Friday 14 May 2021

28mm Wars of the Roses Pocket Armies additions



Three more infantry melee bases pass across the painting / basing table, each on a 80mm x 60mm base plus a 10mm die holder.

This sees the last of Phil’s infantry moved across to the basing system I am using, plus some additions of my own to make the base numbers up and some new Men-at-Arms that I recently picked up in both plastic and metal.


In trying to build the Lancastsrian and Yorkist armies equitably, so that they can give some games while the collection grows, the Yorkists see themselves getting one base and the Lancastrians two.



First up (above), mainly to use a rather nice ‘Petesflags’ banner, we have a bill contingent belonging to Richard 3rd Duke of York, who died 1460 at the battle of Wakefield. His banner has the falcon in an open fetterlock.



To date, the Lancastrians don’t have a Men-at-Arms foot unit, so that changes with the addition of the above contingent under the banner of Henry Percy. There are two Perry metal figures, placed to the sides to keep the base balanced weight wise.


This base will represent Percy 2nd Earl, died 1455. Percy 3rd Earl, died 1461 (for Lancastrians) and Percy 4th Earl, who was at Bosworth 1485 as part of the Yorkist army and he later died in 1489 during the reign of Henry VII.



This bill contingent (above) fight under the banner of Sir Robert Baynton. I can’t find a lot of information about the man himself, but it appears he was a knight who carried the standard for Somerset at Tewkesbury 1471, but was taken prisoner and he died the following year.



(Above) Three contingents side by side have a footprint of 240mm, so that or even one base wider seems an okay size for one of my ‘wards’ or ‘battles’ in getting pocket armies of 28mm onto a 6’ table. each of these infantry melee contingents will be paired with an archer longbow base.


Finally, I just need to do some more billmen for the next game, so …..



I painted up a couple of Tiger II’s from the Pegasus fast build range. I’m not hugely a ‘big cat’ fan and probably would have been just happy with one, but there will be a time and a place for them, so they are done.


As with their other kits, the vehicles are a straight forward build, but have generic track facing and do not come with decals, so the ones here have been added from a sheet bought from The Plastic Soldier Company.


I have put muck / mud on the track face to hide the generic detailing and then covered the vehicle with a sponging of watered down Vallejo German C. Beige, but I think it has over darkened things, so that a little vibrancy has been lost.


Resource Section.

My sister webspace COMMANDERS is being re-configured to showcase various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying, while also giving a flavour of current ongoing projects. Link.

https://commanders.simdif.com


The most recent 'reinforcements' post on the blog. LINK


http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.com/2021/04/reinforcements-for-bosworth-project-and.html





35 comments:

  1. Very nice painting- love the stripey pants.

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  2. Thanks, that particular figure is very striking … though not painted by my hand, I have to thank a very kind donation from a fellow blogger for some of these fine figures. Phil certainly went the extra mile on them.

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  3. Great additions to your growing collection, Norm! I am trying to do similar to you; alternating Battles mustered to keep the sides on an equal footing.

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    1. Thanks Michael, not all my own work, but everything has based up very nicely and there is something very rewarding about seeing these grow in number.

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  5. Thanks jonathan, I am just reaching a critical mass that allows the unpainted stuff to stay away from the table for the smaller games.

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  6. Beautifully painted WotR retinues, Norm, and King Tiger in ambush camo too.

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    1. Thanks Dean, I have just been admiring your ancients set-up and look forward to some battle shots.

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  7. Lovely figures Norm and a splendid Tank. I only have a single Early tiger more than enough

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    1. Thanks Matt, agree about Tigers etc, a second one is handy for when the first breaks down :-)

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  8. Wonderful figures and painting Norm, they just work so well as animated units. That top banner is staggeringly good in it's depth of colour and detail, I must look the maker up. Excellent!

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  9. Thanks Lee, the first banner is from ‘Petesflags’ which I understand to be an eBay outfit. It is printed on a nylon type material. I use PVA glue and also glue in a tin foil insert to help with folding etc, which works well on paper, but this nylon stuff, the best to can hope for is to get it a bit wavy as it springs back into position. I spent so much time holding it with tweezers, that the tweezers scratched off some of the ink and I had to do a little re-touching, but who cares! the whole thing just pops and looks great.

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  10. Great work Norm, both on the infantry and the Tiger II:)

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    1. Thanks Steve, my painting volume is definitely up this year.

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  11. Great to see the figures getting additions and a rather splendid flag too. The pussy cat is very striking.

