Valleyboy's Medieval meanderings
Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2025 10:28 am
A quick word for word copy of a post that I put up on the LAF forum
Its a lovely hobby this - just wandering through the ages painting what takes your fancy, flitting from one project to another -consequently I now have several large projects on the go and recently started another - a medieval one. Why? - its really a problem that stems from having a wandering ill disciplined brush and a dominant "oh look shiny" gene.
It doesn't help when your eyes fall and become round and saucer like by seeing the work of people like Richard Lloyd (Captain Blood) and Gareth Lane (Lord Raglan) and so a new project just seemed to happen. Lord Raglan's 100yw thread on the LAF was the final straw
My project is a meandering one though, not initially planned or well thought out like many would do but something that has been driven by the love of painting and the attraction of figure ranges. My Medieval meandering sort of started when I backed the second kickstarter run by Footsore Miniatures for the Baron's war. Then I acquired a large number of Perry Plastic boxes (about 16 I think) generously sold to me at low cost by a friend in the UK and posted to here in NZ. At around this time Billhooks had come out and I had this notion that I was going to be a mainly 100 YW leading into the WOTR project ( I reasoned I could use many of the boxes I bought to beef out my Italian wars collection). Then I stumbled on the Antediluvian Miniatures range, bought a load and then some more, and in addition 2 smallish orders to Claymore Castings for the guts of a French and English force and I thought I'd start with armies suitable for around the time of Poitiers.
Then what happened is that I got derailed by listening to historical fiction audiobooks (mainly David Gilman Cross of Fire series and Griff Hosker Anarchy and Border Knight series) and next I found myself thinking that I would start off in the Welsh Marches using my Footsore Welsh and then hang on Antediluvian + Scots = Scottish border wars and all of a sudden there's no real direction and its a bit chaotic again seeming to be Barons wars lead to Scottish & Welsh wars, eventually early 100 YW, then Agincourt period and.......
Paying a visit to last year's Partizan show I found myself buying Perry metals, First Corps knights and Front Rank 100YW figures and ending our trip in France caused some mirth in French customs with my metal haul. But then it doesn't stop there does it, a few months later buy a 3D printer, become a Medbury Miniatures triber (Scottish wars of Independence and 100YW) and its really now out of hand.....
Have I mentioned Victrix? Flags of War?
Hmmm
Now I didn't really give these much thought from an heraldic perspective and just bought a box of Victrix along with their transfers, after all surely you can never have enough knights - so these will be generic I think whenever I get to wherever I am going!
Some individual bases - 18 Victrix Knights and 3 x6 sets of shield transfers
Now in the following picture they're about to try and ride down some foot, Scottish from a schiltron carrying the banner of Walter Stewart, high Steward of Scotland
Somehow I have managed to get myself a bit more organised and focused by using Flags of war banners for Bannockburn and made a bit of a start and began painting in earnest a few months ago during the Analogue hobbies painting challenge
These are a mixture of figures, mainly Antediluvian, Medbury Miniatures (STLs), Footsore Welsh and a few of the recent Wargames Atlantic foot knights
In a typical butterfly, look shiny fashion I began by choosing banners that I liked such as that of Sir James Douglas
This wonderful recent thread by EarslyD also got me thinking about adding family to the individual knights https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=148609.0
Next, using wappenwiki https://wappenwiki.org/index.php/Kingdom_of_ScotlandI looked at various Scottish earldoms and lordships for some plausible ideas for heraldry this time to add some flavour or character to the various schiltrons that I was painting. Perhaps its reasonable that some of those depicted may have been present but I have not gone down the deep rabbit hole of definite authenticity in adding various knights or earls. My hand painted standards are not a patch on those commercial ones though
Here's Aonghus Og Mac Domnhaill of Islay's schiltron as it was originally with figures from antediluvian Miniatures
though I soon realised it needed more depth so added more and printed off some additional flags of my own flags this time
Not wanting to paint (because my efforts looked so poor) more complex shield patterns I designed a few of my own and printed them off on transfer paper
I realise my combinations like the one below have resulted in some cock ups or inaccuracies as Alexander Cowie of Touchfraser of Cowie would have never had any contact with the Earl of Huntly (died 1470) but there were common elements in their banners :o
Gilbert de La Hay (Medbury Miniatures) needs another dozen or so figures to beef out the schiltron
Similarly the Earl of Sutherland finds himself accompanied by the Earl of Ross and some other dude nearby whose green banner I cannot now find!
I hope this doesn't offend or raise the hackles of those of you who've been diligent in your attempts to be more authentic or thorough in research!
It has been an enjoyable exercise for me though and I have tried to find heraldry for some lords and knights known to have been at Bannockburn and then picked others whose heraldic motifs have a common theme or been easy on the eye
A few more
In the following picture the Earl of Moray is accompanied by the earl of Menteith, lord Abernathy and the earl of Fife
That's the nucleus of the early Scottish force - eight units of around 24 figures each, a mix of spearmen, men at arms and foot knights so far with another 2 half finished. a few archers are about to come off the painting table next
My limited understanding would suggest that using figures from Footsore's Medieval range, Medbury's Scottish wars of Independence range and Antediluvian's Wars of the Bruce range with the occasional Baron's war knights in mainly chainmail should be adequate enough to take me through to Neville's Cross and perhaps beyond. I'm not sure
Any advice and suggestions (corrections!) as I continue my meanderings would be appreciated
Many thanks
Its a lovely hobby this - just wandering through the ages painting what takes your fancy, flitting from one project to another -consequently I now have several large projects on the go and recently started another - a medieval one. Why? - its really a problem that stems from having a wandering ill disciplined brush and a dominant "oh look shiny" gene.
