Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Wars of the Roses Perry Foot Knights

Ahhhh... at last!  Hard plastic 28mm scale 15th century foot knights.  I've wanted these to exist since I first saw John Boorman's 'Excalibur' - and now I have them... hoo hoo har har haaaarrrr...

Ahem.

Actually, I don't have them - a client has them :) but once I have time, I'll be purchasing sets of my own to model Boorman's Knights of the Round Table.  The commission is for something considerably more historically-accurate than the aforementioned Arthurian epic.  In all, I'll be putting together 8 units (each of 18 men) so I'll be thoroughly-familiar with the kit by the end of the exercise;


Just look at them!  What a great kit.  Minor quibble over the proportions of some of the heads (they look small to me, but then my head is quite large...), but the weapons and bodies are superb!  And they look very menacing in such large numbers.  I can't wait to see what all 144 look like on the table top.


The keen-eyed will notice I've blended some command-frame components from the WOTR and European mercenaries kits.  The Thalhoffer swordsman and war-coated chap on the right of the picture are examples. 


As these are largelt white-armoured, I've tried to add a splash of colour where I can.  Fabric livery surcoats are obvious places, but more subtly I've used colours on the armour leatherwork (rather than painting it all mid-brown).  I noticed some reenactors have brightly tanned sword belts etc, and reasoned that the more extrovert men-at-arms might spend the extra shillings to get more colourful strap work too.


I've gone for mostly closed helmets, or just the odd strip of visible skin.  I think this adds to the menace.  With future units, I'll chop the head off the polearm seen at right front of the picture, so that some of the knights are 'hammering' rather than 'chopping'.

2 comments:

  1. Very nice - someday I may get a box, but I already have some Old Glory/Revenge WotR foot knights - bit smaller than the Perrys, but still nice sculpts too.

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  2. Many thanks! I've not seen any Old Glory minis close up, other than pics on blogs and in magazines, but I like the look. The gradual creep up in scale is unfortunate for those with some older (but excellent) minis, as they tend to look a bit shrimpy next to modern offerings. Games Workshop curbed some of their giantism in recent years, and Perry haven't gone as 'large' as some other companies, so maybe others will rein it in too - even if just to save metal!

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