Old Pierre

 Kings and tyrants come and go

I'll stand judged by what I know

A woodsman's life I'll ne'er gainsay,

Deep in the glades and far away...

The barons of England are in open defiance of King John. French and English armies march and counter-march across the land. Raiders strike at village and farm. Churches and manor houses are sacked. Deep in the woods Old Pierre plies his trade and keeps his own council...

 

A spare figure from the Blue Moon range provided the inspiration for this little vignette. The base is an old CD. Thoroughly dried twigs from our garden provide the logs and pollarded stump. Old Pierre's hut is a basic form made from 1mm cardboard. 

 

Stirrings and rustlings

My interest in gaming fell by the wayside a couple of years ago when real life intruded. Coupled with that a projected foray into the Palestine theatre of the Great War came to a crashing stop only a few weeks after I developed an interest in it, for obvious reasons. I turned instead to noodling with railway modelling, but gaming was never far from my thoughts.

Cut forward to earlier this month, and a find at the local library book sale...

1215: The Year of Magna Carta.

This neat little book by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham covers the sociopolitical, military and economic aspects of the decades immediately before and after the signing of Magna Carta. It doesn't go into great detail on everything - that'd take a much bigger work - but it does at least provide an overview of the era.

Enough to get some gaming ideas fermenting again. Perhaps a small, limited campaign set around a castle held by one faction or the other, which the opposing side needs to gain control of. It'd be a chance to dust off my First Barons War collection, and get my peasant rabble on the table at last. 

We'll see...

Pugnacious Peasantry!

After too long a time away from gaming the mojo is beginning to trickle back. I recently finished slapping pigment on the 15mm Blue Moon medieval peasants I bought two years ago for the First Barons War.

They're now based and awaiting warmer weather for the final varnishing. I did give them a coat of matte varnish once the shading dip dried, but it looks glossy. I was able to score a spray can of matte varnish and another can of hunter green from the local JoAnn's outlet in their closing-down sale for 60% off. It's sad to see a staple of the US hobby scene closing down. My cosplay friends are seriously annoyed.

Painting Peasantry - 3

...and a library sale find.

Some progress on the desultory painting process on the peasants for Lion Rampant. The last batch of twelve out of sixty is on the painting block, and finally the end is in sight.

A visit to our local library monthly sale turned up a little gem in the shape of Aircraft of the RAF since 1918 by Owen Thetford. As soon as I picked it off the shelf it opened to the page on one of my favourite aircraft, the DH9A Ninak. It was fated that i should buy it for the princely sum of $1.

Painting Peasantry - 1

I've made a little progress on the peasantry for Lion Rampant. Given I have sixty figures to paint up I am breaking them down into batches of twelve.

A slightly blurry image of progress so far.

I prefer to use a mid brown undercoat for most figures these days, as it's more subtle than black especially for irregular troops like these with mixed coloured clothing. 

As usual I painted in the faces and hands before moving on to blocking in the clothing. Thanks to my archaeologist daughter's expertise on historical fabric dyes I can get something approaching the authentic garb our ancestors wore.

Happy New Year! And...

Some figures. 

These chaps are the peasantry contingent for the Lion Rampant First Barons War collection.

They have four basic poses - pitchfork, axe, hatchet, and club. I might convert a few to bidowers (light infantry). There's an extra chap in one pack, so I'm thinking of making a small vignette of a woodcutter.

Library booty

Our local library had a sale recently at which I picked up a couple of pieces of treasure.

The first recounts the adventures of all Royal Naval VCs of the First World War - including Norman Holbrook, commander of submarine B11 that penetrated the Dardanelles and after whom a town in Australia is named. The second is a famous book on the Siege of Malta and details the naval and mercantile operations to relieve the island.

* * * *

After a bit of thought, instead of expanding my ECW collection I decided to round off my 1st Barons' War array with the addition of two packs of Old Glory Blue Moon range Jacquerie figures. They'll make up several bands of peasantry and some of bidowers (light infantry). I dropped onto these at Noble Knight Games for a little over half the retail price, which is a welcome bargain.

Lion Rampant ~ The End at Cockham

With Friar Balsam and his copy of the Passion of Saint Tibulus (illustrated edition) safely in the care of his foot serjeants, Sir Oswald de Patton led his men-at-arms into action against Sir Jean to buy the serjeants time to retire with their charge.

