Pepin the Fat, King of Franks

Longships!  It's all my own fault.  "Let's have a look," they said.  "I'll buy the rules and get some Vikings in," I said.
"Ah, but..."  They said, "we have loads of old, really old, true 25mm figures."  "No problem, 25mm it is," I nod...

Oh how I lead with my chin when I've been drinking!

Warrior Miniatures 25mm Vikings were the answer.  Great figures, and proper old school 25mm scale.  I bought three boat crews, just for a look you understand.  Job done!

"Ah, but let's expand this and do a campaign," they said.

Irish, Welsh Scots Saxons and Vikings, we had the lot.  Nobody had the Franks though.  Well,  I've always liked the Carolingian figures from Minifigs.  It's that wacky helmet.  "I'll do it!" I pledged.

Mind you on second thoughts that helmet always looked like a souwester to me. 

I never learn it seems.

Caliver, the current Minifigs producer couldn't supply the Carolingians, for complicated reasons I still don't quite understand.  So I went back to Warrior, with a cunning plan.  That Carolingian helmet is more than dodgy, and plain nasal helms far more likely.   The Ottonian Gospels show mounted Warriors in mail on horses with round shields (as well as kite shields but the date is 983 AD so that would be late for our campaign.)  

An Ottonian illustration.

So... Mounted in mail with nasal helms, round shields, swords and spears.  Most Dark Age cavalry would do at a pinch, but I went for Spanish from Warrior's El Cid range.  Technically these are a century out of time, but they look fine as Ottonian Cavalry.  The Spanish have a mix of unarmoured and mailed cavalry, and I gave them plain round shields.  

As for the Moorish influence on some of the figures... well the Carolingians fought the Moors for a century or more, Roncevales Pass comes to mind.  With those plain round German shields they look perfectly acceptable as Franks.

The first part of the plan was to base them up individually.  To use them as pseudo Bretons with my Lion Rampant armies they need a matching base pattern.  The army of Conan the Vegetarian has much the same composition as the Franks.  

My Normans are of course Conquest Miniatures, big modern sculpts, but the Normans would consider themselves superior to the Bretons anyway, being that much bigger figures in terms of medieval iconography... sometimes my head operates its own logic! 

I also wanted these Franks based individually to allow me to explore Outremer Faith and Blood, the Osprey Wargames skirmish rules for the Crusades.  Using the figures in their actual period, fighting Ben Yusef's invasion of Spain is quite tempting.

With that in mind I ordered a few Moorish figures from the same range.  I have a vague notion for a Campaign on the History of El Sid, Count of Benidorm, and his Conquest of the resort.

The Franks will be a formidable enemy for any stray Vikings in our Longships  campaign, with the ability to charge in Swineshead and sweep away the enemy, and with 30 more points than everyone else!  This is the army of the paladins; Roland, Oliver and Charles Martel.  Expect them to charge like the crazy guys they are!

The Army of Pepin the Fat, King of the Franks

General, King Pepin the Rotund
Unit 1. Lord Roland (6 bases). Leader 3x Armoured Cavalry 3x Unarmoured Cavalry  20, 45, 27 = 92  
Unit 2. Lord Oliver (6 bases). Leader 3x Armoured Cavalry 3x Unarmoured Cavalry  20, 45, 27 = 92   
Unit 3. Captain Martel (8 bases). Leader 3x armoured  
3x Unarmoured 1x Champion 20 24 39 10 = 93
Unit 3. Captain Namon (8 bases). Leader 3x armoured  
4x unarmoured 20 32 39 = 91
Unit 5.  Archbishop Turpin. (8 bases). Leader 4 x unarmoured 3 Levy 20 32 9 = 61
Total 429 

The figures were easily cleaned, and mounted on plasticard or 20mm metal discs for the foot.  I tend to undercoat in a mix of brown and beige for medievals. 

The day before they are due to appear on table... well getting there...

King Pepin  really is a fatter figure than his lads. Looking a little rough here without any dip....     

The Foot get magnetic basing, to adhere to a 40mm square template.  The horse are on narrower bases, but under Longships it doesn't really matter since its not the size of the base that counts so much as the unit itself.  I want these horsemen for skirmish gaming too, so a smaller base is preferable.

The last phases are the easiest.  A wash with Vallejo highlighter, and some texturing on those bases, followed by some varnish to seal the figures.  But this is not Cyprus, where textured bases dry in an hour.  The Vikings took two days, so that might be a little delayed.