Der Schenck Von Limpurg, a Swabian Minstrel

Spending time with out-of-town visitors this week, I finally managed to pick up a brush today and paint this guy up. He's another FireForge figure with a Mirliton helmet - painted up as a personality from the Codex Manesse. The script atop the illustration identifies him as a minstrel by the name of Konrad von Limpurg - apparently from Swabia.

He's an interesting study of late-13th C./early-14th C. heraldry, as his shield, horse trapper and surcoat all bear different arms or charges.

I'm not quite sure what the arms on his shield are supposed to be - possibly maces; but as the Codex has a lot of fanciful heraldry they could just as well be something like a cooking implement.

The Lego design on the horse trapper may depict a castle. The surcoat and ailette charges are believed to be stylized "A's" for amour.

Der Schenck (German for cupbearer or wine server) from the Codex:

Jacques de Molay, Last Grand Master of the Knights Templar

Using a GW Empire head atop a FireForge figure - here is the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay.

His horse trapper and shield bear his personal coat of arms. His tunic and cloak are blazoned with the Templar Order cross. Interestingly, there is no record of an "official" style of cross used by the Templars, but the one used here seems common enough for them.

A small bit of Green Stuff was used on the back of his neck to represent his mail coif pulled back.

De Molay is said to have been born in a part of Burgundy then ruled by the Holy Roman Empire, and had joined the Templars in 1265, at the age of 21. He is believed to have been present at the Fall of Acre to the Mamluks in 1291.

In 1292, he was elected as Grand Master for the Templars. The Order had relocated to the island of Cyprus after losing their foothold in the Holy Land. He even attempted to forge an alliance with the Mongols in an effort to defeat the Mamluks.

In 1307 the Order was charged with using blasphemous initiation rites and other heresies. King Philip IV of France had members of the Order, including De Molay arrested. Confessions of these "crimes" were obtained after sufficient torture and executions. It should be noted that King Philip stood to gain the Templars' immense wealth, as well as be freed from the large debt he owed to the Order. Still imprisoned by the French King, De Molay retracted his confession in 1314 and was subsequently burned at the stake. He is believed to have uttered these final words, "Let evil swiftly befall those who have wrongly condemned us – God will avenge us."  An embellished version being:

"Here you see innocent people die!" "I am calling you, King Philip IV of France!" "I am calling you, Pope Clement V" "I am calling you to appear within one year from today at the Court of God in order to receive your legitimated penalty! - curse, curse, be all of you cursed until your 13th generation"

In any case, the Pope died within a month,  and the king before the year was over.

Sir Giles d'Argentan

Added a spare Mirliton helm to this FireForge figure to represent Giles d'Argentan. Sir Giles was a Norman knight in the service of the English at the beginning of the 14th C. He served both Edward I and Edward II.

Sir Giles was reputed to be "One of the Three Most Accomplish Knights in Christendom." The other two being Robert the Bruce and the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII.

Sir Giles was also hopelessly addicted to the tournament. So much so that he went AWOL to attend these while on campaigns in Scotland with Edward I. An infuriated Edward I had him imprisoned for such antics. Edward II was only too happy to pardon him and added him to his entourage.

Sir Giles was a favorite of Edward II and along with Aymer de Valence was the king's bodyguard at Bannockburn in 1314. After ensuring the king would safely depart the battlefield he declared he was not the type to flee the enemy and charged back alone into the fray and to his demise.

Ran out of Testors Dullcote, so used some brush on Vallejo Matte, but it appears the finish is a bit satiny; at least in the photos while using the flash. I must pick up another can as soon as Michael's puts out another 40-50% discount coupon.

Sir Archibald Douglas, Guardian of Scotland

Another one of the  FireForge plastic figures - painted up as Sir Archibald Douglas, Guardian of Scotland. He was the half-brother of Sir James Douglas who carried Robert the Bruce's heart to the Holy Land, whereby the heart was added to all future Douglas' arms - as seen here with Sir Archibald.

These arms are very catchy and seem almost made up except for the actual history.

