"Men-at-Arms with shield, Crusader Miniatures." Topic

These spearmen are the first bunch of three types of soldier that I've made from the Crusader's Men-at-Arms with shield' pack for my ongoing Cry Havoc/Siege project.

As with the peasants they are nicely sculptured figures, very easy to paint up.

Regards,
Matt
ubique-matt.blogspot.co.uk

Very nicely done. They look perfect for Courtrai or thereabout. "Men at arms" is probably a less accurate term, however; since these appear to be infantry rather than dismounted cavalry….

They look really good. Nice to see another Cry Havoc fan emerge out of the ether, there seems to a little splurge of interest in recreating the game with figures. Looking forward to seeing some knights join the throng!

I really like the patterns on the shields.
Would you be willing to describe how it was done?
Thanks

Thanks for all the comments.

@just visiting – I agree, the pack is labelled 'MCF030 – Men-at-Arms with spear & shield' but 'infantry' would appear to be a more appropriate term.

@Alex Kulic – it is odd that there's a resurgence in interest in Cry Havoc/Siege lately. I have painted up three knights which I think you'll like, all based on real characters. I'll be posted these within the week.

@dam0409 – The process is relatively simple. With the example on the far, the shield with the right red and yellow horizontal strips I began by painted the entire shield yellow (I always apply the lighter colour first as a base).

Then I measured the length of the shield, dividing this dimension by five and marked out with tiny dots on the face. Then using a piece of card or thick paper (so it would follow the curve of the shield) as a guide I then drew on very faint horizontal lines using a H6 (hard lead) pencil. I then simply followed these lines when I block painted in the darker colour. Hopefully this makes sense.

There's a picture of some halberdiers made up from the same pack.

Regards,
Matt
ubique-matt.blogspot.com

Very nice brush work! do like those halberdiers, outstanding.

Cheers oldbob,

And finally for your viewing entertainment here's the latest set of variations on the 'Men-at-Arms with spear + shield' set from Crusader Miniatures, this time billmen.

Regards,
Matt
ubique-matt.blogspot.com

Hi JV,

I think confusion can always come from using anachronistic terms. Neither infantry or men-at-arms are mid thirteenth century terms. I suggest that these are foot and appear to be what would have been described as serjeants.

Now the bill is more of an issue, as I believe that there is a lack of evidence for its use prior to the Late Medieval period. So maybe as much as 200 years after the rest of this range.

Great paint jobs :-)

Thanks janner,

Interesting points. I'll freely admit that my main 'historical' resource for these figures has been the Cry Havoc illustrations ;)

I've always imagined that weapons based on agricultural tools would have been fairly common through out the early medieval period. Is it that this particular style of bill wasn't in use or that bills in general have no record of being used?

I will probably trim back the spikes to emphasise the curved bill itself for future figures as you only need a combined total of eight billmen for the Cry Havoc/Siege scenarios.

Regards,
Matt
ubique-matt.blogspot.com

Hi Matt,

I'm just getting back into Cry Havoc myself, but haven't started thinking of minis yet. So your figures are a great inspiration :-)

On bills, there's a lack of information in narratives, inventories and illustrations to indicate their use before the mid fifteenth century. That's not to say they werent there, of course, but if they were the the records haven't survived or been found as yet – and new sources do still appear once in a while.

I'm not sure foot wearing a gambeson and helm would have to resort to a converted agricultural tool though. Spears, lances, swords etc. all feature in sources and illustrations, but pole weapons like halbards, pole axes etc. only started making an obvious appearance once plate armour was commonplace.

Still, I wouldn't worry about it too much. I've always felt that Cry Havoc was more Hollywood Middle Ages than a careful historically based simulation, ie Great Fun :-)

Regards,

Stephen

Thanks for that info Stephen, very interesting.

I'm hoping Crusader release more figures (fingers crossed for bowmen) that I can use for this project. I've read that Fireforge are launching plastic infantry soon which I can't wait to get my grubby hands on.

Regards,
Matt
ubique-matt.blogspot.com