28mm 12th - 16th Century Irish Army

By Mike W

So after some time painting Irish troops for various periods, I have drawn these together into a single army that can, with suitable variation in units within the army, represent Irish forces pretty much anywhere between the 12th and 16th centuries.

The obvious thing to be aware of is the use of firearms, the musket armed troops would clearly need to be omitted form the earlier iterations of an Irish Army - as would any fellas with a Marian helmet .pre early 1500s.

The whole army laid out with all troop options

Same from a slightly different angle

And again form the other side!

The core of the army is five warbands of warriors, either 20 or 25 figures strong, including a musician plus each has a chieftain to command it. It is at this point that it should be noted that a good 40% of the figures were originally form Steve's medieval collection, these however have all been repainted and rebased to fit in as best as possible with my own figures

A mix of Wargames Atlantic and Gripping Beast Irish figures

Another warband of Gripping Beast and Wargames Atlantic plastic figures,
this time 25 figures strong with a metal leader, originally form Steve's collection.

So about two of the warbands are made up of Wargames Atlantic & Gripping Beast plastic Irish figures, about about another two warbands are based around figures formerly in Steve's collection - I'm not sure of their manufacturer. The remaining 20% are from metals from Perry Miniatures, Redoubt Miniatures and I believe Essex. 

I have tried to pull these all 'together' buy using a similar paint job across the army, with an ochre coloured cloth as the based tone, with highlights in other, sometimes brighter colours.

Another 'large' 25 man warband, mostly made up of figures formally in Steve's collection,
repainted and rebased. Leader is one of mine and I think it is a Perry's figure.

The fourth Warband, again mostly figures that were originally Steve's
but also including an number of generic Dark Ages figures to bulk it out.

Fifth and final Irish warband, 20 figures strong with a Perry's leader and a Redoubt (?) drummer

Added to the base of five warbands I have two units of Gallowglass figures, armoured mercenaries wielding two handed swords and axes to drive fear into their enemies. The larger unit of these fearsome men are Perry Miniature figures.

Gallowglass Unit, predominantly Perry Miniatures but also some Redoubt and Essex guys as well!

A second, smaller twelve man band of Gallowglass,
these are all formerly from Steve's collection

The Army Commander is, I believe an Essex figure, I have given him a priest carrying a standard and also a personal champion. Whilst on the subject of Essex figures, its worth noting that the fairly large number of these in this army were originally sourced from Steve C's collection, these have all been repainted and rebased to fit in with my army's overall look & feel.

Army Commander with his Champion (right) and personal priest,
carrying the Army Banner, left. 

A Scots contingent of Musketeers and Archers,
all metal figures, not 100% sure of manufacturer,
these would be suitable for late 15th and early 16th Century periods.

Next come various missile men, whose use would vary according to the time period in which any game is set. I need to build these numbers up somewhat but there are about a dozed archers, a single slinger and seventeen musketeers!

Nine archers and a solitary Slinger! A mix of manufacturers

Three armoured Archers, formerly belonging to Steve

A group of Irish Musketeers, various manufacturers, including Wargames Atlantic,
Gripping Beast, Warlord Games and others. 

... and six more musketeers.

Another optional unit is the commander's retinue, these would work well in any late Medieval or Renaissance game but not really practicable in earlier periods.

Commander's retinue, suitable for later Middle Ages and Renaissance period games

Then we have the dogs!

Finally, no Irish Army would be worth it's salt if it did not include Wolf Hounds,
these ten are from Wargames Atlantic, Irish boxed set.

AHPC XI - From Mike W, 28mm Gallowglas Warriors

As had hoped, I have now been able to complete a historical group of figures, although there are plenty of Fantasy figures still in the pipeline and about to be finished!

A bag of Gallowglas found hiding at the bottom of a drawer

I have returned with a small group of 10 x 28mm Irish Gallowglas miniatures, I missed these a couple of weeks back when I did a similar batch - the downside of having a metal pile kept in a drawer - you never find everything all at once...

I believe that these figures are from Reiver Miniatures and there are three poses, two in chain mail shirts and one in a padded coat.

The completed group of figures

I was going to do some head swaps to add a little variety, but I forgot and undercoated them before I remembered what I had planned, instead I moved one two handed swords from an archer figure and added  to one of the figures running with a lochinbar axe..

So as usual I undercoated these figures in white before using a generic 'Linen' colour to block in all the padded shirts - and under shirts for those in mail. 'Oily Steel' was used for the chainmail, helmets and sword blades before applying flesh colour to hands and legs and faces.

Three archers, I swapped out the big double handed sword on the middle figure

Various shades of hair were added and then leather straps, scabbards and quivers before going round all over again to correct any smudges and 'over painting'.

... and added it to the back of one of the charging figures, for dramatic effect!

Again I used coloured inks from Army Painter to add definition - flesh tone on skin, Strong Tone on all other areas apart form the metal work, which had Dark Tone applied. All washes were watered done by about 50% to avoid staining the underlying paint.

Possibly my favourite pose of the three, a mailed warrior 
with a double handed sword, ready to strike.

Matt varnish was applied when the inks were dry and then basing was done using fine sand and electrostatic grass.

AHPC XI - Mike W, 28mm Elizabethan Irish Kerns and Gallowglas

Today's post sees me flitting back to my Wargames Club's current project - Border Ruffians & Elizabethan Wars in Ireland to paint 15 x 28mm foot figures. I'm so shallow that any reason to change my focus from one project to another will likely distract me!

The Lot as it arrived from eBay

Seven of these little guys represent Gallowglas warriors whist another four represent Kern skirmishers and a final four represent a group of musketeers.

The finished figures

The figures were sourced from an eBay lot that I acquired over the summer but did not have time to paint at the time, three of the Gallowglas figures came without heads so I sent away for some resin Elizabethan heads and added these heads to these figures.

Four of the Gallowglas, all in mail shirts and wielding large axes

Interestingly, I did not realise that at this time the Gallowglas were typically Scots mercenaries that were used to stiffen the forces of the various Irish warlords. In fact in Irish Gaelic, 'Gallowglas' means Foreign Warrior! It was only that I picked up and flicked through a book on the subject that I found out and that was enough to divert me to do these little guys...

Rear view of three of the Gallowglas that have 
additional two handed swords to play with...

The three Gallowglas figures who had head transplants!

The four kerns have a variety of weapons, typically javelins, although a couple have swords. The guy the red tunic would be of higher status.

The four Kerns armed with Javelins, Shields and Swords

Finally I have done four guys with muskets, these guys would have been better paid than regular Kerns and they would have spent their money on better clothes - as per the guy in the red cloak and breaches, or protective helmets etc.

The four musket armed figures with sexy hats, pants and cloak!

Most of these figures arrived undercoated black, I added my own white undercoat and then painted on the generic light brown / ochre coloured cloth. Oily Steel was applied for helmets and chainmail before flesh colour was added for bare skin areas.

Other detail was added as needed before applying coloured washes from Army Painted to add shading. This is a different approach to how I have painted other figures in the collection, where I used a simple Dark Tone wash or Dip to add the shading, I like the results - a brighter, seemingly cleaner resulting figure.

I have a box full of these Irish to do but they would be ineligible for the challenge as many are already pre painted - my task (one day) is to take them off their group bases, repaint to integrate with my existing collection and then put on to single bases.

One day...