The serjeants begin to retire from the field as Sir Oswald leads his men up the road and into combat.

The men of Sir Jean's retinue were making good practice against their enemy. Sir Jean counter-charged Sir Oswald's men-at-arms with his own with every expectation of continuing the good work.

However, fate decided otherwise...

A short but vicious fight broke out on the approach to Cockham, the air filling with the hammering of metal on metal and the screams of men and horses. After a man fell on each side the opponents took stock of the situation. 

Sir Oswald's men were still full of fight. Sir Jean's men... were not. With shouts of suavez-vous! they had it away on their heels, fleeing back up the road to whence they came, leaving Sir Oswald and his men standing pleased but baffled.

Er..?

Seeing their leader fleeing the field had a dampening effect on the rest of Sir Jean's retinue. They stayed their hands, allowing Sir Oswald and his men to retire unmolested from the battle. Friar Balsam and his precious charge are safe.

* * *

That was unexpected. Sir Jean's retinue really piled on the pressure throughout the encounter, causing more casualties than they received, yet when it came to the crunch Sir Jean and his men were paper tigers. There's not much that can be done with a roll of two 1's on the Courage test. 

With no other of his bands within charging distance of the serjeants escorting Friar Balsam, I called the game at that point. An odd ending, but satisfying.

Lion Rampant ~ Clash at Cockham - continued

Sir Oswald de Patton's men may have beaten Sir jean to finding Friar Balsam, but Sir Jean's men are full of fight. 

Crossbowmen pick their way through the wood as Sir Jean leads his men into the village square.

With Friar Balsam recovered from the byre and in their charge, the foot serjeants begin to retire from the field. Pressure mounts as Sir Jean's troops advance.

Sir Jean's crossbowmen emerged from the woods to see their foe beginning to withdraw with the prize. Before they can act they come under fire from Sir Oswald's archers. A flurry of arrows and quarrels hum across the ploughed field. Men fall, but honours are even.

Close by, Sir Jean's mounted serjeants are punching well above their weight, driving Sir Oswald's men-at-arms back twice at little cost to themselves. Their opponents are at half strength and beginning to falter...

Lion Rampant ~ Clash at Cockham in the Wood

A fine Autumn day saw Friar Balsam, Holy Order of St. Aimless the Confused, running for his life up the Almost Great North Road. 

He'd been entrusted with a valuable copy of the Passion of St. Tibulus, a highly controversial work the existence of which had inflamed the already nasty war between King John and his Barons. The sympathetic Sir Oswald de Patton, of the Baronial Faction, is on his trail. Sir Oswald learned the King's men are abroad searching for the errant friar, and he seeks to give refuge to the holy man and peruse the naughty Passion for himself place the holy book under lock and key. 

Meanwhile, Sir Jean the Unreasonable is hot on the trail of the friar, seeking to arrest him for heresy and take the holy book for his own gratification to ensure its heretical notions are kept away from the impressionable public.

Friar Balsam reached the village of Cockham in the Wood, known as the site of an ancient battle between Romano-British Christians and pagan Saxons. A structure on the village square both commemorated the Christian victory and served as a butter market. The church of St. Onan the Blind stood the other side of the square, but the priest was away visiting his mistress a sick parishioner and couldn't offer Balsam sanctuary. It behooved Balsam to seek cover from his pursuers.

So it is both sides enter the field of battle...

Sir Oswald to the left of him, Sir Jean to the right, Balsam's stuck in the middle and blue.

The mounted men-at-arms on both sides approached along the road. Catching sight of each other caused both to draw up short to assess the situation. It appears neither want to get involved in a ruckus in the middle of the village. 

Sir Oswald's retinue begins to roll.

Sir Jean's retinue seems reluctant to budge.

Eventually both sides begin to advance. The cheeky mounted serjeants seem to fancy their chances against the better armed and equipped men-at-arms.

Sir Oswald's foot serjeants approach the village. The nearest of the two bands draws close to the barn and a copse of trees, both potential hiding places. Is Friar Balsam hiding in either?

The mounted serjeants have a point-or rather, several nasty sharp points, and the men-at-arms get the worst of the encounter.

