January 14, 2023

French heavy infantry

I've finally finished the French infantry I've been working on for a while.

The original plan was to have two units of thirty. I ended up painting up enough models for one of thirty and one of twenty.... But I just couldn't find a way to group them together that was satisfactory. The first question was how would I mix the fully armoured and lightly armoured models - one unit of foot knight and one of lesser infantry, or both units a mix of the two? Or one slightly better armoured than the other?

The other problem was with figure poses - I wanted them to have a closely-packed look, with polearms lowered or at a 45 degree angle, like my existing pike and halberd units. Just using the Perry plastic sets as they are doesn't really achieve this. At the same time I wanted a lot of them to have livery jackets - I've shown some conversions I did in previous posts, which I'm very pleased with, but getting enough figures in the right poses with the right equipment for two units was proving tricky.

In the end I chose to scrap my plan for two units, at least for now. I chose thirty of my favourites to make one unit that fits my vision, where every figure has its place. That does mean there's lots I haven't used, but a lot of them will find a home somewhere else in the future. I also did use some with shouldered weapons, but the overall effect is still of advancing/attacking troops.

I won't list all the conversions here, but the most notable ones feature newly sculpted layers of clothing (padded jacks and livery jackets).

The finished mix of troops features both fully-armoured men-at-arms and lesser polearm troops both heavily and lightly armoured. This could represent some knights who have dismounted to lead the infantry in an attack.




The banner is swappable. In these first pictures it is the banner of Jean de Daillon, Lord of Lude. It can be exchanged for any other French commander I have made flags for. I've also got a generic French flag available to them.


The French are still severely outmatched against the Burgundians when it comes to heavy infantry - they have just one unit available to them in my collection, whereas their opponents have five, most of which are much bigger! They will at times have the opportunity of having the Swiss on their side though. The French do have the lead in heavy cavalry and archers. 


10 comments:

  1. Very nice indeed. A big unit of chaps with giant tin openers is always going to look impressive, especially when they are painted as well as these.

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    1. Thanks Carole! I find how they are posed and grouped together is the key to making them look impressive.

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  2. Hi Charlie - another great looking unit there - I'm in admiration of your dedication and outputs!

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  3. Great looking unit as usual. Do you plan to do a painting tutorial some day? I like your style. I believe you don't do much highlights. You do a base coat and then a shade. Correct?

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    1. Thanks Edouard. I might do some tutorials if there was interest for them?
      I do both highlights and shades. Some parts are just shaded over a base coat, for example all leather straps/shoes/pouches etc, whereas others have many layers of highlights and some sort of wash/glaze afterwards, for example the hands and faces.

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    2. Interesting. I would be interested in a workbench article. That I can tell. Your minis look gorgeous. They clean and colora and realistic.

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  4. Some fine looking troops for the French; they will need more brothers in arms, though!

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    1. Oh yes, there will always be a need for more. Plenty more in the pipeline, don't worry!

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