Valde Crus!

It took a while and a series of disasters to get around to finishing my first major entry into the painting challenge this year, but finally, they are here! Hopefully the next set of figures will encounter a lot less in the way of problems!

This is the start of a small Lion Rampant force made up of parts from all four of the Perry plastics kit. Each figure is based on small 20mm circles that fit into movement trays if I ever decide to go up a level to Hail Caesar (or something else).

The force is painted up in the bright green livery of Richard Woodville, first Lord Rivers and step-father to Edward IV. He started off on the Lancastrian side and eventually changed his mind when things started looking... bad. He married off his daughter off to Edward and eventually rose to the rank of Constable of England, before being executed by Warwick in 1469. The main livery marking is a magpie.

First up we have 11 archers, with their officer. You can probably just about make out that the archers have hand painted livery icons on front and back. These were supposed to be some really nice transfers, but some problems with their size meant it ended up being a lot easier to just paint them instead. They aren't all the same by any means, but I like that

11 bills, with their officer. Again, some of these have the magpie icons on their uniforms. You can see the officer has the magpie on his leg, just to tie him into the unit a bit.

12 unmounted Men at Arms, with one extra standard. As these are all based individually, the standard can be used in this unit, or as part of a command stand for larger games. The banner is a piece of brass cut into shape by CitadelSix, which allows for very stiff, dynamic banners. To make sure that the banner didn't snap the plastic pole, I had to drill that out and replace it with a brass spear, which looks much much better. One day I may get around to making standards for all the other units as well, but for now...

Finally we have a unit of six mounted Men at Arms. The model that was originally entered into the Mounted challenge was dismantled a bit after that photo shoot as I realised I'd put the wrong rider on the horse! For the challenge, this only counts as 5 mounted troops though. The banner and pole in this unit are also brass, from the same supplier. Thankfully in this case, the transfers went on without too much distortion. There was a bit of touching up around the edges where you see the white and green checks.

Here's a couple of group shots to show the whole force together.

In total there are 37 28mm infantry and 5 mounted knights... plus whatever Curt deems fit for the banners. So somewhere in the region of 235 points

Looking at the photos, I really need to iron the cloth!