WotR Command Stands - Finished, For Now

Got the box of Perry HYW English foot today - it came with a banner for the Duke of Norfolk, so was able to finish up that stand, along with several others. Below, left to right: Duke of Buckingham; Duke of Norfolk; Earl of Northumberland; and Duke of Somerset. I should add, the Duke of Buckingham stand has a knight wearing the arms of Sir John Say. Not sure if he participated in any of the battles, but I like his arms.

Below, all of the foot command stands, so far. Front row, left to right: Duke of York; Edward IV; Earl of Warwick; and Richard III. Second row, left to right: same as in the first photo, with the Earl of Oxford on the far right.

For my own reference, I listed the battles these can be used for. Duke of York: 1st St Albans, Ludford Bridge, Wakefield (KIA). Edward IV: Northampton, Mortimer's Cross, Towton, Barnet, Tewksbury. Earl of Warwick: 1st St Albans, Ludford Bridge, Northampton, 2nd St Albans, Towton, Barnet (KIA). Richard III: Barnet, Tewksbury, Bosworth (KIA). Duke of Buckingham: 1st St Albans, Ludford Bridge, Northampton (KIA). Duke of Norfolk: Northhampton, 2nd St Albans, Towton, Barnet, Tewksbury, Bosworth (KIA). Earl of Northumberland: 1st St Albans, Northampton, Wakefield, 2nd St Albans, Towton. Duke of Somerset: 1st St Albans, Wakefield, 2nd St Albans, Towton, Hedgely Moor, Hexham (executed after battle). Earl of Oxford: Barnet, Bosworth, Stoke Field. Granted some of the titles were passed to heirs, and flags for Edward IV and Richard III are those after they were crowned. I've games 1st St Albans, Tewkesbury, and Bosworth before, using Lion Rampant, and also Hail Caesar. I plan to game some of the other battles too.

While I was revisitng this project, I went ahead and rebased onto single bases these mounted WotR characters, including Margaret of Anjou.

Taking a break from WotR for now, and will start on the longbowmen from the HYW box. I already have a lot of English knights, but never had the bowmen. Until next time, wishing you all the best.

A Couple of Richard III's

These are all Perry plastics from their Mounted and Foot MAA sets. Heraldry on the tabards are painted for effect (at arms length) rather than accuracy. I used Vallejo Game Color Bronze Fleshtone for the lions and lilies. Richard is said to have used a battle axe after being unhorsed at Bosworth. I used a poleaxe with the handle shortened and shaved down. The axe head is a bit large, but suitably heroic in proportion as Richard is said to have fought bravely in his last battle.

Magnetized his head (bareheaded and helmeted with crown). 

Also, magnetized the body onto the horse - White Surrey; and also the right arm with lance.

Added little bit of Tamiya putty to the bottom of his bowl cut to give him a little longer hair - as he's normally depicted.

I may have to add a little flesh color below the left eye - seems the wash got a bit too dark there.

Have a few more command stands to finish - awaiting a banner for the Duke of Norfolk coming in a box of Perry English HYW figs. After that, should be good on the Wars of the Roses.

WotR Command Stands

Working on WotR command stands. Rebased the command figures onto 20mm metal washers to go on 50mm magnetic round bases. The bases originally had some FPW multibased figures, with the bottoms having the magnetic sheets. Removing the magnetic sheets would've torn the plywood bases, so repurposed them for these command stands. Still working on a few more commands, including Richard III. The ones based are from left to right: Edward IV; the Earl of Warwick; Richard, Duke of York; and the Earl of Oxford.

Here's the bases with acrylic caulking with washers holding the spots where the removable figures will go.

Below is how I was able to carefully scrape off the acrylic caulking from the opposite (former top) side where other figures had been attached.

Well, just a quick post to show you all what I've been working on the last few days. Tomorrow, there's a bring and buy at Fort Steilacoom. After that, I'm invited to an ACW Sharp Practice game down the road from the fort. Until the next update, wishing you all the very best!

Perry WotR Infantry and Mercenaries Based

Based the figures up today. Note, most of the pikemen in the red and white livery were already painted, but added four more figures and rebased them four figs per 40mm squares to give them more of a close ordered appearance. As mentioned in the earlier post, besides the red and white liveried pikes, these are Burgundian pikes and crossbows; troops for the Duke of Norfolk; Earl of Oxford; and a few handgunners.

