28mm Robin Hood (Conquest Games) - Part II

Continuing on from my first set of 28mm Robin Hood miniatures from Conquest Games - the Ye Band of Merrie Men I pack - here's the next lot of figures to round out the Wolfsheads of Sherwood Forest. 

The Ye Band of Merrie Men II pack includes excellent white metal renditions of four more characters, clearly based on their portrayals in the fantastic 1980s TV show Robin of Sherwood. The first of these is Robin's true love and fierce companion Marion, formerly the Lady Marion of Leaford and ward of the corrupt Abbot Hugo de Rainault, brother to the Sheriff of Nottingham. She is knocking an arrow to her bow and is clad in a forest green dress and a leather jerkin. 

Next up is Robin's naïve young adoptive brother Much, the miller's son. He sports a thick sheeps-wool cloak and is preparing to hurl a rock from his sling. The posing here gives a great sense of movement, although it does leave the miniature a little unbalanced when gluing the tab into the slotta base. I had to prop it up with a paint pot to get it to set, but that's not really a problem. 

Moving on, there is Nasir the tight-lipped but deadly Saracen assassin (and fomer bodyguard of Robin's first enemy, the sorcerer Simon de Bellême). He comes clad in a dark leather jerkin, brandishing twin scimitars and equipped with throwing daggers. RoS was the first adaptation of the Robin Hood legends to introduce a Saracen into the mix of Robin's group, and a character called Azeem featured in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves due to the writers assuming a Saracen had always been a part of the stories! 

The final miniature is of the mystical forest shaman and/or pagan god Herne the Hunter. He is depicted here wearing long flowing robes of deerskin, crowned with the antlered head of the animal. The sculpting here is excellent, and the figure's pose is really evocative of the show's themes of ancient woodland powers at work.

Now for some pictures...

Marion of Leaford (modelled on Judi Trott)

Much the Miller's Son (modelled on Peter Llewellyn Williams)

Nasir the Saracen (modelled on Mark Ryan)

Herne the Hunter (modelled on John Abineri)

I hope you've enjoyed this post. Still to come are two sets of the Sheriff's men-at-arms, and his henchman, Sir Guy of Gisburne. Thanks for looking!

- The Kenilworth Knight.

28mm Robin Hood (Conquest Games) - Part I

Nothing's forgotten. Nothing's ever forgotten...

I've been a fan of the Robin Hood legends for as long as I can remember. As a child, when the BBC series ran from 2006-2009 I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen on screen, although I wince a bit now at the faux indie-band wardrobe and dodgy panto-style villains! Over lockdown I got back into Robin Hood a bit and soon discovered another Robin Hood series from the 1980s, called Robin of Sherwood. I fell completely in love with it by the end of the first half of the opening two-parter. For starters, the costumes, whilst being pretty typical 80s TV-fare, were well thought out, but the casting was just excellent, and the music (by Clannad) was evocative, ethereal and incredible. Above all, the stories were out of this world - almost literally, with writer Richard Carpenter mixing in a good amount of pagan folk tales and mysticism amongst the usual scheming Sheriff plot lines. I quickly bought the Blu-Rays and have binged them all a couple of times over already, as well as picking up the audio books from Spiteful Puppet, which feature the original cast performing new stories written with the blessing of Carpenter's estate. 

So, as you can imagine, I was thrilled to find out that a company called Conquest Games produce a line of 28mm Robin Hood-themed metal miniatures that all have an extremely strong likeness to the cast of Robin of Sherwood, including a number of characters that have only featured in that show. Purely by coincidence of course, I'm sure!

These have been great fun to work on over the course of being on furlough from March to September, and since then whilst working at home when there's been a break in the emails. I had never painted metal miniatures before, having only finished a few plastic Normans and Vikings, so I initially started with the Ye Band of Merrie Men I pack, which contains Robin (resembling Michael Praed as the first Robin from series 1-2 of RoS) leaning nonchalantly on his bow, Little John wielding his great quarterstaff, Will Scarlett (formerly Scathlock) brandishing his sword, and a hefty Tuck whirling a wooden club around his head. The sculpting on these figures is brilliant, and the faces are for the most part expressive and quite a good likeness of the actors from the show.

