Early Medieval miniatures (c. 1150-1300)
Last edited or added to on November 23, 2014
Figures are all 25mm
Old Glory and painted by me except where noted.
This page will document my early and mid period figures (pre-Hundred Years War). This will cover the period from roughly 1150-1300. Dark Ages (Normans, Saxons and Vikings) will get their own page, as will later medieval periods like the Hundred Years War and Wars of the Roses.
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| The assembled host - Jan 4, 2014 |
What I have shown below is all that I have currently completed for western European figures in this time period. I have some eastern European, Baltic and Mongol types that will go elsewhere (or perhaps here later). I have decided that I will not post any pictures of anything that I would not consider completely done, in part because this will force me to complete some partially done units and tie up some other loose ends like finishing bases. See "Future Plans" below for what remains to be done, and whatever else I can see on the horizon at some point...
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| ...and again |
Future Plans
- I do like the look of the Impetus style bases as opposed to the old school WRG basing. However, as much as I like the little diorama style bases, I am leery of embarking on yet another wholesale re-basing effort. I may either break down and re-base a selected few units, or maybe just base new units this way.
- Primed and ready to paint: 9 mounted knights (3 stands) and 12 Hospitaller knights (4 stands).
- Figures in stock (bare metal): approximately 75 more 12th century infantry (about 5 units worth), one bag (10 figures) of Teutonic sergeants cavalry (about 3 stands) and approximately 30 more mounted knights (10 stands; a mix of Germans and Crusaders).
At this point I don't see the need to purchase any more figures to add to this period, but that may change as I do enjoy painting the figures in these ranges. [11/23/14: I bought two more bags of 12th century infantry and one more bag of German knights with lances at Fall In a few weeks ago...]. As I will be posting later, I have some Hungarians and Polish that these "Germans" could fight against, so if anything is to be purchased in this period, it would probably be more figures to build out that side of the world...
12th Century Infantry "Household Troops" - From the
Mongols in Europe range. I just finished brightening up the armor highlights and re-painting the base edges on these (transitioning from bright green to earthy brown), but they are jumping to the top spot in the picture list. The reason for this is simple; they are perhaps my favorite of all the miniatures units I have painted in my life. They are simple sculpts, effective but nothing overwhelmingly nice. But they are the embodiment of me becoming a medieval miniatures gamer, which has since become my favorite period. Back maybe 12-14 years ago, I had played some American Civil War and Napoleonics miniatures, and owned a few, but it was playing 2nd edition
Day of Battle with Chris Parker at HMGS conventions in Lancaster PA that set me down the path to becoming a hard core medievals guy. Quite a can of worms that opened in terms of shelf space in the library and boxes of miniatures of various periods. Anyway...in
Day of Battle, you play a leader and his forces, and there is a bit of role playing in the game-to-game mechanics. Because of this, I painted a few units of "my leader's household troops". These are those. For infantry of this period, there would have been no uniform livery like this, but they do look great and I still love the hand painted shields, Disney/Hollywood though they may be. I created the flags on the computer first, and then tried to paint shields that looked like the flags afterwards. Someday I'll paint more of these just for giggles. [1/2/14]
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| My "household" infantry |
12th Century Infantry - Others - These are more of the same figure type, painted in a variety of color schemes in two, four and five base groups. These were also painted primarily for Day of Battle games. The household troops pictured above are lurking in the back ranks of this photo. As noted above, these are overly colorful troops, but they do look very nice on the table. For better "realism", my Hundred Years War stuff will have to do... [1/3/14]
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| All 12th Century infantry |
Teutonic sergeants - From the
Mongols in Europe range. I use these as generic heavy cavalry. As non-knightly cavalry, they are generally painted in one color, with shading and highlighting, and nothing fancy other than perhaps some shield decorations. I have more stands of these painted (but not yet based properly) and a couple more bags in stock. For generic medieval gaming, this is a figure type you can never really have too many of, and I have found it a fun and easy bag to paint. There are a few command figures mixed in from other bags. [12/30/13 and 2/16/14]
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| Teutonic sergeants - 6 stands |
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| Teutonic sergeants - 4 more stands |
12th Century Crossbows - More from the
