Wars Of The Roses - Part 11 - Pikemen!

I like pikemen.  I've a whole English Civil War army with lots of them, and they just look spectacular and impressive.

I wanted my Wars Of The Roses pikemen unit to look equally as impressive, and the standard two ranks (12 models) that i've been making units out of didn't quite cut it, so I added a third. This resulted in a more impressive looking block of pikes.  Having painted my crossbowmen in a nice orange and blue colour I decided I'd wanted them to be part of the same contingent - mercenaries from the continent perhaps.  The paint went on, and thanks to army painter speed paint it didn't take as long as I'd feared.  Another unit done.  I had aimed to do the King at the same time, but got part the way in and chickened out because I couldn't decide what colour to paint him!  Another day perhaps.

Wars Of The Roses - Part 10 - Horses

I'm not a fan of horses.  Not the real living breathing things, they are fine (at a distance). It's the painting of mounted troops that I don't like.  

It takes ages; there's not just the horse itself but the tack and reins and decorations and sometimes armour and barding, and theres lots of it - the average horse is several times bigger than the daft as a brush human sitting on top.  And then there's the human to paint as well!  All of this adds up to taking a long time, with a single figure taking many more precious modelling and painting seconds than a lowly foot trooper thingy.

But.

They look very impressive when done (if you don't muck up the paint job), and add an entirely new element of tactics to a game.  And I own 24 heavy horse with a plate-armoured man-at-arms on the back of each one, and I can't let that foolish investment go to waste, so I'd better have a bash at it.

My 24 heavy horse are split between three units (troops? Groups? Bunches?), with two bunches armed with small axes and maces and such like, and the third being armed with lances.  I suspect mounted men at arms were rare in the wars of the roses, especially ones with lances, but they looked interesting, and these 8 models were the bunch I decided to try first.

I have already had a bash at horses recently with 5 light horsemen done as a trial, and carried the same techniques and knowledge picked up over to these.

And it took...ages!  I used the army painter speed paint for most of the horses themselves, using 2 coats to deepen the colour over my now usual brown primer and white airbrush spray.  I did the reins etc and riders main metal colours before the horse in the hope of speeding things up, amd overall I think that worked.  A dry brush of light grey followed by a white over areas of the horses to give a variety of colour (legs, noses). In some cases I used a sandy colour for the mane and tail to blend in better with the brown main coat.

Lances - light grey, then white all over, followed by light blue hoops. My initial attempts to make a stencil for this failed and I had to resort to drawing on the lines then hand painting between them.  Overall happy with how that came out. I'm not the greatest painter and haven't a very steady hand so I'm after an effect rather than perfection.

A wash of strong tone over the bits that needed it followed by some highlights on the bright colours to make it pop and the bunch is done.  I've not got as far as flags or flock yet, that's starting to worry me as much as horses, and I think I might go back to infantry for a bit!

Wars Of The Roses - Part 9 - In Which I Paint Some Crossbowmen And A Horse!

As above. I've done a few men at arms at the same time, and felt up to working on the first of my horse; 5 light horse in this case, having avoided the 24 heavy horse I've got still.

You may notice the lack of grass on the bases - I'm going to flock en-masse at some point.

Wars Of The Roses - Part 8 - Arrows & Iron Balls

First arrows.  Many, many arrows.  In the Never Mind The Billhooks rules the bow-armed units have a limit of 6 looses of an arrow each game.  It can be quite nasty, especially when you can loose twice in a turn, however, it's also can run out sharpish.  

To keep track of this sharpish situation a marker is recommended, and having looked at others suggestions and recommendations I settled upon the following effort; a round base with a dice slot/square on it, most of which have some arrows to show it is an arrow counter.  The effect is finished off by a mini 6 sided die, my colour of choice being green (not mint, just normal green).

The usual sand was added and brown spray used before painting the base the same as my other WOTR figures, and the arrows painted a suitable sandy and white combination followed by a strong tone wash and a bit of dry brushing to strengthen the colour again, nowt fancy.  A matt varnish over arrows and base finished it off.  I don't usually varnish a base, but there's so little to use to pick it up each time that I thought it worth doing.  They still need some flock but I'm saving that for a Big Flock Day along with other WOTR bits.

