III/19 b&c South & North Welsh
Dec 20, 2018 19:23:02 GMT
gregorius, jeffreythancock, and 2 more like this
Post by paddy649 on Dec 20, 2018 19:23:02 GMT
So far I have showcased 9 armies this year and for the 10th and 11th I am showcasing III/19 b&c South Welsh & North Welsh. Now I can already hear cries of “foul” from some Fanaticii – surely one army equals one showcase. Well I think I am justified in this instance given that the South and North Welsh armies are effectively two separate armies that do not share even a single element! No, not one! ….not even a psloi element is shared between them.
Starting with the North I continue the theme of pike, lots of pike, but this time fast pike and then the South have lots of fast bow. The figures are all from Alternative Armies which make a very nice figure for each. ME8 LT MED Welsh Bowman is a cracking little figure with lots of character and ME8A Welsh Long spear and shield is good once they are cleaned up - but there is only one pose for each – so not much variation in the figures. Owain Glyndwr and his supporter the Bishop of St Asaph use the MEC4 Frankish Knight 13thC figure while the cavalry use the MEC21 13thC figure with the shield removed and replaced by a round replacement shield from Essex. Finally I used ME23 LT MED Biodower for the South Welsh Javelin men Psloi. As usual the moulded telegraph pole pikes were cut, drilled and replaced with wire (short ones for Auxillia). Flags are all printed from internet sources.
Painting this army was interesting. With such little variation in the figures I needed to paint in variety…..so no two figures could look the same. To achieve this I spray primed them black and then just left the figures on the side of my painting table while I cracked on with other projects. When I was painting other figures one colour and I had a little left over on the palette I just finished it off by painting some Welsh whatever colour I had on the brush….and that’s how it went on for several months until one day I realised that they were all pretty much block painted. A little black lining, cleaning up and highlighting followed and then in what seemed like a few hours I had 2 armies ready to go. No wasted paint and a rapidly fielded army with relatively little effort – marvellous!
The historical accuracy of this army is OK. The heraldry for the knights is well researched and Owain Glyndwr was particularly fun to paint. All the Welsh troops have their ubiquitous moustaches. In hindsight I probably have used more drab colours and earth tones – but those colours just weren’t on my brush at the time. The shields for the pike were intended to just be wood – but 10 bases of plain wood shields didn’t cut it – so I added some simple colours and patterns. No idea if this is accurate but to my eye it looks better.
Now I think both these armies could be good on the table. Fast bow and fast pike in these numbers are unusual and will present an opponent with different an unusual challenges, especially on home “Hilly” terrain if they can use hit and run tactics. Playing away on flat terrain I think either can hold their own, especially with the Long Bow QK of knights on evens. However, neither army contains many options and both lack cavalry so I can see them being allied one way or another. Any experiences with either?
Now the pictures:
South Welsh
North Welsh
Owain Glyndwr
Starting with the North I continue the theme of pike, lots of pike, but this time fast pike and then the South have lots of fast bow. The figures are all from Alternative Armies which make a very nice figure for each. ME8 LT MED Welsh Bowman is a cracking little figure with lots of character and ME8A Welsh Long spear and shield is good once they are cleaned up - but there is only one pose for each – so not much variation in the figures. Owain Glyndwr and his supporter the Bishop of St Asaph use the MEC4 Frankish Knight 13thC figure while the cavalry use the MEC21 13thC figure with the shield removed and replaced by a round replacement shield from Essex. Finally I used ME23 LT MED Biodower for the South Welsh Javelin men Psloi. As usual the moulded telegraph pole pikes were cut, drilled and replaced with wire (short ones for Auxillia). Flags are all printed from internet sources.
Painting this army was interesting. With such little variation in the figures I needed to paint in variety…..so no two figures could look the same. To achieve this I spray primed them black and then just left the figures on the side of my painting table while I cracked on with other projects. When I was painting other figures one colour and I had a little left over on the palette I just finished it off by painting some Welsh whatever colour I had on the brush….and that’s how it went on for several months until one day I realised that they were all pretty much block painted. A little black lining, cleaning up and highlighting followed and then in what seemed like a few hours I had 2 armies ready to go. No wasted paint and a rapidly fielded army with relatively little effort – marvellous!
The historical accuracy of this army is OK. The heraldry for the knights is well researched and Owain Glyndwr was particularly fun to paint. All the Welsh troops have their ubiquitous moustaches. In hindsight I probably have used more drab colours and earth tones – but those colours just weren’t on my brush at the time. The shields for the pike were intended to just be wood – but 10 bases of plain wood shields didn’t cut it – so I added some simple colours and patterns. No idea if this is accurate but to my eye it looks better.
Now I think both these armies could be good on the table. Fast bow and fast pike in these numbers are unusual and will present an opponent with different an unusual challenges, especially on home “Hilly” terrain if they can use hit and run tactics. Playing away on flat terrain I think either can hold their own, especially with the Long Bow QK of knights on evens. However, neither army contains many options and both lack cavalry so I can see them being allied one way or another. Any experiences with either?
Now the pictures:
South Welsh
North Welsh
Owain Glyndwr
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