Thegn Eadric command stand

When trying to recreate the world of St Gurnard's in 28mm tabletop games, there is an implied requirement to provide little metal and plastic (but mainly metal, right?) representations of all the many personages which Osbert's chronicle mentions. Some of these, like the Godwinson brothers and King Edward are well known to us, while others, such as Aeschild and Odd Brynjarsson, are unique in the historical record to Osbert's chronicle.

Someone who features frequently in Osbert's work is his lord, Thegn Eadric, to whom Osbert acted as confessor and in which role he encountered so many of the figures who influenced English history in the C11th. It might seem that having his name and his life so closely detailed might aid with the identification of the physical site of St Gurnard's and corroborate Osbert's narrative. Unfortunately, Eadric is a fairly common Anglo-Saxon name and so this has created more problems rather than less, as over the years different academics have proposed different sites for the Abbey, each fairly plausible but giving rise to many unpleasant scholarly feuds.

This command stand has been my usual tabletop representation of Eadric. He and his banner-bearer were created with leftover bits of Gripping Beast plastic kits. However, it seems to me that his helmet style is slightly out of date for an C11th Thegn who would probably be wearing the latest style of armour.

I've had this Crusader Miniatures version of Harold Godwinson knocking about for a while. I'm not sure about the historicity of the surcoat but I like the figures and it gives me the opportunity to have foot and mounted versions of Eadric. 

So, that's the plan. I will need to rustle up figures to carry his banner, of course. Osbert only mentions in passing that it consisted of a dragon's head so hopefully I can create one which is different enough to the one carried by the old figures that both can be used on the tabletop without confusion.

Victrix Anglo-Saxon Test

The Victrix test figure spent a lot longer on the "to do" pile than I had intended, as is always the way.

I think he came out OK. The details on the figure are nicely done and very refined, although the poses aren't really customisable in any useful sense, and I wouldn't want lots of this pose (or the others on the sprue) in an army. I replaced his plastic spear with wire. I have an idea to use him to represent Leofric, a freeman Osbert frequently mentions in his manuscript, in which case he'll be incorporated onto a command stand as a standard bearer.

The gambeson really marks him out at an C11th sort of chap. To be honest I've no idea how accurate such an item would be for an Englishman at the time of the Conquest, but it certainly makes one think Early Medieval rather than Late Antiquity.

If he is going to represent Leofric then a counterpart figure in "civilian" clothes will have to be sought out....

Axe, and ye shall receive.

Hot off the painting table is this unit of 24 Anglo-Saxons with Dane axes. For infantry I'm leaning towards units of 24 figures in three ranks of eight. This looks like a good sized unit to me, and makes a nice target to aim for when painting. 36 figures might be even better, but I think they'd be a bit unwieldy on the tabletop unless you had a huge 12 x 8 foot table or something.

Although I normally base figures individually on 20mm square bases, I've decided to base command figures together. In Warhammer Ancient Battles, and some of its successor games, the unit champion, musician and standard bearer always die last so there wouldn't be a requirement to remove them individually. Additionally, multi-based figures are just easier to deal with.

Most of these figures are Saxon Miniatures (now absorbed into the Warlord Games mega-corp) and Gripping Beast and therefore sculpted by Colin Patten, the doyen of dark age figures. However, a few Foundry figures have also crept in so that the unit is composed of all unique poses. The Foundry figures are quite tubby in comparison and have clearly been enjoying rather too many pre-battle feasts.

Tubby Foundry on the left, slimjim Saxon Miniatures on the right

From the back you can see a number of the figures have kite shields. Very C11th!

Pulp Figures Anglo-Saxons Painted

Pulp Figures Anglo-Saxons with paint on them. The figures were very cleanly cast with minimal mould lines, and the deep details were easy to paint. The texture of their mail is very nicely done.

The shield arms are held a bit higher than some other makes meaning that the faces are partly obscured by the shields themselves. I did find slightly smaller shields for them in my stash but the difference wasn't really noticeable in the end. Because of the shields obscuring so much I painted them separately, normally I stick them on first before painting

Only half of them got cloaks, they will be part of the veteran unit I have in mind; the others will be dotted around other units so that their monopose nature is disguised a bit.

Here's a close up of a few - despite all basically being the same figure the variety of interesting helmet styles disguises this a bit, along with different shield patterns.

There are some nice details on the figures, like the buckling up the back of their hauberks.

Even the cloaks I added didn't come out too bad.

Shields

"...the guilty parties are Ailred the carpenter and Eoward the blacksmith, both men whose labour is required for the arming of those newly arrived who are destined for the shieldwall. Yet both men were seen in recent days partaking of ale when they should have been labouring with adze and hammer. It is not the first time that men required for battle have had their fitness to do so fall foul of these two miscreants, whom I suspect to be foul sodomites so often are they in each other's confidence and partaking of drink in each other's company.

"Do they not know that the ships of Fergus mac Urnach have been spotted off our shores in recent days? This is no time to indulge in perverted lusts or drunkenness - to work, wretches!"

A slight delay has unfortunately manifested itself with these Pulp Figures Saxons. A delay manifested in the addition of their shields, or more specifically in the tiresome task of painting of their designs....

Michael Perry's knob

Jumping forward in time slightly, to the days of St. Gurnard's gotterdammerung, I fancied painting some cavalry and dug out a pack from Perry Miniatures 1st Crusade range, so who are basically Normans.

One of the ball-aches of 28mm dark age miniatures is gluing in spears and shields which are usually separate items. No matter what glue you use there's always the risk of them getting knocked off.

I was pleased to see Perry trying something to alleviate this problem, namely a protrusion, or knob, on each figure's arm, and shields with a hole in the middle. 

By sliding the knob into the hole, so to speak, the knob becomes the shield boss and this makes for a much more secure attachment than just sticking a whole shield to the arm. An innovation which goes some way to counterbalancing the usual rough casting from Perrys. 

I handpainted a banner for them. The Normans, being practical souls, don't require fancy knotwork animals like other Dark Age armies, relying on straightforward Christian iconography, bless them. The surface wrinkled a bit, I think I started furling it before it had fully dried. Like a fool.

Here are the dastardly continental scumbags, riding about England's fair land as if they own the place.

Veteran spearmen

Here are the completed veteran spearmen with their greenstuff cloaks. I did half the Pulp Figures pack, leaving the other half cloakless. Those will be dotted around other units so that their monopose nature is disguised.

The basic cloak shape added. The fur was done previously.

My initial view about the order to add the fur and body of the cloak was wrong, it turned out that adding a cloak after the fur was much more hassle than the other way around. The figure already stuck to a base and with a spear is the one where I did the cloak first. He definitely was the easiest to do, and looks the best. 

Second stage, bulking out a bit.

I added the basic shapes of the cloaks first, then once that had cured, I added the deeper folds with small sausages of greenstuff which were smoothed into the surface of the cloaks.

In the photos you can really see some roughness in the surface. The greenstuff was curing very fast and I was still working it when it was really a bit too hard. I could try some of the liquid greenstuff that GW sell to try and smooth them out. Or just trust to the painting to disguise any imperfections. Ah, well, it's all a learning experience.

And so to paint.