French Arrival...

Having been off with flu all week I have managed to venture out of bed and take a couple of photos of my growing French force. These will be used in part for Henry Tudor's force for my Battle of Exeter game which is slowly developing and for a another earlier campaign. The invasion of France by Edward IV in 1475 proved to be pretty lucrative for Edward and his entourage. However no battles were fought. Taking an alternative route for wargaming I am planning to fight some actions between the French and the English.

Presented here are some of the French and Bretons I have painted so far. With regard to basing I plan to get most of the force painted and based before I finish the basing.

A New Painting Studio and Workshop

All things must come to an end and time waits for no man. I have been ousted from my outbuilding by my wife, and have been banished to the top of the house, which actually is more pleasant as I'll not have to venture outside to go and paint or cope with poor lighting.

My cousin popped by to help me design the new studio. He is a capable chap and works for a furniture design company - the plan is relatively simple and I hope to have some drawing to show shortly.. Our plan is to commence work at the beginning of November with a completion date by middle of December which includes new lighting for the room, worktops and built in bookshelves.

Project Update

Following on from the last post I have managed to take a couple of pictures of the project so far. I have rebased virtually all of the miniatures I had already completed. I am pleased with the how they are shaping up. Several of the command stands I am placing on 60mm diameter circular bases (plenty more of those to complete!). I think I'll use 80mm diameter bases for C-in-C stands.

The command stands shown belong to the Earls of Oxford and Surrey. The other flag, although a little difficult to see is that of Sir Rhys Ap Thomas. On the paint bench are six stands of French Pikemen/Long Spears. Whilst I am still working towards the Exeter project I have taken a diversion to paint up some French and Breton. My next post will be about these Franc Archers.

Back in the saddle

Quick post, I am still alive and have set about working on my project. I have had time to think about how I'm working on this too. I had been painting the miniatures to a fairly high standard, which whilst was satisfying it wasn't getting enough models on to the table.

In the time I have been away I have been looking closely at Simon Chicks basing methods, his blog sites have been truly inspirational - Je Lay Emprins and Harness and Array. I have rebased most of the singular miniatures onto large 60mm square bases from Warbases. With respect to painting the miniatures I read Aly Morrison's blog and am using his wash method, made from GW washes. This is giving great results and means I am not waiting too long for it to dry as opposed to the dip method using the Army Painter Strong Tone Dip. So far I have managed three stands of crossbowmen with another three to follow.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos - something that I need to rectify so I can share the full fruits of my progress.

As an aside and in keeping with my magpie attitude to wargaming I have seen that Blue Moon are now releasing a Crusade range in 15mm which I may well indulge in, but that's for another time.