Bad Squiddo Undead Things

Well, I've been busy today! I was up before 7 a.m because the dogs were being loud and excitable and I've been at home all day waiting for a parcel delivery, so I thought I'd paint some things that have been lying around for ages. 

All four are Bad Squiddo 28mm figures, and I have to say that they are terrific figures to paint.

First, there are two renaissance skeletons; a Landsknecht Doppelsöldner and a fine gentlewoman, maybe a countess or duchess.

I really love these. They are so animated and full of character.

I decided to try and get a few hints of rust on the Landsknecht's armour and double-handed sword and I think that it has worked pretty well.

Both figures were undercoated in black and given a top-down zenithal blast with Army Painter Skeleton Bone spray. I then used a combination of paints and drawing inks to build up the colours. I am really happy with the end results.

The other two figures are Mummies.

These were given the same black undercoat and skeleton bone zenithal treatment and I then built up the finished effects with dry-brushing and dark brown drawing ink. They were pretty quick to complete but I think that they will work well on the table.

These will be good for all sorts of horror and pulp games, as well as 7TV Fantasy and Pulp. I cannot recommend these figures highly enough. They are excellent.

Anyway, even after all the painting, basing, spray varnishing and photography, my parcel still hasn't arrived.

Bah!

 

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.

Twelve Canton of Uri halberdiers

I've been working on lots more Perry plastics for my Renaissance project.

These are Swiss halberdiers, once again painted in the yellow and black of the Canton of Uri, led by a fully-armoured chap with a standard who is accompanied by a herald with a brass horn.

These figures are from the War of The Roses Infantry box, as were the longbows I've posted previously. I have another 24 halberdiers/billmen to finish off and then all that I have left are more dismounted Men-at-Arms. To be honest, I think that my army has too many of those and not enough cheaper troops, but the Perry Foot Knights box contains a large number of figures (38 to be precise).

Once again, these are going to be useful for Lion Rampant, Dragon Rampant, Saga AoM and Never Mind The Billhooks.

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.