More Ancients from Project Lead Mountain - 15th C European Infantry

15th C Medieval Infantry Oddments

Back in February I posted a blog on an Hussite EBay purchase. https://drewjarman.blogspot.com/2019/02/hussite-infantry-part-1.html

I have finally painted the last of those figures along with 8 others and have made a profit on the items I already sold on.

As you can see from the picture about they are a mixed lot from two different makers, Minifigs and Oddziat Osmy.

First up are the Minifigs German Spearmen. They are Code 222X from their Renaissance Hussite Wars Range but the armour style actually dates from 1400 AD. Being very old sculpts in the typical Minifigs pose they needed some cleaning up due to having lots of flash. I cannot comment on the casting quality as they must be quite old castings so may well have been redone.

Minifigs 222X German Spearmen

The other Minifigs casting is 225X Hungarian Spearmen also from the Hussite Wars Range. Again the armour style dates from 1400 AD.

Minifigs 225X Hungarian Spearmen

Lastly I bought a box of Oddziat Osmy Code MT04 Teutonic Order Command 1410 AD figures. It contained nine knights and eight swordsmen. They were cast in rock hard pewter and were original 1st generation Polish sculpts. The Teutonics do not have any actual swordsmen in their army lists that I use but I painted them up to go with the other spearmen. They are nicely sculpted figures and were easy to paint.

Oddziat Osmy Teutonic Order Swordsmen

I had planned to sell them in due course but might keep them instead.

Bohemian Crossbowmen with Pavisiers in 15mm Scale

Surplus Figures Repurposed into Something Useful

Having recently purchased a Later Hungarian Army that came with six elements of very nicely painted Spearmen that were surplus to my requirements I had considered just putting them back onto EBay to offset the original purchase cost. I was then asked by someone at the wargames club if I had any suitable figures surplus in my Lead Mountain that would be useful to use as the mysteriously illegal Reg Bw X/I Bohemian Mercenary Crossbowmen that suddenly appeared unannounced in the Revised Edition DBMM Book 4 Army lists for the Medieval Germans and Hussites. I instantly thought of the spare spearmen because they are actually Essex Miniatures Code EMED6 Hussite, German or Bohemian Spearmen so were ideal for this.

I also had left over 24 unpainted Minifigs 967X Crossbowmen which used to be their old code 67X which I persuaded Dave at Minifigs to reintroduce into the range after it was replaced with a casting with a pavise on his back some years ago. The figure paints up really nicely and I am surprised the previous owners of Minifigs deleted it from the range in the first place. Put onto 40mm x 40mm magnetised MDF bases decorated with tufts and spray varnish sealed the two castings compliment each other quite nicely.

I have not had it confirmed if he is going to buy them just yet but if not I might keep them myself or EBay them I have not decided. This is the second lot of Bohemians I have created https://drewjarman.blogspot.com/2017/01/bohemian-mercenary-foot-crossbowmen-reg.html

Eastern Franks - Swabian & Bavarian Knights

A Long Delayed Project Finally Completed

Way back under DBM v1.1 I purchased a Norman Army for 1066 AD. One of the ideas was for it to morph into Eastern Franks. The last two years of Project Lead Mountain saw me clearing more figures from the unpainted pile at a ration of four to one. I have also been buying new figures but the amount of unpainted metal is now down to the state that its all bits and pieces with a few exceptions and none of it is of any use to allow me to morph an existing army into something new.

Having cast around for suitable mounted kite shielded knights armed with swords I settled on Donnington New Era Normans specifically their http://shop.ancient-modern.co.uk/nmc11-heavy-cavalryman-2918-p.asp castings. I emailed Damian and asked him if he could make sure I got 24 of each casting and selected 24 each of the HH01, HH02 & HH03 mounts for variety. I am unsure if I will ever use 24 Irr Kn I Swabian Knights but they will double up as other Milites from this era so wont go to waste. I am very pleased with how they turned out. It took be about two months to do them all because I also had other things on the go at the same time and I hate painting huge batched of identical castings if I can avoid it. The mounts required some fine cleaning up of flash as did the riders. The figures came with separate kite shields which were a bit of a pain to glue on to the figures. This of course means that these casting are also perfectly suitable for other similarly armed knights from the Dark Ages by the simple expedient of using different shaped shields.The castings are full of detail and they paint up really well.

