More pictures of a recent medieval commission, showing some simple siege mantlets to protect the crossbowmen;
The crossbowmen themselves are pretty much straight builds from the Fireforge medieval sergeants kit, as described in previous posts. I've included them in this shot to show that the mantlets are painted-up to match the same quartered red/white scheme.
Construction of the mantlets;
Cut some 1mm plastic sheet into rectangles 22mm x 18mm. You could use other materials, thin ply or MDF, or even card. If you are matching to smaller / older miniatures, you might want to reduce the height or width slightly. Likewise, if you have huge steroid mutants (Games Workshop miniatures, for example) you may need larger proportions.
I made up some artwork in Photoshop for the front, and printed it in colour onto sticker paper. I use quite expensive good-quality paper, with a smooth finish and a slight sheen to it (though not glossy), so tht acrylic paint flows nicely over it, rather than just soaking in or clumping on the surface. Of course, you can also use decals (Veni Vidi Vici, Citadel Six, Little Big Man etc.), or paint freehand - and if using printed paper, you can use plain paper and attach with wood glue (as I usually do for plastic shields).
Next, I covered the back surface in wood-grain sticky-back plastic film. You can buy this in DIY stores, though mine actually turned up in my local ALDI. The supports are made from lengths of square section plastic kit frame (or 'sprue'), trimmed to approx. 15mm length. The horizontal is attached about two-thirds to three-quarters of the way up, and secured with plastic cement (this handily bonds styrene and sticky-back plastic film). The vertical piece then attaches to the underside of the horizontal, roughly halfway. The support pieces are deliberately not exactly alike, and the angle of attachment varies too. This gives a very pleasing effect when they're lined up.
Next, the mantlets were attached in pairs to 'cavalry' style plastic bases (from Perry Miniatures sets, but I think Renedra do them for lots of manufacturers). The fronts were battle-damaged with a few light scuffs, and some spare plastic arrows (Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses longbowmen kit) painted up to stick in. Holes for these were made using a heated pin, as my 0.5mm drill bit snapped under pressure from my big gollum hands. A drop of plastic cement in the hole was enough to secure the thin arrow. I stuck them into every other mantlet, but if you want more battle damage, you can chop off corners / rip the painted cover / add more arrows.
Finally, I put the scenic treatment onto the bases. If you do this after assembly, as I did, be careful to 'squash' the mantlet into the surface, so they don't appear to be balanced on top (unless your bases are rock / paving / stonework!). In this case, they were based to match Mark's existing collection, so looks a little different to my usual sandy ones.
These could also be made with no heraldry on the front, in which case you could cover both sides with sticky-back plastic film - or paint wood grain by hand. It would be fun to do some with religious scenes, as I do sometimes for my 15th century pavises. The larger, flatter 'canvas' would give more room for artistic freedom.
By chopping a 1.5mm - 2mm square chunk out of each bottom corner, and adding small slices of 2mm - 2.5mm plastic rod or dowel, you could make wheeled mantlets. Sometimes, the mantlets had a dedicated footsoldier to support them and move them around (the 'pavisier'). Sadly, the Fireforge set doesn't include any kneeling poses, so I couldn't do them like that - but if your collection includes kneeling figures, that would look great too.
I did some for Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game too, modelled to look like Orc / evil ironwork. I'll post pics of these at some point soon.
I'll get this out of the way first - I get bored painting crossbowmen! I'm the same with musketeers / riflemen / handgunners... I just lose interest painting all those identical weapons. For some reason, this doesn't set in when I paint spears, or swords... seems peculiar to missile weapons.
Anyway - enough my psychological foibles. You can't really have a medieval battlefield without crossbowmen on it somewhere (even if they're just being ridden down by exciteable French knights), so the client requested 24 of them. As with the sergeants, I thought finishing them in two units of 12 might offer flexibility - and this is likely what he had in mind in the first place, rather than being my inspired notion;
Style #1 is quartered scarlet / white. All those in the above picture are from the standard options in the Fireforge sergeants boxed set, with the chap third from left sporting mail-clad arms and head from the Templar infantry set. There are large rectangular pavises to go with these chaps, which feature a black heraldic design - so I've chosen the odd sleeve and hose to finish in black or dark grey, to compliment this.
