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

Landsknecht Command

 

This unit has been a little delayed, I meant to complete this command when I revived my Landsknechts last year, more of that here.

However, in the intervening period I've had time to think on the matter and Landsknechts have certainly never been far from my mind. In particular I wanted the standards to come together and represent those typically seen in early images of Maximilian's landsknechts, particularly those of Albrecht Altdorfer in which three flags are repeatedly shown together, a simple cross of Burgundy on a yellow ground, the arms of Austria and Burgundy ancient.

Maximilian's duchies of Austria and Burgundy feature in the centre of his arms.

and.......spot the mistake I made, In depicting the blue and yellow stripes as horizontal rather than diagonal I created the standard of the Fugger family, which is a happy mistake as they financed a lot of Maximilian's wars. I will no doubt correct this in some way one day, the best manner will be to create a new unit of course so watch this space. Progress not perfection is the mantra.

What have I learned in a year since visiting Landsknechts? i'd say i've really got to grips with using Citadel contrast paints as part of the process by blending washes with them. The results are really vibrant colours. I don't like to use them as intended but to mix them with existing wash formulas and highlight / blend on top. It's a slower process but the results really make these figures pop. Here they are prior to basing.

Using the Red as an example here are the stages for the red bits;

1. Black undercoat
2. Foundry British Redcoat Shade 
3. Citadel contrast Blood Angels Red as a wash
4. Foundry British Redcoat Shade, Mid & Highlight.
5. Foundry Orange mid as a final highlight

A similar approach is used for the other primary colours, experiment with it and enjoy the results !

The figures are all from Wargames Foundry with the addition of flag pennons from Front Rank Figurines, now available from Gripping Beast.

Each figure is based upon a coloured woodcut, the flags are hand painted.

Here they are forming the centre company of banners with my existing imperialist pike

I have three bases of Swiss banners on the same formula to make it an interchangeable pike block, I have left room to create a stand to represent Richard de la Pole who will no doubt form the nucleus of my next Landsknecht painting project.

Figures with levelled and horizontal pikes are added to those standing, the banners are now at the centre of the 162 figure company.

As is apparent, I want to do more, I've done quite a bit of research on this subject this year (more on that soon) I have more Imperialists on the workbench now but lets see what fate decides to be the next finished project to share, there's 'currently' 5 units in various stages of completion, such a masochistic hobby at times !

Bye for now

Stuart

Landsknecht Pike Block

This project has been in my mind for quite a while and stayed kicked firmly into the long grass for fear of its enormity but I finally took the plunge to re-base my standing Landsknecht Pike.

The first reason was one of gaming versatility, the pike I had were based on 120x60mm diorama type bases which made for great little vignettes but committed a lot of figures to one base and limited their use as either Imperial or in French service, here's a couple of images from the archive;

Landsknechts in French service, painted 2016

Imperial Landsknechts, painted 2013

I reasoned that if I split the command from the pike figures I could field a large pike unit with a choice of interchangeable commands and I also wanted to have the pike as densely packed as I could whilst not losing their individual character and detail. 

This would require me to paint some more figures and once that ball started rolling I just kept on going so I actually ended up with more figures than I intended which has made for an even bigger pike block potential.

Here's some photographs of the latest painting prior to basing;

Figures are predominantly Wargames Foundry with a couple of Warlord figures and also the additional plumes are from Steel Fist Miniatures.

These were all painted using contemporary sources, in particular The First Book of Fashion by Matthaeus & Veit Konrad Schwarz is an absolute must have. In this father and son catalogue their outfits in a series of painted drawings which log the changes in fashion from 1496-1561. I cannot recommend it enough if you want to gain an understanding of the Landsknecht dress.

In painting these figures I used Citadel contrast paints as washes to achieve really deep vibrant colour, the process is as follows;

• black undercoat
• shade tones painted, I use Foundry's triad pots (shade, mid, highlight)
• armour wash where relevant
• flesh wash (foundry scarlet shade, foundry bay brown shade, contrast gulliman flesh, water)
• contrast wash applied to primary colour, thinned for tonal variation
• wash applied to everything else ( a generic brown wash of a mix of contrast skeleton horde, foundry bay brown and a little water)
• shade tones re-applied as a mid tone
• actual mid tone
• highlight
• extra highlight

This takes a little more time, especially with stripes, probably coming in at 3-4hrs per figure but I'd say these are the best Landsknechts I've painted.

Then the tense process of removing figures from bases, fixing any damage that you might do in the process - re-gluing pikes in the main. this took a day.

Then sorting the figures into composition and re-basing on 60x60mm square bases, 9 figures to a base for the pikemen and 6 figures to a base for command. - I found putting the newest figures in the front ranks gained the most pleasing arrangement.

