A few Bad Squiddo odds 'n' ends

 I've been trying to paint up a few odds and ends of things I've had in my "To Do" box for a while.

These are all from Bad Squiddo and have been patiently awaiting the brush for a long time now.

First are two violent little girls with swords. They were part of the Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter that I somehow forgot to paint at the time. I suppose that they ought to be wooden practice swords, really, but I went for real ones.

I am not sure what I will use them for, but there is bound to be something in the future.

Next are three figures who were associated with the Amazons and Dwarves Kickstarter. I think that they will work nicely in mediaeval and fantasy settings, perhaps as non-player characters or as special figures in suitable scenarios.

First, a woman trying to get her basket of fresh fish past the local cats;

And finally, two women who look so alike to my eyes that I think of them as sisters;

Painting - a few odds 'n' ends

The weather has been particularly horrible this week, so I have been painting a few figures, basically clearing space for getting some Napoleonic Portuguese infantry started.

Anyway, I've finished off four more figures from that GW Blackstone Fortress box set I mentioned previously.

According to the blurb on the box, the two blue guys are "Ur Ghuls" and the robot thingies are "Spindle Drones". According to me, the blue guys are Mutants and the robot thingies are potentially Sensor Droids, or maybe some other sort of droid, depending on the kind of game I am playing. Lazily, I have stuck pretty much to the box art regarding their painting schemes, because I rather like how they look. I am thinking that the blue guys will also make suitable Null Men figures for Frostgrave.

I've also been painting Monks. Surely, we all need a few monks? I am thinking that monks could crop up in all manner of games in many periods, right?

Specifically, I bought these because of a conversation I had at the club about taking part of the Magic rules from Sword and Spear Fantasy, specifically how magic can be used to boost the fighting ability of units and also to rally hits off of units. Our reasoning was that these aspects of Magic could be seen as being akin to religious figures boosting the fervour or morale of the troops, something that was a common feature of mediaeval warfare, as well as in earlier and later periods. Holy Men even have a role in Sharp Practice. As I have both FIW French and Napoleonic Anglo-Portuguese forces for SP in 28mm, a monk or two might come in handy.

Of course, monks can also feature in other settings, too. Saga immediately springs to mind, as well as Dux Britanniarum. Monks in a fantasy setting might also be possible. Who knows?

These four are rather nice figures, Foundry, I think, and I wasn't too concerned about which particular Order they might belong to,  so I painted three up as fairly generic monks. The fourth one I wanted to make a bit more colourful, as I am planning to add him to my Late Roman army, so I felt that a bit of an "imperial" habit might be appropriate.

Finally, I painted this chap;

He's a bit wizardy-looking and a bit like a Ranger for LOTR, but also a bit hermit-like. I really like him, and I can easily see him as a Christian Hermit supporting my Late Romans too.

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.

My latest big project - A Condottieri band in Papal service

I have long had a desire to do something with the lovely Perry plastic late mediaeval/renaissance box sets. I mentioned this at Christmas and now I have actually embarked upon the project.

My plan is to create a condottieri band which I can use for Lion Rampant games, but which can also be used for other sets of rules. I know that creating a force for the latter part of the 15th century stretches the Lion Rampant period right to the end of the 15th century and into the early part of the 16th, but I think that it will be fine. I've decided on a force in Papal service because that means that I can use a fairly unified colour scheme, predominantly red and white, but which will also allow me the flexibility to use other colours too. We should remember that there were no real uniforms in this period, certainly not among mercenaries, but that there were specific combinations of colours associated with retinues belonging to city states, powerful nobles and others.

I have plans for a number of troop types; pikemen, troops with polearms, crossbowmen, arquebusiers (which I will probably deploy as bidowers), armoured men-at-arms (both mounted and on foot), lighter cavalry, mounted crossbows etc. 

Looking at the number of sprues I have, I will admit that this looks like a pretty daunting task, but one has to make a start and here is where I am so far.

I like to start off with a leader or character, because that gives me a nice thing to do before I plunge into the rank and file. So, here is a commander on foot with his standard bearer, a herald (using the English king body and a head and trumpet from the Light Cavalry box and six heavily-armoured men-at arms on foot with polearms and a two-handed longsword. I know that Lion Rampant doesn't really need leaders looking like this, but I intend to ignore the standard bearer and treat the base as a single figure. The Herald was just a nice extra to paint up. I'm sure that he'll get used somewhere along the line.

I will paint more of these armoured foot later on, but I am currently working on some mounted troops, which should be finished by the end of the week.

Of course, these guys will also be ideal for Dragon Rampant too, and also probably Sword and Spear, so this is a win-win project. I am also thinking about how I might use Pikeman's Lament and Lion Rampant concepts together to take this force into the Italian Wars.