Style #2 is quartered blue / white. Again, I've thrown in some mailed arms, and gain I've chosen hose / sleeves here and there to echo the heraldic design on the pavises - in this case, gold / yellow.
My favourites - the archers. Only 12 of these chaps, but they were fun to put together. They use Fireforge bodies and heads (apart from the chap at extreme left, who sports a Gripping Beast head); combined with the arms from Perry Miniatures Wars of the Roses archers. I used a combination of short sleeve / amiled sleeve designs, as many of the arms in the Perry set are far too 15th century for this sort of model. The limited choice was not a problem, as the Fireforge bodies are quite dynamically posed - so the same arms on two different bodies makes for a radically different look.
No unit colour scheme for these chaps - though they mostly sport Opal Fruits / Starburst acid colours; bright green, orange, strawberry red, lemon yellow. The remaining garments are mostly unbleached wool (off white) or red-brown leather. The sheaves of arrows are taken from the Perry Wars of the Roses set, but the quivers are Wargames Factory Orc ones, or Gripping Beast Arab ones. Despite what Hollywood shows, most medieval archers kept their arrows in barrels, then grabbed a handful before battle commenced - sometimes in a bag, or wrapped in a cloth, but often just wedged in the belt or carried in the hand (to be stuck in the ground later).
The last element in the army is a unit of twelve 'bargain basement' peasant spearmen. The design cue was unarmoured / basic, so I went with the cloth hooded heads from the Fireforge set. There are only two designs of this, so I've tried to vary the skin / hair tone and the colour of the hood to make them look less like clones.
I used four different schemes for the shield designs, red/white, black/white, blue/white, and burgundy/gold. The idea here is that some local lords have donated shields to their peasant levy, but everything else is their own - so they have a basic spear, and their clothing is mostly unbleached wool, or dyed various vegetable colours (green, brown, grey). Yes, I know there aren't really grey vegetables, but you get the idea - neutral colours!
The shields are all backed with red-brown woodgrain adhesive plastic. In a future post, I'll show such a shield being created.
The next attempt at modelling the same chaps both foot and mounted was to be a unit of 12 sergeants. I opted here to split the unit into two colour schemes - allowing two units of six to be fielded instead;
The sergeants had to be easily told-apart from the knights, so I went with unbarded horses, and no shield blazons. One half of the unit has variations of blue and white on their shields, plus blue / white quartered surcoats. This means they can be fielded as the retinue of a knight - as the six knights (see previous post) feature one chap with the same colour scheme.
As with the knights, each pairing uses matched shields / weapons / heads. The keen eyed will notice that the legs on this particular pairing don't match. On horseback, he has mail cuisses. The backstory (excuse...) for this, is that he retains the lower leg protection while fighting mounted, but abandons it for convenience and lightness when fighting on foot. It also meant I could vary the foot poses, as the Templar infantry set only comes with four mail-cuisses-equipped body styles.
Another of the blue / white pairings. The sergeants are all armed with spears, which required some cutting-down of the lances for the mounted versions. To further distinguish them from the knights, they can't all afford beautiful thoroughbred white chargers either - this chap is mounted on a bay. Although his gret helm seems to have gone the journey, he has at least retained his leg armour when dismounted.
The shield designs vary, some stripes, some quartered - and the style of shield varies too - but the colours remain the same, reinforcing the 'unit' appearance.
Green and white sergeants - all the same thinking was applied to these as to the blue / white - even down to the option of pairing them with a matching knight (see previous post).
Worth mentioning the shields at this point. Normally, unless the shield has moulded 'wood grain', I paint the backs the same way - a nice dense 'light leather' colour, followed by lines of red-brown and chocolate-brown for a grain effect. This is how I did the knight's shields. These chaps get a slightly different approach, with a combination of red-brown base, with chocolate-brown and black lines. I chose to make the switch for a couple of reasons; firstly, the leather items (shoes, saddlery) I normally paint red-brown, and the way I do shields is meant to replicate leather-covered wood... so it seems sensible to use the same leather colour on all items. Secondly, though not used here, I have acquired some red-brown 'wood grain' self-adhesive film, which gives a nice pattern without taking as much time. You'll see it later in the footsoldiers from the same commission. The red-brown colour matches this plastic film nicely.
