"Perry plastic Wars of the Roses Infantry " Topic

Can the billmen in this pack be turned into pikemen?

You would need to cut off the bill, drill holes in the hand, and add a wire pike. Some of the positions though would be awkward for pikes. You could probably also convert some non shooting longbows to pike. Of course using the mercenary box is easier, although I wish the box provided weapons so all figures could be pikes.

Hans

Many thanks for that advice. The reason I ask is because I want the bowmen but not so many billmen.

I'm currently thinking about Swiss and Burgundian forces for Lion Rampant.

The plastic figures look great but they won't prove very economical if there are lots of overs.

Richard

Keep in mind that the parts between the different Perry WotR sets (there are five in total) are very compatible, so you can use leftover arms from one kit with bodies from another. The more kits you have, the more flexibility you have.

By combining one each of the WotR kit and European Mercenaries kit you could for example assemble following force (if you don't like bills, halberds or spears):

- 30 archers
- 18 pikemen
- 12 Handgunners
- 12 Crossbowmen
- 8 Dismounted men-at-arms

As for converting arms into holding pikes, remember that there are two standard bearer arms in each set – these could be easily converted into pikes by snipping of the banner pole (which is in left arm), drilling through the hand and glueing in a spare metal pike. Or you could just leave the banner pole as is and use it as a pike (it is quite long and has a pointy tip).

Also the light cavalry set comes with arms holding a spear in right arm, some of these could be easily converted into pikes. It also contains a handful of very nice plastic Swiss heads.

Doctor phalanx, Lion Rampant doesn't distinguish between bills and pikes. Both Swiss and Burgundians used two handed cut and thrust weapons. Personally, I would leave the figures with bills and paint them as appropriate. Are you doing two armies or one?

Another thing you can do with the bills (if you buy the Mercenaries boxed set) is to swap their heads with alternative polearm heads that come in the Mercenaries boxed set. However, it can be quite fiddly to glue those separate heads in place, and the result may not be very durable due to the very small contact area for the glue.

Thanks to all. I think the best approach will be to buy the five boxes and see what I can get out of them rather than the other way round.

I'm planning to do two armies. As I'll be basing the figures individually, I can mix and match figures in the units as necessary.

I don't know if the English bills will pass as Swiss halberds, but perhaps that's getting into rivet counting territory.

The Italians seem to have been big on bills, possibly as result of the activities of Sir John Hawkwood aka Giovanni Acuto and the White Company

I think the best approach will be to buy the five boxes and see what I can get out of them

That is what I would also like to recommend – there is a lot you can do by combining bits from the different kits.

However, it also means that you will end up with a whole lot of men-at-arms – which however are gorgeous figures, and come with a plenty of extra arms that can be issued to other figures.

I don't know if the English bills will pass as Swiss halberds

Please notice that the WotR infantry box contains not only bills, but also spears and halberds (3 spears, 3 halberds and 12 bills).

It looks like one of these Burgundians has a bill:

There's a post on LAF which includes whether the Burgundians carried bills or not.
link

All my infantry are pike, but I painted up Front Rank figures.

It looks like one of these Burgundians has a bill:

If I am not mistaken, he is also wearing the livery coat of Bastard of Burgundy.

I also have Perry plastic WOR and mercenary boxes. I added the left over bills into my Burgundian pike units.

5 sounds like a good start, but I think you should order 10 boxes, just to be on the safe side…. :-)

Off to the front rank site in the vain hope they may have a new range of ancients. Damm fine figures!

Fireforge has a nice set of plastic pikes – they are flexible enough to prevent most injury, too.

Joking aside, I'm trying to avoid escalation of box buying but for 2 all-foot forces I think I would need to get at least 3 boxes, probably 1 bills and bows and 2 European mercenaries. The foot Men at Arms box is rather overkill in terms of numbers but it's hard to avoid adding it. And then there's the cavalry if I so choose. So it's looking like 4 or 6 boxes!

In a similar vein, I want to use the WOTR Perry box to make Scottish pike circa Berwick 1482, and convert pikemen, BUT, I use Bloody Barons rules, and don't know if bows were part of the pike units, or in separate units?

John