A groundhog moment, as I return to the past.

Its been a pretty crappy week all round, as Ive been sleeping more than a brown bear in Winter courtesy of my reaction to the booster jab. So my ambition to get a decent number of new units on the table was scuppered.Then my poor sister slipped on ice and ended up in AE after breaking her hip, so really Ive got nothing to whine about.

In the late 1980's I had a very large Burgundian army made up of numerous figure companies, most who have either disappeared or no longer are floating my boat. Of course in my great scale swap I sold the lot and started in 6mm. Ah, the impetuousness of youth. 

Whilst at the Battleground show the other week I had a long talk to the wargamer/collector who bought the Burgundian's. He still had them, but could I hell prise them out of his fingers. To be honest I knew I would never get them back, but shy boys get no toys as they say.. 

With the hardback rule book of Never Mind the Billhooks expected in the next couple of months with new European armies for the same period included I wanted to collect a small Burgundian army to use. They were never the most effective army to fight with and given they faced the Swiss who were at their murderous best who can be surprised, but they were beautiful to behold and as a wargaming army they always look pretty as they rout off table.                                

  

In my original army the Ordonnance pike were made up of the small Hinchliffe range, some Garrison a couple of units from Essex and then a lot of the original Citadel range, now owned by Foundry. My favourites however were the specific range produced by Corvus. Not the Corvus that now produces figures under the name Corvus Belli, but simply Corvus.

The small company had some beautiful figures for the war, including handgunners and crossbowmen with loose weapons. They also did a lovely coustillier, all very delicate but anatomically correct. For my gendarmes I used the old Citadel gendarme range again sold by Foundry with a mix of Essex, Vulcan, Garrison, Hinchliffe and for the mounted archers, the old QT figures. To be honest, like all magpies I was attracted to anything that glittered. 

 The artillery?   Corvus produced some lovely delicate field guns and crew with pavisse mounted on the carriage, I really liked those guns. I also chopped about a few Hinchliffe wagons and limbers to make an interesting Burgundian wagon train. 

 Charles the Bold was the Citadel mounted figure in full bard and if I remember correctly it won the single figure category at the very early Stockton wargames show.

And now? In the interests of saving cash I have naturally opted for the Perry plastics and mixed them with metal standard bearers where possible. But of course that is never enough and although they wear earlier costumes I've lashed out on a unit of Claymore Castings crossbowmen with pavisses. If there is an issue with the plastics its probably the chopping them about and gluing them up and the fact they are pretty stiff in some respects. But they will do.  

Im afraid the standard of painting of my replacement Burgundian army will be fairly basic, like Dave Bickley, Ive realised that painting eyes etc are no longer necessary. If they look right then they will do for me. To make the units look better I have always thought that great looking standards will improve even the most basic paint job. Unfortunately my go to flag producer, Pete's Flags only sells one sheet which is a real shame because Pete's are the best.  

So Ive mixed in a few Perry cardboard standards and flags from the Freezywater range with a lick of paint on them. Its not ideal but they will do I suppose. I dont plan how big an army will become and usually paint units until I realise Ive too many, so here are the first tranche of Burgundian's.

If anyone has any ideas what happened to the old Corvus range I would love to know. Ive an awful feeling they were simply scrapped and ended up in a skip somewhere which would be a real shame, they were a very decent range of figures.

My first commander. He is actually an Englishman who fought for Charles and unlike those dastardly Italians didnt sell out his employer, more fool him.

As a tester I usually paint up a couple of small dioramas, this one is telling his mate, the Swiss are coming. 

As an aside, I was reading through some old [naturally] Sword and Lance magazines.They were produced in the 1970's by one of my first boss's and were in the main a magazine about military matters and models with a smattering of wargames matters. I managed to track down a decent number and have enjoyed reading them between naps.

 Anyway in the magazine was a two parter regarding wargaming the Ancient Persians written by Derek Sharman who in  County Durham was a real driving force in wargaming and the creation of the Durham Wargames club. He also ran the only wargames shop in the area.

His forte however was his ancient Persian army which I had the privilege of using once under his supervision. It was quite a sight laid out across a ten foot square wargames table. What struck me in the article was Derek stating his army consisted of 18,000 figures built up over a period of eight years. I never saw his entire collection which was probably just as well but it made me feel a bit better.

 Its always nice to know there is someone more afflicted than you irrespective of whether its alcoholism or collecting toy soldiers.