Renaissance Foot Knights

I've based these to act as both skirmish figures, or as markers for our Renaissance games. In 'Furioso' there is a neat mechanic where opposing pike units can send out their Doppelsöldners/halberdiers/sword & bucklermen in advance to contest one another. Whoever wins the duel continues on to cause mayhem amongst the front ranks of the enemy pike formations. It's an abstract, but interesting way to reflect the doctrine of these close combat specialists.

The outrageous plumes were a lot of fun to paint. As Iain alluded to in one of his previous posts, these guys would fit right in on a Marti Gras float, or marching in a Gay Pride parade. :)

All five of these models are from Steel Fist Miniatures. They're wonderfully realized castings and a real joy to paint.

I dice slots are if they're being used to count wounds, and the flat side is for it to be set up flush against their parent unit.

I could be wrong, but I believe a few of these sculpts are modelled from suits of armour in the Wallace Collection in London. I've taken a few liberties in adding a little extra gilding to some of the plate to make them better 'pop' on the tabletop.

Next, a Sarah Bella sequel set.

- Curt

Casualty/Status Markers (Crows and Stiffs)

Just a small post from me to top off the workweek.

A few years ago Paul posted some fabulous crows from Zombiecide and I knew I had to get a set for myself. I managed to pick up a box on sale this past summer and then duly forgot about them until a few days ago. (Don't you love finding cool stuff in storage that you almost bought again, but caught just in time? It's like an impromptu Christmas.)

So, five bases of creepy crows. You get around 15 bases in the box which seems a little overkill.

Anyway, as you can imagine these were pretty much a doodle to paint-up. I primed them black (gasp!) and then oversprayed them a light grey. I then blasted the batch with a mixture of Drakenhof Nightshade wash and a bit of glaze. As they are fairly light plastic, I glued in some small washers in the bases to give them a bit more stability. Squawk! Done.

What to do with these? Um, well, I thought they'd make great markers to denote when units are routing. You know, 'In flight'. In. Flight. Geddit? <Sigh.> Or maybe to highlight a spot on the table where something especially horrible has occurred. Like where Sylvain has dreamt-up some fabulously clever (read: suicidal) strategy, or where Peter has accidentally dropped/toppled/smashed some miniatures. Sometimes both of these happening at the same time. Sometimes repeatedly over the course of a game. 

Come to think of it I may need some more crows...

Next, we have some casualty markers for my Italian Wars collection. I did a few of these last year and thankfully had a few unused bases waiting in the wings (thanks Byron!). I believe the two flanking ones are from Eureka Miniatures' Colonial Portuguese range, while the center one is from Artizan. Poor chaps.

Thanks for dropping in and have a great weekend everyone!

Curt

Renaissance French Pike ('Mauvais Garcons') and Great Gun

The French, with a few notable exceptions, were not especially renown for fielding effective pike formations. Where the Swiss cantons and German landsknechts had the pike market pretty much sewn-up, the French expertise lay more in their heavy cavalry and artillery. From reading David Potter's 'Renaissance France at War' it was not uncommon for inexperienced pike French formations to acquire foreign mercenaries, who, being more seasoned in the profession of arms, helped steady the ranks. 

The French liked to muster their troops from particular provinces or townships, which gave each unit a bit of 'local colour'. For example, men from Picardy, led by the reported libertine Mssr. Monclou, were known as the mauvais garcons (literally translates as 'bad boys). A bit of a rude chap himself, Monclou was executed in 1523 for his 'depredations' during campaign (not especially surprising when your employer is the Pope, but there you have it).

Last year, my good pal Millsy was kind enough to paint up a schwack of Perry plastic pike for me so I could field another unit for my Italian Wars collection. After the hurly-burly of the summer, and being distracted by other projects this autumn (I'm looking at you 'Titanicus'), I finally managed to get this mob flagged, pimped-out, and based-up to roll with my other units.

My contribution to this mob is sole mounted German mercenary at its head. This is a Perry-sculpted figure from the Wargames Foundry range of Landsknechts. I love these figures as they are so wonderfully characterful and satisfyingly hefty. The Perry's did such a great job in sharply defining the puff-and-slash of the clothing, which makes them a real joy to paint.

It always seems to take me an age to get the figures placed in some kind of sensible arrangement, and since I like having my pike blocks bunched in quite tight, I found that I was a few figures shy to fill all the bases. Not a problem! I estimated the space I needed to absorb and then printed off a few gabions on the handy-dandy 3d printer. In the end I'm happy with the overall look of the unit, slightly broken up, weaving their way around a line of light fortifications.