Conquest have said that their initial few Robin Hood figures (the four from this pack, plus Marion and Much from the Ye Band of Merrie Men II pack) are slightly undersized, being about 25mm rather than 28mm. This is the case, and does stick out a bit when you look at the figures next to a true-28mm figure, but on the tabletop you really can't tell. Regardless, Conquest did remedy this with the Ye Band of Merrie Men III pack, which features alternatively-posed sculpts of Robin, John, Will and Tuck in true-28mm scale. Updated sculpts of Marion and Much are apparently on the way, but I find that for these figures the scale difference is less critical as the characters themselves are smaller than their companions. That said, I'll probably pick them up too eventually as it would be nice to have the complete set in true-28mm scale. 

Anyway, enough talk, onto the miniatures...

Robin of Loxley (modelled on Michael Praed)

Little John (modelled on Clive Mantle)

Friar Tuck (modelled on Phil Rose)

Will Scarlett (modelled on Ray Winstone)

A note on eyes: as a new miniature painter I'm still exploring whether or not I find painted eyes appealing or not. For my Robin Hood miniatures I've opted for shading instead, which I think looks perfectly fine on the tabletop. However I have been experimenting with painting eyes recently on a set of 28mm Ecclesiastics, also from Conquest Games, and I'm quite pleased with the result. It may be that I go back to the Robin Hood miniatures and paint eyes on them. If this is the case I'll probably do a separate blog post rather than update this one, to preserve my progress as a painter.

I hope you enjoyed looking at my work, I have a lot more to come! More Merries, some brutish men-at-arms from the Sheriff's guard, and of course the ever-unlucky Sir Guy of Gisburne!

- The Kenilworth Knight.

Welcome to my blog!

Hi, I'm the Kenilworth Knight, and welcome to my blog! I'm fairly useless at introductions, but to keep things brief: I'm a medieval history graduate living in the beautiful Warwickshire castle town of Kenilworth, and I enjoy collecting and painting medieval 28mm miniatures and terrain. I made this blog to showcase some of my better efforts. I hope you enjoy my posts.  

A little more about me and the 'why' of this blog:

I grew up with a love of history nurtured by the fantastic Horrible Histories book series, and was spurred on to study the subject at university by the discovery of Richard III's body in a car park as I was undertaking my A-levels. Between 2014 and 2017 I studied medieval history at Aberystwyth University in Wales, where I made friends with a number of wargaming hobbyists and joined the Historia Normannis 12th century medieval re-enactment society. Since 2018 I have been working on my Masters degree and hope to complete in late 2021. 

For the past few years I have suffered with OCD and anxiety. As well as medication and therapy I have found that one of the best remedies for my mind is to work with my hands, so I bought myself some paints and miniatures. Initially this began as something to do infrequently during my more difficult days, but with the advent of COVID-19, lockdowns, furlough, and much more day-to-day anxiety and stress it has evolved into a full-blown hobby. I find the whole act itself soothing - the preparation of my workspace, selecting my paints and brushes, applying block colours and then layers and gradually some detail work. Letting one project dry and moving onto another in the meantime. Researching and browsing online for inspiration inbetween sessions. The stillness and focus required to give life to little lumps of white metal and plastic is a brilliant form of mindfulness - and it provides the head space I need to process my thoughts and emotions, to work through my anxieties. Of course, the satisfaction of a completed project also triggers all kinds of good brain chemicals and gives me a sense of having accomplished something during my day. 

I've started this blog so that I have a digital record of my work, to share my thoughts and opinions on the various products I've used and collected, and to hopefully provide anyone who reads this with a little bit of interesting information and inspiration - especially those with similar difficulties to my own who are looking to gain a bit of peace and quiet within their own head. 

- The Kenilworth Knight.