The last of my Elizabethans - six men with guns

I didn't think I was going to get these done, but happily I did. First, three arquebusiers;

As you can see, these have been painted using my green theme, because I think they ought to look like members of someone's retinue. These certainly look like they are reasonably well-trained in the use of their weapons.

Next, three less regular-looking types, armed with what I am calling blunderbusses, although I am not sure such things were available in the 16th century. Even so, Wargames Foundry think they were a Thing, so I'm happy to go along with it.

As you can see, two out of the three have my alternative blue colour theme.

One point about these chaps; two of them, plus one of the halberdiers were bare-footed, presumably because they are sea dogs, but I didn't want them without shoes. Therefore, I gave the three concerned shoes made from green stuff. After painting and basing, it is almost impossible to tell which ones were originally shoeless.

So, this is my final piece of painting for 2021. I have packed my paints away and will be spending the rest of the year with my partner, our dogs and lots of food and wine.

Six Elizabethan halberdiers

Getting close to completing this little Foundry project. Here are two groups of three men armed with polearms;

The three above have continued the green theme and have a more regular appearance than the second group, I think.

 I particularly like the central figure of the second group. He looks like he's been around a few battles in the past and would be perfect as the Gatekeeper for a household or manor.

The final six figures are all equipped with firearms. I will post them tomorrow.

Four grizzled veterans

Here are the last four of my current bunch;

These guys are definitely my idea of how grizzled veterans of many battles, boarding parties and dubious missions into hostile towns and cities might look. They have the air of desperate hard men who might consider anything, so long as the price is right.

I've moved away from the unifying green theme, except for the third one from the left, because I also wanted to use a blue/grey palette to create a second colour theme.

I love the character in these sculpts. There is so much to enjoy when painting figures as good as this. I especially like the figure with his arms folded and with a bandage across one eye. The blob of grey paint under his nose was a mistake I didn't notice until I'd photographed him. I've fixed it since then.

I have six more figures to finish off and that will probably be it for 2021. I am planning to have these all out of the way by Thursday.
 

Today sees four more Elizabethan arrivals

Four solid dependable sorts from Wargames Foundry. First, two well-equipped grizzled veterans;

And now two armed retainers, obviously based upon the same basic armature;

I've used various shades of green as a unifying factor here, because although I don't want this project to look like an army, I do want the figures to have something that brings them together.

All four look like the kind of chaps you would like beside you when things turn nasty, and I think of these as being the core of an armed band who might be deployed as Border Reivers, a nobleman's retinue in the fighting in the Low Countries or against the Spanish or even on Witch finding expeditions.

Four more swashbuckling Elizabethans.

 First, two swashbuckling young ladies;

I see the somewhat dishevelled young gentlewoman on the right as the sister of the dashing swordsman in black, here. The young lady with lilac hair and the blunderbuss is her companion. The Celtic Cross between them is a simple MDF kit from Warbases. It doesn't look much when it arrives, but once glued together and painted it comes alive rather nicely. I decided to give it an aged appearance, which will make it useful for all manner of settings.

   

To gain sufficient expertise and experience with a blade, a young lady needs an expert teacher, so here is her Fencing Master, accompanied on his left by his manservant, a rogue who carries out all manner of nefarious deeds for his master. The fencing master looks like a bit of a rogue himself. He's clearly someone with a chequered past. The pair must have spent some considerable time fighting in the wars in the Low Countries and the German lands, maybe even against the Turks in eastern Europe.

These figures are all, once again from the Foundry Seadogs and Swashbucklers range.

Annoyingly, the photo of these two shows up a couple of small errors, which I may have to correct at some point.

Overall, though, I am really enjoying working on these figures, which I will have completed before the end of next week, because I need to get the dining table cleared and ready for the seasonal festivities.

More Elizabethans

And a bit of a background story. 

Once again, these are Foundry Seadogs and Swashbucklers.

The interesting thing here is that one of these figures is a monk, something quite odd, seeing as there were no religious orders in post-Reformation England.

