Landsknecht Arquebusiers

 

A return to the Landsknechts !

Landsknechts have been on my mind for quite a while now since (shameless plug) writing the painting guide for the Helion book All is Lost Save Honour.

This is part 2 of a re-basing project for the Landsknechts in my collection, some of which were painted quite a while back. I opted to re-base and re-invigorate my troops by adding newly painted figures to the older ones in my collection then mixing them. This worked really well for the pike in my collection, you can read more about that here.

As with the pike I also took this opportunity to re-configurate the bases from open skirmish order to a more tightly closed order which is generally how they appear in woodcuts when giving close support to the pike.

Here are some close ups, I think the difference of a decade or so shows between my past and current painting styles but they mix well.

Detail of the unit. I use an altered version of the Lion Rampant rules (available via the Army Royal Facebook group) so these are actually two units of 10 figures a piece.

Here are some photographs of the figures prior to basing. I like to work from a primary source whenever I paint a unit of Landsknechts. The inspiration for these came from a painting by Melchior Feselen, 'the siege of the city of Alesia', painted in 1533.

Feselen was a contemporary of Albrecht Altdorfer and this influence is present in his work. The formations below are tight and seem to come from life, perhaps he saw service? or more likely this may have come from sight of regular state musters.

You can view a really good quality zoomable image of this here, there's so much going on in it, the Arquebusiers and pike are at the bottom of the painting. I particularly like the wide hats (tellerbarrett) with decorative brims.

Assuming I stay on this rebasing/re-invigorating trajectory there will be further Landsknechts ! I've really enjoyed using this approach as it means units are not only freshened up but also boosted in numbers and, you can never have too many Landsknechts !

All the best

Stuart

Scots Highland Archers

 

The ranks of the Scots Army continue to grow with this latest addition. Some Highland bows to act as skirmishers and protect the flanks of the pikes for the Scots armies of Flodden and Linlithgow.

They're equally useful in their own right for the raiding and feuding that took place in the highlands and isles and as mercenary 'Redshanks'* for service in Ireland.

*Scots seasonal mercenaries from the Highlands and Isles known in Ireland as New Scots (as opposed to earlier settled Galloglass in Ireland) and Redshanks so called because of their bare legs.

All figures are from Antediluvian Miniatures and painted without any further conversion.

Easy sculpts to paint but they did need quite a bit of cleaning up and a couple were lost to a misaligned mould / spin sadly but hopefully that was a one off as i'd like to get some more. The Galloglass in this range are good too.

I opted for a mix of light and heavier armoured figures to represent highlanders and caterans (similar to Irish Kern), and initially thought to base them as heavy and light bases but during the painting they started to look better when mixed together;

Here's some images prior to basing. I did them in batches of armoured and unarmoured. the figures in armour in particular have some interesting additions to their kit, hunting horns, plaids, axes and such. I tried to keep a fairly muted palette which helped to bring out the faces and really highlight the saffron leine.

I had a figure left over so converted him to create a casualty marker - I must get more of these as I haven't been creating them in line with new units. These Warbases dial markers are great.

The whole unit based and ready to go. I used various sets from Gamers Grass for the tufts, there's actually a highland set which I added heather and some low tufts and small scrub too. These are my go to tuft supplier, a little bit more expensive but the quality is consistently good. These are available direct from Portugal or from Firestorm Games in the UK, often at a slight discount too.

Scots Highland Archers

Scots Highland archers and Galloglass mercenaries in the retinue of Earl Huntly

Highland archers as mercenary 'Redshanks' in Irish service

There's also a command to go with them which is presently on the painting desk. Hopefully these should be along soon after I emerge from the rabbit hole of 16c plaid and who the personality should actually be, Argyl and Lennox are in the lead at present.

All the best

Stuart

Maximilian Imperial Light Cavalry, part 2

 

Continuing from the previous post I was keen to maintain the conversion and painting momentum and was still having fun painting cavalry so it only seemed natural to create some more light cavalry armed with crossbows.

