Ragged Staff Miniatures 3D resin prints

I’ve been interested in these characterful miniatures for a while, and curious to see the quality of 3D printed resin for myself I ordered four … and now they have arrived.

I ordered Watchful Lord, Captain of Archers, Knight Baronet with helm, and Loyal Standard Bearer. These are delicate, finely detailed prints, with no visible trace of the production process. The pole weapons are a little bit too flexible, so I will probably substitute these with plastic versions. They sit very well with my Steel Fist Miniatures and Perry Miniatures castings though, so I am looking forward to thinking about which retinues they will be recruited to.

Top: Watchful Lord, Captain of Archers, Loyal Standard Bearer, and Knight baronet with helm. Bottom: on the left Steel Fisst Miniatures dolly with Perry Miniatures plastic head and arms; on the right Perry Miniatures metal casting.

Flemish mercenaries

It’s been a bit too hot to paint so I got on with some more assembly. This took me much longer than I would have thought possible, simply because of the amount of time I spent considering the components for the standard bearer and captain.

Anyhow, my ideas for the organisation of the mercenaries have crystalised; there will be two companies, one Yorkist and one Lancastrian. Each will comprise a captain, standard bearer, and musician, two small contingents armed with hand guns and crossbows (eight figures each), and two hand culverins (two figures each).

Flemish command for the Yorkist mercenaries, and the Flemish hand gunners begin to take shape. All are a mix of Perry Miniatures’ metal and plastic, and Steel Fist Miniatures’ metal dollies.

Scenic backdrops

I have always been slightly envious of railway modellers’ scenic backdrops. These have made appearances in the photography of showpiece wargames too, notably Perry Miniatures’ facebook page and Wargames Illustrated, and others besides, I’m sure.

I decided to have some of my own, and began to look for suitable backdrops. Then there was the matter of mounting them; although they tend to be printed (inkjet on-demand, I assume) on fairly heavy stock, this is not rigid enough for game or photo session use.

I wanted backdrops suitable for my two current projects, this one based in fifteenth century England and the other based in nineteenth century Sudan. I figured that I would mount the different backdrops back-to-back on foamex.

I sourced two sets of Scalology backdrops from online model railway store Model Masters. These come in matched pairs for a maximum display width of three metres, each 1500mm x 381mm, including a 5mm boarder all round. I bought two cut lengths of foamex a bit larger than required, mounted the backdrops using 3M sheet adhesive, and then trimmed them to size.

Both sets cost around £80 all together, in terms of prints and materials.

Verdant and desert backdrops ready for gaming and photography … wait to see how they look in use.

More paint

Finally, I have got some more paint on. All the flesh has been applied, shaded, and highlighted, and those figures wearing mail have had it painted.

I have also added two figures for my first vignette, Francesco Coppini’s Papal mission of 1459. The fellow holding a staff topped with a cross will become the Papal standard bearer.

Two units of hand gunners, gun crews and, in yellow, John Clifford, a mix of Perry Miniatures metal and plastic, and Steel Fist Miniatures dollies.

Two units of mercenary crossbow men on the left and Francesco Coppini and a Papal standard bearer on the right.

More mercenary crossbow men

I’ve had a bit of time to finish assembling my mercenary crossbow men, and they are beginning to look the part.

Some of these fellows are really quite encumbered with bolt quivers, cranequin or windlass, swords and bucklers.

The joins between arms and torsos required a bit of filling, but they’re now ready for undercoating … then I have to decide on their liveries.

14 more crossbowmen assembled from Perry Miniatures’ plastics and Steel Fist Miniatures’ metal dollies. These will join the two I finished a while ago.

More mercenary crossbow men and first application of paint

I’ve made a bit of progress with the new project this week, while keeping an eye on the Sudan adventure.

I have assembled a few more mercenary crossbow men, although most still need helmets and some will get swords. I need to consider the style of helmet, since this should aline with these fellows’ regional origins.

I also got around to applying the first coat of flesh to the figures that I assembled over the past few weeks.

More mercenary crossbow men, utilising Perry Miniatures plastic parts and Steel Fist Miniatures dollies.

The first application of paint … mercenary hand gunners on the left and artillery crew figures on the right. One of the yellow fellows at the top is destined to become Lord John Clifford … the other is for practicing the tabard, which will be a check pattern of yellow and blue, with a red bar, or Chequy or et azure, a fess gules.

A few more gunners

I’ve added a couple more crew figures, one of which is a minor conversion of a Copplestone figure.

The handful of Copplestone figures I have are so distinct – in terms of their physical attitude – that I wanted to make them different enough from one another, but also to work with the Perry and Steel Fist figures.

The pointing figure holding a canon ball got a different head from one of the Perry plastic sprues, while one of the figures holding what I think is a rammer, had this removed and the left hand replaced with one gesturing something like ‘wait’.

Left-to-right: a comparison of Copplestone, Steel Fist, Perry metal, Copplestone, Perry plastic …

… and again.