Monday 22 December 2014

Medieval Cavalry on the march

Another 6 medieval cavalry to add to the baggage Train.
Bods and nags from Strelets Scottish Army of Robert Bruce and Military Order Sergeants.
Lances and various Hand Held weapons replaced with Florist wire.

Saturday 6 December 2014

Medieval Beggars

A subject not that often covered..the lowest of the low in medieval Society..the beggars.
The males in this set have lost use of thier lower limbs..or lost bits of them entirely, an effect of warfare or work injuries?
This set, in resin,  is from Fredericus -Rex.

The female beggar could be a nun (the crucifix..which I´ve painted up as being wooden..a poor nun would be unlikely to have had such a large crucifix made from metal)   but a poor wandering nun who has taken up the life of a mendicant ..a practice more commonly taken up by Monks. The Nuns usually stayed inside their nunneries,  relying on donations. Nuns such as the  Clarissines, named after St. Clara, who was one of the followers of St. Francis.

The lower limb injuries would probably indicate ex-soldiers or those unfortunate to have been drafted in for a battle.
The levy type soldiers would be less likely to have some form of leg protection so damage to the legs was probably common amongst the "lower orders"on medieval battlefields.

The one on the "skateboard" Spinal injury or lame due to disease or from birth?

Medieval "Zombie attack!!! "
Sometimes a mistake can be made worse. First, taking the wrong turn and then giving to a holy Person...and that attracts  the rest of the "needy"

The Beggar on the left is from Linear -b and the one on the right, Valdemar.




Friday 21 November 2014

Medieval Civilians

The whole (well, most of ) my collection of civilians.
Lots of different makes, Mainly from Valdemar and  Strelets but also Linear -B, Italeri, Zvezda  and Imex and any others I have forgotten.
Most of the collection. Some haven´t been properly based yet, but a few more are still not that far and still attached to sprues etc.
The women folk
The priesthood.
Some more Close ups from previous Posts.


Monday 27 October 2014

Dwarf battle line

Another element of the Alliance against the Army of the underworld  the dwarves give the needed Backbone and Stayingpower to the allies.
All of them are from Caeser´s Dwarve´s set, with a couple of conversions, shields or spears added
The Flag is from Ray´s Don´t throw a one blog and can be found on this LINK. Ok, they are viking flags but they I think they fit well with Dwarves


Sunday 19 October 2014

Elf Archers

Part of the alliance against the Army of the underworld, with a rapid rate of accurate fire, the elves supply the archer element.
I´ve gone for a uniformed look as in most fiction, especially since the LotR films,  they appear as a "militarised" folk. A couple of head swops to get variety.
The flag is from Volomir´s Blog....if you haven´t seen his High Elves Sea Guard Step by Step (or any of his other work) then I recommend going over to have a look, it really is worth it.

Friday 10 October 2014

Goblin slavers

Half-breeds, they  fear thier orc/goblin masters and hate humans in equal measure. Quick witted and viscious, luckily there´s very few of them about as cross breeding is rare and has so far produced only males.
Heads from the caeser Goblins set and the bodies from various Linear-b Roman sets.
Following  the orc warbands they pillage what can be carried away and destroy what cannot. Any survivors are taken prisoner. Thier fate? A Long journey to the east to be sold in the slave markets and then onto the mines. That ..or Orcs aren´t particular as to what type of meat they eat.

Monday 29 September 2014

Orc Artillery

Way back then, even  orcs had some rudimentary knowledge of gunpowder, and after capturing some firearms from the dwarves they made themselves some  blackpowder weapons.

Wheels from the RedBox Hussite artillery set, carriage from the Mars Polish Siege Bombard
Bodies from Mars Polish Siege Bombard set, heads from Caesers Orc warriors

Saturday 20 September 2014

War of the Roses - Artillery

The start to a war of the roses Army. The gunners have no specific liveries, yorkist or lancastrian, which would have been common at the time and it enables them to  be used alongside other armies.
Serpentine from Zvezda´s Medieval Field Powder Artillery set, the gunners from Orion´s Medieval Siege Troops and Italeri´s Medieval Tournament set.
Previously painted gun teams have been rebased . Guns (Serpentines and Veuglaires) all from Zvezda, gunners from Zvezada, Orion and Italeri.

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Medieval fight training

Knights weren´t Born knowing how to fight and had to be trained in the finer arts of disabling an Opponent. A set of Trainees and Trainers sculpted by Alex and produced by Valdemar.

The whole set.
 Young sirs practising. I painted the swords up as wooden ones.
 The lower orders practised archery.
Sword master. Hs Sword appears a bit bent but that´s due to the Picture. The stick is for administering "correctional advice"
A featrure or modern medieval fairs, Knock your Opponent of the log. I reckon the Clubs are leather bags filled with sawdust. 


 With this lot, my medieval civilian collection has topped the 200 mark..203 to be exact.
112 Adult Males, from that 16 Monks/priests and one Bishop
53   Adult Females.
38   Children, from babes in arms to "Teens"

I could add  another 80 plus, but 20 or so are based in dios or  they are town guard types or taking part in the Military convoy so not strictly civilians.

Wednesday 3 September 2014

Medieval Bath time (2)

Another set of Valdemar bods, made by Alex Gussav.
The last post I made with Medieval Bathtime was of  a couple in the tub but this time it´s the  nippers who are due thier yearly clean. They were a lot cleaner than one bath a year, as written in the 14th Cent Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum "The bath cleans the external body parts of dirt left behind from exercise on the outside of the body.”
The bases I made from a section of plastic wooden walling.

The "haughty" Princess. My daughter wanted her to have red hair and a blue Dress...and her command was obeyed :-D
The "water" is made using Pattex 100. It´s "Kind" to painted bods (and the enviroment)as it contains no solvents.
This is an Excellent Little Vignette.
as is this

As ever..not only the poses and Body postures  are lifelike, the  bods stand on thier own two feet without bases or glueing (they are glued in the pics) but the faces are so expressionate.



Monday 25 August 2014

(Flogging) A dead Horse

Recently a question turned up...someone was looking for 20mm dead nags. There are a few sets with one or two dead nags in them and Ykreol make sets, covering all eras  of dead and dying bods and nags but it´s easy enough to create dead nags using spares.

First select the nag...a running one is better than a stationary or Walking pose. Remove the base.
I´m also going to add a couple of dead bods.
Slice off the bumps (rump and shoulder) on the underside (the side it will end up lying on) of the nag.
This enables it to lay flat. You could make some thick basing and press it into that but I´ve found the head and neck end up "unaturally" embedded in the surface, almost as if the horse was made of lead and fell onto some sandy earth.
Put into boiling water for a minute or two to soften   the plastic before twisting and turning the legs and arms etc. The new Position has to be Held until the plastic cools. If it isn´t,  the old Position (or very near to it) will be taken up again. The reason? Plastic has a "Memory" Heating plastic up makes it maleable but the "Memory" isn´t taken away. Parts altered by heating up the plastic can be returned to their original (or very near) simply by putting the bod into hot water again.

The raised hand of the Knight was holding a sword but this has been removed and a glove effect made by squeezing the empty hand  with fine toothed pliers. One Thing...don´t Forget to add a stirrup to the "topside" of the  fallen nag.
They now get painted. The base gets a thin smear of woodglue/fine sand mix and the bods and nags get pressed onto the mix. Any small gaps between the nag/bods and the "ground" can be filled with small amounts of PVA-Sand mix or camouflaged with static grass. Let dry,  paint and decorate.
 
The stirrup is made from a thin Piece of paper