On to the iron balls, and it's my one piece of ordinance from the period.  I gradually worked on it to break up the monotony of many billmen.  I'd seen an example online of someone painting their piece green and liked it, I think mines come out OK. The crew I wasn't sure whether to go uniformed or all the colours of the rainbow.  In the end rainbow it was.

Wars Of The Roses - Part 7 - The Broken Made New

My original Wars Of The Roses models are plastic and date back around 12 years. In that time they have been out, not only for a battle or two against like minded individuals, but also to satisfy my sons wargaming interest. Unsurprisingly the latter caused casualties in the billmens billhooks department.  A couple of the mounted men at arms also took a hit but I have yet to find the heart to look at those.

I had replaced the broken arms amd weapons with new ones, giving an unpainted grey look to otherwise painted figures. I took the opportunity of being in WOTR painting mode to finish these off, with a brown primer followed by varying colours, trying to for in with the original painting style I had used. My current painting style and techniques are for brighter, clearer colours.  Billmen fixed, and added to the growing pile of WOTR infantry, now if only I wasn't scared of painting horses.....

Wars Of The Roses - Part 6

Just as it began to look safe to come out from behind the sofa....bang! Another Wars Of The Roses post swam into view.  Part 6 follows almost exactly three years after Part 5, and approximately eleven and a half years since Part 1.

Having spent too long doom scrolling (is that a phrase?) and watching rubbish in the evenings on my phone I decided I'd like something constructive instead and out came the Wars Of The Roses.  Originally I was building a Yorkist army, but now I'm just building a generic army I can split into two when I want a game.  

In the last few weeks I've managed to paint a unit of bowmen and one of men at arms, although they are awaiting the final touch of some green flock and perhaps a flower or two on their bases.  

Having done the usual brown leather undercoat I gave them a dry brush of matt white to help the brighter colours I was planning to stand out.  I've been buying a few speed paints, most of which work quite well, especially over a white base, and used these for the browns and red (note: the 'Holy White' did not work so well - just came out grey).  

For the armour I used a coat of leadbelcher, then an Army Painter dark tone wash, before drybrushing in shinning silver.  A bit of red brown and sandy colours for the belts and weapon handles was covered in the Army Painter strong tone wash and highlighted, and the skin with a flesh speed paint and wash, and some gold bits to give a bit of variety and colour.  Everything was finished off with a gloss varnish on the metals, and a matt varnish on the more natural materials and it was done.  The bowmen had a few more colours including a yellow and green, but all done in the same way with paint+wash+highlights.

Overall reasonably pleased with them, now on to the next couple of units.

Wars Of The Roses - Part 5

 A mere four years later and a Wars of the Roses post appears.....between children, football (children's football!), work, general exhaustion and indeed now Covid-19, I have done little in the way of gaming and modelling.  However, recently I have been tinkering a bit.  My 10 year old is very keen on wargaming, and this helps, although he bounces between periods and genres quicker than an Audi going between lanes on the motorway.  

I started by fixing the odd bit here and there - broken Imperial Guard sentinels and guardsmen, and an undead dragon or two - and found it therapeutic.  Buoyed by the appearance of a nice set of rules called Never Mind The Billhooks I began putting together a few figures from the many boxes of Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses figures which have been laying about for about  four years.....and we're back were we started. Since I discovered the period theres always been something about it that makes me keen coming back. In the future there may be more posts; I'm hoping to explain how the army is based - expensively it turns out - and I've dug out my airbrush so that could be good for an 'amateur destroys army during horendous airbrush fail' post, but for now heres a few pictures of my current collection (should you have a fear of grey plastic now is a good time to avert your eyes or find the washing up etc more enticing). Yes, most of it is grey. In fact even the bits that are painted have bits which are grey because they needed arms and weapons (and tails) replacing or repairing after years of being ignored or 'played with' by a well meaning smaller person. And theres a chicken coop. And a badger. I don't know why there is a badger. There is some brown however, but that is mostly the bases. I should also mention that the bottom picture is some of my son's army, complete with Henry VII. He has many, many models and will hopefully be quicker at painting that me.