As the mounted men square up to each other the commander of the longbowmen begins to position his troops to fire upon the mounted serjeants once they get a clear shot. 

A rustling in the byre startles a serjeant. Moments later a scruffy figure emerges into the light...

Well, waddaya know? Friar Balsam was in the second potential hiding place. Now let's see if his friends can get him to safety...

To be continued.

 

Serjeants on the Go

The next batch of figures for Lion Rampant are on the painting block and undercoated. These are a dozen mounted serjeants, which I'll paint up in generic fashion although I suspect they'll mostly deploy as part of a First Barons War French contingent.

These figures are by Blue Moon Manufacturing. They come in three separate piece - horse with rider's lower torso, rider's upper torso, and kite shield. No lances were supplied so I cut my own from wire. I'm... not a big fan of these figures. Getting the top half of the rider to sit properly in the lower took a good deal more cutting, filing and fiddling than I can normally tolerate. In spite of my best efforts some figures had gaps where the fit wasn't quite right, necessitating a spot of filling.

Fitting the lances and shields were marginally easier. However, the castings are crisp and clean and should paint up nicely. I'm looking at getting another batch to make up a castle garrison retinue.

If anyone wants to see how it should be done, head over to PanzerKaput's blog, where he has a number of First Barons War units painted up in superb fashion.

First Barons War reading

Our local library reopened a few weeks ago, and whilst browsing the shelves I came across this title. King John and the Road to Magna Carta by Professor Stephen Church.

It's an excellent read, although I suspect Church has a sneaking sympathy for the embattled King John. The book covers the period from John's birth to his death from dysentery. His own father King Henry II gave him the nickname 'Lackland' because the then-two-year-old John wasn't a factor when it came to drawing up significant land grants for the King's children. As king, John lost his territories of Normandy and Anjou in what is now France to the wily King Phillipe, and spent a heap of treasure in various futile attempts to regain them. The taxation he inflicted upon England sparked the barons' revolt, the creation of the Magna Carta and John's eventual demise in the middle of a civil war. 

For the Lion Rampant player the book contains numerous ideas for scenarios in England, Ireland, Scotland and France. Not all conflicts involved major powers. Quite a few came from disputed inheritances, royal-authorised land-grabs and sheer opportunism enabled by a weak or weakened neighbour.Plenty of fodder there for a good campaign or series of linked scenarios.

Serjeants Twelve

The first batch of foot serjeants is complete and based up. The green bases look a bit too pale so I may go over them again.

Another batch of twelve serjeants is on the painting block now. So many of the remaining foot figures have broken spears, after painting the serjeants I'll have to go into repair and replace mode. Given how old these figures are and the sometimes rough life they've had I'm only surprised they've lasted this long.

1st Earl of Winchester's men

A snowy day, and more progress on the First Barons War project. The 1st Earl of Winchester's retinue joins the growing host for Lion Rampant.

Saire de Quincy was 2nd Baron de Quincy of Bushby and 1st Earl of Winchester. He was one of the authors and guarantors of the Magna Carta, and as such became a prime target for King John’s notorious malice in the First Barons War.

I've almost completed the first batch of foot serjeants. They only need basing up. I may tackle a mounted contingent of men-at-arms next. Mounted figures are not my favourite when it comes to painting.

And now for something not entirely different... I found this meme on Twitter and had to smile, since it applies to so many of our gaming and modelling community.

A Batch of Mixed Knights

My Lion Rampant project is making headway. Today I finished basing up the mounted and dismounted  men-at-arms in service to Hugh Bigod, 3rd Earl of Norfolk, along with a unit of French and one of mixed English men-at-arms on foot. I have a dozen or so archers to base up, before returning to paint another batch of men-at-arms. Normally I dip figures in Future/Clear floor polish then follow with a coat of matte varnish. In this instance I thought just gloss alone would give them a nice bright 'larger than life' look on the tabletop.

The basing is vinyl tile adhesive smeared over plastic card with sand pressed into it. Colouring was done using green acrylic ink diluted with floor polish before a wet brush of light green acrylic paint.

Shake shake shake that... bottle.

