the Miniature World of Mike Peters: The Billhooks Bash (Nearly!) Part 1

The Billhooks Bash! Part 1

When I first saw the Face book post about the Billhooks Bash, I read it with interest and then mentally moved on. Despite wargaming for nearly five decades, I have never played in any kind of tourney and have rarely played in a club. Most of my gaming has been at home or in friends’ houses and recently a lot of it has been solo. My army is far from complete, I reasoned; I will never get it together in time, It’s a long way to go for a game….

And I forgot all about it. And then Pete Harris, the event organiser, posted again,” We still have places…”

And so, I replied and the next thing you know I am hurriedly knocking up some Men at Arms as they are the easiest and quickest to paint and a band of skirmishers, archers, as I have no other suitable figures

These are all Perrys Men at Arms. In Billhooks, 12 make a company.

Flash trimmed and filed then primed with a mid-grey, brushed on as I rarely use sprays

I have tried many different metallics over the years, Army Painter seem as good as any. This is their gunmetal which seems a little shiny compared to some others I have used

The first wash is pure black. “Nuln Oil” from GW. GW are an expensive buy but their inks and washes are very good indeed

A good heavy coat to sink right into every joint and crevice

Dry brush with Army painter Plate Mail Metal using edge painting to highlight the tip and blade of the weapon, rivets, the rim of the helmet and any prominent protuberances on the armour

A final, light, dry brush with Shining Silver, I don’t want the armour too bright, my understanding is that it was often blackened and rarely burnished

Some Wargames Foundry Spear-shaft for the weapon shaft, some Foundry flesh on his chin

A light wash of my armour-wash a mix of Agrax and Nuln Oil

A final light wash of diluted 1:4 GW Guilliman Blue Glaze. I used this on 3 out of the twelve figures.

And pick out a few highlights in gold, around the poleyns (the knee bits) the hilts of the sword, the besagew (the shoulder roundel)

And that’s him! I varied the approach a little on each figure, some have a darker blue wash, some have no gold, some are more brightly silver, some have a darker, blacker finish

I quickly knocked up de Barres battle standard as I want him to represent Bristol at the Bash!

I do one MaA with a white surcoat and one with a red surcoat so when I eventually have enough figures to provide two units, I can use them to differentiate York from Lancaster.

As a final detail, I like to add little dents and cuts in the armour and nicks in the blades. I have learned this technique from the incredibly talented Kev Dallimore. First paint a short fine diagonal stripe with your lightest metal, keep it from crossing the centre of the blade. Mirror this on the other surface of the blade and join them across the edge. Don’t be concerned if it does not show at all at this stage. Now paint a very fine line in thinned black inside the silvered bit. This method looks quite good on helmets and vambraces too, don’t be tempted to over use it tho, I have found, like many things in this hobby, less is more

I had meant for this blog to be about the Billhooks bash but I seem to have waylaid my own post! Several of the Billhookers at the Bash commented on the standards that I have free-handed for my army, so as I am talking about painting...here is a quick guide to making and painting standards

Painting figures for this era is great fun! Its all shiny metal and bright colours. And if the figures are fun to paint then the standards are mega fun, with little silvery bells on!

It’s a lot easier than it looks. If you can wash and dry brush and have a steady hand then you can paint your own standards. After all, they are a lot bigger than tunics or shields.

Here’s my method. First make the standard. I use 1mm brass rod about 6 cm long for the upright pole. I dig out an appropriate plastic spearhead or similar, you need quite a large one, from the spares box. Drill it, fix it on the brass rod with super glue.

Then cut a standard shape from newspaper. I use the Wall Street Journal that some figures from USA came wrapped in, as it has a great “clothlike” quality. I am sure British newspaper will do just as well

I cut out a piece 30mm by approx. 63mm, fold it in half to create a square and then with a sharp, fine blade cut out small oblongs, 3mm x 2mm(approx.) along the fold to create the “hanging” bit of the standard.

Next, I cut a length of 1mm plastic-rod and fold the paper around it. Try dry for size, then trim to shape and apply PVA to both surfaces, carefully, avoiding creases, fold the paper around the rod. Smooth flat. Allow to dry, then coat both surfaces with thinned down PVA glue.

Hanging out to dry

Once it has dried, use superglue to fix the short pole to the long pole just below the spearhead, try and butt the standard right up against the spearhead to increase stability. Use a fine bead of glue to stick the standard to the pole

Undercoat, then base coat in your chosen colour

Highlight the areas in long leaf shapes diagonally across the flag seems to work best, to represent the undulations in the cloth as the flag waving is in the wind.

Use a colour near to the base, this is GW Dark Reaper highlighted again with Thunder Hawk blue

Blend the highlights with some base colour, thin and apply around the edges of the leaf shapes

Mix an appropriate ink, Nuln Oil for black, with glaze medium and apply a couple of coats of glaze. The more you apply the more subtle the effect.

Then I sketch an actual size picture of the device I am going to paint for reference

On the flag, mark out with a light colour, using a brush with a good well pointed tip, where your device is going to be

Paint in the base colour of the device. For white I use a very light grey, this is Army painter Stone Golem.

Next touch in the details. In this instance, little details on the bones and using a fine brush and black paint to outline and differentiate between the two bones

I didn’t like the effect of the undulations so I painted in a much larger area in the greys and used more glazes. Where the bone crosses the highlighted areas, I painted over the Stone Golem with a light coat of white. I also very gently curled the lower corner of the flag around a paintbrush.

Then it just remains to paint the wood of the poles and the gold of the spear head and fix the pole to the figure.

The figure is a metal Perry standard bearer, he is wearing John de Barry’s Rotherwas colours and the standard is his Barrs Court battle standard.

This is my idea for a Battle Standard for Exeter.His device is often portrayed as an ear of wheat but he also had the "fiery beacon" as a device.Holland was a notriously violent and aggressive man.I am sure he would choose this symbol for his battle standard

The same approach works with any standard. Some of the multiply quartered affairs of the Warwick clan might defeat it though! Montague for example, would be a nightmare

Here’s Sir Henry Hollands standard

I have painted in the red background, GW Mephiston red, highlighted it and glazed it

I have marked out the area where I want the three leopards to be with a pale straw colour that will be easy to paint over with a thin coat of red later

Here’s my reference sketch. I think it’s important to be the exact same size as you wish to paint so measure carefully the box it’s in and, in this case , the width of the border

Now paint in the outlines of the three leopards and fill them in. I used a dark yellow washed it with yellow ink. Then highlighted certain areas to match the “folds” and provide relief.

Then I dotted in the whites of the eyes and allowed it to dry before lining the eyes and tongue with black. I painted a small black line in the ears and dotted in the pupils.

Next a mid range blue for claws and tongue. I have to admit getting the “curl” of the claws proved tricky as such a small amount of paint kept drying on the brush.

The border is GW Kantor blue washed with blue ink and highlighted with GW Altoic Blue to match the highlights on the red. It’s important to match them up to give the illusion of waving cloth.

Another highlight of GW Hoeth blue this time. Then its get out the blue ink and the glaze medium and glaze the border. Glaze medium is a relatively recent discovery for me and, along with wet palettes, has helped me to achieve another level of painting technique