28mm Gripping Beast Saxon Thegns x 10

Status: Sold Privately £90.00

Below 10 Saxons Thegns  completed and based.Thats the last of that box set and the last Saxons I plan on doing for a while, but watch out for a Saxon thegns hall , scratch built and up for sale shortly !

28mm Gripping Beast Saxon Thegns x12

 Status: SOLD £106.00

    Some photos of this unit of 12 including command figures,more photos to follow soon.             

 

             

28mm Gripping Beast Plastics Saxon Thegns x 8

Status: SOLD for £72.00 on ebay.co.uk

 These 8 figures are being sold off in in two lots of 4 figures on ebay .co.uk. They will be followed by a further 20 or so Saxon thegns including a couple of  command groups of 4.

I have made some alterations to these figures, most notably adding some studs to the leather shields. Although I like interesting shield designs I think they might have been less common in this period than they are frequently depicted especially among the rank and file. If you look at the Bayeux tapestry,by far the most common shield design on both sides are the plain coloured shields with studs. To my mind it makes a lot of sense, a functional utilitarian shield,wooden boards held together with leather and raw hide, studded to hold the Iron work on and possibly as a form of decoration/additional protection. Why spend time or money decorating something that is just gonna get hacked up anyway?  Maybe designs would identify yourself to your kith and kin on the battlefield and bind your tribe/unit/army together. We know that the earlier Roman legionaires or later heraldic colours did this. So what about the Dark Ages? Interesting .

Any way I think the studded leather shields on these guys look great !

And these !

28mm Gripping Beast Saxon Thegn Command x 4

Status: SOLD £52.00

Completed this command group of Gripping Beast plastics,from the box set of thegns. The figures are suitable for Anglo-Saxon Armies from about 600-1100. These are nice figures,well sculpted,pleasantly stylised and certainly some of the best currently on the market for this era.

24 X Gripping Beast Norman Infantry + 2 casualties

Status: SOLD £194.00

 Just finished 24 x Gripping Beast Norman Infantry, including a big armoured "Stormin Norman" leader with a Wyvern on his kite shield, 4 armoured comrades, standard bearer (Lozengy gules and argent banner of the Barons du Bec),18 unarmoured spearmen and 2 casualties. They have a mixture studded red leather and red and white shield designs taken from the Bayeux tapestry and other contemporary illustrations.All spears are steel, so no more bent and broken spears,the figures have been painted to a very high standard and coated in a tough enamel matt varnish.

The basing includes sand, small rocks and a lot of expensive 2 colour grass tufts as well as the more usual static grass. The colouring of soil is a good mid tone,suitable for verdant parts of the Middle East or Europe in the summer.

 This large unit could be split into two smaller units of a dozen each.

 Above a close up of the two dead normans.

Above shown with the unit of archers and crossbowmen also on ebay.co.uk at the moment,starting bid £127.00, buy it now £180.00.

17 x Norman Archers and Crossbowmen 28mm

Status: SOLD £99.00

Just finished 17 Norman Archers and crossbow men, 8 of the archers are from Gripping Beast,1 from Wargames Foundry, 1 converted standard bearer and 7 crossbowmen also from Gripping Beast(one of the crossbowmen, only just finished, is only shown in the last photo.)

 They will be listed for sale on the 10/02/13 with a starting bid of £127.00 (about 50% of the commission price for these figures,so a real bargain).
The colour scheme,red and white,banner of the Barons du Bec. These figures represent household or retained men of their feudal lord and clothing is cut from cloth of his colours accordingly. Complementary units are available on ebay.co.uk
They make a really powerful group of skirmishers, each figure is based on 20 x 20 mm individual bases attached to two movement trays with magnetic attachments. Some blank bases are included for casualties and flexibility of formation.

 Here the skirmishers are shown beside a unit of 12 dismounted Knights from the same household, the skirmishers have been split into a unit of 10 Archers and 6 Crossbowmen on separate movement trays. This photo shows the flexibility of this basing system.The 12 Dismounted Knights will soon be joined by 24 Infantry, which could be combined or mixed in with the 12 Dismounted Knights making a substantial unit.

