Burgundian archers

A long overdue unit - some archers for my Burgundians.

Like my French archer units, these are mostly Perry WOTR plastics, but with the bow hands replaced by the superior ones from the Perry Hundred Years War range. Some of them have also had tall riding boots added with green stuff. There are also some metal conversions in here, most notably some archers from Crusader Miniatures with Perry head and hand swaps.

These can represent archers of the compagnies d'ordonnance which were raised by Mary the Rich and her new husband Maximilian of Hapsburg after the disastrous campaigns of Charles the Bold, which had led to the ruin of his army and his own death in 1477. No doubt they would have been made up of the same soldiers who has served under Charles (or at least those who had survived his wars), re-organised into new companies. Maximilian followed the French model of organisation, with each 'lance' of a company consisting of a man-at-arms, a coustillier and two mounted archers (whereas under Charles the Bold each lance had also featured several infantrymen). There are no records (to the best of my knowledge) of liveries and flags of these new companies, so I've designed my own which I think seem plausible.

I've gone for a blue and red livery with a white St Andrews cross. As for the flag, I had a go at hand-painting one of my own designs, and think it's turned out great. It's a 'cornette', a long narrow flag which seems to have been used by units of archers. It's inspired by those of Charles the Bold's ordonnance companies, though admittedly much simpler in design - leaving off his personal motto, but keeping some appropriate Burgundian symbols - a St Andrews cross formed by two arrows, and the ubiquitous 'flint and sparks'.

I painted it in large scale, then scanned it in and downsized it (as well as adding my usual digital ripple effect), as can be seen in this picture (I printed off three different sizes, and chose the smallest one). I had some doubts about my painting, but once scaled down like this any dodgy brushstrokes become invisible.

This unit shares the blue and red livery of an earlier unit of Burgundian heavy infantry. They are supposed to be go together, representing both archers and men-at-arms (plus coustilliers) dismounted for battle. They can be used as separate units, or the bases can be combined into one larger 'bill & bow' formation in various ways.

Building terrain boards - Part Four

I finally finished the four river boards I've been working on for a while, to join the first one I did at the start of the year.

I'd originally tried to write up a detailed run-down of the planning, construction, painting, problems encountered etc.... but in the end I think the pictures should just explain everything. If any more details are required, just ask!

I'll save photos of a full table setup with these boards for when I next set up a game.

There are still lots more terrain boards to be built.

Artillery limber

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!

More archers revisited

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!

Revisiting an old unit

This isn't a new unit - I've gone back to an old one and made some improvements.

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.