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.

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.

Mercenaries and Men-At-Arms

Today's post is on some work in progress. I am currently finishing off eight Partismen for Henry Tudor's force. There are plenty more to follow though.  I have twelve crossbomen sitting on the painting desk ready to be primed. More on them at a later date.

As you can see from the pictures I need to complete the painting of the miniatures and finish off their bases.

There is a little work to do on the miniatures with the arming jacks and I need to lighten the armour, which leads me neatly to the next part of my post.

Painting armour

I tend to use Wargames Foundry paint range. I bought their starter sets when they came out back in the early 2000's. I must say i am still using some of those original paints. That's either due to a lack of painting or quality paints. Probably a little of both. I must say that I never got with the metallic colours in their paint range other than the bronze colours. For the metalwork on these models I have used Games Workshops paints, in particular Runefang Steel, Leadbelcher and Nuln Oil (ink/wash).

After I have removed any mould lines or flash I base the model with a sand mix. This is made from two varieties; children's play sand and GW sand mix. I combined the two to get the right mix for what I was after. This is applied to the base before the undercoating. I use Army Painter Grey Primer as it gives the best undercoat for the miniature. I used to use white or black but it made the model either too light or too dark.

The grey is perfect to my mind for creating the subdued colours which are generally associated with the medieval era. Not everyone was walking round in the latest Lincoln Green! I appreciate as well it is a matter of taste. I really like the work of Captain Blood. The quality of his painting and the colour range he uses are fantastic but I prefer something a bit more moody.

Once the model has been undercoated I then paint on the leadbelcher colour. Once this has dried I apply the Nuln Oil wash and finally pick out the detail with the Runefang Steel and it's as simple as that. Occasionally if I have the time I will add thin layers of brown to the bottom of the armour to create dirt, not rust - these soldiers had servants to clean their armour at regular intervals. Once the metal has been completed I pick out the rest of the miniature using the colour range I have given myself.

The base is then painted, for this I use GW Karak Stone with a wash over the top of Agrax Earthshade. I then highlight using Foundry Linen (lightest of the three) before adding the static grass. Once this has dried I add the Silfour grass tufts and flowers/weeds.

Carry cases and bases

Well after some rejigging I have managed to organise carry cases for the cavalry, majority of the infantry and wagons. As well as this the bases from Oshiro Model Terrain came down recently. The movement trays are made of clear acrylic and fit 2p pieces, the cavalry bases fit the oval bases which are 25mm wide and 50mm long. The edges are rounded as I am trying to reduce the number of sharp corners as I want a more aesthetically pleasing finish.

As I have now organised the carry cases I can start painting again as I needed to put the finished models somewhere. I met Keith Ainslie from Empress Miniatures at my local wargames club here in Jersey. It was lovely to meet him and I look forward to seeing his wares at Salute 2014.

A basing odyssey

Over the last ten years my approach to basing miniatures has developed. As you can see from the last post I have now found a method which is aesthetically pleasing, well to my eyes anyway. However this really has been a trial and error approach with plenty of research mixed in.

The old days...

I then developed my basing style to this only a few years ago...

So you see it has been a well trodden path of experimentation. I have now finally arrived at the 2p bases which not only provides as decent base for these models but it quite a lot cheaper than many commercial bases.

That said I will need to shell out some money to acquire some movement trays. This will be achieved in one of two ways; the first will be to buy 2p movement trays from Warbases.co.uk. The alternative is contact James from http://www.oshiromodelterrain.co.uk/index.html. He has fabricated some Perspex rings for Captain Blood to create his own, streamlined movement trays. Which ever way I use I will be much happier as I feel the way the models will be presented on the tabletop will feel far more authentic. The other positive of basing the miniatures individually is I have several carry cases with foam for individual models lying dormant.

The final basing dilemma is what should I do with basing my cavalry on single bases?

Tudor bowmen

I have been inspired by Captain Blood, and Pat from his own blog site, Wargaming with the Silver Whistle to begin basing my skirmish models on 2p coins. I'll get in touch with those jolly chaps from Warbases and order some of the movement trays in the near future.

This is the third time I have based these particular bowmen and I am very pleased with the results. I hope there will be more to follow.