Medieval European Archers - Painting Commission

Because Some Players Can Never Have Enough Archers

I was asked to paint up a very mixed bag of 30 Medieval archers for use with a mates Feudal English army. Once he gave me the castings I realised that the figure mix wasn't that good size wise. There were 21 Museum Miniatures MD01 English Longbowmen LMI castings, 8 what look like Mikes Models archers [still very nice] and 1 odd casting. As part of my own Project Lead Mountain I also have tons of unpainted metal so used the commission to paint up some of my own figures at the same time. I ended up painting 70 castings in all. Ironically I had some MD01 castings left over so ended up painting 30 of these plus 8 Falcon Figures, 16 Essex castings and a single spare Old Glory 15 archer plus some others that are a good match for the Mikes Models castings size wise. He specified that he wants the figures unbased and poorly clothed to represent Feudal Levy troops.

He didn't want the Essex castings as they are too late but I was short of four elements from my own collection so this made a good excuse to finally complete the last four elements I need.

As to the commission here's a selection of pictures of the 54 castings still on their painting batons.

Museum MD01

Mikes Models

Falcon Figures + one Old Glory

 

Mixed Makes

Scythians - The Baggage Part 2

More Scythian Baggage

As part of my plans for the Scythians I ordered a pack of Forged in Battle Scythians Wagons Reference WE-SK06 Skythian 2-Horse Wagons. They come three to a pack and cost £15-00 including delivery so were not cheap. To be honest I cannot see me ever using them but I enjoy making up baggage items to sell so I might list them on EBay in due course. They come with two crew each, one drover and some fighting crew but they seem impossible to actually fit into the small area left once the canopies are fixed into position so I discarded the fighting crew castings which are only modelled from the waist upwards. I had a pair of spare Xyston female civilians left over so used these to add personality to two of the wagon bases. The castings were very clean and required minimal work before priming. There are three canopy variants, two horse variants, three identical drovers and three different fighting crewmen. [picture of the fighting crewmen below]

Ancient Camptastic Elements

15mm Ancient Baggage Elements Completed - Scythians

As with any wargamer I started to accumulate leftover bits and pieces as part of Project Lead Mountain. This included four large hide covered tent like structures similar to Yurts, lots of Baueda Ancient, Generic and Napoleonic supplies, Xyston civilians and camp accessories from Donningtons, Irregular and Museum Miniatures. They will be suitable for literally lots of nomadic and other warmer climate armies from the Chariot through to the Dark Ages.

The Yurt like tents were too large to fit on a single or even on a double size baggage element so I decided to make feature pieces out of them. I have no idea who made the tents but since I had four of them to use I decided to make up an eight element and two four element baggage features.

First up is a 160mm  x 80mm eight element Baggage Camp. This is ideal to use for larger games and as a base camp in lots of rules. This will end up on EBay in due course.

Next is 80mm x 80mm four element Baggage Camp No:1.
This is ideal to use for a feature camp or to bulk out your existing baggage for larger games and as a base camp in lots of rules. This will end up on EBay in due course.

Next is 80mm x 80mm four element Baggage Camp No:2.
This is ideal to use for a feature camp or to bulk out your existing baggage for larger games and as a base camp in lots of rules. This will end up on EBay in due course.

Finally I have finished off eleven single baggage elements all on 40mm x 40mm bases. I have used most of my left over castings. I will need to keep two elements back for use with my Scythians, but I also have three Made in Battle Scythian wagons to paint up as double sized baggage elements so I may just keep one of them instead.

I have presented the baggage in three groups. A group of three elements and two groups of four elements but this was for photographic convenience reasons.

Group Nr:1

Group Nr:2

Group Nr:3

If there's anything that takes your fancy contact me and we can discuss terms?

Scythians - The Baggage

Scythian Baggage with added gore!

The Scythians were a nomadic race renowned for chopping off the heads of their enemies. As part of the rights of passage a young warrior wasn't allow to cut their hair until they had offered a head as tribute to their Headman or ideally their king.

So as is usual for me I like to create special baggage elements for my armies where possible. I purchased a selection of Xyston foot & accessories to create the army along with some of their civilians and severed heads! The shields are from my bag of spares & the items of baggage are from Baueda. The tufts & gravel were purchased on EBay as previously mentioned. Vallejo Earth Brown Paste & Umber edging to finish before a coating of Matt Spray Sealer. I wanted it to be a feature piece so made it as a Double Based Element which can be swapped out for other normal elements should it be at risk of being lost to enemy attack. I started this six days ago just after I posted the entry on creating Horse Herd baggage elements from 40 year old Minifigs castings. I went to town with the painting for this special element & I am very pleased with how it has turned out.

Lastly as part of the army they of course need some tents. I decided that they would have probably used animal hide covered tents similar to the style of a Mongol Yurt. Baueda make two Mongol Yurts in their range 15YUR and 15YUR-b. They were easy to prepare as usual and painted up quite nicely.

I am still missing two more baggage elements which will be added to this blog entry in due course but until they are done I shall just use a pair of tethered Horse Herd elements if necessary.