Crossbow base - the fallen man!

Presently I have just one crossbow base (Burgundian Mercenary) for my Wars of the Roses forces, it has always been enough.

Below - From the outset it was designated as a skirmisher under my old rules, so 4 men with a couple of pavises sit on an 80mm x 50mm base and I like the overall character.

With my move to the Test of resolve rules, all missile troops use a ‘wide’ formation which is reflected by using two bases side by side and so I am rebasing all of my archers as 10 man units on two 80mm x 40mm bases.

Anyway, I like the crossbow base and don’t see the point in disturbing it. Instead I will simply create a second base that looks like the first. I have enough spare Burgundian decals for the pavises and my recent purchase of the Perry’s plastic Mercenaries box for its 16 pikemen, will also give me my 4 new crossbowmen  so all is good.

Below - To make fuller use of the 80 x 50 base, I thought I would add a casualty, but make it from the plastic sprues that come in Mercenaries box.

So - An armoured figure on the frame that was standing rather passively, was chosen. The figure’s puddle base was cut away, leaving the feet intact. Next the soldiers whole right leg was cut off with the intention of re-gluing with the leg turned at 90˚ so the figure didn’t simply look like a standing man while in the horizontal position!

The torso belly / chest was carved away flat, so that the face down figure looked like it was naturally contacting the earth.

Two arms were selected that would look ‘right’. On the right arm, the hand was cut away, so that the wrist could embed in the mud and keep that side of the figure relaxed. This right arm had held a sword and this would be re-used and moved over to the soldiers outstretched left hand, as though it has just fallen away from him.

A helmeted head was selected and glued in place while the figure was prone, so that the head would flop forward and set in a natural way in relation to the rest of the body.

Finally a bit of ‘Green Stuff’ was added at the new join at the top of the right leg, to hide the tell tale signs of hacking and any rough handling! 

The figure was glued into position while some basing mud was added at the same time, so that it would all dry together and the hard to reach places (i.e. between the knees and also the shoulder / neck) could be muddied before the figure was set down.

Crossbowmen were present at Stoke Field 1487 with the rebel army as European mercenaries (Burgundians with their white and blue coats). So our man's story can be from that battle.

Given that our fallen soldier is so well armoured and is wearing Azure and Murrey colours, we might assume that he is either a household or retained man-at-arms, in the service of one of the major Yorkist sympathisers. Sir Thomas Broughton (from Broughton in Furness - Lancashire in north west England) was such a man, so we might imagine our casualty to be a low ranked knight who had been fighting close to Sir. Thomas’ banner, as they charged with the rebel line into Oxford’s Royal Vanguard (Lancastrian).

Above - Sir. Thomas' colours. I might create a Sir. Thomas base, with a banner like this, just to inject a connection into the collection.

The new base has now been completed with four new crossbowmen decorated in the Burgundian colours (blue / white tabard), taken from the Perry’s plastic Mercenaries box, together with their pavises. There are a couple of longbow arrow shafts placed here and there and the tufting of the base has been done with a sympathetic eye on the original base ..... and this is what it looks like;

One of the pavises has fallen over onto our casualty (and picked up an arrow!), visually helping to tie him in with the rest of the base.

Overall, I am pleased with result of having a base that has its own little but of narrative going on. 

Above - fighting side-by-side, the two crossbow bases are now ready to be added to a Test of Resolve action .... soon I hope :-)

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https://commanders.simdif.com/dear_diary.html