The Duke of Exeter's Command

Well I've finally completed the Duke of Exeter's Command, with the exception of his command base itself. So that's 1404 figures painted and ready for battle. Hopefully that can be completed this week.

Left to Right: SirLionel Welles of Welles, 6th Lord of Welles; Henry Lord Grey of Codnor; Sir Robert Holland; Sir Richard Welles of Welles, 7th Lord of Welles and Willoughby; Sir William Beaumont of Stowe Bardolf, 2nd Viscount Beaumont.

I'm currently painting the wagons required for Blore Heath, which as Ruarigh has said we are putting on at Triples this year.

Cheers

Steve

Lancastrian Knights for Blore Heath

For a bit of a change and as part of my plan for keeping myself interested, I have painted these knights for our Blore Heath show game at Triples. Click the photo for a large image.

RLTP does Blore Heath

As practice for our big game and also to allow us to play with our newly painted toys, we shall be putting on a refight of Blore Heath at Triples in Sheffield on April 17th and 18th. Please come along and see us. We still have a bit of work to do though. Eek! I suppose we have a couple of months left to finish it all and build some terrain, so it is not impossible that we might manage something vaguely appealing.

The picture below shows the basic orders of battle with the Yorkists at the top and the Lancastrians below. The empty stands represent command stands that we still need to paint and base (small 40mm x 30mm stands), while the empty 60mm x 30mm stands on the right of the Lancastrian line are awaiting a consignment of light cavalry to support the knights in front. The wagon laager on the Yorkist left flank still needs a bit of work though! (click the picture for a larger image)

The battle will be refought using the Poleaxed rules and will feature 2148 infantry, 108 cavalry and 4 artillery pieces plus crew. It certainly does not look like that many figures in the picture to me, so maybe I did the maths wrong!

Lord Percy Percy of Percy?

I have now completed another contingent for the Lancastrians. It has gone slowly because of various viruses and a holiday, but there they are. Henry Percy and his men on the left (cue Blackadder jokes) and the ill-fated Randolph Dacre on the right. (click the pic for a larger image)

The badge flags are my own creation while the heraldic flags are from Freezywater. Figures are Baccus as usual.

Work starts on second batch!

Hello.

Last summer, when on the baccus forum, Ruarigh announced the Towton project.  I was very keen to get involved, initially planning to add a contingent of my own to this great project, until i checked the dates.....

Unfortunately, being in Germany and with a very busy year in 2011, i realised i wouldnt be able to attend.  I did however offer to paint some of his "soon to be" massive collection.

So far ive painted two contingents for him, which can be viewed here on this blog.  I started painting the next batch today, after getting into the period itself and reading up on the battle.

So, a couple of weeks ago i recieved another parcel, containing a small lead mountain,  seen here on the left.

4 contingents in all, each containing 4 units.  I hope to have them painted fairly soon, but with a trip to the falklands and some time in wales coming up, it may take longer than id hoped.

I made a start today, and in the space of a mere 3 hours managed to get a complete contingent painted!!

Sir Edward Brooke of Holditch, 6th Lord Cobham, and his men.

I will post updates as and when i can, and as soon as they are all done, they will be in the post to sunny Yorkshire.  For banners and basing, thats Ruariagh's job!

Cheers

Steve

My first Lancastrians

I have painted my first Lancastrians. To be honest, I had painted them by the end of last year but was waiting to get the flags before I posted them. This contingent of Northern spears supported by archers is led by Sir John Heron of the Ford, ably assisted by Sir John Crackenthorpe, and is part of Northumberland's command. According to one source on the Lance and Longbow Society mailing list (now defunct), Northern spears appear to have been an invention of WRG rather than a reality, but the order of battle we are using calls for them and I like how they look, so I shall use them in at least one incarnation of our Towton refights.

(click the picture for a larger version)

I'm not dead yet! (More Yorkists)

Well, it has been some months since last I posted here. This does not mean the project is dead though. Instead, I have been busy with a variety of real life things, as well as this project. In this time, we have received a whole host of flags from Freezywater Publications / Lance and Longbow Society (see the sidebar for links). They have very kindly supported us by resizing a number of their flagsheets to suit our needs. I have now added some of those flags to my units, while also making a few livery badge flags and company flags for my troops, to add variety. I have also used some flags provided by David Rayner, who specialises in researching heraldry, to enhance my troops. First up for display is a contingent painted for me by Steve Kelly of steve's blog.

Sir John Conyers on the left and Sir Reginald Grey of Wilton on the right (click the pictures for larger versions). I could find no mention of what badge Grey used, nor did his heraldic banner have anything suitable on it to use. I did find a reference to his family using a gray or badger as a crest, so I opted for that as a badge and made the livery badge flags with that image on it. John Conyers's livery badge flags were easier because I could find suitable references for them. The heraldic banners are from Freezywater as mentioned above.

Here we see levy troops commanded by Sir Edmund Grey of Ruthyn on the left and Sir John Astley on the right. The livery badge flags are from Freezywater and the company flags are my own creation.

Edward IV exhorts his cavalry to do their utmost before the battle. I am not happy with my attempt at a white rose on Edward's horse and may try to redo that later. For the time being I need to crack on with the remaining figures. This is one of the command stands for the game. I chose to depict Edward and his followers as mounted because one of the descriptions of the battle that I read described him giving a pre-battle speech to his cavalry. The standard is another Freezywater creation.

Edward IV's command at Towton all liveried and flagged up. This is one third of the Yorkist army.