Both of these units I've based in an autumnal theme to match with the rest of my Italian Wars stuff. (Thankfully I keep a 'hobby recipe book' as I have a bad habit of bouncing between periods and always, always forget how I did things - so it helps keep things straight in my noodle.)

Millsy also painted me a trio of gunners as gift last year. And so like the pike, I've been holding on to these until the Painting Challenge to get them matched up with an appropriate gun (this one from an old chestnut from Warhamer Fantasy). As I had a spare gabion left over from the pike unit, I popped it on the base for a bit of visual interest.

I want to thank Millsy very, very much for the brilliant figures - they're a wonderful addition to my Italian Wars collection. Thanks again mate!

Cheers for dropping by folks! I hope you all have a great week.

With a Little Help from my Friends: Italian Wars Stradiot Light Cavalry from DaveD

A couple of years ago, while we were lucky enough to take in the Partizan show in Newark, DaveD very kindly agreed to paint up a unit of Stradiot light cavalry for me. Being a gentleman and a scholar, he sent back the beautifully completed models just before last year's Painting Challenge. Now that the hurly burly of the Challenge is well behind us I  thought it high time to get them based and ready for action. So, here they are in all their wicker-hatted glory. 

The Stradiots were mercenary light cavalry which fought in south and central Europe from the 15th to the middle of the 18th century. Very well regarded by those who served with them, they were typically recruited from Albania, Greece, Serbia, Dalmatia and Cyprus. 

These are 28mm metal castings from Perry Miniatures' 'European Armies' range. 

I really admire how Dave's painting has made each figure unique, differing their shield devices, the colour of their garb and their lance pennants - it all serves to highlight their status as irregular troops.

It took a little bit of trial and error to get the basing colours similar to my other units, but it came out alright in the end. 

Thanks so much Dave! They are an absolutely wonderful, and a prized addition to the growing host. Magnifico Bellissimo!

Next up are some infantry reinforcements and this time the talented brushwork originates not only from another continent, but another hemisphere!

Renaissance Duel Prize for IainW - The Knight of Gabbiano

Last year Iain and I had a Renaissance Duel to which he soundly trounced me. (What was I thinking? Well, obviously not much as I did the exact same thing this year...) As a prize I offered to paint him an Italian Wars figure. He graciously offered to send me one of his old skool knights that he was in the midst of stripping for repaint and I said I'd be happy to do one up for him. 

Well, it turned out I lied.

In my minds eye I thought Iain would send a gendarme all decked out in full plate and barding - lots of steel, so a fairly straightforward job, right? Nope. What I received instead was a fully caparisoned knight that would require hand painted heraldry emblazoned all over the horse barding. Iain, I silently cursed you when I opened that parcel. ;)

Nonetheless, I based up the b*gger and he sat on the paint desk staring at me this past year. In fact I petulantly ignored him until this week, when guilt finally took over and I set him in front of me so I could figure out what to do with him. Well, there was no way I was going to cop out and do a solid-colour job - he needed proper heraldry to get slaughtered in, so I put my thinking cap on. After a few hours of looking at various designs on the web I decided to take a break and get a drink. On my way to the kitchen I passed our wine rack and there he was, prancing on his charger, proud as a bishop on a bottle of Chianti.

Now I was off and running.

  

The one nice thing about this casting is that the detail is fairly soft and smooth, which made painting the pattern that much easier. Once I got my eye in, the pattern began to unfold quite easily and a few hours later the bulk of him was done.

The lance is white metal so did my best to straighten it. I'm usually not a bit fan of metal lances, but I do like the big flaring vamplate on this one.

After all my bellyaching I'm happy with how he turned out and am now quite sad to see him go. I'll have to give that pattern a go with one of my Steel Fist gendarmes in the future... 

There you go Iain, the Knight of Gabbiano. I hope you like him. As a request, I ask that you have a glass of Chianti to toast him into your collection. :)

Entry #16 to AHPC VIII: Zweihänder Flammenschwert Casualty Stand

It's been a rather hectic time lately, but I have managed to nudge a few figures to completion - so, another casualty stand to add to my Italian Wars collection - the last one was cavalry based, so this time I've gone with an infantry theme. 

Here we have a heavily armoured landsknecht with his zweihänder flammenschwert (quite literally 'two-handed flaming sword') demanding blood or surrender from a fallen enemy.

