Lots more (18) Perry plastic men-at-arms on foot

I actually painted these a fair while ago but never got round to finishing off their bases. Then, when I did get the basing done, the atmosphere was damp, so I was worried that the varnish would go all foggy. Here are the first group;

Their flag, according to the Perry insert in the box is a French one, but it doesn't really matter what it represents. I chose it because I think the dark colours on the flag suits their dark armour quite nicely.

Here are the other half-dozen I finished off;

I now have a ridiculously large number of heavily-armoured dismounted men-at-arms, easily enough for several retinues for Lion Rampant, but it does mean that my 15th century army looks pretty impressive in overall terms, and it also means that I can field forces for very large games, probably enough for both sides!

Another two dozen halberdiers finished!

Thanks to a dry morning today, I've managed to varnish my remaining 24 halberdiers;

Once again, these are all Perry plastic figures and the first dozen represent a well-equipped group of heavily-armoured halberdiers, probably a retinue force belonging to an important military leader or maybe a group of professionals from a condottiere's company.

I was originally going to give them a simple red/white livery but decided to add some blue to the palette to brighten them up a bit.

One of the things I really like about these Perry figures is the wide range of variations you can get from a single box, and the even more wide range of figures you can get when you add in bits and pieces from the other box sets.

I've given the final twelve a red/black colour scheme. 

I've decided to call them the Rossoneri (look it up if you don't understand this). Perhaps they might be a group of well-equipped mercenaries from Milan? I've given them a standard-bearer, too. I think it adds a nice variation. The banner is plain red. I was going to give it black stripes but forgot to do it. I might go back and add them in because I think it would be more striking.

So. I have almost finished my project. All that I have left to finish off are the men-at-arms on foot I mentioned previously. I think I'll do something else in between working on them as a break from all that plate armour.

Twelve Canton of Uri halberdiers

I've been working on lots more Perry plastics for my Renaissance project.

These are Swiss halberdiers, once again painted in the yellow and black of the Canton of Uri, led by a fully-armoured chap with a standard who is accompanied by a herald with a brass horn.

These figures are from the War of The Roses Infantry box, as were the longbows I've posted previously. I have another 24 halberdiers/billmen to finish off and then all that I have left are more dismounted Men-at-Arms. To be honest, I think that my army has too many of those and not enough cheaper troops, but the Perry Foot Knights box contains a large number of figures (38 to be precise).

Once again, these are going to be useful for Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Saga AoM and Never Mind The Billhooks.

Two dozen more 15th century longbowmen

 I finished these off yesterday evening. 24 more Perry plastic longbowmen;

I hadn't planned on getting these all finished yesterday, but I ended up with some free time yesterday evening and got them based and varnished.

Once again I haven't followed any specific historically-accurate colours for their livery, preferring to go with what I thought would look good on the table. I've also gone for some slight variations in the actual reds and greens chosen on both sets so that although there is a unifying theme, neither set looks like they are wearing identical "uniforms". I have given them all crosses on their liveries again, in case I want to link them to my condottiere's Papal force.

As with the previous set, these have lots of possibilities; Never Mind The Billhooks, Lion Rampant, Saga: Age of Magic etc.

I am really pleased how this renaissance project is shaping up. Now on with the halberdiers. One group of 12 will be in the black and yellow of Uri, but I'm not sure what colour I'll paint the other 24.

15th century longbowmen

These are more Perry plastics, from the WoTR Infantry box.

I bought two boxes of these, so that I could have three groups of 12 bowmen and the same of billmen/halberdiers. This was to enable me to field forces for the Never Mind The Billhooks rules, as well as for Lion Rampant and also as a Great Kingdoms force for Saga: Age of Magic.

I wasn't too concerned about the livery here. I decided to use a colour palette that pleased me rather than something historically accurate. I think that green and yellow look good together.

I am hoping that they might find a space in my 15th century Italian condottiere's band. I think that bows were used in the Italian states in the period, as well as in France and Burgundy too.

I have two more sets of archers to complete, with different liveries, and then I'll move on to the guys with sharp things on sticks.

