'The Book of Battalions': Peasants and archers of Prince Wilhelm's expedition.

 Now due to recent family events and other shenanigans, I have been in the curious situation of having lots of time and opportunity to paint, but very little time to actually sit down and blog about it! In fact, I have been painting a lot of varied and eclectic things, and have a backlog of photographing to do.

Now my current distraction is a project which I have wanted to start for a while, which is collecting and painting each of the armies in the 1st Edition Forces of Fantasy books supplement, 'The Book of Battalions'. Now there are eleven armies in the book, ranging from Goblins to Dwarfs to Slann, as well as Giants and Samurai! I have largely collected all the miniatures required, with only a few odds and ends to find, and I have kept true to the era and am using only miniatures from that era (late 1970s to 1984 inclusive). The miniatures are mainly Citadel, although some are from the other adjoining ranges which include Ral Partha, and Chronicle.

Anyway, I decided to start a little while ago with some of the Dwarfs from the Dwarfs of Horrorwell army just to paint some pre-slotta Dwarfs. However, I have started work on a complete army project, namely 'Prince Wilhelm's expedition'. This a a human, Hundred Years War/War of the Roses era human army, with an added (and annoyed!) wizard. It might seem strange to start with what is essentially an historical style human army, but I wanted to paint some medieval soldiers for fun, and so here they are.

As for painting, because I am using Citadels C26 Men at Arms range (still available from Foundry Miniatures), I opted for a War of the Roses look, with a little generic medieval feel about them. Basing wise, when I think of The War of the Roses era I always think of the first series of Blackadder, which was filmed in a bleak, muddy, wintry setting. Added to that is the snowy Battle of Towton. All of this convinced me that rather than go for the lovely bright medieval army fighting in summer pastures, it would be good to paint an army in snow, mud, and a little more shabby. Basing wise, I have opted for the big regimental sized bases, just to give them a good visual look. This is something I plan to do for all of the 'The Book of Battalions' armies. Don't worry, I am still painting other miniatures on 'proper', individual bases as well!
 
Enjoy :)

'The Book of Battalions'.

Prince Wilhelm's expedition: Battalion 1.

Prince Wilhelm's expedition: Battalion 2.

Prince Wilhelm's expedition: Battalion 3.

Longbows, led by Falstart.
I have based these on two bases suggesting 10 models per base, so I can increase the frontage for shooting, or deploy them separately.
There are lots of little puns, jokes, and references, in the army's description. Here the leader is named Falstart, a play on Shakespeare's Falstaff, as well as maybe 'false start', suggesting the archers shoot to early(?).

Falstart (centre) and half of his Longbowman. I chose a miniature for Falstart who was portly and drinking, like Falstaff. The Longbowman are in the livery of Cheshire, as taken from an illustration in the Osprey Book 'The English Longbowman: 1330-1515. 

More Longbowman.

Peasants, led by Will Nosedew.
These are a big regiment of 38 peasants, divided onto two bases for ease of movement.

Will Nosedew (centre), and some of the peasants.
I positioned the two peasants either side of Will to suggest they were in conversation concerning the dubious merits of them being in the army in the first place!

More peasants.

New update will be more of Prince Wilhelm's expedition, although I am also painting some Grenadier Fantasy Lords rang miniatures undead at the moment as well.