The poor bloke on the ground is a model from Redoubt Enterprise's oft forgotten Renaissance range, while the fellow wrecking his day with the compensator sword was sourced from Oliver over at Steel Fist Miniatures. 

Thanks for popping in folks!

Entry #14 to AHPC VIII: 'Gloria Invicta' Renaissance Cavalry Casualty

Just a single figure from me today. This time it's an another casualty stand for my Italian Wars collection, a stricken horse and its dead rider - a set that I've sourced from Gamezone Miniatures. 

Gamezone has obviously marketed itself as an alternative source of figures for Warhammer Fantasy Battle fans. While most of the castings are indeed fantasy oriented, there are many of the 'Empire' themed figures which will stand-in very nicely for the Renaissance period, particularly for Spanish soldiers of Charles V's reign.

This set is called 'Gloria Invicta' and is probably amongst the best sculpted 28mm models that I've had the pleasure to work with. The sense of movement, the skill with which both figures' anatomy has been rendered and the overall feeling of pathos conveyed by the pair is amazing.

Out of the pack the rider is bare handed, which is absolutely fine, but I decided to drill-out one of his hands and give him a shivered lance modelled from a piece of plastic rod. I like to think that this small addition helps to make the scene a little more dynamic - giving the impression that they have just staggered away from a ferocious melee.

As a little experiment I applied several thin coats of Formula P3 Armour Wash mixed with blue ink on his armour plate to give the impression of the blued armour which was frequently seen during this period.

I've mounted the figure on one of the D-shaped bases that I've come up with for this project. The flat side fits snug against my transparent unit platters, helping to identify which unit it belongs to.

Thanks for dropping in folks - keep warm and have a good day!

Entry #11 to AHPC: 'An Alpine Duet' - Italian Wars Swiss Alphorn

It was a bit of a scramble for me this week, but I've come up with a vignette that I've been wanting to do since I began my Italian Wars project a few years ago: a Swiss alphorn player calling out to his reisläufer camarades. 

A very unique instrument, the alphorn has its roots extending back to antiquity, with theories believing that it originated with the lituus war horn from the Etruscan period.  Early medieval alpine myths frequently refer to the horn being used as a signalling device between mountain villages, while the first documented reference of the word 'alphorn' is in a 1527 account book of a Cistercian abby, where an alphorn player was paid two Batzen for his playing (or perhaps to stop).

So with this in mind, I've extrapolated that if the alphorn was a fairly common instrument amongst the Swiss from at least the early medieval period, one could conjecture that they would have used them in their military campaigns, for signalling purposes and, like the highland pipes, to raise the morale of their fighting men.

As there are no alphorn figures in the market (a shocking oversight, I know) I made my own by bisecting the torso of a Perry Swiss musician, removed his existing instrument, and reposed him (aided with a liberal amount of wire and green stuff) to accept his 10 foot alphorn.  

The alphorn itself was made from a length of plastic rod with greenstuff wrapped around it and then sanded to shape.

For a bit of fun, I've accompanied the alphornist in a somewhat mismatched duet with a Landsknecht flautist, while a few onlookers are taking in the concert, enjoying a refreshment. 

Take it away!

Song: 'Heart of Cairo' (2013)

Artist: Eliana Burki

Entry #7 to AHPC VIII: Italian Wars Landsknecht Culverin

I've returned to my Italian Wars project to add a bit of artillery support to the collection.

This is a German-crewed culverin (or bombard?) mounted on a adjustable split-tail carriage. In modern terms this is not a particularly large gun, but to those living in the 16th century this would have been quite an impressive piece of artillery. (With it being near as much a danger to its crew as it would be to their intended targets.)

The figures are from Redoubt Enterprises and while they are a bit ill-formed and perhaps a tad lumpish, I find they have a certain charm about them and they posses a wonderful dynamism, especially in how their various poses convey a sense of movement. These fellows really reinforce the idea of them frantically trying to realign their gun while in the midst of combat.

I tried to match the groundwork to the rest of my bases, which are all autumnal, so a wide assortment of brown foliage, late blooms and a generous carpet of fallen leaves are all there. If it weren't for the big freakin' gun and its boorish crew of beer-swilling Landsknechts, perhaps it would be a nice place for a quiet repast with a bottle of Chianti, a loaf of fresh bread and a plate of prosciutto. Ah, bellissimo!