I also have 18 more dismounted men-at-arms to paint too, but all that plain metal armour is quite boring to paint.

 

More renaissance infantry - mercenary men-at-arms on foot

More Perry plastics, this time a mixture of armoured types mostly from the Foot Men-at-arms box, but with a few from the European Mercenaries set to bulk it out.

As you can see, they aren't all fully armoured and they are equipped with a mixture of weapons, mostly with swords. I wanted to give them the appearance of a hard-bitten bunch of experienced mercenaries who might not be from the upper echelons of society but who can be relied upon to do the dirty work for whoever pays them the most.

Their standard is a Burgundian one, so perhaps they might be a remnant of the army of Charles the Bold that was destroyed by the Swiss at the Battle of Morat in 1476. I like the blue and yellow colour scheme I've chosen, which sets off the red crosses rather well, I think. 

I am pretty happy that I have got this 15th century project back on the rails. My next step will be to create another, final group of dismounted men-at-arms and then create a number of groups of billmen/halberdiers and archers using the Perry Wars of the Roses Infantry boxes. There will be a lot of glueing involved, but I have made a start on it already.

More renaissance troops have arrived

Twelve more crossbowmen, to be precise, again all Perry plastics.

I decided to give these a blue and white colour scheme, with red crosses to denote that they were working for the Papal army. Of course, blue and white was also a colour scheme associated with the Duchy of Burgundy, so maybe they could be Burgundian mercenaries recruited to serve in my condottieri's band? 

In any case, it doesn't really matter, it is just nice to see a few more troops finished for the project.

I now also have three groups of twelve missile troops who could be an interesting component of a Saga: AoM Great Kingdoms army.

Back to an old project - my Renaissance Condottieri

It has been ages since I've worked on this project, but I really wanted to get back to it.

My first finished figures are six more Swiss handgunners from the Canton of Uri, which gives me a total of 12 now. You can see the original six here, but you'll have to scroll down to find them.

Clearly these are more Perry plastic figures from the European Mercenaries 1450-1500 box set.

These can fit in easily as troops for Lion and Dragon Rampant, Saga Age of Magic (in a Great Kingdoms force) and also Never Mind The Billhooks, which wasn't part of my plans back in 2019 but most certainly is now.

Renaissance mounted men-at-arms

I had two Perry plastic 28mm men-at-arms bodies and horses left over from my Condottieri project and, as I want to be able to use my Papal mercenary band as a Great Kingdoms force for Saga: Age of Magic, I decided to make the figures up and use them as Paladins, a kind of Hero with enhanced abilities when fighting Monsters and units of Creatures. However, I also wanted to keep them looking realistic, so that I might be able to use them in more conventional settings, and here they are.

As you can see, I have chosen a simple blue and yellow colour palette for the two figures, allowing them to stand out against the red/white and yellow/black appearance of the rest of the Condottieri/Great Kingdoms army. I've also given them grey horses and blue steel and brass finished armour. They are far from outlandish-looking, so they won't be out of place in a historical game, but they are still quite distinctive and will look "special" on the table.

Papal crossbowmen

Here are the next results of my 2020 painting campaign. At the moment, I am still clearing the decks of things I started last year, before starting on my projects for the next twelve months.

These crossbowmen are the last of the figures I'd made up for my long-running Papal Condottiere company. That isn't to say I have no more of these excellent Perry plastic figures, just that the rest are still attached to their sprues (except for a final two mounted figures who I will be revealing in the near future).

I chose, once again, to use  a red and white livery to keep the theme going and these will be useful for my planned Saga: Age of Magic Great Kingdoms army, as well as for Lion Rampant etc.

I'll be giving the Italian 15th century a rest for a while, but I will revisit it later this year, not least because I want to do six more Swiss handgunners (in black and yellow) and a dozen more crossbowmen, the latter with pavises. I'll probably do some more pikes as well. These latter two may well be in another colour scheme, to suggest a different contingent of the Papal army. At the moment, I am considering blue and yellow, but I'll probably change my mind at some point before I start on them.

