Rescue Pics from WaybackMacine! Kievan Prince, WWII Germans, Mongol General, Old West

A few more pics rescued using Wayback Machine from  old website.

All painted in the early 2000's. My eyes were certainly better back then. It's interesting to see how my painting style has developed- come habits have stayed, some have been discarded. I have largely discarded painting in eyes, my layering is now less stark and smoother. Facial details are also smoother these days. The influence of Jock Ramage, Kevin Dallimore and Tom Wiess is very noticeable. much less so in my current work. 

As usual all the images are "clickable" if you want to enlarge them a little.

Kievan Prince:

WWII Late War Germans:

Old West:

Mongol General:

Bedford's Battle, Battle of Verneuil 1424 Part II, Sir John Fastolf

What follows is a republication of a very old blog post (so old I cannot remember what year it was pit together- though mu guess would be 2010) recovered on Wayback Machine that I think Hundred Years War aficionados out there might find interesting. I chose to publish it again as it focuses in on the the John, Duke of Bedfore and the importance of pageantry and accompanying symbolism during the Hundred Years War. A subject that is often misunderstood and missing on the wargames table, at least in my opinion.

Now the turn of Sir John Fastolf

Sir John Fastolf, Knight Banneret. Here he is wearing his "cote amor", joining Bedford's in the rallying call as he thrusts forward his fist, egging his men forward after the archers had been all but routed and the battle looked to be lost. 

He carries his poleaxe in his right hand ready for the ensuing melee. Behind Fastolf a knight is in the process of finishing off one of the poorly armed and untrained French men at arms after jabbing him in the face with his cruel battle axe. Not all of the men at arms in the French contingent at Verneuil would have been so poorly armed and feebly trained but I felt compelled to include quite a few as a substantial number are likely to have been so bearing in mind the arriere ban had been enforced to put the army together. An unusual act on the [part of the "French" even during the dire circumstances that the 1430's demanded.

Sir John Fastolf was created knight banneret by Bedford and thus had the right to bear his heraldic banner. His banner bearer wears quite old fashioned armour in that he has a gambeson covering a coat of plates and little else by way of plate covering his torso. Nevertheless, the protection afforded by his armour would more then likely be adequate for the job at hand. Next him a man at arms is in full swing with his bill, often a dangerous manoeuvre during the press of combat, not only for himself as it leaves him open to a counter attack but for his friends too if too tightly pressed as is probable at Verneuil.

Bedford's Battle, Battle of Verneuil 1424 Part I, Bedford and Talbot

What follows is a republication of a very old blog post (so old I cannot remember what year it was pit together- though mu guess would be 2010) recovered on Wayback Machine that I think Hundred Years War aficionados out there might find interesting. I chose to publish it again as it focuses in on the the John, Duke of Bedfore and the importance of pageantry and accompanying symbolism during the Hundred Years War. A subject that is often misunderstood and missing on the wargames table, at least in my opinion.

Here we have Bedfords Battle for the WAB army that accompanied me to Havok! at Gripping Beast HQ, Evesham. (ED. Yep, that long ago!) The first unit I will be putting together for The Battle of Verneuil demo game will contain many of these miniatures, if not all of them. I think Simon and I have settled upon the idea of using Impetus, with some modifications, as it is probably for the good that we keep the rules simple as we are hoping to be chatting with a few folks as we play the game!

As the unit is based for WAB it gives me an opportunity to talk a little about the composition of the stands and what prompted me to paint up the miniatures in the manner that I have chosen. The mini's will be eventually be based for Impetus..... I'm thinking of 60mm by 60mm bases as this fits with other rule systems like Foundry's Medieval Warfare, and as many Medieval wargamers will know, it is not always easy to find a fellow enthusiast that plays the same rule system as one another. I will be adding another 60x60mm base in order to make the units 180mm wide as this will look much better on the tabletop and will make no difference whatsoever to the way in which the rules operate.

As you can see from the pics above featuring Bedford's stand, his heraldic attire is not in what you might expect from the third son of Henry IV and the uncle of Henry VI. As will be explained later, in an indepth introduction leading up to and including the battle, Bedford made a huge fuss of his personal Heraldic Pageantry prior to the Battle of Verneuil 1424 in a dramatic display designed to bring about strength through unity with the disparate forces he had available, from Normandy, from England and other parts of "English" France. To conjure up a sense of unity and purpose to the forces he had available. Prior to the battle Bedford was reported to be wearing a surcoat combining the white cross of France with the red cross of England in order to convey the the desired message of union between the two kingdom. Perhaps more importantly, as Regent of France for his nephew Henry VI, that he alone had the right to bear this coat of arms. I have painted him up with the white cross of France quartered with the red cross of England instead of superimposing the images as is suggested in de Waurin's account (you will hear more about this chap later). Bedford is a from Perry miniatures as are most of my collection. The actual mini is taken from their French High command at Agincourt on Foot pack and is the Duc de Orleans figure. His heraldry was beautifully sculpted on to the miniature by Michael Perry which in this case was actually an impediment to getting the effect I wanted! So, I took a Dremel to the heraldry (yep, you heard me! A Dremel) and carefully ground off his coat of arms. This was smoothed down by hand with a needle file before priming.

