1970s British

Quick attack on two Airfix kits. Not a patch on more modern offerings,  but if you want a plastic kit for the period... only game in town. It took 4 goes to get rid of the Chieftain turret seam..

Scimitar & early Chieftain Mark. I think I need to add loads of stowage and camo nets.

Cheers!

 

Quick Update - Todays Painting

Ok, set myself the challenge of doing 6 elements today.. and ta da!   Basing obviously to come, but that is now the last Scottish elements for the Franco-Scots, plus two elements of 'Gros Varlets'.

Cavalry

Scottish Axemen

Belated Hungarians

Just watching the DBMM Yahoo Group, and I see there is some discussion about Hungarian heraldry. I thought I would point people at the ones I did for the Hungarian Ally in my Wallachian army, and realised I hadn't posted any pics of these finished figures. Picture quality not the best, and I see that two lances need a touch up after a tool-box accident turned them into spaghetti.

Stephen Bathory

Matthias Corvinus

Matthias again - showing rear caparison

Banderium

Hungarian wedge

Happy St. Andrew's Day

Yesterday saw another six elements completed for the Franco-Scots, in this case, indentured bowmen, plus some 'wilder' Highland archers.

The target for today (St. Andrew's Day) is to complete another six elements, in this case, four elements of Scottish axemen, and two elements of 'Gros Varlets' which are the sergeants and lesser men at arms detached from the French chivalry to act as cavalry. Under DBMM, the cavalry are very useful as local reserves, or detached from the main body of knights.

I took some liberties with the axemen, and used the Essex 'Galloglaich' figures, which are quite suitable for Islesmen or Highland warriors from areas with a strong Norse influence. There doesn't seem to be any real evidence for how these warriors would have looked in France, but they will be recognisably 'Scottish' and work well with the Highland archers. Once they are done, that will be the entire Scottish contingent for the army completed other than their baggage. A bit of a milestone, and a fitting one for the day of Scotland's patron Saint.

 

Respect the Psiloi!

Those of you familiar with the Fanaticus Forum (DBA) will probably be familiar with the phrase. I finally added some Psiloi to the Franco-Scots. The DBA list just says 'Psiloi' - and the figures I used for Landwaster last week were just generic peasants. 

The DBMM2 list makes some French crossbowmen compulsory, but in keeping with the idea that this is basically a Scots army with a few French along, and that formed crossbowmen didn't seem to have had much of an impact in the battles I am interested in, I decided to do these as skirmishers (Psiloi in DBx terminology).

All Corvus Belli figures, and I still have a load of these unpainted if I elect to change the army composition. Plus I have added another seven Knight elements, three of which will be generals.

The Psiloi 'en masse'

'Mr de Mille, I'm ready for my close-up'

Bruce, Fraser & Anderson

Murray, Maxwell & Johnson

French: Culant, Gaucort & Coutes

Scots General: Douglas with Scrymgeour the standard bearer

Scots General: Hay with Graham the standard bearer

French General: Alencon & Giresme the standard bearer

Obviously, some basing required, but making steady progress. The whole army only needs another 16 elements completed plus 14 dismounted knight elements. Onwards... 

WIP - More 100YW

I managed to source one more pack of Corvus Belli 100 Years War Knights, so together with my command packs, I have enough for another seven elements, three of which will be command stands, two for Scots allies, and one for a French ally.

So I elected to paint up the horse barding first, as this will then let me easily match up the riders, rather than having to continually refer to my chart of shields and names.

The army will eventually represent the Scots forces in France circa 1424 but I have also mixed in some of the companions of Joan of Arc and Scots forces present at Orleans c 1429.

Speedie, Butchart & Fraser

Johnson, Anderson & Walker

Maxwell, Murray and Bruce

French: Coutes, Culant and Gaucort

French Command: Alencon & Giresme

Scottish Command: Graham & Keith

Scottish Command: Scrymgeour & Douglas

Cold War - Soviet Armour

Now, it seems to me that I do a lot of WIP posts, but I rarely show the finished product. (This could be a result of the average wargamers 'ohhh shiny' attention span..) I did show some pictures of the S-Model BMD and the Modelcollect T64 under construction, but here they are 'finished'. I still have a Mi 24 Hind E to build, and the Spetsnatz to paint..   but at least there is some progress:

So here are the pride of the Soviet forces, model 1975 T64, and two BMD. I looked in vain for easily available Soviet tank crew, and drew a blank. So these guys are the AB WWII vintage. The padded helmets are very similar, and a black coverall is a black coverall... 

Scots in the 100YW Final

As a couple of people have made some nice comments, and asked to see the finished product - here they are. Only a couple of minor disasters, including discovering that virtually all my bases had been afflicted with the magnetic sheet starting to peel away from the wood - (apparently a bad batch, which the vendor is replacing..   marks for customer service Olympian Games). Superglue to the rescue..   then of course, I managed to flick the command stand off the table with a casually out-flung forearm... more superglue, and re-basing..  Then there was the peculiar smell when I opened up my home-made basing wash, which seems to have fermented or had some other peculiar chemical reaction - hopefully the stench will dissipate before they actually get on the table.

