War of the Roses Leader Figures.

I was reading my copy of Lion Rampant yesterday and realised that I didn't have any leaders for my retinues yet. My very good pal Graham, who incidentally started me down this path with a gift of three boxes of Perry Miniatures, had also bought 18 leader figures, all metal, from the same company and they were presented to me at the same time. That was back in late July of this year.

I  located the box, happily sat in the to do pile, fortunately I had primed them in the Summer along with lots of other metals, for future painting in the colder months when spraying outside was not really an option.

There are various members of the royal family, plus other notables from the period. I shall select four of them to be my retinue leaders, they can have dual personalities, which I think lots of them did anyway!

I started by gluing the horses to Renedra bases, all single except for two double bases which will hold King Richard III and his standard bearer also King Henry VII and his standard bearer.

Two of the horses come with figures already moulded on, they are Margret of Anjou sat side saddle and Warwick 'The Kingmaker,' the latter in a very striking pose.

The two double bases can be clearly seen here.

The horses were painted one of three base colours, Mocha, Burnt Sienna or Terracotta Clay after which all were given a coat of Burnt Umber transparent ink, which gives them a subtle selection of chestnut shades.

So the base colour and ink is now applied, still lots more to do of course, highlighting, all the tack, saddles, socks etc. but progress all the same. I intend to complete the horses, plus of course the two figures actually moulded onto the horses. The riders will be done afterwards, I normally drill up through the crotch area and insert cocktail sticks. Sounds painful I know! However on this occasion I think the metal figures will actually be too heavy for that method. The figures all conveniently come with their name on a piece of metal that stretches from ankle to ankle. I may be able to use that to anchor the figures using Blu-Tack.

Finally, whilst in a local store I noticed some A5 size ringbound notebooks (8 inches tall by 6 inches wide). I had the notion to pick up a couple to use as journals for my different projects. I do of course write this blog and make You Tube video too, but really fancied the idea of using good old pen and ink on paper as well. I even dug out my old cartridge pen containing real ink!

Using the ink pen I attempted to make it look a little like the writing of the time, probably not very well, but it will do and I enjoyed writing as opposed to typing for a change.

On the next page I simply set the scene with a single paragraph to put myself and any other reader in the mood for what would follow. It will simply contain lists of the figures I have painted, which retinue they are for, maps and diagrams of battles as the campaign unfolds etc.