War of the Roses project part 4 - The Commanders

For part 3 head Here

Next up we have the commanders - resplendent in armour and heraldic banners. These have all been based on circular disks ranging from 60 to 100mm in diameter.

All the figures shown are from Perry or Front Rank

I should add the vast majority of my force is Yorkist.

First up we have the King (could be either Edward IV or Richard III

Lord Fauconberg (brother to Duke of Salisbury and uncle to Warwick the Kingmaker) 

Lord Hastings - Sir William Hastings of Kirby Muxloe

Earl of Essex - Sir Henry Bouchier of Pleshey

Sir Thomas Stanley, 2nd Lord Stanley of Lancashire

A bunch of various Knights

Sir Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey

 Sir John Mowbray of Framlington, 4th Duke of Norfolk

Sir John de la Pole of Wingfield, Duke of Suffolk

Sir Richard Neville of Middleham, 1st Earl of Salisbury

Duke of York, Richard Plantagenet of Fotheringhay, 3rd Duke of York

Lord Audley, Sir John Audley

Earl of Warwick, Sir Richard Neville of Middleham

Virtually all of the above were Yorkist supporters for the bulk of the Wars but in order to balance things out I thought I had better include Henry Tudor

More soon

part 5 can be found HERE

War of the Roses project - The Cavalry part 3

Good Afternoon all,

Following on from the infantry (which you can see HERE) I thought it would be a good opportunity to share with you the next batch completed. This is the Cavalry. Although mounted actions were rare in the War of the Roses campaign I had to buy, construct and paint these wonderful Perry plastic boxed sets.

With the exception of some command stands all of the figures shown in this post come from either the heavy or light perry boxed sets. These are mainly based on 25 x 50 mm bases and then slotted into Warbases movement trays.

We have agreed in our Hail Caesar games that a standard unit will consist of 9 horse, a large unit 12 and a small unit six figures.

I decided early on that my light horse (hobilars) would all ride for Warwick so these have all got red livery jackets and where possible I have painted in his ragged staff emblem. Badly I should add.

Command stand for light horse - Perry metals

sprinkled into this force are a number of mounted bowman.

Lets move onto the really big boys in plate - the heavy horse. like my dismounted men at arms I have only matt varnished the non armour parts of these figures. The shiny after effect of the dip gives them a glossy look

These chaps are full of character and were a joy to paint....

Six of the riders came wearing tabards (from 2 boxes) so I decided to create a small unit of mounted retainers who ride for the Earl of Suffolk - the look great in their blue and yellow liveries

and in the last picture of this post you can see the first of my command stands - the Earl of Essex himself. The figures are from Front Rank

More very soon

part 4 can be found HERE

Latest news on the War of the Roses Project (part 2)

Hi Folks

Back in January I announced the start of a new project - the War of the Roses. Part 1 the introduction can be found HERE

Suffice to say that in between extending the shed and dealing with all those other chores Mrs Shed has listed for me to do I have been busy cracking on with the project and am now at a point where I can begin to share some of my labours.

This post is going to focus on the rank and file of the forces needed in a War of the Roses game, chiefly the infantry.

To date I have now painted up 10 units of bowmen, 3 dismounted men at arms and 7 units of bill. They are in the main mostly Perry plastics but for a bit of variety there are five units of metal Front Rank figures. Each unit consists of 18 figures mounted on 1p coins and two command figures. The single figures are set up in six slot movement trays from warbases. The decision to field this army this way was chiefly because a local friend who has already put together a sizeable WOTR force did it this way.

The Battle takes to the field

20 units - 400 figures 

Every unit has its own command base with livery flag

As mentioned in part 1 all the shed players are putting together units for this campaign game and are following the same basing principles. We agreed that a standard unit in Hail Caesar would be 18 figures, a large unit 24, and a small unit 12. Should we need to a tiny unit could be six figures.  The multiple of six also works well for Lion Rampant. Cavalry will be based in units of threes with a standard force nine horses, large 12 etc.



Of course there will also be generals and commanders, mercenaries, gunners and Irish hordes to add to the mix.

Six man base (front rank figures)

Front Rank bow & Bill

Warwick's Men at Arms and Bow

Duke of Suffolks retinue

One of Warwick's retinue commanders

The Perry figures are much more slender than the Front Rank but they are the same height

Perry Bow

Front Rank Bow

As you will probably be aware my painting style is very simple, block paint, then dip with Army painter strong tone then matt varnish. With the armoured units I only matt varnished there faces, scabbards etc. The untreated dip gives the figures a great sheen.

I also used a number of 'shades' of steel and gunmetal in the armour's  to create some variety

Another shot of the Duke of Suffolks Bill 

The force is now waiting for the cavalry, the guns and their mercenary contingent

more very soon

Part 3 can be found HERE

Shed Extension finished

So following on from the last post I can now report the Shed is now open for business - its all tiied, painted and generally sorted out. However thanks to the Covid 19 pandemic nobody can come round....YET.

Despite argung with Mrs Shed that because the new table (its six foot wide) meets the social distance requirements she is having none of it and my chums cannot come round.

I am sure we will be rolling those dice soon...

A final thank you to my daughter for finishing the 'pub sign' - it has two sides and does look rather splendid in its hanging frame

Hidden down the end of the garden...is it a pub?

Its the Shed Wars Bar sign

Close up of Side A

Close up of Side B - the original shed was built in 2005 - the sign can be switched to show each side...two for the price of one

look after yourselves

Eric the Shed