“With man’s blood paint the ground gules!”
Mike Peters adds unique character to his award-winning Never Mind the Billhooks army with some custom morale markers.
Mike visited Wi Tower with his glorious Never Mind the Billhooks armies so that we could take photos of his fine figures on tabletop.
With the publication of Billhooks Deluxe imminent [November 2022! - Ed], I have been reviewing the troops. While I have a near complete force, able to represent either Lancaster or the House of York, one thing that I am seriously deficient in, and something that every Billhooker needs, is markers to indicate when a company must test its morale at the end of the turn.
It was time to remedy this situation and a quick visit to Perry Miniatures’ website led to the purchase of WR32 ‘Wars of the Roses dead and wounded’ and AO31 and 32 ‘Agincourt wounded’ and ‘wounded Men at Arms’. These codes provided me with more than enough figures to get started building some expressive, storytelling morale markers. The Agincourt boys lend a slightly anachronistic element, but I doubt it will be too obvious when they are face down in the mud!
1) Lord Shiner
The Knight has lost vambrace and pauldron from his left arm; the points hang loose, and blood is seeping through his arming doublet. This is the first time I have used Citadel’s Blood for the Blood God Technical paint and I think the lesson learned is that less is more!
I like the pose and animation of this pair and can imagine that the retainer is trying to encourage his Lord: “Not far now, mate, soon get a steak on that eye!”
Lord Shiner and retainer
2) Face down and out!
Finished in a surcoat of Murrey; painted with Citadel’s Khorne Red mixed with Foundry Terracotta.
Face down and out!
3) Scrap Metal
I used Army Painter Gun Metal for my armour, washed with a mix of Citadel Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, then highlighted with Plate Metal and a final delicate highlight of Shining Steel.
The soil is Vallejo Flat Earth, washed with Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with progressively lighter mixes of Khaki Grey. A few stones are picked out in bone and light grey to bring variation and things are finished off with vegetation from Gamers Grass.
Scrap Metal.
4) “You’ll have someone’s eye out!”
I am calling this guy Harold. He wears a typical livery for the time, Argent and Azure - white and blue - particoloured in pale; he’s probably Somerset’s man. The blue is a woady, cheap dye, mixed from Citadel’s The Fang and lightened with Fenrisian and Russ Grey, then washed and glazed with blue ink. I never use pure white; this was a built up from Citadel Administratum Grey to Army Painter Golem Grey.
The arrow is an addition, cut from the plentiful supply of arrows that come with the plastic Perry Miniatures Infantry sets.
“Harold”
5) Fallen on his blade?
This guy is wearing the typical linen jack of the time. For this I use a range of different ‘bone’ paints from various companies as well as various light browns, yellow browns, and cork colours. They all get a wash of Sepia and various glazes to try and introduce variety and create stains, making for a realistic final look.
The weapon is a spare from Claymore Castings.
Fallen on his blade?
6) “Over here… oh!”
The white and red livery here is suitable for the Yorkist Walter Deveraux, the Lancastrian Henry Holland, or at the local level might be used by William Berkely. I have four companies in this livery so the same livery is featured on multiple markers.
“Over here… oh!”
7) The Pin Cushion
I got a bit carried away with the arrows on this one, but I think he gets the point!
The Pin Cushion.
8) “I told you to wear your helmet!”
This is the only figure I have in the murrey and blue livery of Sir William Hastings.
“I told you to wear your helmet!”
9) A Big Bloody Chopper!
The white and red livery again! Maybe someone told this guy the poleaxe was sharp enough to shave with and he tried to find out.
The chopper.
10) All the way through
I don’t know if this would hurt more going in or being pulled out. The application of blood here has been kept to a minimum and in a strange way I think that adds to the realism and makes it look more painful.
All the way through.
11) “It just slipped through his fingers, sir!
This figure was slightly miscast and had no fingers on its left hand, but I saw it as an opportunity rather than a problem. His severed digits are made from 0.8 mm plast-rod, sanded into tapers.
“It just slipped through his fingers, sir!”
By Mike Peters