Burgundian pikes and crossbows below. There are already handgunners for them to join.

Burgundian pikes and the earlier painted pike with armored officer and several other pikemen to form them up into a 16-man unit.

Below are troops for the Earl of Norfolk on the left, and troops for the Earl of Oxford on the right. 

The blue stars for the Oxford livery are from an old pack of Citadel decals I've had for a long time. Luckily, they're still holding up well.

Still have a few command figures from the two boxes to work on, but these are the main ones I wanted done. Thanks again for stopping by and checking out the blog!

Wars of the Roses Revisted

I recently received a copy of the Hail Caesar WotR supplement. Looks like it has all (or most) of the engagements with nice orders of battle. Also, picked up a box each of Perry WotR Infantry and European Mercenaries to add a few more units to the existing collection.

Haven't played any WotR games for some time, and the last few times were with Lion Rampant. Plan to have units with 12 and 6 figures - which works for Lion Rampant and for small units in Hail Caesar. In fact, the supplement has stats for small units. Anyway, figured I hadn't taken out the WotR figures in a long time and wanted to see if I could paint the new figures up in different livery colors. May do some up in red and black, which were used by a few lords, including the Earl of Salisbury and Duke of Buckingham. The Earls of Northumberland used the same colors, but on reversed fields, I think.

I should also mention that I'm holding off on playtesting my Imjin War Siege of Ulsan game for a little bit. Still have a lot of time before the convention in May, and didn't want to playtest it too early and lose interest in it.

The Battle of Towton

...was fought on Palm Sunday, March 29, 1461.

Holiday Cheers and a Perry WotR Wine Cart

Feeling guilty when ordering just a few plastic WotR spare horses, I added the Water/Wine Cart set to the order. A couple of spare plastic figures to create a vignette - possibly a scene prior to, or after, a battle.

The wooden cup is made from Green Stuff.

Having thrown away the can of dried up Minwax stain, I used some old (almost 10 years old) Pledge Floor Wax mixed with some sepia ink for the wash. It worked okay, but I would definitely get another can of Minwax for larger projects.

I may add something to the rear of the base - maybe a dog or some weapons and/or shields.

Not sure what this piece would be used for in a game; maybe something to capture for victory points.

The pavise is painted up to represent the ragged staff of Warwick.

The barrel is cast from resin.

These are likely the last figures to be painted for 2017. No idea what the next project(s) could be, but don't plan on adding anymore Wars of the Roses stuff as there are enough for the games they're to be used in.

Happy Thanksgiving & a Few Perry WotR Mtd Characters

Here are several Perry Wars of the Roses mounted characters which I picked up from my buddy Ron back in September at a Lion Rampant game day. They consist of figures from the Yorkist and Lancaster packs - only five figures as he must've kept the cool rearing horse "Warwick" figure. He sold them to me without the horses, so I ordered some of the plastic horses from the Perrys' accessories range. The figures were actually painted several weeks ago, but I just received the order of horses a few days ago. Here they are with a previously painted Queen Margaret figure.

Left to right: Herald with a majestic-looking Henry VI; Duke of Somerset with Queen Margaret prior to the Battle of Tewkesbury; Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick and his standard bearer at the Battle of Barnet.

The plate barding on Henry VI's and the Earl of Warwick's horses are spare parts from the Mounted Men at Arms box.

How they might have looked if they were victorious over Edward IV at Barnet.

The horses were blocked painted and then given a wash of Minwax Tudor Satin stain. The can of stain was already almost dried and thinner was added to soften it. However, the stain ended up having a bunch of globules which had to be brushed off. The can was thrown away afterwards.

The plate barding for the Kingmaker was cut in half - fore and aft to allow proper seating of the figure.

The cantels of the saddles on the plastic horses were trimmed off as the metal mounted figures have this piece cast as part of the figures. Otherwise, the fit is very good.

 

An earlier painted Henry VI and Duke of Buckingham as they might've appeared at First St Albans are on the far right.

The past few weeks have been quite hectic with heavy winds blowing down our backyard fence (15 years old with rotten posts) and also a minor fender bender to my car - both since repaired (insurance covered most of it), so happy to get this post onto the blog. Holiday cheers to all!