Here's the result, neat, colourful ranks of pike with interchangeable command. I'll probably do a further command base for Imperial and French whilst I still have the Landsknecht enthusiasm.

Landsknechts with Imperial command bases

Landsknechts with Swiss / French command bases

In addition to splitting them between commands I can also group all the figures into one allegiance, here's a force of Imperial Landsknecht pike with arquebusiers in support;

And finally, the real end goal I've been striving for, a dense pike square with the front ranks preparing to charge or receive the enemy, 160 figures in all spanning 22 years from the oldest to newest painted figure - quite an undertaking !

Imperial Landsknecht pike square

Detail of the standing bases, packed in deep ranks but still showing off individual character

Close up of the same square with French Flags

I'm not quite done here, as I mentioned i'll do a couple more command bases, possibly some further bases of supporting arquebusiers or perhaps work on a marching column.

You can never have too many Landsknechts !

All the best

Stuart

 

Landsknecht Pike

Well, it's been a while hasn't it !

Life has been rather busy and unpredictable for a while and unfortunately in my case the hobby is often the first casualty though equally when I return to it it's a comforting sign of things getting back to normal.

All is well and i'm very happy to be presenting another unit.

What better unit to reinvigorate the collection than some colourful Landsknechts !

I like to return to Landsknechts from time to time and especially so if I feel my painting style has improved or changed somewhat so I've quietly had this little unit very slowly being worked upon over the last year or so - yes i did say very slowly.

This unit with pike at the 45 will complement my existing pike though equally can be used as a unit in its own right as in fact I have done only yesterday in a game.

The unit consists of 36 figures with a mix of figures from Steelfist miniatures, Wargames Foundry and Warlord. With the exception of a couple of head swaps all were painted straight out of the packs and assembled with 100mm pikes available from Steelfist Miniatures.

Here they are prior to basing;

All were painted using Wargames Foundry Paints and thinned Citadel Colour contrast paints mixed with Foundry paints as washes which achieved some really vibrant results that I was very pleased with. 

Each figure is based upon a contemporary source, most notably borrowing from the magnificent coloured drawings in The First Book of Fashion from the collection of  Matthaus Schwarz.

Based up and ready for action, the bases are 60x40mm available from Warbases

I will at some point add some command to go with them.

Here you can see how they fit in with my existing collection of Imperial pike, I've wanted this missing link from pikes upright to pikes levelled for quite a while and seeing them together was a great moment.

The whole block of Pike, 120 figures in all, the oldest figure in the unit was painted in 2001 

Arquebusiers in support 

Looking at the whole unit together some of the older bases need cleaning up a bit and I may (gasp) re-base some of the standing figures to pull the command out on separate bases that way I can field a large Landsknecht or Swiss block with their commands.

If I awake with this madness still in my mind i'll no doubt do a few more standing figures just to marry all of my styles together, and possibly add some newer flags too. We shall see.

Bye For Now :)

Stuart

French Lansquenets & Artillerie

Over the last 6 weeks or so I've been working on quite a few projects but I was keen to have the new Tudor figures take precedence for a while. Those are now ordered, all 420 of them - thanks for your support and assisting in getting these made, a real global response with figures due to go to Canada, Russia, the U.S, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy and Australia to name a few.

Time to get back in business, I've been aware that the Tudors have taken the limelight for a while so I have been working on a couple of French units to even the balance a little.

First up, I re-touched and re-modelled a French artillery piece with crew, these had originally been based separately to adorn the city walls but ever since I did that I wanted to have it as a field piece too and it never looked quite right without a base so here we are.

I was keen to base this for convincing use both as a field and siege setting. I also took inspiration from the manner in which guns are presented across the woodcuts in Der Weiss Kunig as per the example below. I particularly liked the small addition of the low wattle fence to absorb the recoil of the gun, the figure with the mallet seemed to me to be made for this set up.

Here's my burgeoning French battery so far, see also the first photograph at the top of this post.

Next up, some Landsknecht arquebusiers to accompany the pike in French service;

This completes the (no doubt first of many) French Landsknecht contingent;

Here they are with the bases of levelled pikes

When putting Landsknechts together I paint and base those with upright pikes with army specific field signs and banners but keep those with levelled pikes neutral so that I can easily create larger units (hope that made sense).

Finally, some counters for Lion Rampant, a couple of new casualties;

Both are converted from the Perry WOTR casualty pack. The French one above has the sleeves puffed up and the addition of a cap, crossbow and quiver.

The Tudor below has the addition of a base coat, really pleased with how this one turned out.

I'll do some mounted casualties at some point.

Here's my collection of battered markers;

We're up to date, Quite a big project on the go at the moment, back to the Tudors - more soon.

Bye for now

Stuart