My Condottiere (plus a few more Swiss)

At long last, I have finally finished off the commander of my Renaissance Papal band, the condottiere himself, accompanied by his gonfaloniere, or standard bearer with the Papal banner, blessed by His Holiness himself, no doubt.

I've also got around to finishing off six handgunners for the band, who are wearing the livery of the Canton of Uri, as are some of the band's pikemen and halberdiers.

If I deploy these guys in Lion Rampant, I will just use them as bidowers, because that will keep things nice and simple. I have six more handgunner bodies that aren't made up yet, so this also gives me the opportunity of filling their number out to make a larger 12-man unit, which means I could use them are firearm levies for a Great Kingdoms warband for Saga: Age of Magic.

I am still looking at the 12 undercoated crossbowmen, thinking that I really should get working on them, but I also have a load of 28mm Napoleonic Portuguese line infantry to get done before hte beginning of February. I cannot decide on the colour scheme for the crossbowmen, though, but I think they need to be red and white really.

At last! Back to the Condotta.

I haven't posted anything about my Papal Condottieri force since the end of May, which is half a year ago, and far too long. What can I say though? Other things jumped the queue and took up all the space on my painting list.

Anyway, I have now finished off a group of twelve Romagnol pikemen, including a leader with a banner and a musician.

The Romagna is a region of Italy to the north of Rome and was in the later mediaeval and renaissance periods usually under Papal rule as part of the Papal States. the name Romagna is derived from the Latin Romania, meaning "land ruled by Romans".

The region was almost constantly at war and parts of the Romagna were at various times ruled by Venice and Florence. It is often claimed the the best Italian pike-armed troops came from the Romagna. Cesare Borgia carved out his short-lived Duchy of Romagna in around 1500, but it didn't survive his downfall in 1504 and the Duchy was reabsorbed into the Papal States.

I have obviously chosen to paint these troops in the red and white livery that the majority of my Condotta troops, apart from the Swiss contingent are wearing.

Once again, these are all Perry plastic 28mm figures, which I really love to work with. They are nice sculpts, with plenty of variations and they paint up really well. In the pictures above, I have chosen to show them in a loose formation of two ranks and also in a tighter column.

I'll obviously be using these for Lion Rampant, but once again, they will also be suitable for Dragon Rampant and Saga: Age of Magic games.

Thornbury IPMS show 2019

Last Sunday (4th August) saw the annual IPMS Show at Thornbury Leisure Centre near Bristol. The Lincombe Barn Wargames Society has been helping run parts of the show for a long time and this year was no exception.

As well as running the popular Bring and Buy table, the club also has a display stand, showing some of the games we play and we run a participation game. This year, our chosen game was Congo by Studio Tomahawk. Despite having not played the game for a while, we managed to get three games completed on the day, and I think that everyone enjoyed themselves. Below are a selection of photos from the games. All figures were supplied by Clive (the Forest Tribes) or me (the European Explorers). We played the same simple scenario in all the games, Raiders of the Lost Mask from the Last Queen of Aksoum bulletin sheet.

In addition, some of us submitted entries for the Wargaming Class of the IPMS Painting Competition. The first picture shows the winning entry. I think that is an Age of Sigmar thing, but I have no idea what they are, apart from being some kind of animated trees. Anyway, it was a nice paint job.

This Ork vehicle battlegroup (below) was an impressive entry, but was unplaced.

I submitted a few different entries from stuff already painted which I use for gaming (rather than specifically-painted competition pieces), both in the hope of getting a top three spot, but also to ensure that there were enough wargames entries to the competition. My entries were a mixed bunch, featuring figures from Bad Squiddo, North Star, Pulp Figures, Copplestone, Reaper Miniatures and Perry. I had high hopes of getting some recognition for my Freyja's Wrath entry, but it was not to be (insert sad face here).

Below are all my entries together, plus one from someone else at the bottom right.

"How did I fare?", you might ask. Well, I didn't win, but I did grab second place with my Perry 28mm plastic Condottieri foot men-at-arms figures at the top left of the picture above.