The FireForge kit comes with ailettes - "little wings" in French - which were popular for a little while in the early 14th C. The Sugarloaf helm is a spare (Mirliton?) metal one as the Mounted MAA kit doesn't come with great helms.

Unfortunately, Sir Archibald is best known for being the commander of Scottish forces defeated by Edward III at Halidon Hill in 1333. Sir Archibald died at the battle, along with five Scottish earls.

This is the first project completed for 2015 - and I see that I forgot to paint the metal parts on the horse furniture - since corrected. Happy New Year!

Aymer de Valence, 2nd Earl of Pembroke

Here is another figure from the FireForge Mounted MAA set - painted up as Aymer de Valence, the 2nd Earl of Pembroke. He served under both Edward I and Edward II in Flanders and Scotland. He defeated Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Methven in 1306.

He tried to keep the peace between Edward II and his opponents headed by Thomas of Lancaster. When Edward's hated favorite Piers Gaveston was exiled and later returned to England, it was Aymer de Valence who captured him. Lancaster had Gaveston removed from his charge and executed. This breach of protocol seriously damaged the relationship between De Valence and Lancaster.

The Earl was at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, where he led Edward II to safety after the English defeat. A few years later while on a papal embassy he was captured and released after paying a financially ruinous ransom. In 1324, he was in France on diplomatic mission when he collapsed and died, possibly of a heart attack. However, some say he may have been murdered as retribution for his role in the execution of Thomas of Lancaster in 1322 for treason.

Those red blotches about his arms are supposed to be little birdies - or martlets in heraldic terms. The mail is rather nicely sculpted too.

Although I had mentioned in the previous post that those mounted yeomen would be my last painting project for the year, I felt compelled to paint Aymer up as I really like his arms.

I painted up a 120mm Velinden knight in the same arms some years ago. The colors and pattern are simple yet striking.

Mounted Yeomen w/Bows for Lion Rampant

Here is a unit of Mounted Yeomen with Bows for Lion Rampant. Granted it is unlikely the longbow was fired from the saddle, but I wanted to have the "look" for the game. These guys will be upgraded as Expert and will be able to Skirmish move and fire without the -1 Shooting penalty.

The horses and riders are from the Fireforge Mounted Men at Arms kit with Perry WotR and GW Empire Huntsmen arms and bows. Their long swords were scalpeled off. The mail from their lower legs was also shaved, and Testors glue applied over it to smooth it off, and painted as riding boots. Several of the mail coifs were also similarly converted to look like cloth hoods.

They were painted rather quickly with basic colors and followed by Minwax staining. The riders' coats were given a bit of highlighting afterwards. They are a decent match with Black Tree Design as the horses are on the taller side. The kettle helmets are particularly nice too.

These are likely the last figures to be painted for 2014. I have several projects already in mind for the new year - one being a 1/8th re-release of an old Aurora kit picked up off of ebay. The original goes for a ridiculous amount, but this one was less than $30 USD with free shipping. The intention is to build the kit to represent Richard III - a crown will have to be fabricated. Here's the still wrapped box with some OG 28mm figures in front of it for scale.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!

Notre Dame Guesclin!

Here's a Perry figure painted up as the standard bearer for the famous former guerrilla leader turned  knight, and finally Constable of France, Bertrand du Guesclin. Bertrand du Guesclin was the eldest son of a minor Breton noble who took to the martial life from an early age. He initially served under Charles of Blois during the Wars of Breton Succession (1341-1364). During this time he also fought against some of the more famous English knights, including the Captal de Buch, Hugh Calveley, Sir John Chandos, and the Black Prince.

Du Guesclin defeated the forces under the captal at the Battle of Cocheral in 1364. The battle cry for the French forces was, "Notre Dame Guesclin!" as he was nominated by his peers to be the overall commander. At the Battle of Auray, where Charles of Blois was killed, du Guesclin was captured by Sir John Chandos.

The arms of the standard bearer are conjectural - being made up the arms of Brittany and France Modern. Du Guesclin's arms are a two-headed eagle with a red bend. The excellent flag was downloaded from the free site Dansk Figurspilsforening. This flag as well as numerous other HYW flags was created by the talented Rune Kramer.