Wars Of the Roses - Part 4

I'm gradually, very, very slowly, beginning to do a bit of modelling, and the subject of choice is currently the Wars Of The Roses. I started a Yorkist army ages ago in 28mm, and this will form the basis of the army, plus several more boxes of Perry Miniatures troops which I've acquired over the last six months or so. I'm going to base them individually and the use magnets to enable them to rank up into a Hail Caesar force when needed - Luke Taylor would be proud of me!

Currently I'm putting the magnets into the bases, ordering some more bases, and then starting to put together some of the many figures on their grey sprues. I get very little time for hobbying, so we'll see how this turns out. The WOTR is a period that keeps coming back to me when I feel like modelling, plus I've just finished Conn Igguldens fourth book in his WOTR series, and that's helped push my enthusiasm along.  This is Part 4 because it's a continuation of my previous work, although the last post dates back to over two years ago now!

Olde Englande - A Terrain Project

I don't get out much these days, at least not without small children in tow, and almost all extracurricular activities have been cancelled with the exception of 5 a side on a Sunday evening. It's lucky I really like playing football or losing every week would be upsetting, but it's not its really enjoyable. Back on subject and I don't get to wargame, no, not at all.  But I did get a wars of the roses novel at Christmas and it inspired me enough to look on the Internet for wars of the roses battle reports, and in doing so I came across the blog of a chat with the most remarkable scenery building skills, and he has inspired me to plagiarise his work.

So here we are - attempting to create a mostly rural English  (or welsh) set of terrain to cover the period between around 1200 and 1700 in 28mm scale so I can use it for wars of the roses and the English Civil war, and most probably many other periods besides. 

This is part one, and I've included some work in progress pictures,  and a shot of a test piece I put together. I'm writing on a tablet which means the photos may be iffy, and the text short, I may/may/might go into detail another time on the how's etc, but cannot claim originality of ideas.

Wars of the Roses - Part 3

 Wars of the Roses part three, and as I have just made my box of plastic Perry Miniatures mounted men at arms, my second box of infantry, and my small breach loading artillery piece it must be time for some background.

“My Yorkist troops will be the retinue of one William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke KG (c. 1423 – 27 July 1469).  Known as "Black William", he was the son of William ap Thomas, founder of Raglan Castle, and Gwladys ferch Dafydd Gam, and grandson of Dafydd Gam, an adherent of King Henry V of England.

His father had been an ally of Richard of York, and Herbert supported the Yorkist cause in the Wars of the Roses.  He was rewarded by King Edward IV with the title Lord Herbert of Raglan in 1461 (having assumed an English-style surname in place of the Welsh patronymic), and invested as a Knight of the Garter.

Soon after the decisive Yorkist victory at the Battle of Towton in 1461, Herbert replaced Jasper Tudor as Earl of Pembroke which gave him control of Pembroke Castle.  However, he fell out with Lord Warwick "the Kingmaker" in 1469, when Warwick turned against the King. William and his brother Richard were executed by the Lancastrians, now led by Warwick, after the Battle of Edgecote Moor, near Banbury.”

 My thanks to the wonderful world of Wikipedia for the above material.  Because I currently reside across the border in Wales I was aiming for a figure from that area, and William Herbert jumped out as an important character of the period, with a nice coat of arms.  As noted in my November 2014 work in progress I’ve purchased some decals and flags to enable my army to advance under his colours, although my efforts at applying them haven’t been very successful so far. 

Troops In Progress

I currently have plenty of nice 28mm Perry Miniatures models (mostly plastic) hanging around awaiting a paint job, including the 12 mounted men at arms, 12 billmen, 24 bowmen, and finally my small artillery piece and its four crew.  They have all been made – it’s a joy to make Perry’s plastics – and based with a layer of sand before receiving a brown spray paint.  Of the painted models I already have (12 billmen and 24 bowmen) I need to redo the banner bearer which I clumsily broke the standard pole from while ‘Dipping’ them.  I’ve used a drill to create a hole through the banner bearers fist so he can hold a metal pole (instead of the plastic they come with) which will be more forgiving to the user.  He will be the first receiver of a CitadelSix banner when I can pluck up the courage to try it!

