Back from (short) holiday and archers finished

Many apologies for my sudden absence. We spent a couple of days with my aunt and internet access was rather basic there and thus I wasn't able to enter the bloggosphere since Saturday morning. During our visit we take a day trip to Celle. On the one hand it's a beautiful city with a wonderful old city centre but on the other hand at the Bohmann Museum there is a very interesting exhibition about the Hanoverian and KGL troops at Waterloo taking place. It's a small but excellent exhibition and really a priceless source for those devoting themselves to these German soldiers in British service. The exhibition is there until 11th October so if you get the chance to go there soon do it!

But more about that later. I'll feature our trip to Celle as well as the Waterloo exhibition with its enormous 28mm diorama (15,000 figures!) in one or two posts this year. Probably two since I took so many pictures that it'll be simply too much for one post.

Anyway the figure I finished before our holiday were five archers for the Wars of the Roses period:

Painted in blue and red they shall represent some men from Yorkist retinue. Because of my very limited freehand skills I decided to omit livery badges thus they could serve for any of the Yorkish boys either Edward IV, Richard III or their brother Clarence. I'm pretty satisfied with the result on those wondrful Perry plastic miniatures. Nevertheless I should improve my photography setup since the pictures were heavily underexposed. My adjustment work with the GIMP graphic software is of questionable success as you see...

Paint Table Saturday - Bows and trees

Last week I found the time to go back to the Perry plastics for the Wars of the Roses era. In addition I returned to my ever too small collection of terrain stuff and worked on some trees. Actually pretty simple trees but at least rather cheap ones and the battlefield they'll do the job I presume. Until now I've glued them onto 40mm bases with hot glue and smoothened the bases with filler. So it's time to paint the bases and the trunks now:

The bowmen got there liverees. Although most of the WotR figures will be used for the Burgundian siege of Neuss there isn't too much need for bowmen. So I decided to give them Yorkish red and blue. Because of my limited skill I decided not to paint badges. At least there now appropriate for any of the York brothers and they could serve for Eduard IV as well as for Clarence or their brother Richard. They're mostly finished except of the bases:

I hope you like my humble progress. 

Enjoy your weekend!

War of the Roses infantry and hay cart

Curt's painting challenge is near its end but finally I managed to create my first entry besides the bonus rounds. I'm very satisfied to have submitted all of them but besides other painting came off badly.

Anyway finally here are some miniatures I painted more or less simultaneously to Richard III. for the antihero bonus round. Partly as test figures for the armour:

These are six figures from the bills and bows box Perry miniatures made for the Wars of the Roses. Actually they shall serve as mercenaries during the Burgundian Wars especially during Charles the Bold's siege of Neuss in 1474. I painted them to get used to the new historic period and the experiment with colours for medieval clothing and armour. Altogether excellent plastic miniatures which are a pleasure to assemble and to paint.

In addition I assembled and painted a small piece of scenery: Warbases' hay cart.

It's a eight or nine piece MDF kit which comes perfectly cut. It doesn't need much cleaning and is easily glued with super glue or PVA glue. A very nice piece by Martin and Diane which I painted without priming it. Since the MDF soakes up the paint this worked rather well. The hay load is a nicely cast resin piece which fits onto the cargo area very well. I didn't glue it to have the chance to use the cart with or without hay.

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! - Last Bonus Round "Antihero"

Finally the last bonus round in Curt's 2015 painting challenge came and I decided to submit a miniature I'd been keen to paint for a long time but didn't find the right occasion. So this the staged entered...

King Richard III.

RichardPlantagenet the Duke of Gloucester was the younger brother of King Edward IV. When Edward died in 1483 his marriage with Queen Elizabeth (Woodville) was declared invalid and his sons turned illegitimate as heirs. So Richard took the throne and reigned until his death during the battle of Bosworth in 1485.

This is only the very climax of the awesomely interesting life of the last Plantagenet king of England. He witnessed the Wars of the Roses, fought against the Lancastrians and saw the victory of the house of York. But in the very end Richard III. stayed in people’s mind as an usurper of the throne, a murderer and a sinister intriguer. Although some of those aspects might appear probable our picture of Richard III. is highly influenced by the play by WilliamShakespeare in which he describes the later years of this interesting monarch. Soaked by Tudor propaganda he shows Richard as a power-obsessed, ruthless villain who meets his fair end by the sword of Henry Tudor who will be King Henry VII. Rather soon. Anyway for me it’s one of Shakespeare’s best plays and I love the character he gives Richard. To my a perfect antihero which made him my favourite choice for this bonus round.

The figure:

It’s made by Michael Perry as a special miniature on occasion of the discovery of Richard’s remains in Leicester in 2013. Since they were found under a car park the twin converted the figure in a way that he rides right out of the street. A very nice three piece vignette which I had been waiting to paint for a long time.

The colours:

As usual I employed Vallejo Model Colors to paint Richard. Only exception is the skin. For the first time I tried the Foundry Expert Flesh paint set. I'm very satisfied with the result and will probably keep using it. Many thanks to Mark Hargreaves for his hint!

The base:

The vignette is mounted on a 60mm circular base from ever excellent Warbases. Because I wanted to underline the figure itself and its border I painted the base black and coated it with high closs varnish. Additionally I made two banderoles that I attached on the left and on the right. One of them describes Richard’s dates of birth and death while the other one quotes Shakespeare’s well-known play: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” (Act 5, Scene 4).

Please let me remind of the voting for this bonus round. Please turn to Curt's page and place your vote. There are a couple of extraordinary pieces which deserve attention and - of course - I would appreciate any vote for my humble work.