Perry Hundred Years War figures

    Back almost 10 years or so ago, I started buying a few of the Perry Miniatures figures from their Hundred Years War Agincourt to Orleans line at every Historicon. The idea was to build first an English and then later a French army from that era, which dovetails nicely with my Hussite and Swiss collections. As I bought them in person and the available stocks were limited, this became a rather haphazard affair, and aside from painting a few units of longbows, after a few years I made little progress with either acquiring additional figures or painting the small amount that I had.

   As I was planing my Hussite game for Historicon this year (using To the Strongest!), my Hussite army started to grow considerably, as already chronicled here. This made it seem necessary to increase the forces available for their enemies as well. Once I recalled that the Hussite Wars were contemporaneous with the later Hundred Years War, this long neglected lead suddenly had an immediately apparent use - to serve as forces in the "Catholic Crusader" opposition army! The already painted HYW troops on hand were limited to some longbowmen. Unfortunately, very few of these served with the Catholic forces; they were largely limited to the English (and Burgundian) armies of the time. However, I did find enough useful figures to raise one unit of Knights and another of dismounted knights/men at arms with polearms, plus a leader.

Hundred Years War Men at Arms with Polearms, Agincourt era.

Mercenaries hired by the Catholic "Crusaders" of the Hussite era would be virtually indistinguishable from these troops.

Red./white color scheme for this unit.

These figures painted up quickly with just some highlighting and shading of the red jackets, and then black "Magic Wash" after the painting was complete. 

Dismounted Knights with Polearms.

During both the later HYW and the Hussite Wars, it became common for the heavily armored Knights to ride to battle but dismount and fight on foot. 

With 85% of the figure being armor, these guys were very fast to paint.

The Magic Wash has worked really well to pick out the fine detail of these Perry sculpts. 

Later HYW mounted Knights. I deliberately used a White-Black Yellow color scheme for these units to somewhat suggest the Teutonic Knights, which will be used for the bulk of my "Crusader" forces. 

Rather than attempting to paint spirals, I went with bands on the lances. 

I used the horse furniture to echo the same white-black-yellow scheme. 

The dark chestnut mounts also give the unit a rather imposing appearance. 

Command figure. His surtout is sculpted with a grape cluster motif, so I chose a white - Purple-Green color scheme for him.

I also added purple and white flowers to his base!

It turns out this figure was meant to represent the French HYW commander Étienne de Vignolles,  called La Hire  (1390 – 1443). His actual arms were Noir, 3 grape clusters Argent.  He was a Gascon, and famously strong, crude, and short tempered ("Hire" = ire). He was a principal captain with Jeanne d' Arc.

How I acquired this figure i really don't know, as he is part of a set including Jeanne herself and The Bastard of Orleans, neither of whom I have! It seems that Jeanne d'Arc actually wrote to the Hussites, imploring them to forsake their heresies, and threatening them with the Wrath of God if they did not!

Notice how even the shape of the mail armor of his horse suggests the grape cluster motif!

Interestingly, in the course of our visits to the great many vineyards that lie on the shores of the finger lakes, we encountered some wines made from a cold-hardy grape developed in France in the 1930's, but grown there that was named "vignoles" in 1970.

Some  not great shots of the few Perry HYW  Longbow units I painted in July 2008.

Really fine sculpting on these!

This uinit of archers has a off white and green color scheme.

Is that Prince Harry?

A second unit of Perry Longbowmen. 

Slightly different costume on these - you can see the similarity to the dress of some of the Hussite figures. 

Red and brown/dull yellow color scheme for these chaps.

A "demi-unit" of Longbows.

It needs another 2 stands to make a full unit of 12. I have 12 Longbow figures primed for possible painting after Historicon, but I probably need to buy 6 more figures specifically to complete this unit. 

Their blue and white color scheme is reminiscent of the Burgundians of Charles the Bold!

Let's get Medieval!

