Last knights

Some more Perry knights have arrived from chum Lionel in Paris. I've decided that I want these to be in the livery of Milan (yellow and white, mostly) so am changing the plumes and painting three more to join them (on the left). When these are finished, I'll have all the troops I need for Chalgrove in February. I have some lovely "Pet's Flags" banners to go on these... Hopefully I'll have them on bases for New Year, since other projects beckon!

Yesterday Andrew Brentnall drew my attention to this excellent podcast review of For King and Parliament. It is most entertaining; the authors really seem to have "got" what we were trying to achieve. :-) ` https://hobbyknockout.podbean.com/e/episode-9-for-king-and-parliament/``

On the ninth day of Christmas...

...it's a Christmas miracle! Two more units on bases. Above are a unit of Bande Nere pikemen- mostly minis from Richard Hampson-Smith. Below are some formed crossbowmen. In both cases I've re-based, because I like a high density of miniatures and wanted to use my wobbly bases. I highlighted and washed the minis with a matt acrylic varnish. I am still loving Pete's flags- these ones, again, feature demons. I'll take proper pictures of the units next year, when the basing is complete.

At Chalgrove, the above two units will have to proxy other troop types. The tough-looking pikemen will represent raw spearmen, and the crossbowmen will represent pavise-less crossbowmen.

And here is the army. The final, missing, unit is a bit of a problem- I am awaiting reinforcements and probably won't have them until late January. 

I'm delighted how quick it was to finish and re-base the units- just over one evening per unit. 

Tomorrow I'll finish and publish my army list (here) and send it to Tim Thompson. Could those coming to Chalgrove please send their lists to Tim, if complete, I want to get as many in as possible before the holidays.

I'm really taken with these Perry minis. I think there's the makings of a really great campaign in this era, with players representing city states and condottieri.

On the eighth day of Christmas

....OK I hear you say "It's three days since his last post", but who's counting? Yuletide preparations have taken precedence. That said, last night I managed to finish two more units of knights, The first (above) is Giovanni de Medici, and the second, below, are some knights for the Bande Nere, the Black Bands of Giovanni, which confusingly appear to have post-dated his unfortunate encounter with a cannon ball.

Both units are plastic Perry minis from the small army I recently bought from Richard Hampson-Smith, highlighted and inked. All the flags are from Pete's flags- and rather lovely! You can find them on eBay. The stands of knights with banners will be the command stands.

You'll see I have only three units to go; one more lot of knights, some scruffy spearmen and some formed crossbows. I don't have any of these minis, exactly, but I have others that can proxy for them and I'll see if I can get some more on bases before Christmas!

On the seventh day of Christmas...

...six more barber-shop knights a'lancing. The six new ones at the rear were painted by Parisian chum Lionel and I merely did a little inking and highlighting.  I haven't stuck them down, because I might want to add some "socks" to a few of the horses.

Seven down, five to go. Tomorrow, instead of painting, I shall try to publish the army list. The remaining units look likely to take a couple of days each to finish, so I probably won't finish by Christmas; but you never know!

If you are coming to Chalgrove, please get your army list over to Tim Thompson by Christmas, if at all possible. If you aren't booked in, but would like to come on February 23rd, please drop me a line!

On the sixth day of Christmas....

...we have the final four mounted crossbows, a skirmishing.Again, Perry minis from Richard Hampson-Smith that I have highlighted; still loving the yellow and black.

The great thing about this FK&P6 base size (above left), is that I can use two elements for a unit on a 15cm grid, or three on a 20cm grid, so I can use the minis for both competition and for larger display games. There's a double-sized element (FK&5, right), too, with twice the footprint that will help me to keep the overall number of bases to a minimum, which will save time when deploying the army.

I love to recycle basing material; it saves time, money and (in a tiny way) the environment, so I'm reusing material salvaged from Richard's bases.

Here's the army to date. This is the most organised army build that I've every managed! :-)

I was going through my loft today and I keep finding more units of painted WOTR and Burgundian minis; I must have two or three hundred of them!

On the fifth day of Christmas...

...four more mounted crossbowmen, a skirmishing. These are minis from the army I bought from Richard Hampson-Smith, highlighted. Who would have thought that lemon and black would work? It really does. The banner is the first of many in this army from Pete Smith- it is one of the Bande Nere flags which depicts two devils playing dice; quite stunning! If only they were playing cards. ;-) Pete's lovely Medieval and Renaissance flag designs can be found here.

You'll see I am nearly at the half-way stage of building my army for Chalgrove, although the larger and more complex units, the knights and formed foot, are mostly still to come.

On the fourth day of Christmas...

...we have six more skirmishing crossbowmen, that I plan to use to screen my expensive knights. There are retouches of minis from an army I recently bought from Richard Hampson-Smith.

The army is starting to come together; I'm currently plugging away at some more mounted crossbowmen. I hope I can keep the unit-a-day rate up...

On the third day of Christmas...

...we have four crossbowmen, prancing.

Four mounted crossbowmen, bought from a chap in Sweden and highlighted- the first of three such elements. I love the red and green that he picked.

Three down; nine to go! I am loving the Perry plastics... when they are done, I'll have an easily portable army that I can take to competitions next year.

On the second day of Christmas...

...we have six later knights a lancing. These are Perry plastics painted by chum Lionel in Paris, and highlighted by me. They are great minis and paint jobs; a later photo, once based, will do them more justice. Lionel is painting some more for me; there will be 30 mounted knights in the army.

Above is the progress to date, two units down, ten to go! Then of course grouting, flocking... and a camp.

In broad terms the army is going to consist of five units of later nights, five skirmishing crossbowmen (three mounted, two on foot), and a unit each of formed crossbowmen and spearmen.

On the first day of Christmas...

...my true love sent to me, six crossbowmen skirmishing (pics are clickable). These are part of the Later Italian Condotta army I'm raising for the To the Strongest! Worlds in Chalgrove on February 23rd. I'll try to add a unit every day, or other day, until Christmas, when it will be mostly complete (I have most, but not all, of the required minis).

Here are the bases- I prepared them yesterday, fixing magnets, chamfering and priming.  These are Batbases from my shop. Although originally designed for the ECW, I have realised that they also work really well for both the 15cm and the 20cm grid mats, using them as two-base units on the 15cm mat or three-base on the 20cm. With a bit of careful planning, I will, therefore, be able to use the same minis on both grids (the 15cm for competition and the 20cm for display games at shows). It'll all become clear over the next two weeks.

The first minis are one of two units of Perry Italian skirmishing crossbowmen; they are mandatory in the list which I'll describe more fully, tomorrow. Quite useful troops- cheap, too!

In other news, I've just launched a pre-Christmas sale of some of my Deep-Cut mats, and have a continued an existing promotion on the rules.