The next eight of my latest Bloody Miniatures figures

 You'll have to scroll down to see all of them. First up, four Lowland Scottish musketeers;

I've stuck to the blue and red colour scheme for these, because I really like it and you'll see that I've attempted a plaid on the left-hard figure. I'm not sure that it is that successful, but it'll have to do.

Next are four more Lowland Scots, this time with a variety of nasty-looking polearms, the central two being, I think variants of the Lochaber axe.

Once again, red and blue dominates. This latter group is called The Border Staves on the Bloody Miniatures website. There are more Scots to follow later.

The backdrop is by Handiwork Games.
 

17th century Pike and Shot (scroll down, lots to see)

Ages ago, fror Christmas 2022, I was given several packs of pikemen, musketeers and command groups from Bicorne Miniatures to augment my Bloody Miniatures figures and turn them into complete units. I finished off the musketeers back then but never finished the pikemen and leaders off. Basically, I got bored with painting 17th century stuff and set them aside. Finally I've got round to completing them. So, here are three blocks of pikemen and command figures. First, in green coats;

Next, in burgundy coats;

And finally in blue coats;

The flags are just simple generic ones, based upon banners used by anti-Imperialist troops in the Thirty Years' War. I cobbled them together on a spreadsheet and printed them off. I was happy with the green and yellow one, but the other two needed over-painting by hand to make them look different to one another. They aren't great, but they'll do for now. 

I had already painted musketeers in green and blue, but didn't have enough musketeers to complete the burgundy-coated unit, so I bought couple of extra packs from Bloody Miniatures (who now have a few nice unit builder packs), so here they are;

As you can see, I intend each of the three battalia to have a central block of pikes and officers etc on a 4 x 3 hole movement tray and two sleeves of six musketeers on a 3 x 2 tray.

I've taken pictures of each of these units, but sadly, they are two wide for my Jon Hodgson A4 backdrops book. Still, you get the general idea how they will look on the table.

I'm pretty happy with how these have turned out and I'm planning to use them for Never Mind The Matchlocks, which is a set of rules we have recently started playing at the club.

I have a few spare command types which is making me think about doing another pike and shot unit, but for the moment, I am switching my attention to mounted troops.

Anyway, here are the spare officers. Clearly, another set of bluecoats is in my future plans.

Sixteen 17th century musketeers finally completed.

You'll need to scroll down to see the lot. First for the Blue Regiment;

 And now the Green one;

These are all from Bicorne Miniatures and they match perfectly in terms of size with the growing range from Bloody Miniatures. Below you can see these two groups augmented to form two units of 12 figures by mixing them with some Bloody Miniatures figures;

I see the Blue regiment as being some kind of "elite" unit, maybe the lifeguard of a general or maybe the guards of a major town or city. The Green (and Brown) regiment is clearly a lesser formation, maybe a trained band, a regiment raised by a local landowner or a unit of militia. They have a much less uniform appearance but as we all know appearances can be deceptive. They could equally be experienced and battle-hardened mercenaries.

I've been working away on these for ages, but I kept putting them to one side to work on other things and, finally they are finished and I am really happy with how they have turned out. I think that they are of a reasonable gaming table standard and easily pass the "how do they look from a metre away test".

Anyway, I am now one step closer to have a small force for The Pikeman's Lament or some other Pike and Shot period set of rules. I have three units of Bicorne pikemen to work on now.

The Night Watch

Here are my final four figures from the Bloody Miniatures Company of Wolves set.

They are collectively called The Night Watch, presumably as a reference to the famous Rembrandt painting, which is actually called "Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq", but it also reminds me of the King Crimson song.

These four musketeers are suitable for lots of things, camp guards, a colour party, a town Watch, part of a unit of musket-armed troops and so on. 

I decided to paint one in a green and tan palette because I thought that he would look good as an additional figure for my previous four musketeers and gave the other three a blue and red uniform appearance because I thought that the cassocks looked like something that a rich town council or a regimental colonel might equip officers with, so that they would stand out. The other chap on the left could be from the rank and file of the same unit. I have a couple of packs of Bicorne musketeers in my painting queue, some of whom are also going to get the red/blue treatment. The rest will be, unsurprisingly, green and tan.

I need to crack on with those pretty soon, and I also have Bicorne pikemen to paint up as well.

A bit of background on Orangenland, my 17th century imagi-nation.

In a previous post, I introduced Orangenland, a minor North German state of the 17th century. In this post, I will be describing the place in a bit more detail.

The origins of Orangenland lie in the early mediaeval Kingdom of Lotharingia, created out of the protracted period following the end of Charlemagne's Frankish Empire. Little is known about the early histories of the three component territories of Orangenstadt, Orangenwald and Orangenburg, although it is clear that the origins of Orangenstadt lie in the building of the Abbey of Saint Octavius the Martyr in the 12th century and the development of the town that grew up around the abbey. This town, originally known as Octadorf, grew in importance until it was recognised as the seat of the Prince-Bishop of Sankt Octavius in 1312. When the House of Chalon-Arnay acquired the three territories through marriage, they were known as Bisschoppenstadt, Osterwald and Nordburg. They were renamed following the acquisition of the Principality of Orange by the House of Chalon-Arnay. Bisschoppenstadt was renamed as Orangenstadt in 1473 when it was rebuilt following a disastrous fire in 1469 that destroyed much of the older city.

The population of Orangenland is split between Limburgish and Brabantian Dutch speakers in the east, speakers of the Rhenish Franconian dialect of German in the west and some Picard French speakers in the south.

The seat of the House of Orangen is the city of Orangenstadt, which is dominated by the late mediaeval Chalonerschloss and the Cathedral of Sankt Octav, which was rebuilt on the ruins of the earlier Abbey, destroyed in the Great Fire of 1469.

Other prominent towns and cities are Nordenstadt, Catieau-Arnay, Wijndorp, Druckerburg and Salzfischstadt.

The flag of Orangenland is a golden Lion Rampant bearing a sword, on a field of red, although a standard showing a red cross on a yellow field is also carried by some troops.

The House of Orangen has long maintained friendly relations with a number of other small dukedoms and counties in the region, most prominently the County of Pirlouit, whose ruling family, the House of Schtroumpf is related to the House of Orangen by marriage. Indeed, one member of the Schtroumpf family, Armin von Schtroumpf currently serves in the Orangenland army. Although he is young and a relatively junior officer, he has gained a reputation of being a brave, if occasionally hot-headed leader, who is loved by his troops, many of whom were recruited in his homeland. Troops under his command usually wear a blue sash and occasionally blue and white plumes on their hats and helmets, these being the colours of the House of Schtroumpf.

In other news, I have acquired enough figures now to create a variety of units for my Orangenland army for The Pikeman's Lament. These are all from Warlord Games and consist of;

From these boxes I will be able to build one unit of 12 Pikemen, two units of 12 Musketeers, a unit of six Gallopers, a unit of six Trotters and two elite units of Gallopers and Trotters in cuirassier three-quarter armour. I will also be able to build units representing a Forlorn Hope and Commanded Shot, so there will be plenty of variations for the troops that Armin von Schtroumpf will be able to call upon in his battles.

There will probably be a few spare figures that I can use for other things that I currently haven't even thought about, although I am definitely planning to do Armin von Schtroumpf in both mounted and foot versions.