28mm William the Conqueror Command group

Status: SOLD £64.00 

 This command group of 5 mounted  28mm figures from Gripping Beast includes William lifting his helmet in true Bayeux tapestry style.William has been simple to represent, however his standard or standards has been a little more difficult to pin down.

Wace states that Turstin of Bec carried the papal banner, Oderic Vitalis also names Turstin as the Norman standard bearer, The Bayeux Tapestry seems to suggest Eustace of Bolougne carried the banner, I guess we will never know for sure?

I am going with Turstin of Bec as the Papal Banner carrier.

Below Turstin of Bec has the red and white lozengy shield will be carrying the Papal Banner.In the photos of the tapestry the Papal banner appears to be red/yellow and white,a lot of  re-enactment photos show it as green/yellow and white, this maybe taken from other parts of the tapestry,where a similar banner is shown near William. Others believe the papal banner was more like the St Georges cross or the flag of Milan which was also given by the Pope at a similar time?

I have also included a personal standard for William the Bastard, I have used the ancient coat of arms for the Duchy of Normandy for this.

Sir Walter Giffard is on the end with the three tapestry style lions on his shield which is the coat of arms attributed to this known companion of William at Hastings.
The first use of Heraldic shield designs is often said to start in the reign of Henry I, it is possible that this coat of  arms for Sir Walter Giffard was attributed to him by one of his descendants at a later stage. However the Bayeux tapestry is overflowing with dozens of heraldic style lions in the borders and possibly one Lion on a shield (this has been identified as a monkey by some scholars ?!), I think it is certainly at least possible that some shields did carry designs like this in the later part of the 11th century. I have copied some of the characteristics of the lions in the Bayeux Tapestry to give them an authentic 11th Century style.

Here a photo of the command group along with a unit of 12 dismounted Knights under the Banner of the Barons of Bec, Turstin's Family which also probably fought at Hastings. These foot figures were also for sold on ebay.co.uk for a bargain price of £94.00.
I

28 mm Gripping Beast Norman Cavalry x 12

Status: SOLD  on ebay.co.uk at a bargain price of £144.00.

This unit rides beneath the lozengy argent and gules banner of the Barons of Bec, companions of the conqueror. Early proto-heraldic designs were employed by the Normans, one of these knights has the coat of arms attributed to Ivo de Tailbois, Hereward the Wakes adversary.

Each horse is mounted individually  and then attached to a movement tray by a magnetic strip and steel paper. The movement trays are of 2 x 4 horses and 2 x 2 horses allowing for  formations of 4 x 3,2 x 6, 1 x 12.

Above the 12 mounted Knights(now sold) pictured with 12 dismounted Knights which also recently sold on ebay for the bargain price of £94.00.

These units will be followed by a unit of 16 Archers
                                                     24   largely unarmoured infantry
                                                      5 mounted command figures including William I

 possibly followed by some casualities. Thinking of bundling these units up under one lot and selling them as an Warhammer Ancient Battles army when finished.

28mm Dismounted Norman Knights x 12

Status: SOLD £94.00

Recently this unit of 12 x Dismounted Norman Knights from Gripping Beast, complete with movement tray and dynamic basing sold for a bargain price of £94.00.
All painted to a very good wargames standard. Standing under the standard of the Barons of Bec, companions of the conqueror.

  This was an old unit that I have tidied up, varnished and re-based.

 The figures are mounted individually on 15mm x 20mm bases with steel paper on the bottom so they attach to magnetic rectangles on the movement tray. The banner is hand painted.

 These photos show the quality of the paintwork, although not up to some of my more recent work, it is still top quality wargames standard, and the dynamic basing,choice of colours and shield designs make this a very collectable unit.

 Another unit with the same banner and colours is currently being completed, it consists of 8 mounted Knights.

This photo clearly shows the individual basing, two figures have been removed and replace with the two 15 x 20 mm scenic bases  which are useful for casualty removal or detachments of troops from the main unit.