Battle of Tewkesbury - Lion Rampant Set-up

Since the table was already set-up, went ahead and configured the terrain for a Battle of Tewkesbury scenario using Lion Rampant. I took some liberties with the terrain. The units are placed a bit closer - for the photo op; but there is still 12" on either side of the long ends of the table, so they can easily be moved further apart (min. 3" between units rule). Plan to run this game at next year's Enfilade on Saturday ( morning & afternoon periods). It's a ways out, I know, but I like to have things ready early on, then just have to refresh myself with the scenario and rules as the actual date gets closer.

Note the mounted spearmen emerging out of the woods - these will be the troops Edward IV stationed there. In actual game play, they will be able to enter on either side of the short ends of table, about midway - just to give an element of surprise.

I've given up on trying to stay strictly historical with the use of standards and banners. For instance, those of the Earl of Warwick are present at this battle, although he had been killed not long before at Barnet. There were just too many deaths of the nobility between battles, not to mention the switching of sides. That said, I do try to use them with the sides they were, or might've been, on during the battle. Maybe Edward could've used Warwick's standard as he pleased since the earl was dead and his estate was now his.

The Lancastrians from their left. Note the mounted men at arms in the rear as reserve - sporting the Tudor colors - although not present at the battle. Margaret wanted to link up with them before meeting Edward though.

The Lancastrian host from the rear - again from their left flank.

The Yorkists - note the mercenary crossbowmen (in 6-man units) and pikemen on the right flank.

The Yorkists as seen from their left flank. Flemish handgunners (again in 6-man units) on the left flank. The Yorkists have 3 cannon and the Lancastrians only 1 - which they should be happy to have as the Yorkists had captured a lot of their artillery prior to the battle.

So much for now, as I don't plan on a play test for this scenario anytime soon. I just wanted to see how the units fit on the rather small 5X6' table. I wanted to be able to use the same mat for this game as the First Battle of St Albans game. Thanks for dropping by!

Battle of Bosworth Field Set Up

Some staged shots of what I had intended to host at next year's Enfilade convention - Battle of Bosworth using Lion Rampant. However, the set up (trying to stay historical) seems a bit boring - not really enough natural terrain features for the rules, IMO. I'm thinking of switching to the Battle of Tewkesbury. This would have a bit more terrain, as well as hidden movement of some cavalry. More to follow.

The view atop Ambion Hill with Richard III's forces. The lone Earl of Northumberland figure represents his retinue - which did not take part in the battle.

The view from Henry Tudor's right - with the forces of Lord Stanley to the left of the marshy area where Richard would meet his fate.

Richard's army from the left.

Henry Tudor's forces with mercenary crossbowmen on his left flank.

Richard's forces from the right flank.

I'm pretty sure the scenario would play out, but it would be mostly a head to head scrum. Possibly a special rule to activate Lord Stanley's forces would make it a little bit more interesting. Anyway, I hope to re-set the table for a Tewkesbury scenario. BTW, I gave up trying to stay totally historical with the banners and standards. The noble households were switching sides or dying out far too often.

A Couple More Perry WotR Artillery

These are the two cannon which my buddy Ron sold me dirt cheap a few weeks ago at the Lion Rampant game day. He only had 4 crewmen, so I ended up converting a couple of plastic left-over figures from the Mercenary box. Instead of 4 crew per gun, only 3 are used.

Painted up one crew as Burgundians and the other one in generic red livery.

You may note that the single arc cannon crew has a guy holding the breech, and the cannon itself already has one in place. I messed up which crew was going to which gun, but didn't want to repaint the figure. Maybe he's got a spare...but, then the double-arc cannon doesn't have one at all!

The Burgundian livery sort of sets off the red painted cannon.

 

There are now 4 cannon which could be used in a Bosworth scenario - all sitting atop Ambion Hill facing Henry Tudor's army. Still need to come up with a way to use them in Lion Rampant. Possibly, they'll only be allowed to fired once every other turn - if successfully activated on 6+.

Now that all of the figures and models are painted, it'll be time to set up a table to see how they'll look for a Bosworth game. Thanks for stopping by and hope you're having a nice hobby day!