead. The reasons are many but the two foremost are that i/ I've been struggling with a lot of stress for a while now and it basically isn't wise to proceed in terms of health. ii/ I wouldn't be able to get the painting done in time to the standard that I would want to present. It doesn't seem worthwhile to just slap on the paint and spoil a good looking game with shoddy workmanship.

I have to pass on my apologies to the organisers of Salute, to Dave Lancaster and the members of the Lance and Longbow Society et al. It is just not possible to do it this year.

Bye for now.

Hastings Ruminations I

It's been in my mind a little; the so called Feigned Flight of (initially) the Bretons.... was this the case?

With the distance of the years it's an almost impossible question to answer. There is however another intriguing possibility.

To set the scene. The Bretons have panicked and with this a general retreat of William's army is starting to take hold. Harold, thinking the time is right to strike the killing blow orders a part of his army to persue. This is a very plausible scenario and one that may well have taken place. It would certainly account for the persuit of one of Harold's flanks into the boggy ground where they were to be cut down, probably to a man.

This does of course raise another question; who led the advance? From what I've gleaned thus far about the battle Gyrth and Leofwine, the two brothers Harold had present at the engagement seem to have died at a different point in time to Harold. Does this imply therefore that they were not with Harold's Bodyguard of Huscarls but spread throughout the battle line in order to stiffen the resolve of the Anglo Danes? If so (and with the actual evidence or lack of that we have I know that it's a big if!) then one or both of the brothers may have said the counter charge.

It certainly sets my imagination away. I can see a command vignette of Gyrth or perhaps Leofwine leading the doomed persuit in my minds eye.

Hastings Demo; Baggage Vignette

This piece was, actually, believe it or not about ten years in the making! Roughly a decade ago I needed a baggage base for one of WAB Campaign Days organised at Gripping Beast GQ by Martin Gibbons (author of the WAB 2 Book).

I never managed to find the time to get it completed, in fact, only the flesh on the men and the horse were done. Everything else has been painted recently. It has been a real eye opener as to just how much my style of painting has developed in that time. Today, I use at least five layers of major surfaces and back then it looks very much as though three was the max, when it came to highlighting. also, the leap between each layer was more pronounced and this can be seen very well if one examines the faces.

The miniatures are a mix of Crusader and Wargames Foundry, from their newer range of Anglo-Saxons.

Overall, I think that the base looks a bit sparse and could have done with one more mini adding to help complete the story; another lackey struggling with the baggage perhaps? Unfortunately I didn't realise this until the last minute and because of my busy painting schedule I didn't have the time to paint up another mini. C'est la Vie!

The colours are muted as they always are these days except perhaps on the horse and faces.

Paints were a mix of all sorts, AK, VMC, WF etc.

Bye for now.

Hastings Demo Huscarls; Whole Unit

Hi,

I managed to get some pics of the whole unit including Harold's base taken on my rather dodgy crumpled background. Apologies for the condition of the background, it's certainly ween better days and I'll be making a new one ASAP. As soon as I've re-supplied by ink jet printer with ink! It's about £30 a pop so maybe it's time I bought a laser printer?

If anyone has any suggestions as to a different type/colour of background I'd love to hear it(?). I'm so used to using a blue background that I'm a bit at sea when it comes to the question of switching(?).

As I have said, the pic included Harold's base, of which I have pics of somewhere on this PC(???) and will post them up here as soon as I've found them!

I'm quite happy with the unit as it has the right sort of animated look that in my imagination the shieldwall at Hastings would have looked in the fits of melee that took place.

Bye for now.

Battle of Hastings Demo; Huscarl Base III

Hi, Base III for the Huscarls that will stand in the front ranks of the already completed Ceorls is now finished and ready for your delectation. 

As usual I've deliberately kept the hues toned down and muted. My Art School education was has not been  entirely squandered! This base represents one of the units on the flanks of the guys wielding their Daneaxes as I wanted to focus the attention of the Axe wielding maniacs toward the center of the unit.

