Sunday, April 19, 2015

Entry #1 to the 9th Lead Painters' League - 'You want it? Come, pick it up.' Bosworth 1485

'You want it? Come, pick it up.'  Bosworth 1485
Now that my administrative duties for the Painting Challenge are more or less wrapped up I can get back to some of my neglected projects.

One event that helps me get back into gear is the Lead Painters' League, an annual event hosted over at The Lead Adventure Forum. As in previous years, this season will be made up of 10 matched submissions, one per week, with extra points being awarded for new work, specific themes, etc. The participants are paired off for duels utilizing a random draw. 

To be perfectly honest I have some issues with the format of the League (the single picture limit, the over-use of backgrounds which distract attention from the figures, the feeling that one's competing amongst a clique, etc.) but it always proves to be a nice distraction and gets me back in that saddle with my own work. 

Anyway, the opening theme of this year's League was 'armour' and so, as a nod to Richard III's recent reinterment, I decided to enter some Wars of the Roses figures as a Bosworth vignette

I chose to go with figures from the Perry's excellent Wars of the Roses plastic infantry set. I wanted to do something which depicted Richard after his all-or-nothing charge against Henry and his retainers, where he is ultimately unhorsed and has become surrounded by a tightening ring of Lancastrians. For inspiration, I drew upon Graham Turner's evocative illustrations which he did for the Osprey title on Bosworth.



The envisioned a scene where Richard has finally run his course, where he is separated from his retinue,  knowing all is lost, but he nonetheless fights on - choosing to go down swinging. As it turns out this 'hopeless stand' theme conformed to the match results as these lads were soundly trounced when exhibited last week. Life indeed does follow 'art'.  ;)



I selected parts from the plastic set that, with a bit of cutting, repositioning and the strategic use of sculpting putty, would depict Richard pointing to his fallen crown (still attached to his sallet helm), challenging his enemies to come forward and take it.


In order to aid players in keeping track of who is who on the tabletop I've simply placed red or white roses on the bases, depending on the allegiance of the figure.  



Richard's heraldry is a bit impressionistic but serves well enough.










While these are my first attempts at some Wars of the Roses figures  I do have a few more waiting in the wings, namely some Welsh retinue archers. I also wanted to do a figure conversion of Richard's ill-fated banner bearer, Sir Percival Thirlwall, but the figure I wanted to use as a basis did not arrive in time so I was forced to submit without him. I'll do a follow-up of these figures in a later post.

This weeks round (the second of the 10-round series) is now up over at The Lead Painters' League. For my part, I've submitted some more figures for my 1812 Winter Retreat collection - it's somehow easier to work on these when it's not 20 below zero, go figure.

Please drop over to the League and check out the work by all the participants. I'll be keeping a weekly update on my progress through the League so come back to chart my march of folly.

Thanks for visiting!

32 comments:

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    1. Thanks very much Tim - greatly appreciated.

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  2. Lovely stuff mate. I can almost hear him shouting "Come and 'ave a go if yer think yer 'ard enough!" :-)

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    1. Ha! Thanks Millsy. That is precisely what was running through my mind when I was working on this set.

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  3. Awesome! Great use of the plastic options and a nice simple way to make them unique as well. Top job!
    cheers

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    1. Thanks Brendon! They certainly are fun little kits to work on.

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  4. Always nice to modified figures and even better when they are well painted.

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  5. I love the vignette very well done Curt.

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  6. Really nice group of figures; fantastic and a great work.

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  7. Very nice Curt. You did an especially nice job on the armour, neither too shiny or too dark. The posing of Richard really captures his go the devil quality in Shakespeare, You have to admire a politician who knows that reaching for the brass ring may cost him his life, as opposed to getting caught, grovelling, quitting to spend more time with his family, and then writing a tell-all book for a fat stack. But I digress. :) Very nice work all around.

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    1. Haha!Thanks Michael! Yes, I have a hard time seeing Richard as the man to settle down to write his memoirs.

      The armour effect was definitely helped along with a thin coat of P3 Armour Wash (then lifted at the edges). Great stuff that.

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  8. You've captured neatly why I don't participate myself: fine work but rather cliquey and over-emphasising the scene over the miniatures.

    Still, your work holds up rather well, and this was a fine start

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  9. Very nicely done Curt and quite atmospheric.

    Christopher

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    1. Glad you like the grouping Christopher. :)

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  10. Inspired choice of subject and superbly presented :)

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    1. Thanks muchly Mike, very kind of you to say.

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  11. I really like Richard's attitude! Really grand work all around!
    I'm kinda thinking I may need to get some tufts to experiment with too, as I really like your use of them here and with your RCW figures.

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    1. Thanks David. Yes, the tufts are a wonderful 'invention' that really help to tart up bases. Tajima is a good source if you're looking for some.

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  12. You might call the heraldry "a bit impressionistic" I call it darned well painted! I shall follow your submissions with interest.

    Pip pip

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    1. Very kind of you Richard. I tried my best to make the 'squiggles' fleur de lis shaped and lion shaped and it worked out okay for the most part (especially if viewed at an arms length).

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  13. Simply fantastic Curt! While I'm not really that much into the period your painting certainly looks fantastic and the armour came out especially well.

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    1. Thanks Nick for the kind words. With WotR you feel compelled to get the armour right (at least I do) so it took a few false starts to get something I was content with.

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  14. Very nice.y done.
    I share similar views on LPL..which puts me off even entering

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  15. They look great, good idea to do a vignette without fixing the figures into a large base too as it makes them useable. That heraldry is very nice indeed, I couldn't do anything like that detailed!

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    1. Thanks Jamie. The heraldry is actually pretty straightforward as long as you keep it rather impressionistic.

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  16. War Of The Roses is one of those periods I daydream of trying to paint, but avoid because I know I'll f*** it all up. These look outstanding dude - excellent work.

    And I am impressed that you invest even one calorie of thought trying to sort out the Lead Painters League...

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    1. Thanks Greg. I know how you feel. WotR can be a bit intimidating. I had to hit the books pretty hard to get the period sorted in my head and confident enough to put paint to figure.Thankfully there are some excellent basic source books to draw upon and the Ospreys are a real boon here.

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