Monday 14 September 2020

Scots Borderers and English infantry


The first completed Scots unit for the collection; a border nobleman and his retinue. I had a lot of fun creating these and really got enthused for many more.

The inspiration was reading that border horsemen of both sides often fought dismounted as circumstances dictated, for example James IV had all of the borderers dismount and fight with a pike at Flodden and both sides used them dismounted in less mobile sieges and raids.

So these are a unit of well armed and medium armoured men with various polearms. I also considered having a couple with their bows slung as well but decided to stick to without for now.

All of the figures were converted from the Perry Wars of the Roses range and the standard bearer is from Steel Fist miniatures.

The conversions range from a simple head swap in the case of the standard bearer to bits of kit-bashing from the various plastics, it was fairly straightforward. The only sculpting was adding a beard to the commander in the cloak and cloth caps to two of the figures. here they are individually prior to basing;


The slightly muted palette works well with the jacks and brigandine, it seems to really make the colours pop and it was good to explore the various ranges of earthy shades that I don't often use. The faces also stand out a bit more. 

I like the way that the addition of a beard and gauntlet to the Henry VI figure makes him appear much more warlike. On that figure in particular it was a good lesson in painting black, building the highlights neatly then a final one with a mixed blue grey really brings that fur lined coat out.

The scattering of field signs on the chests and caps of the figures work well and stand out against the muted colours.

Overall, I'm very pleased with how these have turned out, they have a definite Scots look to them.

The targes are from Dixon Miniatures Flodden range.

I hope you like the photograph, the first use of a new toy, a photography light box tent. There are various ones out there but it's much better than my much used but slightly unreliable tin foil lined beer crate.

Another rather bland but very important footnote for these is painting the base of each figure in the colour that I use for basing. it makes a huge difference and i'm slightly annoyed it's taken me this long to figure out !. 



I also recently completed a unit of non-liveried bill, a further experiment in a muted palette;



These were a mix of figures assembled straight out of the box along with some in sculpted coats, I talk more about this process in this earlier post for their accompanying archers;


What I really like about these un-liveried troops is that with the addition of a unit of command they make for a convincing instant border retinue for either side;


Scots


English


Mixed with liveried troops of the Stanleys

For the second picture I based up some foot knights that have been neglected for a while, you can read the background about them and see some close up individual images in this post;


Here's some more images of the stand, the outdated armour works really well for men at arms on the border in the early sixteenth century;




The desk is now pretty much cleared for me to crack on with the Scots Pike, they're coming along nicely so far.

Bye for now

Stuart

19 comments:

  1. Fabulous work Stuart!!!

    They are all little works of art.

    The padded armour on the chap on the right (second pic) is really impressive and something i have wanted to try my hand at but have chickened out thus far :>)

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  2. Gorgeous work, Stuart! As Bedford, above, says, these are all little works of art.

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  3. Words fail me. The Scots commander and unit are awesome. Im in the process of making a Siege of St Andrews 1545 composition. I may quietly move on.


    Brilliant work.

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  4. Beautiful figures - very evocative of the Flodden period

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  5. Wonderful units as always and the muted colours work a treat. The lack of livery makes them very useful being able to fight for either side as you rightly say.

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  6. These are so evocative of the period Stuart, great work. I love the shots with the billmen and archers as well, they all go really well together.

    I look forward to their inevitable dismal performance the first time they get onto the wargaming table!

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  7. Fantastic work as ever. Hard to choose a favourite but the red studded jacket on the second from the right in the second picture is especially impressive for the lovely rich colours and perfect painting of the studs.

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  8. Oh those are just great. Real wargames eye-candy. Wish i had done those.
    (It's just a shame the army is rubbish under every set of rules I've ever tried.)

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  9. Splendid looking Scots! Love the beard, really nicely done!
    Best Iain

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  10. Lovely sober looking borderers Stuart...
    No... that’s not right...
    Lovely sober colours on these borderers Stuart...😁

    All the best. Aly

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  11. superb work of both painting and sculpture but really beautiful as always the setting overall really superb.

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  12. Super smashing Scots! Just fantastic work Stuart.

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  13. Superb work all round! Choice of colours is spot on I'd say.

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