Lammas Tide- Mediaeval Madness on the Border

Aaaand back in the room!

The greater part of the start of the year was taken up by the painting of my Claymore Castings mediaevals for the Otterburn War period, spurred on largely by my belated purchase of the Lion Rampant rules (after avidly awaiting them for about a year and then getting sidetracked by the Cold War at the time of release…).
 

I’d been making slow progress with these over the previous few years, mainly as I wasn’t quite sure what rules I’d be using them for, so they were just getting painted pretty much ‘cos they looked pretty! However, with the incentive of a fun-looking, skirmish-level ruleset now in my possession, and the sound of The Corries ringing in my ears,  it was time to get cracking. Here are the results so far…

Sir John Montgomery’s Schiltrom

This is composed of the bulk of the figures I already had painted, with the addition of some newbies. Sir John Edmonstone and Sir David Graham are making up numbers in the front rank (they will be replaced by more spearmen in due course, and go on to form the nucleus of a second unit of men-at-arms). Sir John Montgomery was a natural starting point for my force; I live a short walk from his castle (or at least what’s left of it…) and I’m a sucker for a local link.

Sir John de Haga’s Schiltrom

Mainly comprising the later figures. The Saltire is borne by Sir Robert Hert of Lanark, in conjectural arms. Given his adherence to the Douglases, I plumped for the heraldry I found to be most likely related to his, given its similarity to the layout of the Douglas arms. He is named in some sources as carrying Douglas’ banner, along with one of the Colvilles named in other sources; so I decided to use both, and have Colville carrying Douglas own banner, with Hert bearing the saltire (and of course Douglas of Cavers carrying the Cavers Ensign…)

Banners are all by Flags of War, who have well and truly converted me to pre-printed paper banners...

Knights of High Renown
These chaps will form a six-man unit of men-at-arms.

Sir George Dunbar, Earl of March

He’ll be leading the pack

Sir George Dunbar The Younger

Son of the above, carrying his father’s banner. His arms are conjectural, based on “best guess” of his father’s arms, differenced with a label azure.

Sir William Dalziel of Lanarkshire

 

Picked largely because I was looking for a knight with heraldry that would be unlikely to have been done by anyone else (and I thought I’d make a better job of it than I did), and I currently work in Motherwell, and as I say- I’m a sucker for a local link… God, how I regret that now.

Explanation of the proto-Billy Connolly on his shield here.

Peasants.

Foundry sculpts, picked up at Albanich years ago, as they seemed the closest in terms of scale and sculpting style to the Claymore offerings. Two down, dozens to go. They will inhabit a village composed largely of pre-cut MDF buildings…

I hope to have enough done soon(ish) for a game against Dave’s northern troops and wild caterans in the service of The Wolf…

Progress ground to a halt at the end of the spring as I came over all Peninsular for some reason (probably largely related to the screening of the BBC adaptation of Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell), but that’s another story…

Cheers

Iain