Have a great day everyone!


Next Up: Another Beastie for 'Kingdom Death'

Worst Case Scenario #16: Sally from Munroveccio - An Italian Wars Sideshow

Like many images from the Italian Wars period this picture has virtually nothing to do with what actually happened...

This post begins at 30,000 feet as we wing our way to our vacation in Europe. Poignantly enough, our pilot cut-in to tell us that we were flying over the 100th Meridian and asked for a moment of reflection on the life and works of our nation's recently deceased poet/troubadour Gord Downie, lead singer of The Tragically Hip.

'At the hundredth meridian, where the Great Plains begin…’.

A few weeks ago ‘The Friday Night Raconteurs’ played an Italian wars scenario where the defenders of a fortified town (named 'Munroveccio', in honour of our visiting friend Doug) sallied out in the early dawn hours to disrupt the siegeworks of the dastardly Pietro Duglafino.

In reality, this was a scenario I shamelessly nabbed and embellished from Oli over at Camisado (thanks Oli!). It was also a thinly veiled excuse to paint-up and use some Forge World entrenchments that I've been sitting on for over a decade and to get both Peter and my collections on the tabletop for some colourful Renaissance mayhem.

Being that the town defenders had marched through the night, they would not know how, when, or in what order their troops would arrive. In turn, the besiegers would be caught sleeping and so they would be coming onto the table in dribs and drabs to support their beleaguered artillerists who had slept with their guns. The town defenders, a band of merry Landsknechts, would only sally out in support once they had a clear determination that they would not be isolated and destroyed before getting past the gates (meaning they were a bunch of weedy coves who weren't very interested in sticking their necks out).

Again, one of my amateurish hand-drawn sketch maps describing the table setup:

Many of the following pictures are from Peter, as many of my images got lost somewhere in the webisphere (thanks Pete!). I've tarted them up with some fancy-schmancy arrows to make them more 'dynamic'. 

The action started with units of pike, mounted 'archers' and mounted crossbows arriving on the table and cautiously advancing on the artillery position in the early dawn hours.

Doug oversees the sally in defence of Munroveccio.

The Swiss pike storm the gun position and begin spiking cannon and slaughtering the sleep-addled artillerists. Seen just above the large tent are Jinete light cavalry and Rodelero sword and buckler men, responding to the sally.

Below the Jinettes have managed to scrabble over the stone walls and are trying to manuever to threaten the enemy flank. The Rodeleros following behind are better suited to combating pikemen and so are preparing to get over the wall in order to engage. The blue arrow shows the advance of the mounted archers who will go over the embankment, dismount and begin assaulting the artillery position with their fellow pikemen.

The two light cavalry forces face off, while the Rodeleros wait for the sheep to pass before going into the assault (meaning they completely pooched their roll to charge in...)
.

The Spanish swordsmen go into the assault with a vengeance, but do not have the support that the Italian pike has, so the two forces remain locked in fierce combat. The light cavalry at the top of the picture clash several times without firm resolution except for accruing more and more casualties.

Meanwhile back at Munroveccio, the Landsknects 'prepare' to support their comrades by having a drink first. Okay, maybe make that eight drinks...

Hoi! Just one more for the road, eh?!

While the Italian pike and Rodeleros struggle (fittingly, they would both break simultaneously), the crossbowmen complete the job of destroying the artillery camp. Now, it's time to try to disengage and make their escape. The fly in the ointment is that there is a unit of papal gendarme cavalry in the rear. Hmm, time to send in the archers (which confusingly, unlike their name, was a class of heavy, lance-armed cavalry).

After a tumultuous clash, the papal gendarmes push the archers back, but are severely handled in the exchange, allowing the sallying force to begin to withdraw back to the town.

...which is good because this is what was coming on the table to say hello: two units of veteran Swiss and German pike, with supporting troops, who've put aside their animosity to chase off the town's force. 

The besieger's reinforcements arriving too late for the party...

So, a hard-won victory for the town of Munroveccio!

Many thanks to the guys for playing the scenario - it was tremendously great fun and nice excuse to get both Pete and my stuff on the table. Again, thanks chaps!  

________________________________________

As a final note, if any of you are planning to be at Crisis in Antwerp this weekend, please keep an eye open for me (I'll be the tall guy with silly facial hair, wearing a Canadian Remembrance Day poppy). I'm hoping to meet-up with some old acquaintances and make some new ones as well. 

It's going to be a hoot!