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.

Mercenary cannon crews

I’ve been making a few more crew figures for my four cannons, with a view to having three or four figures per gun, and a handful of extras.

It’s a slow process (for me, at any rate) … looking at references, thinking about poses, attire, head choices, additional tools such as mallets – carved off the Perry Miniatures’ archers stakes (AO7), looking for arms and hands to combine for the right attitude.

They are beginning to come together, and although I have basing arrangements in mind, I do need to arrange them around the cannon next to see how they will interact with one another in situ.

A few crew figures for the cannon, comprising Perry Miniatures’ metal and plastic figures and three Steel Fist Miniatures’ dollies, and mallets carved off archers stakes.

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 cannons 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.