If There's One Thing I Really Hate Painting...

...It's got to be Arming Jacks, Aketons or any other form of padded armour. It seems to take forever and half the time ends up looking rubbish anyway. This is partly my excuse for the recent lack of updates, the pictured figures have been lurking on my painting table for quite some time - waiting for me to summon up the requisite enthusiasm to finish them off. I also started a new job last week so with one thing and another I haven't had much in the way of painting time.. However, from my current estimates, there are about seven figures waiting to be painted before the Gewalthut is ready to be based. Anyway, enough waffle.. here's the next batch of three pikemen:

The guy on the left is painted in Uri's canton colours while the others are fairly generic really. The one on the right looks like he has no eyes in this picture, I can vouch that he has though. Overall the jacks could have come out worse really - I'm just glad I don't have to paint many more in this unit. Sadly the next batch are wearing brigandines, which I also hate painting massively so don't hold your breath for the next update!

Standards and Pikes

Hey guys, another small update for your delectation. I've painted up the final cantonal standard bearer, this one from Basel, and also another pikeman - so nothing too exciting.

For the model on the left I used the body from the command sprue, but I wanted to make sure it looked suitably different from the leader I've made, so I painted him up in fairly dark browns. I also thought I'd throw in some variety and try a blue turban - I'm pretty pleased with the results. The guy on the right uses a standard body and the command arms in the more gothic style armour. When I first did the armour I wasn't particularly happy with it but it all seems to have come together nicely in the end. He carries the banner of Basel taken from the Perry's flag sheet.

A better view of the standard - I probably took the photo a little too soon after painting it with matt varnish, which is why it looks a little shiny..

And now for something... slightly different..

After a request from Bedford I've taken a couple of pictures of my Towton themed Yorkist army to show you guys. They have been painted up to represent Lord Fauconbrg's retinue at the 1461 battle in the snow. Admittedly my painting has improved a bit from some of the earlier pieces!

This is one of my bill units (there's one more - but it doesn't look as good). I decided to model them as if they were advancing into an arrow storm, hence why the musician's clutching his throat and why two members of the second rank appear to be throwing some dodgy dance moves. Hard to see in these photos but I threw a few of the mercenary heads into this unit, as I was waiting impatiently for the metal Swiss heads to be released.. The banner is a livery banner I concocted myself, but I'm fairly sure should be reasonably accurate to a point.

These guys are probably one of my favourite units. The majority are Perry metals but I've also added a few plastic models in harness from the 'bow and bill' box. Before I put them together I'd been reading about the mass grave that had been found at Towton and that one of the theories behind the buried men's demise was that they had been caught while fleeing and executed by the victorious Yorkists. As a result I converted some of the plastics up to be either dead or in the process of being killed, hence why that guy is kneeling down. I have tried to place the front ranks in such a way as to look as though they are watching what's happening in the centre.

This is the Burgundian contingent. I'm not even sure if there are any records of Burgundian mercenaries fighting at Towton to be honest, but I remember reading recently that an early handgun barrel had been excavated near the battlefield - not too much of a stretch to imagine Burgundians being hired for the campaign, since Edward IV and the Dukes of Burgundy were fairly good mates it seems. They're all Front Rank and the handgunners have had a few headswaps with Games Workshop Empire models to get a little variety in. The St. Andrew's Crosses are sculpted from green stuff.

Here's Lord Fauconberg himself with his favourite drinking buddies. Again the models are all Front Rank, sadly I haven't managed to get round to get hold of Fauconberg's personal standard as of yet.

Finally here's something completely unexpected -  a phalanx of Immortal Spartans. I bought these sometime last year and this is all I've got done so far. Sure one day I'll end up back doing them again though! I couldn't resist a quick pic though, since they're right behind my WOTR stuff.

More Pikemen!

So it was a bit of a frantic one last weekend with one thing and another - but I've managed to fit a little bit of painting in during the down time. These are the last two guys for the front ranks of the Gewalthut.

The pikemen on the right I've painted up in Basel's cantonal colours and the musician on the left is in the black and yellow of Uri (partly inspired by a picture in the Swiss Osprey book). I'm not sure how keen I am on having the drummer in my Gewalthut, it kind of feels like they should have something a bit more special. As a result I'd like to get my hands on a hornblower of some sort - I know Essex miniatures do one but I much prefer the Foundry one (or the bagpiper guy) but I'm not willing to pay out ridiculous amounts in postage for a single pack. I'll have to keep my eyes peeled I guess.

I can only apologise for the crap quality of this picture (you should see some of the others!) but my camera decided it didn't want to focus properly for some reason. Here's a rough idea of what my front three ranks should look like. Obviously the green bases are a bit of a let down but they should look much improved once they're painted up!

A Little Update..

Hi guys, just a pretty small update this time.. most updates from now on will probably be fairly similar. I've come to the conclusion that batch painting large amounts of models at once really isn't for me. Instead I'm going to stick to doing two or three models at once, as I actually enjoy this a lot more and it's not like I have any sort of time constraint on this project - it can take pretty much however long it needs. So on that note I present two more pikemen for your viewing pleasure

I managed to paint these two up in an evening as they don't have any of the fancy Swiss feathers or anything. They turned out quite nicely and, more importantly, they weren't a drag to paint!