Painting Challenge Submission #13 - Onward to Orleans!

"Forward! God has shown me the way..."

I'm continuing with the AHPC XVI wrap-up posts! We switch from GW settings to a historical one - and my on-again, off-again work on the Hundred Years War in 28mm. I thought the Painting Challenge would be a good chance to work on some more figures for that project, and I did get a few over the line prior to the Challenge wrapping up. 

Jean de Dunois directs the defence of Orleans - while his half-brother sits in England as a captive.

This was inspired mostly by the "Resistance" theme round in Curt's AHPC, for which I painted the wonderful 28mm sculpt of "Joan of Arc" from the Perry Miniatures range. That particular pack includes two other figures: Jean de Dunois, the "Bastard of Orleans", and Étienne de Vignolles, a.k.a. "La Hire". With Joan painted, I thought it would only make sense to paint the two companion figures. Both of The Bastard and La Hire were prominent in French efforts to defend the city of Orleans, which came under siege in late 1428 and was miraculously relieved in 1429 via a series of battles where Joan of Arc played an inspiring role. It was the famous turning point of a famous conflict. 

Sculpted heraldry right on the figure - very, very helpful when it comes to painting!!

When some is referred as "The Bastard", you tend to expect they were unpleasant and/or rough to deal with. I understand that Jean du Dunois was certainly a tough character, but his nickname arose from his semi-legitimate origins as much as from his disposition. When the time came to defend Orleans, the other male family leaders were either dead or captives of the English following the disastrous defeat at Agincourt. He was the only family member left so he had to step up. Dunois led the defence of the city and, following the lifting of the siege, helped see the Dauphin crowned in Reims, taking the fight to the English and their Burgundian allies as the tide in the Hundred Years War turned.

Soldiers of the King of England, you will face the wrath of God!

La Hire (pronounced "La EEeer") was another hard man - in fact, I believe this nickname has some kind of alignment with "the ire" or "the wrath" of God. Sounds like a guy you would not want to confront lightly, especially if he has armour and a sword. La Hire was a prominent figure in Joan of Arc's miraculous run through the historic turning point of the Hundred Years War at Orleans and on to Reims - although he could not save her from the matyrdom which awaited her...

"For the Dauphin!"

The heraldry on these two characters is sculpted right on to the figure - that is something that I really like! I hoped I found the right set of colours for the heraldry for each one but...oh well...he at least they looks like they are in charge. 

Finally, I need to add more mounted knights and men-at-arms for my French, so I thought I would do a couple to accompany these commanders. I...really don't have a lot of confidence that I am taking the right approach to painting these kinds of guys. I'm trying to figure out the right way to represent the full-on knights versus guys who are "only" men-at-arms. On the plus side the multi-part plastic kits for the period from Perry Miniatures give you a LOT of options to work with. So I have tried to represent Knights with more complete armour, lowered visors, chain-mail on the horses etc. while the men-at-arms have less armour, or maybe only a bascinet...

A mounted man-at-arms from the Bastard's retinue.

I thought one of the men-at-arms should come from the Bastard's own retinue, so I tried to hand-paint the coat of arms for Orleans on his small shield. I think I'll try and add a few more, as he likely had many men-at-arms in his retinue.

The Maid of Orleans leads the French to glory! God wills it!

I wanted to crowd all of the Knights I have completed to date into a big group shot, so I have done that here!  I am aiming to play "Never Mind The Billhooks" in this setting, and for that I need to finish probably another 10 or so mounted knights/men-at-arms for the mounted component of me HYW French. Hopefully I can add a few more over the summer, and keep chugging along on this work. 

Thanks for reading - I'm nearly done with the Challenge catch-up, I swear!