At the Battle of Najera in Spain, du Guesclin was once again captured - this time by the Prince of Wales. King Charles V of France ransomed him and later made him Constable of France. Du Guesclin died of illness during a siege in 1380.

Sir Henry Percy aka Harry Hotspur

Here's an old GW Bretonnian knight painted up as Sir Henry Percy, called Hotspur by the Scots for his eagerness on the battlefield. He was knighted by King Edward III in 1377, the same year the king died. He served under King Richard II and campaigned in Scotland and France. He was captured by James Douglas at the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, and later ransomed by King Richard II. After Richard II was deposed, he served under Henry IV and fought at Homildon Hill in 1402, where he captured Archibald Douglas. Sir Henry died at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 while leading a rebel army against Henry IV.

The horse's armored head is from a GW Empire knights set. This is actually the first Bretonnian knight I've painted up - although I've used parts of them for various other projects, including helmet crests for Mycenaean standards,

Sir Henry's horse trapper has the quartered arms of Percy (blue lion rampant on a gold/yellow field) and de Luci (three white lucies, or pikes, on a red field). His tabard and shield bear just the Percy arms with a red label as the eldest son.

Although I've seen Sir Henry's helmet crest depicted as a lion standing as the one belonging to the Black Prince, I figured the upper half of a lion rampant would be appropriate as that is type of his coat of arms. Besides that's the way the GW helmet is made :)

I was inspired to paint up Sir Henry after a stein I just picked up off a ebay which has a depiction of him. I need to get some dark beer to test out the stein.

Finally, here's a nice 19th C. illustration of Sir Henry at the Battle of Shrewsbury, after receiving a mortal wound to his head or neck.

HYW English Foot Knights (Black Tree Design)

Here are the foot knights that will be part of an English HYW retinue for Lion Rampant. These are all BTD figures from their Early and Late-HYW range. As they were already posted individually or in pairs recently, I won't belabor their respective characters, but suffice to say they are all famous knights who served under Edward III and/or the Prince of Wales.

They are individually based on magnetic 25mm rounds from Gale Force 9. The movement trays are from Litko with steel paper inserts.

For Lion Rampant, foot MAA units cost 6 points per unit of 6 figures. They're pretty potent in melee - as they should be. You can have up to 4 units of the same type as long as the total points don't exceed 12 - so in the case of foot MAA, two units will max out the points - which is what this retinue will have.

Thanks for following this project, and hope you enjoyed the posts. I hope to get these guys in a game soon - although I still want to build a unit of mounted yeoman with bows for this retinue.

Guy, Lord Bryan, KG and Sir Thomas Norwich

Sir Guy, Lord Bryan, campaigned in Scotland as a young man with Edward III. He was the king’s standard bearer at both Crecy and Calais. He was not present at Poitiers as he was fighting in Scotland at the same time – part of the force that retook Berwick in 1356. He was later an admiral, and in 1371 fought a naval engagement against the Flemish. In his later years he served under Richard II and campaigned in Ireland. He died 1390, a Knight of the Garter, among other honors

The arms of Sir Guy are: Or (gold/yellow) three piles azure (blue). The "piles" motif has been described as either spear or arrow heads. The arms of Sir Thomas are based on the ones attributed to  John, Lord of Norwich.

According to Froissart’s account of the Battle of Crecy, it was Sir Thomas Norwich who reported the predicament the Prince of Wales was in to his father Edward III. To which Edward III is supposed to have replied to let his son win his spurs that day.

As I couldn’t find the coat of arms for Sir Thomas himself, I’ve used the ones credited to John, Lord of Norwich - also present at Crecy. A 19^th C. illustration of the scene shows Sir Thomas with the colors of the field reversed.

King Edward III refuses succour to his son at the Battle of Crecy

Artist: James William Edmund Doyle

These two complete the 12 BTD foot knights for two units of MAA in an English HYW retinue.

Unit photos will follow.