As we approach the end of another month I find myself taking stock of what I have managed to do - absolutely nothing!
Not strictly true as there has been a lot of planning and the odd addition, but nothing concrete of note, at least nothing I'd class as achieving anything!
So what you may wonder, has distracted my increasingly butterfly mind?
Flodden.
It is not a new distraction; in actual fact it has exercised an urge to recreate it in miniature for many, many years.....
I hail from that part of the world and grew up, maybe 20 miles of so from the battlefield. I knew of its existence from an early age (I remember my late father pointing out the monument in the distance - "a great battle between the Scots and the English" ).
The first it crossed into wargames consciousness would be the Military Modelling Manual for 1982 which had an article with illustrations by Rick Scollins on the battle (another year had a similar one on Guildford Courthouse - but that's another story!)
I was hooked and determined to recreate it in miniature. Back then at the tender age of 18, I couldn't afford the Dixon 25mms, so it was 15mm. However 15mm manufacturers back then were thin on the ground, not least for Scots renaissance figures.
It so happened that a new manufacturer, Mike's Models (some of which are still available from Essex) had released a Scots noble front ranker, with pavaisse, just like the illustration in Scollins' article; but no lower class types. Undaunted, I wrote to ask if they had any suggestions from their ranges. They replied, yes, an Italian pikeman would work. So, in the rush of foolhardy youthful enthusiasm, I ordered (IIRC) something like 8 nobles and 96 of the suggested other ranks - sight unseen!
When they arrived, to say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement. Not only are Mike's Models very much an acquired taste (they do a one piece charging Gendarme which is superb), but the suggested figures looked nothing like what I was expecting nor much like Scollins' pictures! Added to which, they were identical......
I don't recall what became of them; in disgust they were put away. I suspect they would have been melted down when I discovered home casting.
And thus, Flodden lay dormant. I remember seeing the old Tabletop Miniatures at their shop in Arnold, Nottingham and being tempted; Alternative Armies now have them, although the noble with pavaisse is not listed / no longer available (the codes jump).
Some years later, I picked up Knightley's Almark title and realised Scollins had based most of his article and illustrations on this book. A few years after that, I picked up Niall Barr's book which reproduced the Scollins illustrations. A visit "back home" led to a visit to Etal castle where there's a nice exhibition, and the stirrings reappeared, but went no further.
Sadly the 500th anniversary passed me by without any further action, although several more books appeared on the Amazon wish list. This was despite collecting figures for the Italian wars; I suspect I thought it was too much of a distraction from the 9+ armies for that theatre!
Then one day, while hunting eBay for 15mm Renaissance, I found someone selling off what was obviously an unstarted Flodden project.......
He had collected figures from every range imaginable and his Scots lists were a glorious mix of miniatures just as my youthful imagination had pictured them; there were even figures long out of production. I seem to remember bidding on all his lots; I lost out on the (generic) artillery and most of the English, but won most if not all the Scots.
The English were easily sourced / replaced and I've added a few Scots but now have both sides for Flodden at around 1:100......
I'm not sure what prompted me to dig them out again......
I'm now contemplating the quickest way to paint them; my initial thoughts are limited pallette of colours with a black or brown ink wash with selected highlighting.