Anyway, I have decided that the guy in  the robes isn't actually a monk. Instead, he is a scholar, known only as Brother Johannes, a fanatical enemy of all witches, warlocks and members of secret cults, and also a spy who has infiltrated a number of secret Catholic cells operating in England on behalf of the Spanish king and the Papacy. The central figure is Doctor Frans van Helsing, a Hermetic philosopher and alchemist and reputedly a scholar of the Dark Arts, and the figure on the right is Willem Bocq, Doctor van Helsing's manservant and assistant. He is carrying a chest containing various important items that van Helsing might require as part of his investigations into unexplained phenomena. Doctor van Helsing has long been an associate of the famous Doctor John Dee and has also carried out secret work for Sir Francis Walsingham.

I am now thinking about how I might use these characters in games with a supernatural aspect. 

Elizabethan Swashbucklers

I bought these figures about a year ago and put them to one side, having more urgent things to paint.

These are Wargames Foundry figures from their Seadogs and Swashbucklers range. I bought five packs of figures in all, with the aim of putting a couple of bands together for games using the En Garde rules. They hopefully might work for the currently unreleased TooFatLardies sword fighting rules, although I think that those rules are more aimed at the France of Louis XIII and the Three Musketeers.

These are the first three I've photographed and I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The sculpts and casts are excellent, with loads of crisp detail. I am generally pretty pleased with how they have turned out, although, typically, the photos show up a few tiny mistakes which are annoying, but won't really show up on the table.

I really like the guy in the middle a lot. He has something about him that says "swaggering swordsman", and his companions also look like formidable characters. Perhaps they might be veterans of wars in the Low Countries or privateering voyages against the Spanish? The chap on the left looks like one of those Elizabethan gentlemen of letters, equally capable of knocking out a sonnet or two or running through a few ne'er do wells in a seedy tavern brawl.

I've got another nine ready for varnishing and photographing, so I'll post them in separate posts later on.

Since finishing these, I am now thinking how I might use them for supernatural settings, with Master Hieronymus and Red Samuel as adversaries. I'm sure I'll think something up.

I haven't got names for these three Flashing Blades yet, but I can work on a backstory later, once my ideas are all worked out.

My final four 17th century skirmishers.

The final four figures are all brandishing pistols, although three of them are prepared to attack with their mortuary swords once they have fired;

There isn't really much to say about these guys, except that I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The figure on the right, with a plume in his hatband is giving off strong leader vibes, the other one in green is clearly a dismounted trooper and the remaining two are clearly foot soldiers, due to them not wearing top boots.

I am really looking forward to getting my hands on the next sixteen figures from Bloody Miniatures as soon as they are on sale.

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!

All Quiet On The Blogging Front

I haven't really been doing much wargaming related stuff for the last couple of weeks or so, although I have started prepping up figures for some early 2021 projects, including my Bad Squiddo Onna Bugeisha minis which I have had sitting around for ages and ages. I felt guilty every time I saw them in the box where I keep my (supposed) priority To Do stuff. Anyway, they are now glued onto 2.5cm round MDF bases and primed in Halford's matt grey undercoat spray.

I have also started to prep up another project, this time in 15mm, which I shall keep secret for a while, because it is something of a personal trip down memory lane, in many ways, but it did require me to get onto eBay and buy some old rulebooks from more than two decades ago.

I also took advantage of the Foundry Christmas price reduction offer and bought some minis from their Seadogs and Swashbucklers range. A few of us from the club put in a single order, to maximise the discount, which was nice. The plan is for these to make up bands for Osprey's En Garde rules, or anything else that seems suitable, for that matter.

I also bought a couple of Geek Villain wargaming mats in the Black Friday sale, the first time I've ever done such a thing. I got a grassy one, which is useful for everything, pretty much, and a cobblestone one, which will be good for all manner of urban settings. I am primarily thinking of In Her Majesty's Name here, but Frostgrave seems another possibility too. I have the Frostgrave 2nd edition book on my Christmas list too, so I am looking forward to that.

Anyway, it is the run-in to Christmas now, so I am going to be pretty busy with getting the food and wine ready, getting out the Christmas tablecloth and table mats and other festive bits 'n' pieces. Tomorrow, I'll be off to the butcher for the meat , which means boning, stuffing and tying up the chicken, poaching a bacon joint (for glazing on Boxing Day), making stock from the chicken carcass and making a chocolate and lime baked cheesecake ready for Christmas dessert. and then it will be Christmas eve. when I must go to the baker to get our bread order collected, and also get whatever I have forgotten about until now.