More sergeants, this time mounted on grey horses. I have shied-away from piebald and other colourful horse finishings, as the troops themselves are quite bright. So almost everyone gets a white (actually known as grey), grey, or brown / bay mount. This diamond pattern on the shields is one of the variants (along with diagonal stripes, quartering) used to suggest uniformity, without actually being all that uniform.
Reverse view of same. I have more pictures of the sergeants, but I've run out of things to say about them... :)
Apologies for the long gap in posts, as I have had some things to contend with beyond painting / modelling. Hopefully the next few posts - which are all part of a commission for the same client - will make up for it a little (individual apologies being sent out to those who have had their commission work delayed).
This commission was for some medieval knights / sergeants / footsoldiers, with a specific set of parameters for each unit. The first 'unit' was to be six knights, modelled both mounted and on foot;
Each of the knights was to be distinguished from the sergeants (see later post) by being mounted exclusively on barded horses. For this first pairing, I went with a horizontal 'bar' in mint green and white - like the Pacer sweets I enjoyed as a kid (that's vert and argent for you sticklers!). I chose matching heads for the foot / mounted versions, and used one of the surcoated bodies from the Templar infantry set for the dismounted knight. I also chose to use the same weapon, and the same shield design - hopefully making it clear that he's the same chap.
Rear shot of the same - the heraldic design is a Veni Vidi Vici shield transfer of a hydra. These knights are not supposed to be actual depictions of anyone historical, so mythical beasts and geometric designs were used to keep them generic-ish.
I love orange - so there had to be a knight in an orange scheme. Often, I pair orange with green; but on this occasion I didn't want to clash with my 'green knight', so I quartered the orange with white (the white helps with keeping the models nice and bright too). I took the same approach as for the other knights, in that I selected matching head / shield / weapon. I suppose I could equally have armed each of the mounted chaps with a lance instead. Perhaps Mark will commission lance-armed versions of his knights in future :)
Rear shot of the same. Again, I used a mythical beast for the blazon - most of the VVV transfers I have are black, so again it makes sense to keep the colours light; otherwise a black design might get 'lost'.
Light blue - another favourite of mine, and usually / often paired with scarlet. Again, I didn't want to clash with a later red knight, so the blue is quartered with white. The weapon matching is not exact here, as I liked the idea of at least one knight with his shield slung and a huge two-handed axe in use. The mounted version does have an axe, but not the single beard design which the foot version is wielding. Mark - if this jars, let me know and I'll try lopping the axe head off and replacing with a matching design.
Rear view of same, showing the geometric 'sun radiant' design (this time nicked from a box of Greek Hoplites). From most angles, the axe difference is not noticeable - and most often, they'll not be seen on the field of battle at the same time anyway :)
Another bar design, this time using wine red and white. The base style differs from my usual, though some of the steps were similar. Firstly, I used bought-in 3mm MDF precut bases, which I have used elsewhere but usually round rather than rectangular. I cut down the figure base and superglued them in place, as I normally do, and then disguised the base edges with a clay filler (again, as per usual). To match with the client's own basing style, I then omitted my usual sand-coating stage, and just gave the clay two sealing coats of PVA. The PVA sets flexible but hard, and makes a great base for the brown 'mud' colour which was applied next. Finally, I was back on familiar ground (pun intended) with a smattering of green surface texture.
Rear view of same. The green ground cover I use is a mix of Heki railway scatter, with assorted green tea leaves / mixed herbs / shredded raspberry leaves mixed in. This is meant to replicate blown leaves over grass - something medieval man would have experienced a lot of, given that most of Europe was still pretty tree-covered in the 12th / 13th centuries.
I love these eye-catching chequerboard designs, and they're great fun to paint. I knew I wanted to include one, but I agonised over the choice of 'opposite' colour to go with the white. It finally came down to a straight fight between blue and black, and I reasoned that if I went with blue and hated it, I could easily overpaint with black. As it happens, I really liked the blue. The heraldic design is a wavy Spanish cross, in red this time as the blue was just a shade too dark for a black one to work well.
Not sure why I didn't do a reverse shot here... and chose instead to show them charging the other way. Anyway, it shows off the chequerboard scheme nicely.
