Codex Manesse Knights - WIP + 2+

Finished half of the unit of knights for the early-HRE army. The figures are from Old Glory, Battle Honors and Mirliton. All but the one of the helms are from Mirliton. The helm with the horns quartered in or (gold/yellow) and gules (red) is an Old Glory piece.

In the image below the two figures on each end are from Mirliton; the one in the center is a Battle Honors figure with Old Glory helm and horse. Otto Von Brandenburg's shield has a paper image from Mirliton glued on - and weathered a bit.

The next image are all Old Glory figures and horses - however the two great helms are from Mirliton; as well as the paper shield image glued onto the rider on the right.

All of the heraldry - or at least the patterns - are from the Codex Manesse.

Here are most of the remaining knights for the unit. I'm debating on using an Old Glory figure with a mitre cap too; as I plan on going with an Early Clerical army - since this will allow me to use light cavalry from the Hungarian list. NOTE: I was informed by a comment posted here that the figure on the far-right is not Battle Honors, but actually Gripping Beast. It was sold in a Battle Honors blister at my local gaming store - probably very old stock.

Mirliton & Gripping Beast (Battle Honors) Knights - WIP

Painted up a couple of knights for the HRE army; I know it's slow going, but I've been doing other things and had to make myself sit down and paint for a bit today. The one on the right in the photo below is the Mirliton Ulrich Von Lichenstein figures. The one on the left is a Battle Honors figure with an Old Glory helmet from the Teutonic Knights set.

The guy on the left is based on the illustration below from the Codex Manesse of Burchard von Wengen. Since it only shows his helmet and shield, I took the liberty to use one of the Gripping Beast figures with a sleeved surcoat. The horns on the Old Glory helm isn't exactly like the one illustrated, but close enough.

 

A couple more views of the figures. The Von Wengen guy will go on a horse with mail barding. Notice how the mail is sculpted differently on the two.

 

It appears the "man purse" isn't a new invention - the Gripping Beast guy has one.

Old Glory & Battle Honors 13th C. Knights

I managed to remove the capes from several of the Old Glory Teutonic Knights, and one of the Battle Honors Knights. The method of removal is not something I would recommend to anyone - unless one were trying to win a Darwin Award. I first used nail clippers to remove the larger parts of the capes. Next, I got this "brilliant" idea to use a soldering iron to melt off parts of the remaining cape. It actually worked and I managed not to drop molten lead on myself or the carpet. Well, I did melt off a leg from one figure - he's now in lead heaven. Finally, I used a Dremel with a tip normally used to sharpen steel blades. This was used to smooth out most of the remaining areas. Green Stuff was used to construct simple, if not crude, rear portions of the saddles. Here they are with their shields attached - I'm waiting for some helmets that I ordered from Mirliton. The center figure in the bottom row is a Battle Honors figure.

The next photo shows them with an Old Glory Teutonic Knight with his cape still on.

Besides the musician, these are the remaining Old Glory and Battle Honors figures that I won't do any modifications to due to either their capes (OG) or sleeved surcoats (Battle Honors) making it next to impossible to remove.

Codex Manesse Knights by Mirliton - WIP +1

Finished Otto Von Brandenburg's horse. His was a little more work, as his coat of arms is an eagle - which was reproduced eight times on the horse's barding.

As with Ulrich Von Lichtenstein's horse, the basic color of the barding was painted and shaded then given a spray coat to protect it while the coat of arms were worked onto it. The escutcheons (shields) were drawn on and then painted white (argent). Next, the basic outline of the eagle was painted with reddish brown. A sample sheet with coats of arms was used as a guide.

The eagles were then "fleshed out" a bit with the darker red as a base.

Finally, a lighter red was painted in the outline. Yellow (or) spines were also painted within the wings. Forgot that the eagles should be facing forwards - corrected after seeing this picture.

Here are the horses for Von Brandenburg and Von Lichtenstein. The knights themselves are next to be painted.

Codex Manesse Knight by Mirliton - WIP

Painted one of the horses today; the mount for the Ulrich Von Lichtenstein figure.

 The barding is based on the image below from the Codex Manesse.

I left off the barding over the ears; as well as the tassels and buttons along the top of the barding. I plan to paint the horse for the Otto Von Brandenburg figure next. There isn't a picture of the horse, but it will have his shield design repeated on the barding. The image below of Otto is also from the codex.

