The Earl of Suffolk's Contingent

I have now completed four out of five contingents for Edward's command at Towton. I had actually finished these last week but my wife unreasonably demanded my attention over the weekend so I could not get them photographed and blogged until today. The final contingent is being painted for me by Steve of steves blog, so I shall be turning my attention to Northumberland's command next. But first, here is the Earl of Suffolk's contingent.

Suffolk's Knights

(Click all pictures for larger images)

Suffolk's Billmen

Suffolk's Archers

Suffolk's Whole Contingent

Edward's Command (missing troops represented by blank bases)

Almost There

What happened to September? Following my return from France at the end of August life has interfered dramatically with my time. I've been away on business on average 2-3 days per week. However the second contingent is almost complete and should appear in their finished form this weekend. The 2 bases of archers have taken almost two weeks to complete which in terms of my painting schedule is a disaster.

However I'm hopefull that October will provide some light at the end of the tunnel and that the third contingent will be completed in a far quicker time slot.

Edmund Lord Grey of Ruthyn's Contingent

Poleaxed gives Sir Edmund Grey of Ruthin a contingent of levy archers and levy billmen. I chose to use the Baccus Longbowmen in Jack (WOR1) for the archers and Billmen in Jack (WOR3) for the billmen to differentiate the levy quality troops from the retinue quality troops. To further create the impression of irregular levies I used several different colours for the jacks rather than giving them livery jackets. I am unsure just how true this is to life, but it should give a reasonable impression on the table. The stands do not have flags yet, but they will do shortly. I just wanted to get pictures on the blog now and could not wait to get the flags sorted!

As usual, click the pictures for a larger version.

Levy Archers


Levy Billmen


The Whole Contingent


That's another 8 stands done and just leaves me 16 more stands to complete Edward's command, 112 stands to complete the Yorkist army and 240 stands to complete the whole order of battle. By my reckoning, that means I need to paint 3.5 stands per week up to the end of next year. Better get cracking then! No time to blog, I have figures to paint ...

My First Lancastrians

I painted my first Lancastrians over the weekend. So that I could get to use my figures sooner rather than later, I added some figures I already owned to the painting pile to make up Basic Impetus armies, as recorded on The Ooh Shiny Complex. The Lancastrian Basic Impetus army has two stands of Welsh or Border foot. I found that I had just enough spearmen in the lead pile to make up those two stands. These guys will fight in Northumberland's command at Towton. Only four more stands of them for me to paint. I had better order some more spearmen so that I can get on with the job.

Sir John Heron of the Ford leads some of Northumberland's spears:
(click for a larger version)