After all that; Melbourne Cup day was not that productive from a betting point of view... (my one day of the year to have a flutter... involving calling the betting agency to re-activate my account, as it gets used only on Melbourne Cup day) - but I took the chance to finish basing, and paint up some banners.

In this case, I elected not to follow my usual practice, which is to do a colour print of a banner and then overpaint. This time I just painted from scratch. Pretty happy with the results, although I have seen no evidence for banners in use by the Scots at this period, so I was forced to get imaginative. I suspect it should be longer, as per the 1388 Otterburn Standard, but this will do.

I wanted something that looked like fertile French meadows - so basing was white-glue and fine sand, wash dark brown, then a whiteglue dab and sprinkle with Baccus 6mm summer turf, with a final touch of Leadbear's tufts and heather bushes.

And the final glamour shots are below:

Still not hugely happy with the bombard, but twill do...  Buchanan, Swinton and Stewart of Darnley in front.

Melville, Houston, Chambers La Hire, La Fayette, Dunois, and Carmichael as the Standard Bearer, the dismounted version is behind them.

 Lennox, Galloway, Stewart, Hamilton, Norvell, Crighton, Blair, Wishart and Kennedy.

 Showing the Commander's (Buchan) Banners again.

Final shot. Calling these done.

Scots in the 100YW Part 4.

I got the bit between my teeth, and basically finished off all except one element.

Bombard

For some reason, I am finding the bombard particularly challenging to finish. It's an old cast, to which I have added a fuse-wire loop at the rear, and a rope for serfs to drag it back into position with. Perhaps it's because I don't particularly like the model. And I know there is another one on the way from a generous benefactor, from the Corvis Belli range.

Dismounts

The dismounts are all done, including an extra one for the French 'Rich Knights' who can't dismount in DBA, but can in DBMM, plus another extra one as I had a spare few figures.

These are (from Left) - Houston, Melville, Chambers, Hamilton, Norvell, Crighton, Lennx, Galloway, Stewart.

Buchanan, Swinton, Stewart, Blair, Wishart, Kennedy.

 Carmichael, Buchan, and Buchan Man at Arms, La Hire, Marshal La Fayette and Dunois.

Finally, for the dismounts, Buchanan, Swinton and Stewart have snuck in again, then Douglas, Ogilvy and Scrymgeour.

 Some French peasants have snuck into shot! - out!

Now, annoyingly, I can't remember who makes these, but they were originally medieval/dark ages archers - in tunics and hose. I added greenstuff to make a great plaid, and beards, and they are now the Highland archers.

 Front view. I actually quite like these, as they are unique. We shall see if they can fight!

Retinue archers. most of the Scots knights who fought on the Continent brought a retinue of men-at-arms plus archers, very similar to the English model. These are painted as including the retinue of Hamilton, Lennox, Chambers and Douglas.

Basing and pennons up next. If only I could steel myself to paint that bombard... 

Scots in the 100YW Part 3.

Since it is much too hot to be outside, I cracked on with some more painting of my DBA/DBMM 100 Years War army. The photographs are a but dull - taken at night, and have highlighted a few places where touch-up is required.. but otherwise, pretty happy.

That's now all the mounted required for a DBA army (I'm using the IV/64c Medieval French list for DBA3), but I am still desperately seeking some additional Corvus Belli 100 YW Knights to round it out to the minimums required for a DBMM2 IV/64 list using the Scots options. If anyone can help, let me know.

Group Shot

Stewart, Lennox & Galloway

Wishart, Blair & Kennedy

Melville, Chambers & Houston

Norvell, Hamilton & Crighton

Pretty happy with these, and the dismounted knights are almost done too. Just the 2 x 3Bw, 1 x 4Bw, Psiloi and an artillery piece to finish. Then base them all up. Easy.

Interestingly, in the more recent DBA3 lists, one of the knights cannot dismount, unlike in the DBMM2 lists where all French & Scottish knights may dismount. Wondering if this exception will be reflected in the revised DBMM 2.1?

Scots in the 100YW Part 2.

Another day, and steady progress...

The cannon I had originally picked out looked much too 'modern' to my eye, and one of the figs originally on the base had very much later (WotR) period armour, so the 4 wheeled bombard at the rear is being prepped for paint. The irregular (in DBA terms, 3Bw) were going to become 'Highland' archers, so out came the green-stuff, and they will now have linen sarks, (often saffron in colour), and a great kilt in a variety of muted tartans..

Virtually finished up the mounted. I still need to wash the 'brass', add highlights to the visible flesh, and add pennons and a banner... as well as the basing of course   I am very happy with these so far.