Hastings' Folly - A Wars Of The Roses Battle

My first three units of Wars of the Roses troops took to the field alongside a goodly chunk of Aidan’s Yorkists, and bore down the main road towards the Lancastrian defended village in our latest 15^th Century match up.  Unfortunately my commanders, led ineptly by Lord Hastings and his horse division, failed to realise the urgency required, and Hastings found himself out on a limb stranded in front of the village and blindsided by the Lancastrian horse to his right.  One of my three horse units was swiftly dispensed with, and the second wasn’t far behind, falling victim to a sweeping advance.  The third lasted just long enough to give half the Lancastrian horse a bloody nose but then succumbed and Hastings slunk away to hide in a wood by himself. 

After this exchange the battle turned into two separate engagements.  Firstly my Yorkist right clashed with a strong bunch of Lancastrian re-enforcements.  My own models, commanded by William Herbert, blunted the enemies attack before Lord Salisbury led his men-at-arms and mercenary pike men in to throw them back and crush them utterly.  The second engagement saw the second half of the Lancastrian horse come thundering out of the village, having survived an earlier artillery-related scare.  They then successfully overcame their initial of closing fire and pointy arrows to smash into the Yorkist left wing (commanded by Faulkenburg – a peer on a warning after last time out!).  Faulkenberg’s troops had advanced swiftly and aggressively to the edge of the village, particularly impressive when compared with Salisbury’s paltry efforts at crossing one hedgerow.  Now they faced the wrath of a small group of heavily armoured mounted nut cases, who pushed them back several times despite the Yorkists numbers, and came perilously close to breaking the whole division.

Fortunately for Falconberg enough time had passed and the end of the battle came before he could suffer the ignominy of being chased off completely.  Aidan declared a generous draw given I had destroyed one of his divisions and damaged his horse, but I’d lost my horse and general, and Falconberg was in all kinds of trouble (again) while the Lancastrian defenders of the village untroubled in my quest to capture its crumbling ways and single low-cost tavern.  In hindsight I had managed to choose several commanders who were at the wrong end of the leadership scale – Salisbury in particular managed some fairly indecisive actions.

Photos are poor – I relied on an iPhone camera which was a mistake last time, but clearly my memory was as good as Hasting’s grasp of tactics.

Yorkists to the fore, horse heading for the village at the top.

Lancastrian defenders.

Dammed hedgerow. 

Hastings' outflanked.

Lancastrian re-enforcements.

Wars Of The Roses - Part 2

Part 1 of my Wars of the Roses label came on the now long past date of the 10^th October 2012.  That is quite a while ago, and apart from a battle report and a mention or two of how I was going to think about painting some bowmen in my Work in Progress post they have been scarce mentioned since.  However today is the day, because following another (un-chronicled) battle using Aiden’s lovely Lancastrians and Yorkists I have found the motivation, stirred myself, and painted a whole 37 models!  I then added to this total by building and spray painting my breach loading artillery piece and crew, and 12 mounted men-at-arms. 

This work has left me with 2 units of bowmen, 1 of billmen, and a commander on foot to lead them – all units being 12 strong for foot, and 6 strong for horse.  The painted models have had the army painter Dip used on them, hence why they don’t look too bad and I’ve actually managed to finish them, although I cannot take credit for the commander apart from his base because it’s a model Aidan donated to me, and he came already painted to a better standard than I could aim for.  One fly in the ointmen - I managed to knock the quite flimsy flag pole off the billmen while 'Dipping' them.  I'm not sure whether to try reattaching a sturdier one, or to leave them bereft of flag.  

On the production line are now the 12 horse and artillery piece and crew, and if I get through those a further boxed set of 3 units of foot (the 2 bowmen and 1 billmen arrangement again) awaits construction.  I’ve also to solidify my commanding officers and their mens background, with a man named William Herbert the prime choice and the men destined to support the Yorkist cause.

Pictures came out terribly on reflection, the models actually look better than  that.  Damn.