French archer reinforcements

Here's a new unit of French archers. Like with the older ones, I've replaced the bow hands from the Perry Wars of the Roses set with those from their Agincourt range, as the bows from the latter have much better-looking dimensions.

Most of the figures are indeed Perry plastics, though there's also one from Crusader and three particularly well-armoured ones from Eureka Miniatures - these have also been given the new plastic bows where possible. This has helped the different ranges mix in together too (I also gave one of the Eureka sculpts a new Perry head for the same reason).

And here's some photos of them working alongside some bases from the earlier units.

More handguns and crossbows!

Here's two more units of missile troops, a mixture of handgunners and crossbowmen.

These are mostly figures painted years ago, rebased for the second time, with some new additions from this year's Steel Fist Miniatures releases. I've been working on these at the same time as the previously posted Burgundian handgunners. I chose my favourites of the older miniatures, smartened them up a bit (I now paint belt buckles, which I didn't use to do!) and mixed them with the new ones. With the previous handgunners I now have three small 10-man skirmisher units for the Burgundian side, finally based and arranged in poses I'm happy with.

The first unit is supposed to represent German and/or Swiss mercenaries, so I've chosen those figures with Germanic kettle helmets and Swiss turbans, with all armour being mail shirts and breastplates, and several with basilard daggers. Funnily enough many of these are converted from the Perry Miniatures Italians, just with some simply headswaps.

The second unit is supposed to be more generic troops for the Burgundian side - the figures with padded jacks and brigandines were saved for this one, as I understand these armour types were rarely used in the German lands. With no livery jackets or badges, they could also serve as various rebel factions, or indeed French. There are some more of the headswapped Italians here, and a couple of other metal Perry sculpts with new plastic arms.

Burgundian handgunners

A new small unit - some Burgundian handgunners.

I put a few (less than half) of them in livery jackets, trying out a green and white scheme with red Burgundian cross - there will be another unit or two in this livery sometime in the future.

There's lots of conversions in this unit, so I thought I'd photograph each of the ten figures before basing, and share details of exactly how they are made.

A - Perry Miniatures plastic.

B - Perry Miniatures plastic, with new sculpted bag.

C and D - Perry Miniatures metal Italians with headswaps.

E and F - Steel Fist Miniatures Swiss, with basilard daggers replaced with regular swords.

G - Steel Fist Miniatures Swiss with a plastic Perry head.

H - Torso and legs are a 3d print from Warsteel Miniatures, with plastic Perry head and arms. The right arm holding the gun was made from several pieces. Plus a hand-sculpted bag.

I - Athena Miniatures.

J - Crusader Miniatures, with head and arms replaced with Perry parts (metal head and plastic arms), plus a Perry sword and buckler.

I'm very pleased with this little group. The Italian and Swiss figures have been made more generically West European, more suitable for Burgundians. The Crusader Miniatures sculpt has been made to blend in with the rest much better - the weak points of much of this range are the hands and heads, and in replacing them I was able to somehow get a much more realistic, less stiff-looking pose.

Two of the figures are older ones I did years ago - I'm in the process of rebasing and reorganising all my handgunners and crossbowmen, and these two found their way into this unit with the newly painted ones.

Photoshoot

I've been experimenting with my photography setup, using my new terrain boards and some backdrops I've painted. These are the first results, I'm quite excited with how they've turned out!

The plan will be to get some photos like these from every game I play. Of course in-game photos are going to be a bit more rushed, but perhaps I can recreate the best ones afterwards whilst the terrain is still on the table. I've found that however many photos you take, you're never going to capture everything - every unit on the table, every exciting part of the battle, all of your personal favourite miniatures in shot. But perhaps from 20 in-game photos you'll accidentally create two or three gems. And likewise with carefully posed photos like this, you're never going to get every figure perfectly in focus for all to see. It's all about the overall visual impact of the scene, rather than getting each carefully converted and painted figure into the frame.

I'm made a gallery page for this blog, accessible from the menu up above. I'll put all my best photos there going forward, both in-game shots and from photoshoots like this. Not the photos of new units as they are showcased, but rather compositions like these that hopefully each tell a little story.

Wagon

Here's a wagon to join my baggage train of carts. Like the earlier two-horse artillery limber, this one is based on a piece from the Perry Miniatures American War of Independence range - as far as I am aware the wagon itself and horse harness works fine for three centuries earlier. And I wanted a two-horse setup rather than the full four-horse one to make painting and assembly simpler! The traces are made of twisted fuse wire.