I recently painted some Wars of the Roses guys in a mostly yellow / white scheme, and thought it might suit one of the knights. I'd already done several 'quartered', so I thought I'd ring the changes with a diagonal stripe, or 'bend'. This was the beginning of the trouble. First, the stripes were much harder to get at the correct angle than a horizontal or vertical line. Then, the yellow I chose was a bit feeble and needed multiple coats. Next, the yellow-on-white looked odd (and broke a heraldic rule - as it was metal on metal, argent / or). I solved the latter by striping the yellow with thin black lines, so now the two metals were butted against a tincture. The next issue was the charge, or shield design. I had about 70 to choose from, and they all looked wrong. I toyed with the idea of having no charge at all, then took inspiration from football shirts, and placed small 'rose' badges at top left.
Reverse of same.
So, that was the first part of the commission, next up is another foot / mounted combination - the sergeants.
Continuing on from the previous post, these are the foot units which the client requested to go with his knights. Again, these were to be multi-based, four to a base;
Firstly, two units of crossbowmen. Apart from grouping them in fours (easy, apart from the more dynamically posed miniatures, such as the chap second from left), these were similar to previous Hospitaller crossbowmen I'd painted. Firstly, I prime and undercoat in black. Next, all the metal areas are treated to a gunmetal base and steel highlights, followed by a thinned black ink wash (ink - not paint - so as to give a slight sheen). Next, all flesh areas get a ruddy flesh coating, and the eyes completed with white and chocolate brown (oval of white, flattened dot of brown). The Fireforge faces, in common with the Bolt Action WW2 faces, don't need any highlighting - they look great with a single coat, and much more natural.
Two units of (mostly) spearmen, again finished in the normal way. Once the flesh areas are complete, tunics, hoods and sleeves get a layer of mid brown. Any scale-armoured miniatures (such as the chap second from right) get their scale armour coats layered in a red leather colour. Hose are not painted uniform colours - so two or three complimentary colours (sometimes more for large units) are selected. In this case, a deepish red, french blue, and a blueish grey. The hose colours are then applied in such a way as to avoid two similar miniatures having the same colour hose. The scale-armoured chap mentioned earlier has no hose - I've painted him bare-legged (same skin tone as his face).
Another two units of (mostly) spearmen. With the hose complete, the belts and shoes are finished in red leather (as for the scale armour) and most of the weapon hafts given a layer of light buff. 'Grips' on the weapons are also touched-in with red leather. The miniature himself is then finished off with a cross applied in white to his chest. Regulations existed for the size and placement of crosses, but these changed over time. I usually apply a mix - some large and plain, some with serif, some small ones (placed top left, like a school blazer badge), and some 'Maltese' style.
The fifth and final foot unit. The last step in painting is to complete the shields. I have a few techniques for this, but these ones feature an old standard style I've used since the 1980s. The shields are separate here, making the job much easier. First, the shield is primed and undercoated (colour not important, though grey / black / brown works best). Next, the front has a printed paper cover applied with wood glue and pressed smooth. This is less shiny than a typical transfer, and mimics the leather cover many shields of this period had. Next, the back is layered in buff, then thin lines of red brown and dark brown applied to imitate wood grain. In reality, the grain is overscale, but they would otherwise be quite plain! Finally, nicks and tears are applied to the paper cover, and buff leather colour applied where damage has occurred. Attach the shield and presto! All done.
Having now painted more Hospitallers than actually served in the Holy Land, any variety when it comes to painting Fireforge's excellent medieval miniatures is always welcome. In this case, there were to be several deviations from my normal way of working. Firstly, and most obviously, six of the mounted Hospitallers were to be finished in red;
The second difference was that the miniatures were to be multi-based. As you can see in most of my other postings, I usually base miniatures singly. It's a small feat of engineering getting three mounted Fireforge guys to squeeze onto a 60mm x 45mm base and not look like they've just crashed!
As I was modelling two units of three, one is equipped with lances, and the other with hand weapons (yes, I know a lance is a hand weapon... but it's a common Rules distinction). I have to admit I wasn't at all sure that the red scheme would 'work' on a barded horse, and almost chickened-out and gave all six unbarded horses. But I'm happy to report that I was wrong. Despite the huge amount of red already on display from the cloaks and surcoats, the barded horses (to me) just look more intimidating - rather than too fancy or just too much :)
I don't think I got the shield shade quite correct, as it looks a bit soft compared to the vibrant blood red of the rest of the miniatures... but the crosses on the barding look pretty good. Looking at the pictures now, I'd have had maybe only one barded horse per base. And not had two brown horses on the same base. And maybe left the cloaks off the riders who were on barded horses. Just to improve the balance a bit.