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  12. Thanks Phil, it trundles on. I am pleased with the Tiger and really surprised that such a well represented model, doesn’t go for more track detail, but all the Pegasus kits (and Armorfast for that matter) are the same. I have a couple of Pegasus JSII’s that need building to face-off against the Tiger!

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  13. Good looking units and you seem to have some time into the bases themselves with a variety of tufts of grass.

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    1. Thanks Peter, I got myself a static grass applicator, so have made myself a bank of tufts. Mine are a very scruffy type, but they seem to compliment the very 'uniform' commercial ones and it helps make filling big stands viable.

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  14. Everyone needs a few king tigers; it’s like mandatory for WWII. 😀
    The WoTR stuff looks great. Your basing scheme really works well. It makes sense to build up both sides slowly so that games can be played along the way. 😀

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  15. Thanks Stew, I am trying not to spread myself too thinly, so that i can at least get the core WotR done this year,but I just need to do something with the 1/72 kit boxes that I have that keep winking at me.

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  16. Splendid looking war of the Roses troops, Pete's flags are ace, my Italian wars flags were all printed on paper , tiger looks nice, Lee has given me a painted winter Tiger 1, which I really should rebase!
    Best Iain

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  17. Thanks Iain, agree about Pete’s Flags, they just add so much to a base. I am a bit torn about basing vehicles, I always have, but my current crop of 1/72 are not, but I am edging towards doing so!

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  18. The figures look realky great as do the flags!

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  19. Thanks Ray, I have enjoyed doing a bit of digging to find out more about the men behind the flags / banners.

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  20. Lovely work on the WotR troops Norm, but your description of which unit belongs to who is what I really dont like about that conflict - multiple people with virtually the same name, constantly changing sides - aarrgghhh! I have read several books on this period and am still no clearer about exactly who did what! The Koenigtiger looks good and you will need one at least for any games around the Battle of the Bulge - you might even need two! The Pegasus and Armourfast ranges are great for wargamers - ten or twelve parts, rather than the PzKfw IV I did a few months ago that had something like 86 parts per side in the wheel and bogey assembly alone!

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  21. Thanks Keith, I know what you mean about about Wars of the Roses lineage, it can make some of the conflict reading a little more demanding when the big power house families are being discussed across the period and in the previous 100 years.

    I'm not going to worry about it too much. I am aiming for a Bosworth battle in 1485, but most of my stuff has leaders who were dying in the 1460's and '70's - so it will be something of a generic army. My approach to ACW is similar, for me, a flag is a flag, I'll take the one that comes with the box and not worry which regiment is actually being represented. I'm okay with that, I know many are not.

    I have a problem with solvent glues, so the fast build stuff is a fantastic advance in our niche little hobby.

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  22. I'm just now thinking about 28mm Medievals on 80mm frontages, and these stands capture just the image I'm looking for. Great posing of the figures to create dynamic vignettes.

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  23. Thanks Richard. Tomorrow (New Year’s Day) a WotR game is being played out and will go onto the blog, again with those 80mm frontages. I have been using the Sword & Spear rules and they suggest 80mm basing allows the following; 8 units per side on a 4x3 and 12 units per side on a 5x3 and 15 units per side on a 6x4. This contrast against their suggestion that a 120mm frontage allows 12 units on a 6x4, so its not too critical, but I find that the 80mm does give a nice stand, while keeping the footprint small enough to get more onto the table.

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    1. Norm, I can create a 6 x 4 table at home but the native size of my dining room table is a little over 48" x 32". Having recently acquired a 4" gridded cloth for playing TtS! with 80mm wide 15mm units, I was reminded of the advantage of adopting the same frontages for 28mm.

      Best wishes for a happy new year, Richard.

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    2. I hope wargame media and the shows when they re-start properly, start to give a better focus to the typical size of table that we are playing at home. Happy New Year.

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    3. Or even at a club! Maybe we bloggers should make a point of celebrating real games on real tables with real wargame scenery? Full marks to Martin Goddard of Peter Pig in that respect, but very few demo games tick all those boxes.

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  24. Well, I think blogs collectively probably have a wider readership than magazines and so maybe from that point of view, they should be seen as seats of influence. Yes, martin is certainly a wargamers wargamer

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    1. The main purpose of the glossy wargaming magazines seems to be to sell stuff. If you remove the adverts and the advertorial eye candy I'm not sure what substance is left. There is some good historical content, but wargaming ideas seem to come more from blogs, forums and non-commercial publications.

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