It's been a very long time ....... but I've got something finished!

I've not posted anything since mid-June, because I've been away on holiday and also because I had no urge to paint things. Still, I did pick up a brush again and I've finished off a nice command base for my 28mm Warhammer Fantasy-themed army for Midgard. Here it is;

Hopefully, people will remember that I posted the idea for this ages ago (it seems) and here are the results. He is very much based on the Elector Count of Averland, Marius Leitdorf and he will be my army commander and chief hero for my Averland-styled Midgard army, so it seemed a good idea to base him up with the army's battle standard. The standard bearer is a Wargames Atlantic renaissance armoured cavalryman mounted on a plastic Perry barded horse from the WotR mounted men-at-arms box.

I'm reasonably happy with the outcome, they definitely pass the  "one metre away" test, i.e. they'll look fine on the table.

I posed the figures in front of a Jon Hodgson Handiwork Games background.

Now, having got my painting mojo working, I really need to get on with some troops for Count Marius to lead.
 

Four units of Knightly Orders for my 15mm Warhammer Empire project

Well, two real ones and two inspired by the idea of knightly Orders First, two units of Reiksguard Knights;

 Obviously, they have to be given a white/red colour palette, so that is what I did. I don't really have anything to add to that. 

Next a single unit painted in a red and blue colour scheme, which I think ought to make them Altdorf Knights, but maybe not one of the "official" Orders but perhaps the guards of a powerful noble in Imperial service. Anyway, my army, my colour schemes.

Finally, a complete invention, mainly because I wanted something unique and I was playing around with washes and different metallic colours. I present to you The Knights of The Rose Cross;

These had copper horse barding with oiled steel highlights and white cloth under that and black surcoats on the knights, but I wasn't happy with how they looked, so I washed them in Winsor and Newton dark red drawing ink. Intitally, I wasn't sure, but the colour scheme grew on me. I added a pink standard from an 18th century Prussian cavalry unit,  reduced in size to fit.

I'm sure that some people will say "Yuck!" but they will certainly stand out on the tabletop.

Once again, these are all from Alternative Armies.

I've primed up some infantry now and also figures for two more command bases for Sword and Spear Fantasy, so more painting to get working on!

15mm Empire artillery

Artillery in Sword and Spear Fantasy can be pretty devastating, but it needs to be protected. So, for my Warhammer Empire army, I've put together two units of Imperial great cannon, and here they are;

Clearly, in reality, each base should really only have one cannon and maybe some gabions but artillery is quite an expensive option in S&SF and I rather like the look of a crowded base in 15mm. I think that they will look OK on the table.

Next, I'm going to be finishing off the rest of my mounted Knightly Orders (men-at-arms on barded horses) and after than, I'll begin work on the infantry.

Some characters and leaders for my 15mm Warhammer Empire project

All armies need leaders, and in fantasy armies they need heroes and wizards too. So, here are a few I've completed.

Above are two generals for my army, once again from Alternative Armies. The figure on the left could quite easily be the Emperor Karl Franz and the other just has to be an Elector Count. Both are accompanied by standard bearers

Next, some Imperial Battle Wizards;

The two on the left are mounted and dismounted versions of Leonardo Da Vinci and the right-hand pair are Niccolo Machiavelli, from the Alternative Armies renaissance collection but I think that these are great as wizards. In Sword and Spear Fantasy, wizards don't really dominate games, I find them most useful to either bolster units in combat or to try and remove hits on units at the end of game turns.

I've given the mounted Leonardo figure a barded horse, to mark him out as a wizard of great power and repute.

I like wizards in purple, it seems a good colour for the Hermetic Arts and the Occult.

Finally, what self-respecting Empire army would be without a Hero on a Gryphon? Well, certainly not mine.

One of the things I like about Alternative Armies' figure ranges is that you can buy mounted figures and mounts separately, as seen here. The Hero is a man-at-arms from the Renaissance range and the Gryphon is from their 15mm Fantasy range. I think he will look pretty impressive on the table.

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ho Ho Ho! What was under my tree this Christmas?

Well, this is only the wargaming stuff. There were some CDs too, but you aren't interested in those, are you?

First, there were some sets of rules. I am interested in playing Lion Rampant next year, but I also see a lot of fun to be had from its fantasy derivative, Dragon Rampant. I also think that The Pikeman's Lament would be a good way to get into something that I've long wanted to do, 17th century Pike and Shot gaming. I really want some 3/4 armoured cuirassiers and reiters at some point.

Anyway, my first plan is to create an Italian City State or Condottieri force for Lion Rampant, so the two Perry Plastic boxes I got will be incredibly useful, and will obviously fit in with the plastic Light Horse I bought a while ago for the project. I've also got another box of the Mercenaries and one of the Foot Knights too, so I have lots of options here for different units and a variety of different armies. 

I also got some Crooked Dice figure sets for my, as yet unstarted 7TV project. Still, I won't lack things to paint in 2019, so roll on the Too Fat Lardies Painting Challenge 2019.

I got a set of Aliens. Definitely going to be featuring these guys in a game once they are painted.

And a set of Weird Science figures. I really love the blobby monsters.