So now I have 24 elements of Irr Kn I in my collection which can double up for other knights if necessary.

Donningtons NMC11 Norman Knights on HH01, HH02 & HH03 horses

Bohemian Mercenary Foot Crossbowmen Reg Bw X/I in DBMM

Bohemian Mercenaries for the Med Germans

With the publication of the DBMM revised 2nd Edition army lists last September we were all surprised to see that Phil Barker had introduced a new troop combination in two lists. These are Bohemian Mercenary Foot Crossbowmen Reg Bw X/I double based elements for use in the Medieval German and Hussite lists. In the latest version of DBMM v2.1 rules this is an illegal troop combination as it is in DBM. WRG and Phil have not yet responded to confirm if this is a mistake or explain how this new troop combo is supposed to work in DBMM. They are actually very attractive looking troops for the later 1400's and since I have a pile of left over spare figures in Project Lead Mountain I decided to create sufficient elements to use in the Med German list.

The front rank are Roundway castings. http://naismithandroundway.co.uk/product/clipeati-heavy-infantry/ I filed off the shields as far as possible and glued a mix of now discontinued Corvus Belli Pavises to the fronts. The rear ranks are Minifigs which despite having the figure code 67X are actually the 1st Generation Renaissance figures which were remastered some years ago so are no longer available. Dave Ryan may well reintroduce them into the range having obtained a single pack of castings at some time in the future under a different code. UPDATE they are now available as Code 967X [06/03/17]

Due to there being no common consensus on how to operate these figures within the rules I adopted a different ploy when I based up the figures [more on this below]. Each Pavise is decorated with an historic coat of arms from Bohemia. I created twelve elements to be used as six double bases. 

Due to my needing more Regular crossbowmen I decided that I would mount the elements singly and use masking tape to temporarily join them together when needed. This means I have eight elements of Reg Bw O to use at any time and another eight elements of Reg Bw X when I need them and saves me from painting up single elements of duplicate figures when removing shooting casualties.

Project Lead Mountain 21st January 2017

Project Lead Mountain Update 21/01/17

As part of the ongoing update to my figure collection I am refreshing and rebasing some older figures that I have because their basing style was so old fashioned it ruined the figures. It also allows me to retouch and improve the figures I painted many years ago to a higher standard.

As I rationalise my collection parts of it are ending up on EBay to hopefully find a new home and get some use. I often paint up figures and only ever use them once or twice and then paint up new figures that I like even more which means the older figures never get any use.

This instalment from PLM only contains refurbished and rebased figures.

The first batch are twelve Foot Crossbowmen with Pavise on their backs. They are Tin Soldier MA10 Castings http://tinsoldieruk.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=186_206 I have repainted the Pavise with various Italian Cities Coat of Armes making them suitable for most Condotta or later armies or for use as Mercenaries in many other European armies. They are surplus to requirements and will be going onto EBay in due course.

These are Roundway castings but I am unsure of the figure code. I painted them up as generic mercenaries or Civic Militia many years ago. Putting them on new bases has made all the difference and they will sit in reserve for when I need more than the normal number of crossbowmen.

I think these are Essex Miniatures but I cannot be sire as there was no code on them. I obtained them many years ago in a Bring and Buy and they started life as two elements of Reg Bw O. Since I needed a four more Psiloi Crossbowmen I unbased them, repainted their leggings to match and made them into four element of Reg Ps O on new bases.

Eastern Franks in DBM

Eastern Franks - Filling Out The Missing Elements

As part of Project Lead Mountain I am finally starting to finish off the missing bits of lots of armies I have including morphing armies into other lists. I have a Norman army which I first used under DBM v1.1 and gets a run out once in a while. It can double up for Eastern Franks of course. The DBMM list includes a 4th Irr Sub-general which represents the contingent Edward the Confessor supplied on 1049 AD. I have already painted up his contingent see my blog entry http://drewjarman.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/project-lead-mountain-bit-and-pieces.html for some pictures. 

The list requires that for every element of Irr Bd S I take I must take an element of Irr Bts S. So I cast around for suitable boat models and found that Navwar make a Saxon ship in 1/1200th scale Code AGS22. Since they are very small I ordered four packs [2 per pack] and mounted 2 models to a base. The paint job is very basic but they do the job quite well.

I still have 24 elements of Donningtons sword armed Milites to paint for the Swabian Irr Kn I that form a large part of this army.