Wargames Atlantic Age of Chivalry Mounted Serjeants and Mounted Knights 1150-1320

 

WGA have added more wonderful plasticness to their Age of Chivalry range with these two new kits. Each creates 12 mounted figures suitable for the Barons War era, which makes them an excellent fit for the majority of the Crusades and are perfect to represent the Sheriff of Nottingham’s men and have arrived just in time for me to complete my Robin Hood project ready for Partizan. 

The Mounted Knights. There are three frames of “Barded Horses”. I would probably have referred to these as “Caparisoned” as barding tends to mean armour of some kind, that’s a small point, they look great. There is a lot of space to get creative with your livery on the flowing caparisons!

 Each frame creates four horses. There is some flexibility about how these go together but some combinations simply don’t work. I only needed a couple of these for my Sheriff and Sir Guy of Gisborne, I would have mounted all the knights like this, but I knew I would not have time to paint them all before Partizan. 

The horses fix together well with little overlap at the joints. I like the rather strange way WGA do the reins, it can seem a little fiddley to get right at first, but you soon get used to it and the individual reins look a lot nicer than the usual blocked out ones that we are so used to.

  The knack here is to fit the neck and mouth to the rein piece before fixing it to the body. It’s a good idea to pair up the right reins with the right head and clean up all the surfaces before attempting to glue them in place. A word of caution, it is very easy to snap the reins, rest them on a block before attempting to file them or trim them.

The mounted knight frame, rear view. There are three of these, each frame has the bits to make four knights. WGA are very generous with the parts, and each frame has four small and four large Heater shields, four scabbarded swords, four right arms holding lances, four with spears, four holding drawn swords in different postures and there is one holding an axe and one holding a mace. Quite a selection!

My only criticism is that some of the postures look a little awkward, the arm holding the axe for example, I could not find a position where it looked natural.

There are also four strange looking affairs which are the cantles for the saddles and are fitted into a slot between the riders’ legs. I thought it would be a good idea to fit these after painting the figures, but I was wrong! They should be fitted before adding the left arm to avoid fixing the arm in such a way as to stop the cantle going into its little slot

There are twenty one heads on this frame! That’s sixty three heads for twelve figures, WGA certainly care for your spares box. Four of these feature crested great helms sporting a bear, a boar, a bull and just to break the run of alitteration… a lion. These are nicely sculpted and not too huge or silly. There are also three more simple crests of torses, I chose one of these for the Sheriff.

There are three bare heads and ten heads in more simple helmets or Helms.

The four bodies feature mailed legs and feet, the torsoes are in slightly different poses to enable weapons  to be convincingly held over the head. One torso has the right shoulder twisted backwards  to further facilitate this

The Horned Bull!

As with the other figures in the range, the detail is good, the relief slight, the stature is anatomical rather than heroic, the faces are lifelike rather than characterful 

The Mounted Serjeants

There are four “Light Horse” frames each bearing three horses. These are my favourite WGA steeds, they look good, are a realistic size and both halves of all three can be fitted together with any of the other three to create nine different horses.

True, some bodging is needed and a small blob of green stuff here and there will hide any sins

There are four different heads and four tails so there is a considerable variety of builds 

There are four “Mounted Serjeant” frames in the box each with three figures, as with the Knights frame there are small and large heater shields, three of each. This frame boasts five  scabbarded swords, three of which are falchions.

There are three of the cantle pieces. Two of the bodies have mail coifs over close fitting tunics, its probably too early to call them jupons and they are not as baggy or as shapeless as tabards. The other body has a ribbed jack or aketon, again with a mail coif.

There are ten mailed right arms holding two straight swords, two falchions, two picks, three spears and a mace. There are six ribbed linen covered right arms carrying one axe, two maces and three spears, none are carrying swords. 16 weapons for three serjeants provides a few more extras for your spares box.

There are fifteen heads on the frame. An even split of acorns and kettle helms with two wearing padded arming caps.

  These are all compatible with the other figures in the range, it’s a kitbashers dream 

the usual tools…and some plastic glue

There are oval shaped bases provided with the kits but I prefer to use these oblong Renedra ones to fit better with my existing mounted troops.

I used my usual technique of newspaper and PVA to produce this standard. The horse is painted Dungeon Grey, Stone Golem and matt black with a combination of stippling and glazing to try and create a dapple effect.

I use Krautcover, Copious Earth, to base these, I have not used it before and I thought it did a good job of reproducing a country road or track.

The mane is layered up to Stone Golem Grey from Dungeon grey and then glazed with Seraphim Sepia

The dragon is done with Army Painters Fanatics yellow Triad, the red on the flag Citadel Mephiston and red of the harness is Citadel Khorne 

The Sheriff of Nottingham, I used the livery from Robin of Sherwood which is a bit out of kilter with the 1938 theme but …

the blue is Citadel Cantor and its associated colours, washed and glazed with Tyran blue 

The tunic is painted with Citadel the Fang and its associated highlights then glazed with Tyran Blue 

In the traditional tales, Guy is first introduced as an assassin , paid to kill Robin Hood. When we first meet him, he is dressed rather strangely , not at all like Basil Rathbone! Guy's outfit is described thus:

A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,

Of manye a man the bane;

And he was clad in his capull-hyde [horse-hide]

Topp and tayll and mayne

‘I dwell by dale and downe,’ quoth hee,

‘And Robin to take I’me sworne;

And when I am callèd by my right name

I am Guy of good Gisborne.”

the black is Valejo matt black highlighted by Citadel Dark Reaper and Thunderhawk blue and glazed with Nuln Oil

I matched the head with the same one I used for Sir Guy on foot, I think it comes from the foot sergeant box. 

And I used the same pointing downwards arm and sword that I used for Sir Guy on foot. I liked the continuity of the figures looking the same.

I think the caparisoned horses are slightly oversized, they are markedly taller then the light horses. Compare this pic with the next one which I think looks more realistic

This horse is painted using Foundry’s Buff triad glazed with Citadel Sepia

this horse is painted as a bay with black lower legs, mane and tail

I particularly like the pose of this horse, if I had thought to model the reins as tightened it would look as if he’s just been pulled up short.

A chestnut, this one is painted with Foundry Dusky Flesh

A grey, this one has two white socks up front and a pair of stockings behind 

Another chestnut, this was basically Mournfang Brown 

same vessel viewed from the port side

another job for Foundry Buff triad. I did half the horses as bays and the other half as chestnuts

White legs generally have light bone colured hooves, black lower legs produce black or dark grey hooves, if in doubt a mid grey is very common

The decision to use this rather dull livery was made for me by choosing to theme them on the 1938 film. It worked well for our game. 

One thing about taking pics and zooming is you spot the errors … note the string of Evo stick running from his leg to his scabbard! 

This dapple was created by simply stippling a pale grey over a darker one

I did a very simple job on all the metal, just gun metal washed with a mix of black and brown inks

The tunics are Citadel Steel Legion Drab, Tallarn Sand and Karak stone

 the rear view showing the coat of arms. I used Guy’s heraldry on all of them, sable a dragon or rampant

The spears!

The Knights! I would have them all on caparisoned horses had I enough time to paint them all but actually I prefer them like this and it’s nearer to the film 

the whole gang! Watch out Robin Hood ye may be fleet of foot but can you out run this lot? 

I was very pleased to get these all finished in time for Partizan, in the tradition of such events, I varnished the last of them on Saturday morning before leaving for Newark!

All in all an excellent set and a welcome addition to the range