Next year I really Must Try Harder.

A standard bearer for my Papal Condotta

A while ago, a wargaming friend of mine, Joe McGinn got in touch to say that a friend of his at the Hailsham wargaming club, who makes flags was offering to make me a flag to use with my Italian Renaissance condottieri forces. Well, what could I say, apart from a very firm "Yes please!"?

As it turned out, Mike (for that is his name) actually made me not one but two flags, and linen ones at that! One is a cavalry standard and the other one for foot troops.

I've had the flags for a while now but I've finally got around to getting a small vignette made and painted for the foot standard, and here it is;

First, from the right, showing the detail. The arms are those of Pope Alexander VI, otherwise known as Rodrigo de Borja (Rodrigo Borgia in Italian);

Now, from the left;

And finally, a frontal view;

The Borgia Papacy lasted from August 1495 until August 1503. Rodrigo was born in Valencia, in what is now Spain and his birth name was Roderic Llançol i de Borja in the Valencian language, which is related to Catalan and is one of the Romance languages descended from spoken Vulgar Latin.

Rodrigo Borgia studied in Bologna as a young man and, after the appointment of his uncle as Pope Callixtus III in 1456, Rogdrigo entered the Church. Aged 25, he was was ordained as a Deacon and created a Cardinal-Deacon. From then on he rose steadily through the ranks, eventually becoming Pope. His Papacy is notorious for nepotism, scandals, vice and debauchery, but we need to remember that this was Renaissance Italy, and Papal excesses were hardly a new thing. The Borgia were just more open about it, as well as being hugely successful. 

Cesare was Rodrigo Borgia's second son with his mistress Vannozza dei Cattanei and was originally destined for a life in the Church, being ordained as a cardinal but became a soldier and politician on the death of his elder brother. He was granted the title Duke of Valentinois by the French King Louis XII in 1498 and spent much of his life fighting to create a Borgia "state" in central Italy. He fought as a condottiero for Louis XII.

The vignette comprises two Perry plastic 28mm figures, one wearing Papal livery as the standard bearer and the other as a man-at-arms on foot in full armour, protecting the standard. I decided to put the standard bearer on a small mound, to give him more prominence on the field of battle

Swiss halberdiers join my Condottiere's band

I've had these halberdier figures half-painted for a while now, but got back working on them and finished them off yesterday. Once again they are Perry European Mercenaries 1450-1500 plastic 28mm models.

I wanted these to form part of the Swiss contingent of my Papal band, and I wanted to paint them in the same yellow/black scheme I used for the pikemen, representing the Canton of Uri.

There are 11 halberdiers plus a leader figure in heavier armour with a mace and a buckler. First, here they are as a block of troops;

And here they are in a line of two ranks;

I shall be using these as Fierce Foot for Lion Rampant, as suggested in the rulebook. Of course, they could also be deployed as Averland troops in an Empire army for Dragon Rampant or some other ruleset. 

The polearms (a mixture of halberds, glaives and voulges) were made by cutting down arms with pikes from the box and glueing polearm heads onto the shortened pike shafts, a rather tricky business. I've deliberately made the weapons differ in shaft length and also used a number of different heads for variety.

I like the way that they have turned out. I added in a few touches of red to provide a subtle colour lift to the overall group. The red codpiece on a couple of figures is a nod to 80s funk group Cameo.

The Condotta is recruiting Swiss troops now

I have always wanted an army with Swiss pikes in it, so now I have the chance. There is something about the Swiss that appealed to me when reading about the Italian Wars. Not as flashy as their Landsknecht imitators but brutal and efficient, possibly the most feared opponents of all on the battlefields of Renaissance Italy.

I was going to work on some crossbowmen next, but the allure of the Swiss Pikes, plus the fact that I could get away from the red and white major theme of my mercenary army won out when push came to shove.

Once again, these are all Perry plastics from the European Mercenaries 1450-1500 set.

