The French have arrived

The first French troops have now arrived to bolster William’s infantry. More are expected shortly.

The French and Flemish has been mobilized

The French and Flemish has finally been mobilized. The troops from Maine, Anjou and Poitou are expected to arrive tomorrow, while the Flemish troops the day after. Only infantry are showing up in this first batch of reinforcement.

Not much to show this weekend

I'm still painting like a mad, but because I haven't got my bases yet there is not much to show anyone. I hope I will receive them soon so I can start base the infantry. I have roughly 80 infantry figures waiting for basing. First out will be spearmen or dismounted knights.

The spears

The spears are bought from Veni Vidi Vici.

Happy News

Renegade Miniatures are going to release a new Norman range. First out will be Saxons, early next month, and Normans will follow. They will be 28mm from foot to eye.

The cavalry has arrived

Here they are, the heavy cavalry has finally arrived. The shields are transfers from Little Big Man Studios and the bases are steel bases from Precision Wargames Supplies. I wasn't happy with the amount of grass on the bases and the drybrushing wasn’t that good, so I have redone that after I took the pictures. And yes, I did paint the eyes, and I did it in a proper way this time.

The numbers

Different sources and researches give the Norman army different numbers of soldiers. But I don't think that the exact numbers of soldiers is that important, it doesn't matter to me if there were 7 500 or 12 000 Normans. Instead what are important are the proportions between cavalry and infantry, between Normans, Bretons and Flemish and between the Normans and the Anglo-Saxons. Osprey gives 4 parts cavalry, 8 parts heavy infantry and 3 parts archers/crossbowmen. Osprey do also gives that there were 8 parts Normans, 4 parts Bretons and 3 parts Franco-Flemish troops. These numbers are of course highly speculative, but I think its better then nothing.

Transfers

I have just received some transfers from Little Big Men Studios. They look lovely. The result can be seen in a few days when my first cavalry unit are finished.

New eyes

Well the eyes were a total rush job, I was tired and just did something. But now I have re-painted them.

The Duke is finished

The first figures are finished! Earlier today I finally finished Duke William (top) and William fitzOzbern (second from the top). I try to find a way to paint the miniatures fast, but still to an acceptable wargaming standard. The photo business is a little bit tricky; the light didn't get any good.

The idea with this blog is to show the creation of my Norman army, to show my thoughts about how to make it and I do also hope to get some input from the people reading this blog. I will post pictures of all troops that I finish.

I did actually start collecting and painting the army a long time ago (that would be around 2002), but it is first now that I have started to give it any real attention. The army is going to be modelled after William’s army at Hastings. The army will be based for Warmaster Ancient; our playing group have a special variant were the elements are 8x4 cm for infantry and 8x6 cm for cavalry. All miniatures this far is from Crusader Miniatures.

And now over to the composition of the army. Osprey’s book about Hastings says that there were 4000 Normans, 2000 Bretons (positioned on the left together with men from Anjou, Poitou and Maine) and 1500 Flemish troops (positioned on the right together with men from France, Picardy and Boulogne). There were 2000 horsemen, 4000 heavy infantrymen and 1500 archers and crossbowmen. Duke William (even called the Bastard and soon called the Conqueror) will be the general, while Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and William fitzOzbern will be two Leaders. The leader of the Bretons was probably Alan Fergant, but I have a nice figure of Odo, so Odo will lead them instead. I will differentiate the Normans from the Bretons by the shape of the shield; Normans will have kite-shaped, while the Bretons will have mostly round shields. But I don’t know how to differentiate the Normans from the Flemish, any ideas anyone?

That is all for today. Tomorrow I hope to post the first pictures. I have this far not finished anything, but both Duke William and William fitzOzbern are now painted and they only need a good base to be finished.

All this made me so happy that I bought some more Normans on Ebay.