French Men at Arms

This unit began as a continuation of the Bayard conversion in the last post, I wasn't quite finished with the sculpting mojo and whilst I really liked the barding conversion it was laborious and I considered there might be a shortcut. So here's the starting point, the leather bard example in the musee de l'armee, Paris. There are photographs of this from every angle online which really helped the sculpting / conversion process. 

If you prefer things in tangible format I heartily recommend the Royal Armouries volume, 'leather in warfare, attack, defence, and the unexpected' which features an excellent chapter on leather barding and includes a number of photographs of this example.

So here goes, I began with a Perry Miniatures WOTR horse. The straps are filed off with needle files along with any flash. I then took the Italian horse armour from the Perry heavy cavalry plastics set and cut it into four pieces, removing the middle and filing off the metal detailing. I then reshaped it a bit and glued to the horse.

At the rear I sculpted the central ridge which also hides the join. I then sculpted the join for the panels at each side. At the front I extended the panels and left to dry.

The rear is now filed smooth a bit more and the peytral at the front is shaped into the distinctive shape per the source image. It’s important to have the previous drying phase so there’s something to push against. The round shoulder bosses are added along with the straps. You could stop here.

Final fiddly bits, the leather fastenings are added, this was a ballache I'll be honest !

Here's the finished piece painted and ready to join the men at arms. I'm really happy with how this turned out. I did consider painting per the source image but wanted something a bit more decorative.

The inspiration for the barding features in the background of a 1507 Jean Bourdichon painting of Louis XII leaving Alexandria, part of the series culminating in the (relatively bloodless) conquering of Genoa. I liked the belt motif and 'esperance' motto which i believe is a motto of the house of Bourbon.

Using the plastic barding as a sculpting base saved a lot of time. I particularly like the way the peytral rests on the horse's shoulders and the overall silhouette, this is testament to the quality of the source photographs. I'll definitely do this again.

The figure now needed some companions, these source images from a 1503 French chronicle were of great inspiration and of the same time period of the bard and Bourdichon images.

I particularly like the sallets and cloth great bonnets of the riders along with the earlier armour, these would be perfect as Men at Arms to join my more 1520's contemporary Gendarmes or indeed as early Gendarmes in their own right. Likewise, they could be suitable as heavy cavalry for my early Tudor English.

Lighter cavalry seem to feature here, again perfect as Men at Arms or Ordonnance Archers. 

Whilst i'd had these images for a while I had neglected to note the source which led me on a frustrating tail chasing exercise but in the end reaching out to some friends of the Blog proved worthwhile and in the end, mildly amusing....

Here's the source.

So this is from the Louis XII chronicles, which are a fairly serious tome but a literary side avenue in which the author (Jean d'Auton) goes on a 12 page satirical poem of 'Garrilant' a horse. Or rather a contemporary observation of the virtues, or increasing lack thereof of 'noble' men at arms at the time of writing.

By the time I discovered this source i'd almost finished the unit and was most amused to find i had essentially created the bulk of a unit from a poem about a horse. Art inspiring art I guess. 

The figures are all from the Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses range. A couple are mounted knights, one is a plastic with a Steelfist Miniatures head and the remaining three are converted command figures.

Some close ups, I really like how these have turned out and are a good match for the source images.

I often get asked about the way I paint armour, the blue non metallic metal effect is inspired by tapestries from the era. Here's a brief summary, all paints are from Wargames Foundry unless otherwise stated.

• Black undercoat
• Metal mid-shade tone (35B)
• Wash with 50/50 mix of black and Citadel Nuln Oil
• Re-apply mid-shade tone 
• Wash with thirds mix British Blue Grey shade (75A), Granite shade (31A) and water
• Re-apply mid-shade tone sparingly
• Highlight with Spearpoint (35C)
• Then do the leatherwork etc.

Sounds a bit laborious bit it's pretty quick once you get going.

Inspired by the illustrations above I added a great bonnet to the figure on the left, this and the figure on the right had their right arms remodelled/replaced.

As ever, all horse inspiration comes from this excellent book, usually available cheaply on Ebay. It's a large format book, packed with double spread images of horses and ponies, an excellent palette resource that I keep returning to.

Here's the whole group prior to basing, in looking at these I realise there's a bit of a red and white theme, they should look great alongside my existing men at arms.

I'm so pleased with that barding, I must do some more.

For completeness I need to do some ordonnance archers to go with these. I have some with bows but I think some with light lances and coustillers among them needs to be done. 

Here they are alongside my existing Men at Arms and led by the recently completed Bayard command. Apologies for the poor light, feels like it's been rather gloomy and wet since Christmas !

These will feature in some forthcoming Bayard themed games, keep an eye on the Facebook Army Royal group for updates.

Cheers

Stuart