I hope you all had a pleasant Christmas? My wife and I spent it at home since the weather turned too nasty to venture out. I did make some progress on the First Barons War Lion Rampant collection. Here's the mounted men-at-arms of the Earl of Norfolk's retinue under way. A huddle of archers stand behind them, and foot men-at-arms stand to the right.

There's not a great deal to do on these now. The Lion Rampant rules are geared to units of six or twelve figures, with four or five units to a retinue. I find dealing with small batches of smaller scale figures is about all I can cope with lately. Such feelings seem to be common in our hobby these Covid-ridden days. 

One issue I did solve quite handily and that's the problem of settled paints. I rigged up a contraption to adapt my electric saw for the job. The components are three screws, a washer, a section of plywood, a dowel, a large pill bottle with child-proof cap, and the handyman's secret weapon - duct tape! Legal caveat - Don't try this at home!

The paint pot is slipped inside the pill bottle and the cap secured. A ten second burst of this device mixes the most settled of paints. I need a lot of yellow and red for the Earl's retinue colours, and they're always the most difficult pigments to keep mixed well. Even yellow had to give way to this. It'll do away with having to pitch paint pots because they're solidified.

Christmas Shiny Metal

My box of shiny medieval heavy metal arrived from Noble Knight Games yesterday. The company mailed it within 24 hours of ordering. It then took nineteen days from the order being mailed to its delivery. I do NOT blame the USPS one bit for the delay. It has to deal with staff going sick and even dying of Covid-19, political shenanigans, and a marked increase in holiday mailing as people reach out to family and friends on a more personal level in these troubling times. The PO does well to get mail through. Kudos to them.

Anyway, now I have my camera back, here are a couple of photos. First shows Essex Miniatures crossbowmen on the left, Blue Moon (Old Glory) mounted serjeants on the right.

And unpacked.

The mounted figures come in three pieces - horse and bottom part of rider, top half of rider, and kite shield. The hand is open to take a weapon, which I'm pleased about because it'll allow me to fit wire lances. The crossbowmen have separate weapons.

Size-wise they're a little larger than Minifigs so really not compatible, but the serjeants will be in two distinct and separate units of six so it won't be a factor. As for the crossbowmen, at this stage of the game I've had enough trouble with this project so I choose to mix 'em up and ignore the difference. 

Next up will be to clean what little flash and mold lines there are then plunge them into a detergent wash for a day or so. 

One small nuisance is the fact my paints have settled out over time due to little use. I'm working on a gadget to shake the bottles up without incurring repetitive strain injury, so watch this space - providing it works.

Gettin' into the painting groove

A dull and snowy day here. The galleys for my next book are about done. The cover artist is busily at work, so I decided to take time off to slap some pigment on the 15mm medieval figures so recently stripped of their old paint. What a chore! The Simple Green worked in the end, but I found the figures have to still be wet from their immersion for the old paint to come away under the scrubbing of an old toothbrush. If they dry up even a little the softening effect of the chemical wears off. I really don't think I shall bother doing anything of the kind again. No photos I'm afraid, as I don't have anything to take them with at the moment.

A disappointing result

The experiment of using Simple Green as a paint stripper failed. Although the container has a healthy number of warning labels to the effect that it's corrosive, etc. etc, it hasn't done a thing to remove the ancient enamel paint on the figures after 72 hours soaking. Even a more recent attempt at painting over the figures with modern acrylics was left untouched.

Not a pretty sight.

At this stage of the proceedings I'm inclined to give up the whole paint removal idea as a bad job and simply move on to painting over the existing paint. The figures are back in water to remove the last traces of Simple Green. Once that's done they'll get dried off and onto the painting block.

Acting on an Anonymous tip-off...

It makes me sound like the late Shaw 'Keep 'em peeled' Taylor of Police 5 fame, but no. My previous post on stripping old paint off figures drew an excellent suggestion that I use Simple Green instead of isopropyl alcohol for the purpose as it's much more effective, so I toddled forth yesterday to buy some. 

The 15mm First Barons War figures are now in a pot full of Simple Green to soak for 24 hours. In the meantime according to the tracking number my order for crossbowmen and mounted serjeants was mailed by Noble Knight Games in excellent time, but has languished at a sorting office in Madison, WI for the past four days. Presumably this has something to do with Covid handling practices. It's a bit frustrating, but I'll use the waiting time to get on with the stuff I already have.