Mourning their Captain

Following on from my command base I could not resist having a go at some more little vignettes on round bases. This is the first "casualty" style base I have done, I intend to do more, probably on smaller bases for most of them though. It shows three soldiers in Italian style armour and clothing mourning their Captain who has breathed his last. The three mourning figures are from Perry Miniatures, I have had them for ages and knew they would come in useful one day! Their deceased Captain is an old Wargames Foundry casualty figure with a Perry plastic scabbard added. He originally had a rather "Henry V" style cropped haircut so I have modelled a later 15th century style with green stuff. Two plastic helmets from the Perry kits have also been added.

A Condottiere is mourned by his followers

The hair style on the casualty figure has been remodelled as it was originally too early 15th century for my liking

While on the subject of Condottierri and Italian styles I thought some of you may be amused (and maybe even concerned!) that my Italian Wars obsession has started to influence my reenacting kit. I still take to the field as a lowly billmen in Wars of the Roses reenactments, despite the fact there don't actually seem to be any 15th century records for billmen - are they the preserve of reenactors and wargamers? They are certainly in later Tudor records in the Sixteenth Century but does that really mean they were there in the Fifteenth! It does seem puzzling.
Anyway off field I am now sporting distinctly Italian style doublet and hose. The outfit is based on a frescoe by Piero della Francesca from the late 1450s early 1460s, shown below. This surprises me a little as it certainly looks as though it would not be out of place for an Italian in the 1490s or even very early 1500s but I may be wrong. It was made by a friend from my reenactment group, Vicky from Aquerna Fabricae https://www.facebook.com/Aquerna.Fabricae?fref=photo, and I think she has done a fantastic job! The eagle eyed of you may notice it does need a couple more buttons added to the bottom of the doublet. As it is perfectly fitted it also means I will have to watch the fast food and beer drinking if I want to wear it for next season!
I managed to attend four events this season, which is pretty good going for me. It started with an event at Raglan Castle in May, a brilliant location and fantastic castle even if much of it is ruined. It must have looked spectacular in the 15th Century. I also attended Tewkesbury Medieval festival in July, Bosworth in August and a reenactment of Mortimers Cross at Croft Castle a couple of weekends ago. Bosworth enjoyed the typical English reenacting weather of it being far too hot with downpours every now and again all in the same weekend. It was fun though and I enjoyed watching Destrier doing the full contact jousting in incredibly expensive harnesses as well as the foot tourney they held in the evening. This involved the challenger touching a shield to designate which weapon they wished to fight with before each combat, fantastic stuff and also very funny at times. All this has meant little progress painting wise but I am keen to get some Italians painted up to carry the shields from my last blog post so will be pressing on with them next.

Frescoes from "The History of the True Cross" by Piero della Francesca, c.1455-1466