The background color of the shield looks like it would be black (sable), but Mirliton's painted figure shows it to be white (argent).

Veterans Day AWI Game @ The Game Matrix - 2010

Had a great time today at The Game Matrix in Tacoma. Bruce Meyer and Kevin Smyth hosted a very enjoyable AWI game using their own rules and superb figures. There were a lot of figures on the table, but only a fraction of the AWI figures that they both have. The game was built around the Battle of Monmouth and played out pretty close to the historical results.

Here are some shots of the game and excellent figures painted by Bruce and Kevin.

 

Again, I thoroughly enjoyed the game - in which I played the British right for most of the game, until relieved of half of my forces by a more aggressive commander.

Museum of Flight Game Day - November 6, 2010

I was fortunate enough to attend another Museum of Flight Game Day. As always it was held under the expanse of an SR-71 Blackbird.

There was quite a good turn out and I was lucky to get into the Gran Sasso Raid game that Bruce M. and Mike K. ran. Granted the actual hotel that Il Duce was held captive in was red, but the feel was right.

Besides the group of Italians who held Il Duce in the hotel there were several other Italian units outside. The scenario is a variation using US troops coming on the table on card activation. The US troops were acting independently of the Italians. That is the Italians had to contend with not only the Germans, but also US troops. The Mussolini figure was sculpted by Mike K. and very accurately depicts him as he was when he was held captive at the Gran Sasso.

The game ended with Il Duce about to be captured by the US forces. Both the Italian and Germans were decimated by that time, and the US with overwhelming forces remaining.

Here are a some of the other games held in the first period. I played in Dale's Tobruk game in the second period, but failed to take photos.

I snapped a few photos of the aircraft and displays in the museum, but some of the rooms are kept very dark, so the images aren't very good.

ADDENDUM: I lifted a couple of photos of the Tobruk game from Dale Mickel's site:

I really need to play more larger-scale games - particularly those with off board artillery and air support.

Another nice day spent with the good gamers of NHMGS.

Codex Manesse Knights by Mirliton

I just received an order of the two remaining knights that Mirliton USA had in their inventory.

It appears they (or Simone who runs the company) may be getting out of the business. From what I read on TMP it appeared he wasn't doing business anymore, but I figured I'd send him an email to see what he had. He said he had these two as the only remaining ones from Medieval characters range. I actually had asked if he had the helmet set based on the Codex Manesse. They are nice figures with a lot of detail - particularly to the helmets and crests; albeit for the tournament and not war.

The figure on the left is Ulrich Von Liechenstein, and the one on the right Otto Von Brandenberg. The Liechenstein figures has his shield molded as if hanging from the belt or saddle - as in the image from the codex.

The image below compares a Mirliton knight next to knights from Battle Honors and Old Glory. They are more or less compatible, except for the fact that the Mirliton horses have cut-away areas where the rider fits onto it.

I will likely order the helmets set directly from Mirliton in Italy - or maybe the UK authorized dealer. They should fit onto Old Glory bodies pretty well.

DFS 230 Glider and a Gran Sasso Raider

This is a resin model that I put together awhile ago, but decided to weather it a bit; it was also an incentive to paint a lone "spare" Fallshirmjaeger as he'd look in Africa or Italy.

The glider kit, which I won off of ebay, is made by a German company called Karo-As Modellbau. It is 1:48 scale according to the box. Simple to put together and came with several versions of decal markings - except for the swastika which is illegal in Germany, I think. I got that decal from another source.

I refinished the cockpit glass which got "foggy" from the super glue. Thanks to the internet, I found out that this is a common problem with modelers and the solution was to carefully remove it and apply Future floor wax to it. This solved the problem and I re-glued it back on.

The figure is another Victory Force Miniatures model with Green Stuff added to the lower parts of the trouser legs to better simulate the bagginess of this type of tropical issue. You may notice a replica Luftwaffe Fallshirmjaeger badge to the rear of the figure.

A couple more views of the same figure; as I like how he ended up. I plan to order more and paint them up with the same type of gear - for Africa/Italy; or possibly a Gran Sasso scenario. Interestingly enough, I hope to get in on a game with the very scenario this Saturday at a game day held at the Museum of Flight up at Boeing Field.

The photo above shows how cramped it was in the glider. Supposedly it held 9 fully armed Fallshirmjaeger in addition to the pilot.