Hastings 1066- The Norman army in 20mm for Impetus rules

 

This Norman army was an old wish of mine since Revell released its box in 1989. While the figures looked great there was the obvious problem of only two horsemen per box and only with rearing horses. Also a number of other armies from the early Middle Ages could be modelled, like Portuguese and Castillan for the Reconquista or Crusaders for the first few rounds of invasion of the Holy land, but the horsemen problem continued and the project kept on being delayed. 

This is how the Norman army would have looked like at Hastings. The centre would be occupied by the Normans themselves with Roger of Montgomery´s French and Flemish on the right and Alan of Brittany´s Bretons on the left. The first line would have been made of archers; the second, of heavy infantry and the third, of heavy or medium cavalry. A total of 15 Impetus stands were made, a match for the Saxon army. They are ready to climb Senlac hill or Caldbec hill if you prefer. 

Now for the Norman host proper, the most numerous of the three groups with maybe around 5000 men. All figures are Revell (with the exception of Bishop Odo of Bayeux with a club, an Italeri figure, leading the army next to William). 

This is the trick I used to produce some 20+ cavalry figures. I used some of the poses of the foot Revell Normans with swords, carved a bit of plastic from the middle of the legs (ouch...) and sat them with the help of an hot glue gun in Airfix or Italeri Medieval horses from several boxes. Also a few of the rearing Revell horses got some heat for them to bend to some more common poses. The Pope's flag was placed in the front rank of this stand. 

The infantry was less problematic as Revell gives a nice assortment of poses. The only  aspect worth mentioning was the usage of glued photocopies of 25mm Norman shields from the web, scaled down and retouched as the brands place those lines to avoid, well, exactly what I did... In fact all Normans and French have this trick both in cavalry and infantry. 

The archers are the same for the three hosts. In the end I regretted not placing the mailed archers only in the Norman stands but frankly I don´t know if this was the case. 

 

Now for the Bretons which may have been some 2000+ at Hastings. Their main visual difference to the Normans characteristic was the lack of mailed armor or maybe its use under the clothes both in cavalry and infantry. 

 

For the Breton (and French/mercenary) cavalry I did not use Normans. Instead I looked in the several sets of early Medieval cavalry from Italeri (Russian, Teutonic and Crusaders) and used the ones with conical helmets or Kettle hats. Their cavalry was mostly discarded as they have the Caparison cover and were replaced by StreletsR horses. These two stands have one less figure than the Norman stands so they can be used as CM or CP as the difference between 7 or 8 horsemen is barely noticeable. 

The shields were enlarged with the glued photocopies. This time, just to make them different from the French, I painted the shield in one color only a practice I saw in a number of Bretons from different sources. 

As you can see here the smaller original shields were dwarfed by the paper ones. In the end if you place a good layer of PVA at the joint between the plastic and the paper shields you will barely see the difference and they become very tough. 

The Italeri figures, used for Breton infantry, had even smaller shields which were enlarged with the same trick. 

The full stand of Breton Infantry made of Italeri figures mostly with kite shields. When the kite shields were small they became bigger with the photocopies trick. 

Lastly, the French and other european mercenaries, maybe some 1500 or 2000 men. 

The cavalry was made pretty much like the Bretons, only with printed and retouched colorful shields. 

The French Infantry was made like the Bretons as I couldn´t find any relevant differences. Eventually they also used plenty of mailed armor like the Normans. The main source for this period, the obvious Bayeux tapestry, was made years after the battle and many details and differences between the fighters are not clear. 

One more stand of French archers, mixing mailed and non-mailed figures. I thought about placing some crossbows but there are already two in the Breton infantry stand so this one became archers-only. 

Odo of Bayeux and William still need the company of the Breton and French leaders which will join the ranks when I find a bit more of information on Alan and Roger. 

Next: a video on Hastings or on the Iraqis of 1991. 

The battle of Hastings, 1066 in 20mm size for Impetus Rules

This video shows my aproach in making the two armies on the field, the Saxon and the Norman, using plastic Revell figures. Some Italeri and even some Robin Hood Airfix were used. Of interest there may be the way to make Norman cavalry using Revell foot soldiers and horses from other brands. Also plenty of Saxon infantry got spears instead of swords as these were much more expensive. The shields of the Norman got glued paper photocopies (about 15mm lenght). The Italeri figures had much smaller shields (10mm lenght) and these got the bigger 15mm photocopies on top with the help of super glue and wood glue (used as filler) until the difference between the original shield and the paper one was barely visible.

Hastings 1066 - The two last Fyrd stands for the Saxons in 20mm for Impetus rules

 

These two stands of Fyrd were made from the Robin Hood Airfix set and a few leftovers of the last Revell Saxon´s box. Like this my Saxon army got to 17 stands against 15 stands of the Normans and I will probably let it be like this. 

