Summer Painting Update Pt 3 - French Men-At-Arms for Hundred Years War

Here's a scary lot to see on the battlefield!

Diving further into my (relatively) new Hundred Years War project, we get into some of the flashier participants in the setting - some men-at-arms and foot knights. These are 28mm figures from the beautiful Perry Miniatures range - there are some multi-part plastic figures in here, but also the amazing Agincourt French Foot Command set, which was a gift from fellow Conscript Dallas. 

Plastic Foot Knights

A selection of plastic French men-at-arms from Perry Miniatures. 

I have only assembled a few of the multi-part plastic men-at-arms so far - you get one small sprue of them in the French plastic infantry box. As mentioned before, nobody is ever going to pay me to assemble multi-part 28mm plastics, but they go together nicely, even with my fumbling, and you have a really neat assortment of arms/helmets/weapons. I am surprised there are not that many shields, and that the shields which are available seem...small. But this also points to how my assumptions going in are derived from years and years of marinating in various fantasy-type settings, which feature all manner of heavily armoured warriors and yet are...well, fantastical, right? 

Love that axe! Looks like some serious business there...

Anyway, the armour is still amazing, and the figures are beautiful. As far as attempted heraldry goes, my assumption is that some of these footmen were nobles, men of rank, who might have their own heraldry, while others would be in their retinues...either lesser ranked, or perhaps not even nobles at all, but trusted retainers? At any rate, I experimented on a few of the figures, copying (or trying to) some of the heraldry patterns I have seen elsewhere, and in other cases just sort of making some up, and in still other cases keeping very colours in place on the assumption they are non-noble footmen/retainers...

Of course, heraldry continues to be a real challenge, and in the case of the Agincourt foot command, a real challenge, as these are all meant to represent specific people from history who had specific heraldry they would have worn to war...BUT...the Perrys have me covered, as the metal command figures have their heraldry patterns sculpted on to the casting, making painting them much, much more achievable...

Agincourt Foot Command

French Foot Command for Agincourt - amazing metal castings from Perry Miniatures.

Now we move to the metal command group. These are AWESOME sculpts, challenging to paint, but a lot of fun too. I'm not planning to make any kind of serious attempt to replicate the battle of Agincourt itself, but I love these figures, and they will do absolutely splendidly to serve in all manner of French forces in the period. I mean, if the game is post-Agincourt, perhaps we can assume an heir has taken up the role, right...?

Boucicault, Marshall of France on the left, and Guillaume Martel (awesome name), bearer of the Oriflamme

The heraldry involved with this project is a huge conundrum for me, but fortunately with these figures, the patterns are sculpted right on to the figures, which makes painting the patterns a lot more possible. 

John, Duc de Bourbon (left) and Lord Rambures, Grand Master of Crossbowmen, which sounds like a cool job to have in France.

You will see two banner bearers here among the group...the flags are another thing I find daunting about this period. I mean, the flags are so cool, and I would like to squeeze in a reasonable number, but it also seems like most of the flags were not cloth banners as I mind imagine them, but were rather fixed in a way as to be stiff and rigid...I don't quite know how I will tackle that...

Charles x 2! Charles, Count of Eu (on the left) and Charles, Duc de Orleans, with a big f*cking hammer...

Having said that, these two seemed to be more traditional in the sense of curling in the wind...we have the flag of the Constable of France - at least, I THINK that it is...and the other is the fabled "Oriflamme", raised, as I understand it, when the French intend to signal that no mercy will be shown, and no prisoners taken. In both of these cases, I attempted to freehand the flags and it was kind of a mess...but whatever...

Here we have d'Albret, Constable of France (in the middle), his standard bearer (on the right, holding his boss's helmet) and on the left, a figure assembled from spare plastic bits...I made into a herald/trumpeter.

As for the rest of the Agincourt command, I did my best to copy other online sources to paint the heraldry. I also sourced some much brighter "white metal" metallic paints to capture that real sheen seen on the armour of this period. 

In aggregate, this provides the 12 warriors needed to form a single unit for a game of "Never Mind The Billhooks", but there are many more men-at-arms to come and I hope to form several units to spread these fellows out a touch. Big thanks again to Dallas for these awesome figures! That's all for now, hope to be back with more before long!