As well as the red ones, I was also to produce some in classic black. Again, these were a little tricky to rank up on the small bases - this is probably just the right size base for three horsemen in 'true' 25mm, but a bit cramped for these more heroic sorts. I'd guess Perrys would fit more easily. I'm much happier with the composition of the unit above - three different horses both in pose and colour, and only one of them barded.
This is another lance-armed unit. Again, it might look better with only one barded horse - but I wanted to do half the riders (overall) with barded horse and half without, so some bases got two. This looks more obvious, as both barded horses are also black!
This is the command group. They've clearly been paying attention to the ordained instructions of not shedding blood, and have chosen to wield maces instead :)
Another unit with hand weapons, and a better looking composition. Incidentally, some of the Hospitaller shields use transfers from Veni Vedi Vici, rather than printed paper shield covers as I normally use. There's a bit less variety, but they look pretty good. The transfer sheets are well priced, and you get two sizes of cross. I've used the larger on the horses, and the smaller on the shields.
A short note on horse colours... there are probably hundreds of guides on painting horses, and I wouldn't profess to be any kind of horse-expert. But I find that some colours / combinations work better than others. For impressive knights charging into battle in their splendid black gear, a range of sober tones and patterns is complimentary - blacks, greys, browns, and keeping the markings to white or black. Historically, the best horses were mostly gone after the first flush of crusading zeal, and many were not replaced at all - or replaced by smaller local mounts, or even mules. But here's the thing... I wouldn't want to see a unit of Hospitaller knights mounted on a mishmash of chargers / piebald mares / draft nags. So instead of going for the visually-unappealing (but historically accurate) I plump for making the horse more of a background item.
This means darker neutrals for the Hospitallers, where I might give Templars mostly greys or lighter browns for their mounts. So you're looking at the rider, not his steed. If you take a peek at the earlier posts of dark ages Irish, you can see the opposite approach. The mounts are small ponies (historically accurate) so I've 'enlarged' them by painting them mostly lighter colours, and even going piebald with a few.
The same commission included footsoldiers to back the knights. They're on the next post...
Here are more pictures of the Gamezone miniatures I recently completed for a client. These are the knights, and are (if anything) even more brilliant sculpts than the footsoldiers. As you may know, I'm not exactly youthful... and I can remember the likes of Ral Partha and Citadel in the late 70s producing classic fantasy knights just like the ones I've presented here. The poses are a little less flat, and the overall height greater (as we moved from an actual 25mm to a nominal 28mm - which is usually more like 30, 32, or even more), but the spirit is old school.
I don't know if the choice was deliberate, but the ornate 'joust' helmet crests all have a mythical beast theme. This first pairing being a unicorn and a dragon. I didn't choose the yellow / white quartered scheme (that's to fit in with the client's collection), and wouldn't normally have gone for it unless historical accuracy demanded it (such as with the Wars of the Roses Tiptoft units, earlier post); but I think it really works here, especially on the dragon-helm chap, whose dark hair and skin, and large areas of exposed metal armour, might have otherwise led to him looking a little gloomy.
Booty shot of the same two knights, showing how simple quartering can look effective on both surcoat (left) and cloak (right). I wasn't asked to paint a 'charge' or 'device' onto the quartering, but if I had, I'd have been tempted to echo the crest animals, perhaps in red for the dragon, and in white / outlined red for the unicorn.
This is the other pairing. Now, the kneeling chap might not actually be a Gamezone miniature... but I recycled his packaging and can't remember now! Anyhow, he is in a scheme more closely related to the footsoldiers, though in truth you can't see much of it. Or his face. So he's a nicely detailed lump of kneeling metal :). All very pious and holy, but not my favourite pose to paint. And not much to say about it either - I used my usual ink-over-highlighted-paint for the armour finish, and went with dark hair again. The other chap was much more fun to paint. A green dragon this time, to make him different to red-dragon dude (above), but I carried a little red hint through all four miniatures - scabbard and cloth twist on this guy.
Rear view of the second pairing.