Mongols in Europe range. Once again, very useful figures for generic crossbowmen. I have based these in a mix of 3 and 4 figures per stand over the years, and have used this to distinguish regular crossbows from heavy or trained crossbows, depending on the ruleset. I have more stands than these, including some that need refurbishing. [12/30/13]
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| 12th century Crossbows |
And here are those additional stands, freshly spruced up. I have plenty of these from the time when I was playing a lot of Day of Battle and was painting up different leaders' retinues in two and four stand blocks. While the colorful jacks are almost certainly a historical no-no, they do look good on the table and are fun to paint. A little artistic license in the making of a few small feudal contingents never hurt anyone... The group of five dull brown stands in the back are probably the most "correct" by far. [1/1/14]
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| ...and more crossbows |
Mounted Knights - These are a mix of the different German knight packs from the
Mongols in Europe range and the knights from the
Third Crusade range. They are roughly contemporaneous and provide a variety of figures. The first two ranks are Germans, the last rank is Crusaders (although not painted as Crusaders; no crosses etc). The first and third ranks are more recently painted (or at least refurbished in the case of the German first rank). The second rank still needs some updating as the paint jobs are looking older and duller when viewed closely. The Germans are the ones with all the crazy helmet decorations... I have another 30 or so of these to paint someday, but I am in no hurry. [12/30/13]
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| German and Crusader Knights |
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| Charge! (same figures as the previous photo) |
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| Half the older figures re-done |
And the remainder of the older German knights refurbished and added to in order to fill out six more stands.
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| German knights - refurbishment done (11/23/14) |
Templar Knights - I don't do Crusades in 25mm, but these figures looked like they would be fun to paint (which they were). I have used them in Albigensian Crusade games set in southern France as well as games of Germans against Poles and Lithuanians. [2/16/14]
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| Knights Templar |
Foot Knights - These figures are a mix of German foot knights and Third Crusade foot knights like the mounted knights above. Some of these are some of my older miniatures, but they are painted fairly well, and the bright colors hold up nicely so they are fine as is. As can be seen in the second (closeup) pic, there are some shield transfers here...I can't paint freehand like that... [12/30/13]
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| German and Crusader foot knights |
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| Foot knight detail |
Outremer Foot Knights - The additional ten stands of foot knights added in front of the first group are also
Third Crusade range figures, but these were painted by
Fernando Enterprises in Sri Lanka, and are painted to their "Showcase" (highest at the time) level of quality. Since then I think they have added a "Super Showcase" level of quality, but I am not looking for display pieces, just nice figures. This is the only group of figures I have ever had painted beyond "Collector" quality, and while they are terrific figures, I don't know that the extra cost (basically double) is worth it for what I want them for. They sure are beautiful though. I asked that they be painted as Outremer knights (Europeans who settled in the Holy Lands as opposed to just popping by for a war and then leaving), and so that is why they do not look particularly "European" in terms of knightly livery, especially with regards to their robes. [12/30/13]
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| Outremer Knights by Fernando Enterprises |
Clergy - These figures are from the
Crusaders and Saracens range (First Crusade), so they basically look like (and are interchangeable with) Normans. The foot are from the "Pilgrims" bag, and the mounted figure is from the Crusader Mounted Command bag. I tend to use these guys as table decoration for many of my games, where they sit back and watch over the action. [12/31/13]
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| God is on our side... |
Peasant Infantry - These, and the peasant bowmen below, are from the Mongols in Europe range. The first two ranks of stands were painted by Fernando Enterprises, the last rank was painted by me, and refurbished a bit over the last few days (Christmas 2013). These are older figures and they needed some brightening, especially with regards to the skin tones (I can actually sort of paint faces now...). [1/1/14]
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| Peasant foot |
Peasant Bow and Skirmishers - As per the peasant infantry above. They are based in a mix of regular bow and skirmisher stands. The stands are a mix of Fernando and me, with mine refurbished around Christmas 2013. [1/1/14]
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| Peasant archers (at rear) |
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| Peasant skirmish archers (at front) |
...to be continued...
