At last, a return to the Condottieri

Having to quickly paint up all those Peninsular War British Foot took me away from my current big project, my Italian Renaissance Condottieri band for Lion Rampant.

However, having finished off the 61st Foot, I am now back on track with some armoured guys with big choppers, and here they are;

I've also been doing some drummers and standard bearers for when I get my pikemen and other lighter troops finished. My current plan is for two groups of pikes; one in the red/white colour scheme and another in a black/yellow scheme representing some Swiss pikemen from the Canton of Uri, hence the yellow flag with the black bull's head. I want a standard bearer for each pike group, and a musician for each group too.

I've also completed a few more armoured foot wearing the red/white livery, here with some yellow to add variety.

My next task it going to be a unit of crossbowmen. I have a dozen glued together and primed, ready to begin work next week. These will also be in the predominant red/white colour scheme, but I also would like another unit in a different livery, again probably the yellow and black of Uri. I like yellow and black for this period.

I also want a unit of troops equipped with polearms. This is an option in the Perry plastic box set, but unhappily this means cutting pikes down to size and glueing on a new top piece with a polearm blade . I foresee much swearing.

I know that I am going to have too many units for a simple 24 point Lion Rampant force, but I am hoping that I can persuade an opponent to play a larger game, with 36 or even 48 points a side. Also, having lots of units to choose from will give me the chance to put together a variety of different 24 point forces.