It doesn't help when your eyes fall and become round and saucer like by seeing the work of people like Richard Lloyd (Captain Blood) and Gareth Lane (Lord Raglan) and so a new project just seemed to happen. Lord Raglan's 100yw thread on the LAF was the final straw
My project is a meandering one though, not initially planned or well thought out like many would do but something that has been driven by the love of painting and the attraction of figure ranges. My Medieval meandering sort of started when I backed the second kickstarter run by Footsore Miniatures for the Baron's war. Then I acquired a large number of Perry Plastic boxes (about 16 I think) generously sold to me at low cost by a friend in the UK and posted to here in NZ. At around this time Billhooks had come out and I had this notion that I was going to be a mainly 100 YW leading into the WOTR project ( I reasoned I could use many of the boxes I bought to beef out my Italian wars collection). Then I stumbled on the Antediluvian Miniatures range, bought a load and then some more, and in addition 2 smallish orders to Claymore Castings for the guts of a French and English force and I thought I'd start with armies suitable for around the time of Poitiers.
Then what happened is that I got derailed by listening to historical fiction audiobooks (mainly David Gilman Cross of Fire series and Griff Hosker Anarchy and Border Knight series) and next I found myself thinking that I would start off in the Welsh Marches using my Footsore Welsh and then hang on Antediluvian + Scots = Scottish border wars and all of a sudden there's no real direction and its a bit chaotic again seeming to be Barons wars lead to Scottish & Welsh wars, eventually early 100 YW, then Agincourt period and.......
Paying a visit to last year's Partizan show I found myself buying Perry metals, First Corps knights and Front Rank 100YW figures and ending our trip in France caused some mirth in French customs with my metal haul. But then it doesn't stop there does it, a few months later buy a 3D printer, become a Medbury Miniatures triber (Scottish wars of Independence and 100YW) and its really now out of hand.....
Have I mentioned Victrix? Flags of War?
Hmmm
Now I didn't really give these much thought from an heraldic perspective and just bought a box of Victrix along with their transfers, after all surely you can never have enough knights - so these will be generic I think whenever I get to wherever I am going!
Some individual bases - 18 Victrix Knights and 3 x6 sets of shield transfers
Now in the following picture they're about to try and ride down some foot, Scottish from a schiltron carrying the banner of Walter Stewart, high Steward of Scotland
Somehow I have managed to get myself a bit more organised and focused by using Flags of war banners for Bannockburn and made a bit of a start and began painting in earnest a few months ago during the Analogue hobbies painting challenge
These are a mixture of figures, mainly Antediluvian, Medbury Miniatures (STLs), Footsore Welsh and a few of the recent Wargames Atlantic foot knights
In a typical butterfly, look shiny fashion I began by choosing banners that I liked such as that of Sir James Douglas
This wonderful recent thread by EarslyD also got me thinking about adding family to the individual knights https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=148609.0
Next, using wappenwiki https://wappenwiki.org/index.php/Kingdom_of_ScotlandI looked at various Scottish earldoms and lordships for some plausible ideas for heraldry this time to add some flavour or character to the various schiltrons that I was painting. Perhaps its reasonable that some of those depicted may have been present but I have not gone down the deep rabbit hole of definite authenticity in adding various knights or earls. My hand painted standards are not a patch on those commercial ones though
Here's Aonghus Og Mac Domnhaill of Islay's schiltron as it was originally with figures from antediluvian Miniatures
though I soon realised it needed more depth so added more and printed off some additional flags of my own flags this time
Not wanting to paint (because my efforts looked so poor) more complex shield patterns I designed a few of my own and printed them off on transfer paper
I realise my combinations like the one below have resulted in some cock ups or inaccuracies as Alexander Cowie of Touchfraser of Cowie would have never had any contact with the Earl of Huntly (died 1470) but there were common elements in their banners :o
Gilbert de La Hay (Medbury Miniatures) needs another dozen or so figures to beef out the schiltron
Similarly the Earl of Sutherland finds himself accompanied by the Earl of Ross and some other dude nearby whose green banner I cannot now find!
I hope this doesn't offend or raise the hackles of those of you who've been diligent in your attempts to be more authentic or thorough in research!
It has been an enjoyable exercise for me though and I have tried to find heraldry for some lords and knights known to have been at Bannockburn and then picked others whose heraldic motifs have a common theme or been easy on the eye
A few more
In the following picture the Earl of Moray is accompanied by the earl of Menteith, lord Abernathy and the earl of Fife
That's the nucleus of the early Scottish force - eight units of around 24 figures each, a mix of spearmen, men at arms and foot knights so far with another 2 half finished. a few archers are about to come off the painting table next
My limited understanding would suggest that using figures from Footsore's Medieval range, Medbury's Scottish wars of Independence range and Antediluvian's Wars of the Bruce range with the occasional Baron's war knights in mainly chainmail should be adequate enough to take me through to Neville's Cross and perhaps beyond. I'm not sure
Any advice and suggestions (corrections!) as I continue my meanderings would be appreciated
Many thanks
