Saturday, 9 January 2021

From SimonG: "To Battle!" - HYW Men At Arms (67 points)

 Continuing my Impetus based HYW project I offer up two stands of English Men At Arms. The bases represent Lancelot de Lisle (the yellow and blue standard) and Richard Waller (the black standard).




de Lisle served under Thomas Montagu, Earl of Salisbury in the late 1410s and again in the mid 1420s which is my period of relevance. Waller was on the roll around the time of Agincourt and served at the siege of Orleans under Montagu. The source for all of this information (and my basis for selecting these characters) is the invaluable
Soldier in Later Medieval England database from the University of Southampton. Sourcing of relevant heraldry is approximate based on the nearest best guess and where available family arms. In both stands the figure without a visor is intended to represent the Captain.



The figures are a mixture of Perry plastics,
Perry metal and 1st Corps. This is one of those rare occasions when I felt it was OK to mix two manufacturers. The 1st Corps armoured figures are quite chunky unlike their archers and fit well alongside Perry, especially the Perry metals -- in fact their are a pair of figures that seem from the same hand (the right most two on Waller, first is 1st, second is Perry!).





For de Lisle I took a risk and based in more diorama fashion with closer spacing then I would normally use filling up the rest of the stand with a rock and bush. I think it came out quite well and adds some variety to the stands. I especially like the figure giving a "hand" to the standard bearer!











Anyway hope you like how these turned out -- there's even some jewellery in there (on a belt and on Waller's Orle) courtesy of Citadel technical paint 😊although not sure it comes out in these lower res photos. 

That should be another 65 points (13 x 28mm figures) towards my total. 

Up next another Japanese mythical being!


Minion Phil note: 2 bonus points for flags!

32 comments:

  1. They look good, and the basing is great as well!

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    1. Thanks Barks, although maybe a bit dirtier than I intended 🤨 need to thin down that wash a tad!

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  2. Very nice Simon! Love the dynamic basing and the painting is made even better by your snazzy photography with blurred backgrounds!

    May I ask what colours you used for the plate? I like the grey metallic effects rather than the more typical reflective look

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  3. The plate is either Citadel Leadbelcher (lower ranking) or Iron Hands Steel (higher ranking) then washed with nuln oil (slightly thinned, bottom of a bottle) then dry brushed with Ironbreaker with highlights in Stormhost silver. My belief is that on a grimy battlefield in the middle of a campaign no ones armour is going to be that clean

    The photos with bokeh are macro (Nikon AF-S 105 1:2.8) and the lead photo is actually a photo stacked macro shot

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    1. Thanks for the tips Simon - I have a WOTR army to do after my Romans are done :-)

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  4. Great looking MAA stands! Impetus basing is great for little dioramas and these are great, I did an online course on the Agincourt campaign from the University of Southampton, I think Anne Curry is the head of the medieval history, I've got her Agincourt book to read,I couldn't afford her Bosworth one!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thanks Iain -- I'll check out that book by Anne Curry and the Soton online stuff (my alma mater), Agincourt is before my time -- a good general read I enjoyed recently was Juliet Barker's "Conquest: The English Kingdom of France in the Hundred Years War" which I can strongly recommend

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  5. I really like how Impetus lends itself to a vignette approach (though never played the game myself). These are great!
    Does it matter to you who each stand/company represents, or are you simply choosing captains you've ready research for? For HYW, I've several stands with variable standards (some might say my painting is of a variable standard, too!)
    Looking forward to seeing more of these.

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    1. Thanks for your feedback Noel -- part of the reason I chose Impetus actually, how the stands looked. In Impetus the specific leaders for a MoA stand don't matter, unlike the command stands (which can have bonus modifiers).

      However for both the French and English I wanted to feature historically appropriate Captains for each group of Men At Arms. For the French this was by selecting from people who fought alongside Jehanne d'Arc, and for the English picking Captains who were present for the Orleans campaign and/or the same time as la Pucelle.

      Variable standards is a great idea -- but I worry about being able to drill and fix them and have them stay secure (the majority of my standards are based on metal spears and modified Perry arms to hold them)

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    2. All my flags for the great Italian wars, slip on and slip off, so that everyone can fight for everyone, what other more competent gamers do is fit aluminium tubing so that there is no damage, I just rely on the paper! Your impetus bases also work really well for To the strongest! so you have some options!
      Best Iain

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    3. Thanks Iain -- the Al tube idea sounds good and could be very neat and secure. I have got TTS as well as an alternative ruleset along with a HYW specific set, "Tree of Battles" that is compatible with this basing as well.

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  6. Wonderful bases Simon, very effective..

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  7. Nice work Simon! The basing is top notch. in my books it's hard to beat the look of a well made Impetus base.

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    1. Thanks, I’ve gotten quite adept at the basing now after fifty or so attempts! Oddly enough the rocky outcroppings are simply bits of base mix left over to dry out, so whenever I have a bit of excess I make up a few crags 🙂

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  8. Nice stands, Simon. If I could suggest, your banners may look more realistic with a bit of bend on them, for the effect of waving in the wind.

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    1. My understanding is that HYW banners were stiffened along the top edge therefore only susceptible to the wind on the bottom edge and corner. I do have foil lining in the banners to allow for this effect but need to apply it carefully lest the two sides of the banner part

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  9. Replies
    1. Thanks so much, I find that seeing everyone else’s contributions really helps push me along

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  10. Excellent painting and the whole vignettes looking awesome!

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    1. Thanks, good to get such positive feedback

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  11. Ah I do love the Perry plastics! Those two bases look fantastic!

    Did you get a chance to see the huge diorama they did for the Tower of London? It is now in the Royal Armouries in York and well worth a visit if you get the chance

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    1. I’m familiar with it but haven’t had the chance to see it in the flesh, maybe some day when we can leave our houses again!

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  12. Impetus has always left me a bit cold but I love their basing and your work here illustrates why. Beautiful work Simon.

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    1. Thanks Curt. I got the chance to play a trial game and liked the way it worked on really big battles. But I can use a few other systems as well so have some flexibility. However the look is what sold me 😃

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  13. Great work on these knights. The vignette style basing looks a lot more realistic than individual bases all ranked up.

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    1. Thanks so much Stuart. Strictly there should be a couple more figures on the base to get a real massed look but I’m skimping on the figures!

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  14. I like them a lot. The painting is great and the scenic bases are wonderful; I don't think they need more figures to be effective. Well done!

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    1. Thanks, I really like playing around with the variety this sort of basing offers

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