My third group of 17th century skirmishers

Here is my latest group of Bloody Miniatures lovely 17th century figures.

Clearly, these are all carrying polearms of some kind, which would be more useful in a skirmish than a pike. Perhaps a couple of them are dismounted troopers who have decided to get stuck in with something lethal on the end of a stick? As can be seen, three of them are wearing boots and spurs while the fourth figure in green is clearly a foot soldier.  Of course, they could also be useful for sergeants in a larger unit of Pike and Shot. Anyway, regardless of that, they are definitely useful chaps to have around in a tight spot.

More 17th century skirmish miniatures

Here are four more of the excellent Bloody Miniatures figures, this time some dismounted Horse troopers;

Now, these guys are far more likely to be from the Civil Wars in the British Isles than from the Thirty Years' War, because the three-barred face protection was very much associated with these islands, with a single nasal bar being much more the standard across mainland Europe.

Three of them are armed with their carbines and the fourth is using a pistol and sword combination, with his carbine still slung from his crossed belts at his back. It is a lovely piece of modelling.

These are the kind of Horse troops that were the standard for cavalry for much of the 17th century, known variously as Harquebusiers, Ringerpferde, Reiters or simply just Horse. The Swedes used these troops a lot and in Sweden they were apparently known as  lätta ryttare i.e. Light Riders. The Swedish influence became more and more the norm by the end of the Thirty Years' War.

Originally, such cavalry used their carbines or pistols as their main weapon, often using the complicated caracole manoeuvre to maintain fire on a target unit but, over time charging the enemy with the sword became more and more the standard, possibly discharging one of more pistols before impact.

During the first half of the 17th century, this kind of cavalry became the dominant type on the battlefield, replacing the heavier and more expensive to equip Cuirassiers. 

These are really excellent figures and I am pretty pleased with how they have turned out.

A small side project: 17th century skirmish miniatures

I have a thing about the wars of the 17th century. I've always been interested in the Thirty Years' War and the various Civil Wars of the British Isles, which are popularly, but inaccurately lumped together as "the English Civil War". When I discovered the excellent small range of figures being produced by Bloody Miniatures, I had to buy them. Here are the first four out of a total of 16;

These are going to be ideal for skirmish games or swashbuckling games, but could also play a role in games like The Pikeman's Lament or Donnybrook. These four are equipped with the classic straight-bladed Mortuary Sword of the period. 

I really enjoyed painting these minis. They are lovely sculpts and cleanly cast with nice crisp details. 

I have twelve more figures to paint and post, so keep watching!

7TV Fantasy - eleven more figures, the rest of Vanozza's crew

Having recently posted a couple of Vanozza's most trusted lieutenants, it is time to reveal the rest of her crew of rogues, freebooters and outcasts.

All the figures above are originally figures from the North Star range of Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago, as are the next three. The figure on the left in blue was supposed to be a Storm Warden but, as she was cast with what looks like a quiver of arrows, I decided to give her a bow. This was cut from the Frostgrave Cultist plastic sprue. The hand is a bit chunky, but hey ho, it looks OK from a distance. The figure in the middle was originally a Heritor, but she looks good as some kind of renegade from a warship's complement of Marines.

The archer on the right and these next three are Ghost Archipelago female crew figures.

The last five figures are a mixture. I think the archer at the back was a free offering from a Wargames Foundry order ages ago. I am not sure what he is supposed to be, and the snake woman with the sword and buckler combo  at the bottom right is from Bad Squiddo. The other three are Ghost Archipelago figures, a tribal islander, a Drichean warrior and a snake man warrior.

I am a big fan of the Ghost Archipelago range, not because I play the game, but because the range offers up a lovely variety of figures that can be used for all manner of different things.

Anyway, I think that this crew is a pretty nice varied set of desperadoes to fight alongside Vanozza, her giant iguana, and her trusted officers Marozia and Theodora.

7TV Fantasy - a couple of pirates for Vanozza's crew.

At the end of September I introduced Vanozza the Fearless, Pirate Queen of the Perilous Islands. Here are the two most important members of her crew.

On the left is Marozia, a one-eyed former soldier (she served disguised as a man), who is the First Mate of Vanozza's flagship, The Grinning Skull. She still wears the uniform of the Marines of Albion, the unit in which she served for several years before deciding that freelancing would be more profitable.

Her companion is Theodora, who was born far away in the fabled lands of the Southern Deserts, where women are the equals of men and who was once a captain in the army of the City of Ulthar until she was captured in battle and enslaved by the Lizard People of the Great Desert. She managed to escape from captivity and became a freebooter on a pirate galley that sailed the waters of the Narrow Sea, eventually making her way to the Perilous Islands where she joined Vanozza's crew. She is now her trusted comrade and commander of the raiding parties that pillage the ports and inland villages of the Slave Coast.

Like Vanozza, these two are Bad Squiddo minis with all the crisp detail that makes Annie's figures such a pleasure to paint.

Resin McGuffins that I forgot I had

These were part of the Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago Nickstarter that North Star ran ages ago, in 2017, I think. I bought mine from Bad Squiddo, because Annie had extra figures that I liked.

To be honest, I've never got round to playing the game, it had minimal interest at the club so I just packed all the figures away. I've used a few of the figures for my 7TV Fantasy project but I'd completely forgotten these little tokens. There are all between 2.5cm and 3.5cm in diameter and have some nice little details. The thing on the left is a weird skull, but I stupidly posed it the wrong way round.

 

7TV Fantasy - four adventurers from the Frozen Northlands

Here are four more good characters for the cast of Tales From The Enchanted Kingdom, my imaginary TV fantasy series of the 1960s and 70s;

These are Anastasia and Irina, twin sisters from the icy land of Novgorod. The sisters are adventurers with some special skills. Anastasia, on the left has some skill with the mystical arts as well as being a redoubtable swordswoman and Irina is a skilled thief and also rumoured to be a dangerous assassin. Exiled from their homelands following their father's unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the autocratic rule of Sviatoslav, the ruling Prince of Novgorod, the sisters swiftly found employment amongst the quarrelsome dukes and margraves of the Great Empire of Sigismondo before fleeing from imperial justice and finding refuge in the Enchanted Kingdom, where they now ply their trade for discerning patrons. 

They are always accompanied by their two faithful oathsworn retainers, Ivar and Sveyn, formerly warriors in the army of their late father, the Boyar of the Western Hills, who now act as protectors of the sisters. 

Ivar is a fearsome fighter with his bardiche, a great two-handed poleaxe and Sveyn is a formidable swordsman. The two warriors are feared and hated by the Goblins of the Mountains and they are also sworn enemies of all Undead things.

These four figures are all from the North Star Frostgrave range of miniatures and they were huge fun to paint.

More 7TV Fantasy villains

In my original post about my 7TV Fantasy project, I referred to three "goblin" brothers (derived heavily from Tolkien's Orcs), Gomba, Banda and Munga, who were regular baddies for hire. Here they are;

These are metal Goblins champions from the North Star Oathmark range and to my eyes they definitely have the classic look of Tolkien's Mordor about them. Of course, I had to give them green skin, a nod to the days of the original Warhammer Fantasy game, but apart from that, they could easily be part of the band of Orcs who captured Frodo after his and Sam's encounter with Shelob and took him to the tower of Cirith Ungol.

Anyway, they are, from left to right Gomba, Banda and Munga, three cunning and wicked goblins who will work for anyone who will pay them, as well as operating as bandits and slaver traders in their own right.