A "Gorgeous" Father's Day, 2016

    It's been more than 3 weeks since my last blog post... a very long time for me This time it isn't a lack of things to report, but too many things and not enough time to write them up. We left mid afternoon the Friday Father's Day weekend and drove to Ithaca, NY, and stayed with my younger daughter, who is now well into the clinical portion of her Veterinary School training at Cornell. Our friends Amy and Tom also drove up and spent two nights with us in Ithaca. On Sunday (Father's Day) itself, we hiked up Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca, which I had been to but never hiked up before. Just as here in Connecticut, it has been a very dry spring in upstate New York, so water flow was fairly low.

The bottom of Buttermilk falls.. Just below this picture is a swimming area, but it doesn't open until July 1st. The trail up the gorge start just to the right of the picture. It is difficult to get a sense of scale, but the upper [part of the base falls here goes up at about 60 degrees.

Here's the view from the top of that segment, with the swimming hole below, and a series of broad "terraces" leading to it's head. It is said that when the water flow is fast, it froths so much that it has the appearance of buttermilk, hence the name. 

Above the terraces is this narrow, tall sluice-way.

Proceeding up the gorge, there is a seemingly endless series of waterfalls!

One the natural canals carved in to the sedimentary rock that is the geologic character of the Finger Lakes area. 

So straight that it looks completely man made... but it isn't!

Another series of falls - note the deep color of the water in the mid ground. The constant action of the water has caved out a deep pool - about 20 feet deep, I'd say. It was a warm day, and we were ready to swim in it. Alas, not allowed! 

More carving of the rock by the main course of the water, and its eddies. 

The upper of the 2 falls seen two pictures prior. 

Amy, my wife Jan, and my daughter Kristie standing near the base of the same falls. 

View of the same falls from above. Imagine what it would look (and sound) like with 10 times as much water!

Another natural canal, and a tiered falls.

Yet another tiered falls, with a broad, shallow pool at it's base. 

Close up of that falls. Note the height of the opposite wall of the gorge!

"I'll be there are some pretty big fish in there" remarked Tom. If you look closely, you can see them. The water is certainly well aerated!

And yet another tiered falls. 

Once again, note the height of the wall of the gorge!

Another shot of the same falls. 

And a close up; the water here did have some of that "frothy" look. 

In a flat section of the gorge - a perfectly round, very deep pool, carved from the rock centuries ago, when there was a straight drop onto this area for an extended time. 

Also carved by the water centuries earlier, this column is reminiscent of the American Southwest!

Nature is always on the move - this deep sluice way is carving its own round pool below... but some fallen trees are changing the water flow. 

Continuing up the gorge, we encounter another column.

and another broad falls. The far left looks like an otter slide!

The gorge trail continues on beyond that falls...

to more canals and smaller falls.

Another perfectly round basin carved out by a long vanished falls. 

Another sluice-way, that looks to have been eroding back up the gorge for centuries, gauging by the deep pool seen here. 

A multi-angular canal leading to the sluice-way. 

The gals catching the sights. On a very warm day, the gorge was delightfully cool. 

Near the headwaters of the falls, the rock is still being carved into interesting patterns. 

The top of the Buttermilk  falls - the stairs to the right lead to a roadway! If you follow buttermilk creek further up, you come to Lake Treman, another NY state park. Just as we arrived here ().75 miles in and 600 feet up), my older daughter called my cell to wish me a happy Father's Day. That's what I call perfect timing!

The previous day, we all hiked down Enfield Glen and Lucifer Falls, which I have previously posted on. It was a beautiful, sunny day in the high 80's, and we came prepared for a swim!  The sign at the entrance said the water temperature was 62 degrees. The sign at the changing rooms said 60 degrees... and the sign at the waterside said 57 degrees!

Ordinarily there is a diving board here into the deep water at the base of the falls. That area was closed. They were due to dredge it out the following weekend. If you look closely you'll see a triangular gap in the falls. That wasn't there at our last visit, and thus several tons of rock broke loose over the winter!

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On our way back from several of the local wineries, we stopped off for a quick view of Taughannock Falls from the overlook. We still have to hike that one!