All figures got some degree of conversion. The Airfix figures got plastic card round shields and broomstick spears and the Revell figures also got spears replacing axes and swords.

These stands of interlocked shields consume a lot of figures but make some very nice and varied groups. 

Only two colors were used for the tunics which speeded painting. The shields were also kept with only a few colors and mostly some sort of cross. I felt tempted to glue paper shields but ended up by painting them as the Saxons symbols look far more simple than the Normans. 

On the other stand there is a lonely Saxon lord in its chain mail armor leading its peasantry into battle (but at least fighting within its ranks). You can find one of the several Friar Tuck figures with shield and spear on the back row, left figure. There are two archer poses in the Robin Hood box and some four of these are spread on the second rank just for some variety. The original bows were a bit too big for 1066 and they were slightly shortened as the famous English/Welsh longbow is still far in time. From the box, only the Robin Hood figures, Lady Marian, and the figure with the pole high in both hands (another Friar Tuck figure?) were not used. All others are great peasant figures for many Middle Age armies up to the XIV century. 

Next: a video on the Portuguese campaign in Mozambique,1895.

Hastings 1066 - The Saxon Lithsmen in 20mm for Impetus rules

The Saxon line at Hastings had Nordic mercenary -Lithsman- also. I imagine them with Viking looks which favours the beginning of a Viking army for the previous battle, Stamford Bridge and many others. 

I gave them a Nordic look with plenty of axes and blond hair. All figures with the Gjermundbu helmet were concentrated in these stands as this helmet is typically Nordic and a trademark of Viking equipment. Some of the figures got a spear instead of a sword as Revell (and before Elastolin, which are copied in the Revell box) exaggerated the number of swords. 

Like this the Saxon army grew to 15 stands and 5 more Fyrd stands will make it complete. 

Next: My latest batch  of Airfix models from the 50's or a video on the Iraqi 3rd Saladin Armored Division in 1991. 

Hastings 1066- The Saxon army in 20mm for Impetus rules

The conquest of Saxon England by William, King of Normandy is a fascinating story. I became even more fascinated by it when in ... let me check PSR... ah, yes, in 1989, Revell released its two sets clearly designed for Hastings 1066. 

Since then I amassed a good quantity of both boxes - Saxon and Norman - in order to be able to make the Saxon shield wall and the three Norman divisions that charged up Senlac Hill (some say Caldbec Hill, in a more recent theory). Recently I based all the figures in Impetus Rules bases, ideal both for massed heavy horse and shield walls and painted a few more. 

Both boxes have good figures for the Housecarls armed with two handed axes of which three were made. Some of the figures had small pieces of plastic added in order to extend the lenght of the Dane axe and plastic shields. 

Also using chain mail, the Thegn figures used had plastic shields added some round and others with tear drop shape. Some of the Thegn figures on the back row (standing with spear) are the Saxon horsemen cut in half and glued to Esci Roman legs. 

King Harald Godwinson was made from the Revell Russian Knight commander with converted card and broom stick banner. This picture was obviously taken before the arrow that pierced his eye and brain. The colors came from a British reenactor photo found on the web. 

The Saxon Fyrd was also made from both boxes but with many more from the Saxon box. A total of five stands of Fyrd were made but I hope to make at least as many in the future as the Fyrd was more than the double of both Housecarls and Thegns. Also two bases of Lithsmen are on the cue. The arms were bent by fire in order to produce figures with the shield protecting the body and the next comrade, thus creating a shieldwall. Also many of the swords were replaced by spears as these were much more common and less expensive. 

One of the two Thegn stands had a few Revell Russian knights mixed with Saxon and Norman figures. The Russian knights are also good for many XI/XII century conflicts throughout Europe and mix well with Crusaders, for instance. 

Not much is known about Saxon archers, slingsmen or javelinmen at Hastings but there were some for sure as there is even a theory that its a Saxon arrow that kills King Harald. I made three stands of them also using the helmetless Norman swordsman ( a relatively useless figure, good for Robin Hood movie scenes) to produce a few javelinmen. Their sword was cut and a small needle and shield were placed instead. 

This one is just for you to see that the arms can easily be changed with the help of a hot iron for the making of the shield wall. 

In this selection of figures from the PSR site you can see that the 1st and 2nd figure to the left can have its left arm heated in order to protect the body and create the shield wall and the 3rd and 4th figures can have easily added shields on the Thegn stands. 

Next: The Norman army for Hastings but more probably a video on the German WW2 "Panzer Grey" period as the whole Norman army still has to be built.