More mercenary hand gunners, and thoughts on unit sizes

I was looking at my first two units of ‘skirmishers’ (in Never Mind the Billhooks terms), and felt they looked a bit small … too small … not by much, but a bit mean.

I went through this thought process with my Sudan project: the recommended number of figures for a unit in a given rule set compared to how that looked and whether I was satisfied with the appearance. This is the modeller/collector in me rather than the gamer, of course.

Anyhow, thinking of the standard Never Mind the Billhooks company of 12 figures, and looking at my units of six skirmishers, I decided to scale up to 16 and eight figures respectively … I think.

Another four mercenary hand gunners to join their compatriots, comprising Perry Miniatures’ plastic figures and a Steel Fist Miniatures’ dolly. Once again I have added a pouch using ProCreate and the fellow with the soft hat gets a helmet to hang off of his belt.

Mercenary hand gunners

I have got around to finishing the assembly of two contingents of mercenary hand gunners. I augmented the Perry Miniatures’ plastic mercenary figures with a set of six Italian hand gunners from their European Armies range.

I liked the kneeling figure who looked as if he might make a captain, and thought he would be a good fit with a kneeling figure based on a Steel Fist Miniatures’ dolly. I selected heads from the plastic frames to compliment the metal figures, and the two fellows with soft hats got helmets hanging from their belts. I also fashioned a couple of pouches for the figures which were without them.

I have a similar number of crossbowmen in various stages of assembly, which will be the subject of a later post.

Two contingents of mercenary hand gunners comprising Perry Miniatures’ metal and plastic figures, and a couple of Steel Fist Miniatures’ dollies.

First assembly

Thank goodness for the long weekend! At last a chance to spend a few uninterrupted hours getting to grips with the plastic and metal miniatures I have, and begin to assemble them.

I have assembled a handful of crossbow men, hand gunners, and gun crew, all using a mix of Perry Miniatures plastic parts and Steel Fist Miniatures dollies. I have also assembled my first mounted figure, destined to be the vengeful John Clifford. I am thinking he will lead a light cavalry unit – The Flower of Craven. This will be my first  attempt at painting heraldic devices and patterns, so I am keen to see how I get on with it.

Hand gunners, crossbowmen, gun crew, and hand culverins,  with a cannon and limber in the background. The mounted figure will be John Clifford.

Hand culverins and light cannon

A post on the Never Mind the Billhooks Facebook group showing Mark Copplestone’s hand cannon miniatures reminded me how much I had wanted these figures when I first saw them many many years ago.

I discovered that they are available from Forlorn Hope Games on ebay. They also have a light cannon model with two rather animated crew, also by Copplestone … so I bought a couple of sets of each to augment my artillery park.

At the time of writing I am not sure if the hand canons are historically accurate weapons – they are from the Warhammer Fantasy range. If they are they would probably be termed hand culverins. Anyhow, they look the part.

Mark Copplestone’s hand cannons and crews …

… and light cannons with crews.

The light cannons alongside one of my Front Rank cannons.

Steel Fist Miniatures’ dollies

Perry Miniatures’ late medieval plastic sets are generously provided with heads (seventy different apparently) and arms bearing all kinds of weapons from bills to bows to various pole arms, swords, maces, etc. Consequently there will be plenty of spares after assembly of the plastic figures from each box.

Cue Steel Fist Miniatures with a range of headless and armless ‘dollies’, designed to fit with the Perry Miniatures range. I ordered five sets, initially to augment my mercenary crossbow and hand gun armed figures, and to fashion gun crews for my Front Rank canons.

As you will see, the sculpts are very finely detailed, and, I would say, very slightly shorter and very slightly leaner than Perry Miniatures’ plastic and metal figures. This is an observation rather than a criticism, and I am really looking forward to assembling a few of these to see how they look when combined with Perry’s heads, arms, and weapons.

Steel Fist Miniatures’ standing retainer dollies …

… crouching and kneeling retainer dollies …

… retainer dollies in brigandines …

… dollies in padded coats …

… and men-at-arms dollies.

Steel Fist Miniatures (centre) compared to Perry Miniatures’ plastic and metal figures – very slightly shorter and slightly leaner.

Timely inspiration

I first became interested in the Wars of the Roses in the early 1990s. I bought some books and a handful of Wargames Foundary figures, painted a few, but allowed the project to be eclipsed by everything else that was going on in the early years of my career.

Thirty-odd years later my interest has been rekindled by a rule set, Andy Callan’s Never Mind the Billhooks. As the collecting, modelling, and painting of my Sudan project drew to a close (for now) I began re-reading a few histories of the late medieval conflict, and then, right on time, Graham Turner announced his fabulous new volume The Wars of the Roses: The Medieval Art of Graham Turner.

At the end of last year I ordered a small host of Perry Miniatures’ late medieval metal and plastic sets. This year I have ordered some Steel Fist Miniatures’ dollies, mainly to make use of the many spares from the Perry sets, but also to fashion gun crews for a couple of Front Rank canons.

With the arrival of Turner’s book I have everything I need to get cracking.

Cover and spreads from Graham Turner‘s magnificent volume.