Charlie | 31 Jan 2021 2:06 p.m. PST |
My latest French unit – francs-archers!
|
Warspite1 | 31 Jan 2021 2:16 p.m. PST |
|
mghFond | 31 Jan 2021 2:47 p.m. PST |
Top notch! They look the part. |
Legionarius | 31 Jan 2021 8:57 p.m. PST |
Very nice figures for a little wargamed period of the Hundred Years War and the Burgundian Wars. Excellent in every way! |
BigRedBat | 01 Feb 2021 2:12 a.m. PST |
Those are cracking- you must have a very tidy army forming up! |
Puster | 01 Feb 2021 3:51 a.m. PST |
Very fine. I love the heavy weapons mixed into the unit. 6*4 cm, 5 or 6 minis to the unit, with 6*4 in the center? Do I see conversions done for the arrow quivers? |
Charge The Guns | 01 Feb 2021 3:58 a.m. PST |
A really lovely looking unit. |
Warspite1 | 01 Feb 2021 5:38 a.m. PST |
@Puster: Not quivers. The medieval quiver, while it seem to have existed for crossbow bolts/quarrels is largely a creation of Hollywood. I blame Errol Flynn! What you see there are arrow bags. This is a bag or roll, probably of waxed, greased or oiled cloth with the arrows inside. The flights were protected by an arrow spacer, a circle of leather with about 24 holes in it, one for each shaft. This spacer kept the flights apart and prevented them damaging each other. See: YouTube link and: YouTube link In combat the arrows were either driven into the ground or put through the archer's belt and left with the flights sticking out on his right side. where his right hand would fall after firing the previous shaft. Note that in the second film link, that archer is modern and naturally left-handed and has slung his arrow bag the other way. This would have been most unlikely in the Middle Ages due to a Christian/Catholic anathema against the left hand. My late ex-girlfriend attended a Catholic school in the 1970s and she said that (even at that late date) nuns would rap pupils on the left hand with a wooden ruler if they were left-handed. The Latin for 'left' is 'sinister' so that word's modern use as 'something dark and evil' really means that the person looks left-handed. That's how ingrained the anti-left hand bias was in the bad old days. In Dennis Wheatley novels devil-worshippers are referred to by him as 'followers of the left-handed path' etc. Barry |
Charlie | 01 Feb 2021 4:48 p.m. PST |
@Puster If you're asking about the base sizes, it is 20 figures total, 5 to a 50x50mm base, or 10 on a 50x100mm base. It's one 10-base in the middle with a 5-base either side. The middle base has them basically in two ranks of 5 (staggered a bit) and on the side bases they are arranged in more random shapes. The arrow bags aren't conversions, the models with them are metal Perry sculpts (most of this unit is metal). The plastic set indeed doesn't feature arrow bags, though one figure here is a plastic with arms from the light cavalry set (which does feature an arrow bag and covered bow slung over the right shoulder). |
Puster | 04 Feb 2021 5:06 a.m. PST |
Lack of vocabulary, happens sometimes. Thanks, Warspite – information is never wasted but some of the things that multiply when shared :-) @Charlie Thanks for the info. I mix up several sets, too, though have not yet built Franc Archers (thats the project of a friend of mine), only Burgundian and English for our club-army. I did not mixed up metals, but this can of course break up the lines of repeating plastic poses. I think you just sold some Perry metal packs :-) |
Warspite1 | 04 Feb 2021 7:38 a.m. PST |
@Puster: always happy to help. B |
Charlie | 04 Feb 2021 10:46 a.m. PST |
@Puster The metals are great for that, mixing in with the plastic to add variety. Technically the castings can be a bit iffy in places, compare for example the hands, where the plastics are far superior, but its the sort of detail that you only are really aware of when painting them. I find the metals easier to paint, as being one casting there are less fiddly areas to reach. I wish the Perrys had released more metal packs for this range!!! |
BigRedBat | 04 Feb 2021 11:39 a.m. PST |
Yes it would be great to have more minis in that range- taking it on into the Italian Wars. As a range it needs Italian knights on leather-armoured horses, with the elaborate crests they loved to wear. |