military modeling in scale 1/72: Bosworth 1485

Tuesday, 4 October 2022

Bosworth 1485 - Bloody will be your end

Historical Background

The struggle for power in medieval England culminated in the Wars of the Roses (1455 - 1485), the name derived from the badges of the two leading parties - the house of Lancaster (red rose) and the house of York (white rose). In the year 1485 Richard III. of the house of York was the king of England and had to deal with Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, of the house of Lancaster. The two armies met at Bosworth for the decisive battle. After a bitter fighting Richard lost his life and throne and Henry became the new regent, founding the house of Tudor (the badge being a white rose within a red rose), which ruled England for the next 118 years.

The moment depicted is the charge of the Yorkist cavalry with Richard III. leading. After the setback on his right flank Richard was induced to charge directly against Herny Tudor in person and kill him, to end his claim once and for all. At the head of his cavalry he attacked downhill and he nearly succeeded when killing his standard bearer, but this was the high water mark of the charge and the Yorkist having many casualities had to retreat, where Richard was killed.

The diorama

The figures are from MiniArt, some of them very flat and therefore difficult to convert. So the positioning of the figures was essential for not creating a strange looking effect owing to their flatness. Conversions on this flat figures is very difficult and I avoided it whenever possible - simple headswaps and changing of the weapons was mostly sufficient. Except for the horse furniture - only 6 horse poses need a little diversification. The cavalry lances had all be replaced by self made ones because the original lances are too thick and too short and interestingly are not thick enough to fit in the given holes on the figures.

The banners are Richard III. and Henry Tudor, the flag in the background is Rhys-ap-Thomas. All flags are made of paper and are handpainted.

The groundwork was made of MIG texture dark mud, some colour variations and Faller grass.

The subtitle of the diorama is the second line of a quote of Shakespeare's play "Richard III.".

Photos (click to enlarge)