Lion Rampant Retinue (13)

Sorry for the lack of posts recently.
I've spent the last week in bed with truly horrible 'flu. The current Mrs Tom's Toy Soldiers says she's never seen me so ill in the 25 years she's known me. Grim.
Fortunately I seem to be on the mend at last (though still coughing like the heroine of a Victorian tragedy).

Whilst I was laid up I took delivery of a small package from Claymore Castings. The models needed to add to my two units of archers to complete my Lion Rampant retinue.
I agonised for ages over what I should use to supplement the archers and even started painting up some horses to make mounted men at arms. I was very close to ordering some Front Rank models, until I had a look at some up close and decided they maybe weren't what I wanted after all.

So, sticking by Scrivs edict "life's to short to paint shit models" I decided to look around for models that I genuinely liked.
Not that I think the FR models are shit, BTW, I may go back to them in the future, they just didn't grab me when I had a look.

I'd been dallying with the Claymore Castings models for a while, lovely characterful Paul Hicks sculpts, so I decided that I'd get twelve of those for the billmen. That meant I was just looking for some riders for the horses I'd started. Or, I could sack off the horses idea (which is a bit historically questionable for later English armies in any case) and get six men-at-arms on foot. No real extra work (I just won't finish the horses off) and a retinue that is reasonably historically plausible as well as made of models that I like. So I stuck a couple of extra codes of Claymore foot men at arms in the order.

And here are the billmen all glued onto Brenda's face.

The castings are beautifully crisp and clean with no mold lines or flash whatsoever. The open hands needed a little shaving and filing to make sure the bills will actually line up, but that's to be expected with any open hand castings and the vagaries of white metal casting. I'm really pleased with the models and shall look forward to painting them. I'm thinking quartered green and white to fit with the archers. So far I've left the bills off and am thinking of painting them separately, but I'm not fully decided.

Also included in the order as a Festive Freebie were these four rather lovely casualty models. A great little bonus that will make nice "battered" markers for the Lion Rampant Games. I think technically they're Scottish casualties, but a dead 'un's a dead 'un as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, I expect this'll be the last post before Christmas, so Season's Greetings to all of you out there and I hope that Santa (or whomever) brings you whatever you want - wargaming or otherwise.

Turns out this is my 400th post on the blog, too. Thanks for taking the time to drop by and read my musings.