Another week, and 3 more onto the finished pile... again something different, and the first Men-at-Arms from my War of the Roses collection for Never Mind the Billhooks - a freebie ruleset by Andy Callan that came with Wargames Illustrated issue #393 in September 2020.
The start of this collection was my original 'one box' attempt at a retinue for Lion Rampant as previously mentioned, and although most of that minimal force was built and primed only some was part painted.
The figures are all the excellent plastic WotR figures from Perry Miniatures, a mixture of components from the War of the Roses Infantry, Mercenaries and Foot Knights sets - as are all the figures I have built so far.
These are in fact part of a larger 12 man units for 'Billhooks' (or 2x 6 man units in Lion Rampant), but as the only ones so far wearing surcoats/livery they were singled out and painted separately - they were also used as temporary leaders at the inaugural Never Mind the Billhooks event held at Boards and Swords Hobbies in Derby at the beginning of September before they were properly finished.
The Green and Orange livery stems from my 'orange period' about 5 years ago (see my Concord C3 for Antares) when I was looking to paint things orange as a colour I rarely used - wanting, as usual, to keep my historical figures historically accurate were possible I went looking for any WotR livery using orange (especially as orange isn't a heraldic colour used on medieval knights, so I would be substituting yellow there as we have already seen)
Knowing orange and green are great contrasting colours, that is exactly what I researched to find just one Tawney/Orange livery which belonged to Lord Thomas Stanley... later to become the 1st Earl of Derby, and with this added bonus of local history the decision was made for me!
Knowing orange and green are great contrasting colours, that is exactly what I researched to find just one Tawney/Orange livery which belonged to Lord Thomas Stanley... later to become the 1st Earl of Derby, and with this added bonus of local history the decision was made for me!
Being a Yorkist at heart we have to gloss over what Lord Stanley may or may not have done at Bosworth in 1485 to seal the fate of Richard III, however I will gladly field his forces as Yorkist much the same as he did himself mostly but with the still historical option of being temporarily Lancastrian if needs must (although I can't vouch how well he will fight on those occasions?)
The figures originally started for Lion Rampant were primed white and pre-shaded with Army Painter Strong Tone ink, before using a suitably muted orange (Macharius Solar Orange) and green (Knarloc Green) from the old Citadel Foundation paints as the main colours - with the intention of using the famed Army Painter Strong Tone 'dip' as a quick, hard wearing solution to create a pleasing finish.
Things have changed quite a bit since then and I certainly wouldn't have had 48hrs for 'dip' to dry in time for the last minute painting needed for that Billhooks 'BASH', fortunately I discovered Citadel Contrast paints (Gryph-Hound Orange & Creed Camo) that were satisfying close enough with the pre-shading muting the finish slightly and adding depth as well for a much faster finish good enough for the event.
This is now me going back to finish them properly, especially with the recent announcement of the next Billhooks 'BASH' in March and the soon to be released NMTB 2nd edition - using the previous Foundation paint colours as improved highlights where the Contrast paints conveniently indicate, in the hope I can reverse the process to blend in the figures previously started in the old paints.
That's now 30 finishes in 2021, just 5 behind Carl I believe but there are plenty more of these WotR figures to finish if nothing else so hopefully I can continue with a strong finish to the year?
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