There is the usual mix of miniatures, Mostly Gripping Beast (Patten sculpts), but if you look closely you will notice the Foundry casualty, the GB (Soapy sculpt) and there's a Saxon miniatures chap in there wielding his big chopper! 

I've got the command base which depicts Harold fighting in the thick of the action already finished, I'll add pics of it tomorrow before trying to create a background that is big enough to photograph the unit in it's entirety. I'll do one that included the Ceorls in the back tanks too.

Bye for now.

Battle of Hastings Demo; Huscarl Base II Added 06.01

Well, against all the odds I did it! Base no. II for the unit of Huscarls is now completed and photographed and ready for posting.

Again the unit is a nice mix of OOP Gripping Beast, Patten Sculpted Gripping Beast and Saxon Miniatures. No Soapy GB sculpts nor Footsore Miniatures this time as were included on the first base of the unit that can be seen HERE.

I've gone for a front rank of chaps wielding their choppers with vigour unlike the last base which was very much a mix. These fellows will be sharing the honours in the middle of the unit with the command base. The command base, in this case will contain Harold Godwinson et al as it is very likely that he fought in the front line as an example to his men. Just to add to the confusion there will be a seperate Harold Command Stand (seen HERE and HERE) which will be hovering about wherever Harold Godwinson decides to roam on the day of the game ie. as an indicator of just where he is on the battlefield. I also have Command bases planned for his brothers and some of the other commanders. More about that later.

The palette is muted as usual, colours on all but the very wealthy in the Early Medieval period would have been made from natural plant dyes and =have faded reasonably quickly. Especially on campaign.

I've added a pic that a re-enactor friend of mine sent me at the bottom of the page indicating the sorts of colours it was possible to produce from such early dyes.

A surprising wide array of colours possible for clothing on the Early Medieval period:

Bye for now.

Battle of Hastings Demo; Huscarl Base I (Unit I)

Since I got the Christmas Painting done it's set me into a bit of a frenzy getting the miniatures painted up for the Hastings Demo at Salute this year. Not long to go now!!

I've got the first base Huscarls finished; these will be the front rank of the four bases of Ceorls I have already done. It's going to be a race to the finish getting the armies painted but I have time on my side (only just!) and about 40 or so Norman Milites already painted.

The miniatures I have used in all my Huscarl bases are a mix of Gripping Beast (OOP), Gripping Beast (Soapy Sculpts), Gripping Beast (Patten Sculpts), Saxon Miniatures and Footsore Miniatures. There may well be some Crusader Early Medieval (oh, go on, I'll say it for you, "Dark Ages" )stuff added to this lot too.  I've been collecting early Medieval miniatures for well over fifteen years so I have quite a pool to choose from!

Without further ado, here's the first Huscarl Base for the First Unit (man, it sounds like I've got a long way to go when I say that out loud!):

I'll hopefully have another base ready tomorrow at some point (fingers firmly crossed!!)

Bye for now.

Hastings; Cavalry Base Test

For those that don't know and I figure that will be most of you, the game will be taking place at Salute next year next to the Lance and Longbow Society stand. Indeed, the game is being put on for the Lance and Longbow Society and the 950th Anniversary of the Battle.

I've now got at least 40 cavalry painted for the Norman, Flemish and Breton forces and thought it about time that I had put together a test base to see how they looked. I have decided that for the Heavy Cavalry, all of them really, I will be using 80mm x 60mm bases as this allows for a nice margin for variation in terms of placing the cavalry on the bases. The base size was inspired by The Bodkins last demo game, Berne, Baby Berne! where one of my comrades in arms had done exactly that with stunning results.

If you have any views on the basing or indeed anything that could be done to improve the bases please shout up as I'm very open to anything that will improve them. Don't be shy!!

Without further ado:

Bye for now.