Finally got something finished that's been sitting looking at me on my workbench for ages. My second limbered artillery piece. Like the first one (more than two years ago!), this is made using a limber from the Perry Miniatures American War of Independence range, with the gun and crew replaced with suitable 15th century figures. Really pleased with how it turned out!
I've given a second French archer unit the same treatment as the first - repainted the bows and arrows, and in the process rebased and revarnished. Much improved I think.
I have been assembling enough archers to make two more full units like these, another for the French and one for the Burgundians. It will be a while before they are finished though!
I've haven't been very happy with the colour I've painted all my bows (and arrows), so have decided to bite the bullet and redo them all. A simple task by itself, but it does mean all the archer units need to be rebased so my brush can actually reach where it needs to go.
I've started with this French unit, as there were a few other things I wanted to change about it. Previously it was an archer unit with a few polearms mixed in, but I've added a few more polearms to make it closer to 50/50 - more of a 'bill and bow' unit now. I think it looks much better this way. I also took the opportunity to improve a few other small things to make it fit in better with my most recent figures (painted some belt buckles, gave them a coat of the better matt varnish I now use).
As for the colour of the bows I've settled on - I decided not to worry too much about trying to get a 100% perfect representation of the actual colour of bow staves, that way lies madness.... it's just a lighter colour, instead of the dark brown I originally used. Much more suitable I think.
Committing to rebasing is difficult - ripping the figures off the bases makes a real mess, especially if a lot of them are a plastic-to-plastic join (perhaps it's not so traumatic if you use MDF bases), but it's always worth it in the end! I'll be doing the same to my other archer units in time.
A little update on the terrain board project.
I've now got eight boards finished, which gives an 4' by 8' table - big enough for a game!
As you can see there are various winding paths, some fields, and some fences and trees which are fixed permanently to these boards. I've made some good plans for storage which will mean I don't need to be afraid to do boards with fixed features, I'll be able to store them - more on that when it happens!
Now there are actually only one or two ways this current set of boards can be fitted together so that the paths all meet up (assuming I'm wanting to use all eight). However, as SOON as I get some more done, the combinations will increase massively which each new board, as of course I won't need to use every one of them each time. And I can also set them up with some paths having 'dead ends', by simply having them lead up to one of my building bases.
The next stage will probably be four new river/stream boards, and one or two with villages/farms. Plus a wider road.
And here's a pic of the same setup, with added trees, hedges and buildings to fill it out.
Another new unit! This time it's back to the Burgundian side, with some German mercenaries. These were recruited by towns on the Franco-Burgundian border after the death of Charles the Bold to help defend against the French, found plentiful employment fighting in the Franche-Comté region, and were eventually recruited in large numbers by Maximilian. Some of these 'Germans' would actually have been Swiss, even the very same soldiers who had dealt the Burgundians such punishing defeats so recently.
This isn't my first German unit - I've already dealt with some large units of pikemen and halberdiers in earlier posts. This is a smaller unit posed in a more stationary/defensive manner - with this basing layout it lets me get more character into the miniatures and how they are arrayed. Several of the figures here are among my very favourites and I've been looking forward to getting them based up for some time now.
As with my other German units, they are not wearing any uniform livery, and for a flag I've given them just a simple Burgundian cross.
And here's some shots of them alongside their Burgundian allies.