As before the figures are Perry Miniatures Light cavalry plastics converted with sculpted additions and heads from Steel Fist Miniatures. Led by a mounted captain also from Steel Fist Miniatures.

The flag is a Schutzenfahne typical for bodies of mounted crossbowmen or arquebusiers of both Imperial and Swiss armies. Here are two contemporary examples both from around 1500, note each also features an arquebus.

I had great fun creating and painting these. The primary source, as before is The Triumph of Maximilian I, the black and white version for ease of reference for sculpting and the later painted version for the colour references on both riders and horses.

For further reference, once again I returned to my copy of 'The Ultimate Horse' by Elwyn Hartley Edwards. It's full of large format colour horse photographs with notes on colouring and breed types and is presently £3.50 on Ebay, get your mitts on a copy !

I did find myself down a bit of a rabbit hole in attempting to replicate some dappled grey horses which pushed the limits of my patience but despite each taking a few hours I am happy with them......there must be a faster way though ! It's important to push oneself though.

Here are some group and individual photographs prior to basing.

Old GW plastic head on this one

Head on this one is from a Wargames Foundry marching pikeman

It was great to base these up and even moreso to see all of the light cavalry together, here's a few photographs.

I feel I have certainly done that little project justice. I keep returning to the Perry plastics for conversion potential. There will hopefully be more of the same at some point. Lots of fun doing these and I really like painting the horses, each one is a challenge.

As ever I have a few things jostling for position to be the next completed unit, I think something a little more simple may prevail.

Bye for now

Stuart

Maximilian Imperial light cavalry

Another slow burning project come to fruition.

Last year I set about studying French Gendarmes in the search for some source material and generally to educate myself a bit more on their appearance and composition. This perhaps inevitably, led me on an avenue as to the same for that of cavalry from the Holy Roman Empire. 

For my collection in particular this is something which is sadly lacking and given that Henry VIII hired mercenary light and heavy cavalry from a willing Maximilian I thought it was about time I got myself some.

As is quite often the case the seed was planted with a single image, this piece by Durer depicting a light / medium cavalryman.

Albrecht Durer, Knight Death and the Devil, 1513

This was a revisiting by Durer of an earlier study which more plainly shows the armour and equipment of the rider and horse.

Albrecht Durer, study of a rider, 1498

The fox tail dangling from the tip of the lance was introduced as a badge of identity for a standing division of horse by the Emperor Maximilian I, this can be seen in a number of depictions from and slightly beyond Maximilian's reign.

This example from Albrecht Altdorfer's Triumphal procession of Maximilian I depicts a body of Imperial heavy cavalry at the battle of the Spurs in 1513, all with fox tails, somewhat and unsurprisingly playing down the role of the English horse in the engagement.

Albrecht Altdorfer, body of Imperial Horse, Battle of the Spurs 1513 (extract), Triumphal procession of Emperor Maximilian I, 1512-1515

Given that heavy cavalry are very well represented in the available figures out there I rather predictably set about making life hard for myself and set the challenge of creating some light / medium cavalry. 

Most helpfully there are some very clear depictions of light cavalry in the triumphal procession, here are some examples that I found particularly inspiring.

I set about attempting to interpret the various elements above using the Perry Miniatures light cavalry plastics with green stuff and various bits added to bring them into the early sixteenth century.

This is an approach I have used in the past with this set in the creation of demi lancers and mounted archers for my early Tudor army. This however was pushing that sculpting bar a little higher and I really enjoyed the challenge.

Here are the figures prior to painting so the sculpted additions and bits of added kit are easy to spot.

The heads are from Steel fist miniatures and also taken from Wargames Foundry Landsknechts

Here they are fully painted, I used Altdorfer's painted version of the Triumphal Procession as a source for colour / pattern references.

The banner is hand painted with Maximilian's typical ragged cross of Burgundy

They're rather splendid and I feel they need some more additions, here's this unit based and I am pleased to announce that I'm already working on some more to swell their ranks.

Bye for now

Stuart