Back to an old project - my Renaissance Condottieri

It has been ages since I've worked on this project, but I really wanted to get back to it.

My first finished figures are six more Swiss handgunners from the Canton of Uri, which gives me a total of 12 now. You can see the original six here, but you'll have to scroll down to find them.

Clearly these are more Perry plastic figures from the European Mercenaries 1450-1500 box set.

These can fit in easily as troops for Lion and Dragon Rampant, Saga Age of Magic (in a Great Kingdoms force) and also Never Mind The Billhooks, which wasn't part of my plans back in 2019 but most certainly is now.

The LBWS TTS is back!

 

Yes, the famous LBWS TTS is back to its proper date and time at the end of May.

We have sold all the available tables, so there is going to be plenty of stuff to buy, hopefully with bargains galore to suit whatever gap in your collection you need to fill.

So, put the date in your diaries and bring plenty of cash. You never know what treasures you might discover.

Hot drinks and snacks will be on sale too, so no need to go hungry!

The club meets on Sunday afternoons too, so if you feel like a game, why not stick around? New members are always welcome.

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.

Four Musketeers

These are called "The Squire's Men" on the Bloody Miniatures website;

The idea here is that they are the retainers of some local magnate who have been called upon to defend their master's property. Therefore, it seemed logical to me to give them a matching livery theme and green seemed perfect. To make an even stronger link, I have given them yellow trimmings on their clothes too.

Obviously, as gamekeepers and suchlike, these men might be considered as expert shots and I like the way that they are posed. My favourite is the kneeling chap with feathers in his hat.

I have four more figures to post, and I will get them up on the blog tomorrow.

More good news from Bloody Miniatures too. The next tranche of 16 figures is now available on their website. Collectively, they are called "A Parcel of Rogues", but the four sets of figures can also be bought separately,

Once more unto the breach dear friends .......................................

 .......... well, sort of. 

More of my Bloody Miniatures 17th century figures. These are called The Storming Party. From left to right we have a trooper carrying a barrel of gunpowder, another trooper wrapped with a long length of rope and a grapple, carrying a pick-axe and a pistol, a heavily-armoured guy to hold off defenders and a grenadier with an axe. They are definitely going to be trouble for someone.

Finally getting back to my 17th century skirmishers

Yes, at last I am finishing off my second set of Bloody Miniatures figures.

This second set of 16 is collectively known as A Company Of Wolves and these four are called "The Moss Troopers".

The website describes these four as;

"A rapacious gang of brigands, freebooters, broken men, or discharged and destitute soldiers turned to banditry and ambuscades.

Hard-bitten irreconcilables for whom the war never ended - like the notorious Doones of Badgworthy Vale. This disreputable crew are attired in Dutch coats and boots, their hair worn long under broad brimmed hats. They’re well armed with pistols, swords and carbines."

I really love these guys, their poses are terrific and their long Dutch coats have a nice distinctive look too.

I started blocking in the base colours on these figures before Christmas but I packed them away safely and only got round to them recently because I had a lot of 15mm things that jumped the queue. I got seriously fed up with painting 15mm figures and it was a pleasant change to go back to bigger things to work on.

I have another 12 figures to finish off and hopefully I'll be posting them throughout the week.

Far East Project - part four

Here is my final post for a while for this project.

Once again, these are all Peter Pig 15mm figures, mainly from the 8th Army range, apart from the radio operator with the FOO (on the left) and the sniper on the right. Those two are both later war figures, but in neither case does it really matter. They look fine as they have been painted and based. The Vickers MMG team is all standard troops.

These will all be support options for the basic platoon force. The sniper was wrapped in a small piece of butter muslin soaked in PVA glue before undercoating. You can just about see that he is wearing a cap comforter.

For this earlier period, I still have a couple of Universal Carriers to do, together with crews, which will also have dismounted figures. One will be a standard Bren carrier and the other will have a 2" mortar. 

I also have the figures for a later war platoon and supports dressed in the JG uniform which began to be introduced in 1943 and more widely adopted the year after. I am planning to paint these troops as Gurkha Rifles with a British officer. I haven't even based these up yet, so they will have to wait for a while.