Next to John of Bedford stands John Talbot, known for his daring and martial prowess in battle. There is only one chronicle that indicates his presence at the battle (de Waurin) but I have included him as the rest of the 'cast of characters' were present and there is no reason to suppose that such an important figure would not be in amongst the action. Talbot wears his heraldic coat of arms and wields a poleaxe as appropriate to his rank and status.

The musician advancing behind Bedford and Talbot wears the Lancastrian livery of Bedford. Musicians of this type would have had a limited but important role on the battlefield, indicating where the banners were, at what pace to advance etc. It has to be said that once battle was joined they may have become superfluous during the clash of arms and din of battle.

This brings us onto the next base. Sir Henry Tilleman was given the right to bear Bedford's Heraldic banner. Tillemen was over 70 years old and had been active in the Black Prince's expedition to Spain and fought at the Battle of Najera, 1367! Bedford, by honouring Tillemen was making a deliberate link to the past and the Battle of Najera, which recalled the days of the Black Prince as a commander of renown enhancing the martial prowess of his army. Of the two other knights, one wears a surcoat and is evading a blow, perhaps as a feint, wielding his poleaxe. The other advances without bearing his arms as was often the practice of the English at that time.

Rebased for Impetus (now in the process of being rebased again!):

Sir John Fastolf is next :)

Spanish Trastámara Italian Wars Ordinance- Army of Gonzalo de Córdoba, "El Gran Capitán"

All miniatures are from The Assault Group and can be purchased HERE.

Apologies for the slightly serious nature of this post. I've been a very difficult 21 months with having to deal with isolating during the pandemic; I'm sure many of you are experiencing something akin to this to one extent or another. 

Due to a serious medical condition I have been shielding since March 20th 2022. Unable to see in person another human being except when I went to get my three vaccines. Suffice to say the isolation has been emotionally devastating digging deep into my psyche. It has definitely taken a heavy toll on my mental health. I was so ill/hyper anxious last year I was unable to take part in the AHPC. Although I have lived with quite a high background level of anxiety most of my adult life, this was something very new, much more intense and crippling than anything I had experienced before. I just couldn't find the strength to go about my daily routine never mind paint. 

Gradually over the months things have improved for me. With the help of some serious therapeutic interventions I was able to drag myself forward. I'm very far from being where I want to be and there have been many times when I have really struggled and painting has felt impossible which I usually find quite meditative activity ergo helpful for anxiety related issues. I made a promise to myself that I would take part in The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge this time around after missing last year's challenge. Starting in 2021 would be a perfect time to challenge myself, but more than just putting the brush to a miniature; to challenge myself psychologically too, to challenge the hyper anxiety. I am constantly experiencing. The sense of companionship, humour and sense of community that the challenge always provides will hopefully be enough to keep me going. Community is everything; we are social animals.

Soooooo, I started prepping miniatures for a Late Roman army way back in early November of last year  struggling a little through some quite rough castings, mostly pitted, lovingly cleaning them up and filled in the many gaps with ProCreate putty. Then primed. I had all the units ready for the go come December 21st and made a good start with the brush. Starved of the varnish I use all the time during the "Great Windsor and Newton Professional Matt Varnish Drought" I did some shopping around and was assured that a certain matt varnish spray was a "dead flat matt" by the vendor. That is where my troubles started. To cut a long story short, the varnish was far from matt and after spending two weeks painting up my first unit of Cataphracts, ready to make a "bang" with my first post, the final layer of varnish penetrated not only the solid brush on DIY Enamel Humbrol Gloss coat (left a week to fully cure which has never let me down) but down into the paint, blistering and cracking the finish. The result was extreme frosting with the paint cracked, then flaked and all my hard work went down the pan. Devastated does not even begin to describe my feelings. With the first unit of the project now ruined, and only large units to paint, I had no time to paint anything else up to reach the deadline so opted to box up all the Late Romans and save it for another year when I can face stripping the Cataphracts down to the metal. 

A couple of pics of the varnishing disaster can be found at the bottom of my post. Curt suggested to me that I might include a few as a precautionary tale! I am not going to mention any names but the results are plain to see. I have never had such a varnishing disaster anywhere near as bad as this and I'm just shy of painting for three decades.

The composition of of the gun, crew and accoutrements were all worked out in the picture below. I wanted to emphasise the discussion between the Leonardo da Vinci miniature and the chap with the linstock as if discussing the maths of the matter at hand! I think that this was largely achieved. 

Now to the heart of the matter and the pictures of the gun and crew in action:

(Argh! I've just noticed that I've splashed some of the basing colour on one of the sleeves of the guy holding then linstock.  I just want to get my fist entry underway at present so that error will be fixed tonight.)

And the varnishing disaster of almost losing faith.....