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!

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.

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.

More Condottieri

After my first efforts on the project; I started work on the Perry plastic Mounted Men-at-Arms, because every self-respecting Condottieri band needs some armoured men mounted on big horses. There are 12 figures in the Perry box, and I've made them all up; six on unarmoured horses, and the remainder on barded ones. So far, I have completed the latter group, but the rest will be finished soon.

These heavily armoured riders were given a range of names across Renaissance Europe; Elmeti, Gens d'Armes, Gendarmes and so on. Their role was a continuation of that of the mediaeval mounted knight, forming the armoured fist that could decide a battle at the charge. Until the rise of gunpowder weapons and pike-armed infantry, the gendarme was the most powerful tool available to generals across western Europe. The concept of the gendarmes d'ordonnance company originated in France, but throughout the 15th century became commonly used throughout Europe. The companies were made up of lances, i.e. a group of mounted troops and retainers, led by a noble (the actual gendarme) and supported by lighter-equipped troops, a second, slightly lighter lancer, one or two mounted missile troops (equipped with crossbows or bows), a page and one or two servants, usually totalling six or seven men in total.

Over time, the lance concept changed as warfare changed, until the plate-armoured lancer began to be replaced during the 16th century by mounted troops in lighter armour, more reliant on firearms, but the heavy lancer lasted almost until the start of the Thirty Years' War in western Europe, and even longer in the East, where the Polish Winged Hussar continued to serve right until the end of the 17th century.

Anyway, my six gendarmes have been painted with red and white as the common theme, and the banner being carried is a common device in Renaissance Italy. In this case I see it as the banner of Bologna, the idea being that these mercenary gendarmes were recruited in the city. The red and white also ties into the Papal theme of the overall band.

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.