Summer Painting Update Pt 2 - Hundred Years War - New Project

A couple of initial French units for my 28mm Hundred Years War project. Figures from Perry Miniatures - movement trays courtesy of Byron M's "Northern Lights".

Another little painting update to share as June concludes here - a project that is "new" - in terms of blog posting, if not in terms of when I actually started messing around with it. Here it is - the Hundred Years War in 28mm. These are all 28mm multi-part plastics from Perry Miniatures (or, nearly all of them...I think a couple of metal castings are in one of the photos).  

Why do the Hundred Years War? Well, it has Knights! Castles! France! Plus, while the war went on and on - for, er, a hundred years (actually, I think, slightly longer even?) - and featured some historic larger-scale battles, and the majority of the conflict, it seems to me, featured raids and counter-raids (the famed "chevauchees") which, to me, make it ideal for smaller-sized skirmishes and minor battles which are a lot more within reach in terms of getting a couple of opposing forces painted up and staged on a 6' x 4' table. 

For all that, I do find this setting does have one major, major barrier - at least for me - and that is the presence of medieval heraldry. Now don't get me wrong, medieval heraldry is really cool! The thing is...there is a whole lot to it! It is so easy to get things wrong, and even if I have the intended heraldry correct, it us usually, at best, almost impossible to paint properly...

But...if you don't at least try it, you'll never get to play it so...I started messing around a little bit with the Perry kits in late 2024. For rules I found myself intrigued by Andy Callan's "Never Mind the Billhooks", which was originally written for the Wars of the Roses, but was quickly adapted for the Hundred Years War (and an increasing number of other periods). The process was very slow - such that none of the work ever made it into Curt's most recent Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge - and, well, it still is pretty slow...but there is enough done that I have a couple of very basic units ready to go. 

French Crossbowmen

A unit of crossbowmen for the Hundred Years War - 28mm multi-part plastic figures from Perry Miniatures.

In "Billhooks" many infantry units are in blocks of 12 - and that is what we have here, a basic unit of crossbowmen for the game.

Let's get ready with those crossbows now!

So - which French city or lord are these crossbowmen from? Great question. I have no idea. This unit was about experimenting, seeing if I can get the plastic models assembled and painted so they can be a kind of general "medieval crossbowman" unit - able to fit in with a French force, but just as possible perhaps as part of a Free Company. 

Reloading crossbows seems like a drag!

I love the Perry Miniatures sculpts, but I'm not ace when it comes to assembling their multi-part plastic kits and you won't have to squint too hard to find some very awkward shoulder connections. A few of them appear to be holding their crossbows in a reluctant fashion - which can be kind of interesting for the setting, but would be better if it had been a product of my intent instead of a coincidental outcome because I suck at assembling plastic figures. 

I struggled with the shoulders on these models...fortunately a hobby knife helped sort the worst of it out...

These crossbow blocks are basic building blocks for a French force, so I will need another couple units. I might try to get some more metal castings to bulk out my remaining box of plastics crossbowmen. I may also try to get a little more specific about a city or lord for the next crossbow group. 

French Spearmen

French spearmen ready for action in the 15th century!

Again, we have a block of 12 figures here to comprise the unit - in this case, spearmen, although not every fellow is armed with a spear. As far as the "Billhooks" rules go, it's all close enough so they get counted as spears, and that is fine with me!

Variance in the level of armour/equipment...

You can see here that I have attempted something of a matching color/marking for this unit. Which city, or which lord? I have no idea. I copied the look from something I saw online...if you are looking at this and know the period, you may recognize it - and if so, will spot the mistakes I surely made...but whatever...I went for a look that was generally matching, but still had one or two fellows stand out a little more. 

Not all the "spearmen" have spears...the chap on the right looks like he is ready to crack open someone!

These are all multi-part plastic Perry miniatures, and I was struck by the wide assortment of armour and equipment worn by these soldiers. Some just seem to have padded jackets, while others have chain mail, and still others have a fair collection of plate components, on their arms or their legs. I still have so much to understand about this period - was this pretty common? I guess with any mix soldiers from this time in history, it would have been a bit tricky to have every single soldier outfitted in the same way...so I went with the motley look. It...seems right to me. I'll go with that for now!

A day at the office somewhere not far from Calais...

OK - that is two basic infantry for the French side. But the REALLY cool bits of the French armour are the noblemen and knights, mounted and on foot. Stay tuned for more on that...that's all for now, thanks for reading!