Mini Bosworth

Mini Bosworth with the battlefield Guy made: an exemplary lesson in minimalism

My little boy Guy had to do a presentation on Bosworth at school and suggested that the battle would be easier to understand if he could put some figures on a battlefield. Originally I had thought of putting some 15mm figures on some stands or maybe getting some 6mm figures for this. In the end, however, we were running out of time and given that I had already got quite a lot of the old Foundry figures painted we decided to use those; with each figure representing roughly 500 men. I had most of the standards and banners to hand and a few hasty repainting jobs put figures into the correct livery.

Henry Tudor and his standard bearer William Brandon who was killed by Richard himself whilst charging to attempt to reach Henry.

What I didn't have was any figures to represent Richard III or Henry Tudor as mine is, at present, an infantry only army. So Dave Thomas' stand at Salute was our first port of call on Saturday and we picked up the Richard and Henry character sets. These contain the character plus a standard bearer and a herald. The presentation was on Tuesday and I realised that I wan't going to have time to paint all six figures so I just went for Richard and Henry and the two standard bearers.

Henry Tudor

I filed, based and undercoated them on Saturday night. On Sunday I painted Richard and Henry and got the standard bearers done on Monday, thereby breaking my record for fastest painted purchases from Salute! The two standards are included in the Perry Plastic infantry box.

King Richard III who according to Shakespeare rode his grey White Surrey that day. Although a pure white horse would have been more appropriate I wanted to have a go at a more complex grey coat in preparation for some Sudan figures I am preparing.

I really enjoyed doing these and will fast track some of the plastic infantry now. My figures are painted as the Earl of Oxford's force so I will paint the first batch of plastics as Norfolk's troops. I also bought an artillery piece but didn't get time to do that but have started work on it so maybe it can be artillery piece of the month for next month (this month's is the Zulu War rocket team from Empress Miniatures, which is nearly finished).

Richard III and his standard bearer Sir Percival Thirlwall who, although unhorsed and having had both legs cut off, continued to hold Richard's standard aloft until he was killed

Guy's presentation (he also did an excellent powerpoint) was so good he was awarded a headmaster's commendation for it! Well done Guy!