I chose to paint my Swiss in the yellow and black of the Canton of Uri, because I love the colour scheme, and it also echoes the Warhammer Averland army that I used to own a long time ago. Here are the 10 pikemen and a musician that I completed this week;

The musician is a horn blower, and the horn was taken from the Gripping Beast Dark Ages Infantry set. It fits perfectly.

The reason I only painted 11 figures is because I already had a standard bearer/leader figure. Here is the finished 12-man unit;

Here they are as a 4 x 3 block of figures, which seems a reasonable way of fielding them in a Lion Rampant force.

I am really very happy with the way that these have come out. They are quite well-armoured and to my eye represent the tough and uncompromising Swiss mercenaries who dominated the early period of the Italian Wars and earlier conflicts. Of course, I can also use them as an Averland contingent in an Empire army for Dragon Rampant against the foul Orcish green hordes or other enemies.

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.

Mercenary mounted crossbowmen

My band of Papal Condottieri now has a ranged attack, in the shape of six mounted crossbowmen, again from Perry plastic 28mm 1450-1500 Light Cavalry box.

Note that I have again used the red/white motif for the majority of these figures, although one of them is a nonconformist, in dress if not religion, seeing as there were no Protestants at the end of the 15th century. I have also given one rider a trumpet, but he does have a crossbow too. It is slung on the other side of his saddle. These will join the coustiliers as members of a lance, but will end up being fielded as a separate unit for Lion Rampant.

To break things up a bit, and to give me a break from painting horses, I am going to take a small diversion away from Renaissance Italy and work on some Peninsular War British line infantry next, but I am also making up a lot of Renaissance foot troops, which I will undercoat this weekend. There will be pikemen, crossbowmen, a few characters and some handgunners. All of these will be in some form of Papal red and white. After that, I intend to add some halberdiers and more crossbows, and possibly some more pikemen.  I am thinking that at least some of these will be wearing a different livery, to indicate that they represent troops hired by the Condottiero as additional muscle, but not as full-time members of the band. I am thinking that these will probably hail from Switzerland, and I am thinking about a black/yellow/red colour palette for these. I may yet change my mind, though.

Mercenary light lancers

My Condottieri band grows apace! 

The latest recruits are also mounted lancers, but less lavishly equipped than the gendarmes. These are the lighter riders that each lance (i.e a gendarme and his small retinue) contained. Variously known as sergeants, chevau-légers, coutiliers, "archers" (betraying their originals as mounted bowmen) and other names, these riders were less heavily equipped than the gendarmes (also known as Elmeti and  occasionally as Armigeri Veri in Italy) and were, in part, the originals of the later Reiters, Demi-lances and Argoulets of the 16th century.

Once again, red and white are the unifying colours of these troops, although I was keen to have a couple of the riders looking different, with the red.white component being minimal. Although not as heavily armoured as the gendarmes, these troops do have mail shirts and/or breastplates under their livery tunics and wear items of armour on their arms and legs.

I am rather pleased with how they have turned out. I was a bit worried while I was painting them, but once I'd given them a bit of a dry-brushing and inked them, they began to come together nicely.

Next, there will be mounted crossbowmen, and then I will resist painting any more mounted troops for as long as possible, because I really do not like painting horses at all. Having said that, though, I really do want to paint up a fully-armoured mounted leader with a standard bearer at some point.

Condottieri gendarmes on unarmoured horses

Following on from the heaviest gendarmes  riding armoured horses, here are six more Perry Plastic gendarmes mounted on unarmoured horses.

Although you always see a lot of gendarmes with armoured horses, I suspect that, in reality horse armour was kept to a minimum when actually engaged in combat, with the full horse barding probably seeing more service in parades than on battlefields.

The flag with these guys looks like it is plain red from the angle it is in the photo, but it is actually a white cross on a red ground, keeping the red/white theme of the overall band.

Anyway, I now have a couple of powerful cavalry units ready for Lion Rampant, and my next part of the project revolves around the Perry Plastic 1450-1500 Light Cavalry box. It is my plan to make up six of these as mounted crossbowmen and the other six as light lancers, mounted sergeants in Lion Rampant parlance.

Once those are done, it will be over to the foot soldiers.