Warlord Games Landsknecht Looting Party

Here are the rest of the Warlord Games Landsknecht Looting Party figures. The one other figure from this set is the kneeling guy with bag of loot used in the earlier gambling vignette. They're mounted in pairs (well, one has a reluctant fräulein also) on 50mm round bases. They can be used as bling on the battlefield if nothing else.

Very nice figures which I'd put on the same level as Perrys.

I also painted up several 3D resin print Landsknecht/Italian Wars cannon. These are from a seller on Etsy, and I initially had planned to use Steel Fist crew, but they've been shown as "out of stock" for awhile, and they may not be making them separately anymore. I ended up ordering crewmen from Etsy that could've been ordered along with the cannon before.

I used illustrations from the Triumphs of Maximilian manuscript as painting guides. Of course, they could be used for WHFB Empire too!

EDIT: added a comparison shot of the 3D cannon between an old metal GW Great Cannon and also a Perry WotR field piece.

Anyway, so much for now. Still waiting on our bathroom to be finished. They replaced the damaged subfloor and joists, and are working on the tiling and shower pan this week. Can't wait until it's done - hopefully in another week - so I can finally host a game - I'm thinking of trying out the Battle of Bicocca scenario from the new supplement. Until next time, wishing you all the best!

Wargames Atlantic Conquistador Cavalry

These will be proxy light cavalry jinetes for the Italian Wars project. They're painted in a red and yellow color combination to simplify the process. Used the usual block painting, followed by Minwax staining, and a final highlighting of the metal parts, face, and folds of cloth.

I used a spare body from the Heavy cavalry set for the leader. The Conquistador set has riders in quilted armor, but the same heads as the Heavy cav set. The horses are the same too, but don't come with the additional armor barding pieces in the Heavy cav set.

Here are some pictures of the Wargames Atlantic Conquistador/Renaissance sets - 3 boxes of infantry, and a box each of Conquistador and Heavy Cavalry. The flags are from the Warlord Games Landsknecht Starter Army set.

They're painted more uniformly in red and yellow than they likely were historically. They could also be used for a WHFB Estalian army as well.

The arquebusiers are in battleline, but can also be used as smaller sections for the Colunela formation rule.

Still need some artillery crewmen to get a playtest of the Death and The Landsknecht Pike & Shotte game, but as our bathroom in the process of "remodelling" I can't really host a game at my place yet. I use quotes for remodelling because it isn't by choice, but due to water damage from an improperly (or defective) shower pan. It had been leaking water onto the subfloor for the 6 years we've been living here. Thankfully it's finally getting fixed and covered by our insurance. Here's a quick picture of what it looked like when they first started demoing it. They'll started repairing the subfloor and drywall tomorrow - they demo'd the entire tiled floor and shower wall. Our bathtub, toilet, shower glass, and cabinets are on my back porch and in the garage. Thankfully we have two other bathrooms while awaiting this to be resolved. 

Well, so much for now - thanks for visiting the blog and wishing you all the best!

Warlord Games Landsknecht Guard Duty

Added another figure (the one kneeling with the loot bag) from their Looting Party set. Also added a dog (colored as a Rottweiler), and a couple of resin halberds.

I had wanted to get the Guard Duty and Looting Party sets for awhile, so added them to the Death and The Landsknecht supplement order to get the free shipping.

It's hard to make out, but the guy with the light blue hat has a pair of dice in his right hand, as well as cradling a dice cup (I think) - pictured below.

Next up are the remaining figures from the Looting Party set. I also, have another box of Wargames Atlantic Renaissance cavalry to paint up as Jinetes.

The Thunderbolt of Italy and the White Rose

These are Warlord Games Italian Wars personality figures. The mounted figure is Gaston de Foix and the one on foot, Richard de la Pole - the latter came with the Death and The Landsknecht supplement as a "freebie."

De Foix, Duke of Nemours, was a celebrated French commander who was killed leading a cavalry charge at Ravenna - he was only 22 years old. De la Pole, a maternal nephew of Edward IV and Richard III, was the last Yorkist claimant to the English throne. He was killed leading the Black Band at Pavia. Both kind of tragic figures from the Italian Wars.

Both figures are resin, and sort of "bendy", and not fragile at all for gaming. The horse looked rather small for the rider, but after flocking the base with a lot of foilage looks okay. For the record, the horse and rider are cast in one-piece. I recall having a mounted Celtic chieftain that was another Warlord Games resin figure, and the horse was too small for the rider. Luckily the rider and horse were cast separately, and I was able to use a Victrix EIR horse for the rider.

I may rebase the De la Pole figure with some other figures - maybe his halbedier guards - sometime later.

Next in the paint queue are more Warlord Games Landsknechts - a set each of Looting Party and Guard Duty. Until next time, thanks for stopping in, and wishing you all the best.

Spanish Colunela With Wargames Atlantic Conquistador Figures

Here are two colunela - each with a main body of pikemen with swordsmen mixed in, and flanked by arquebusiers. This is how I've interpreted the formation in the Death and The Landsknecht supplement.

Here's an excerpt of the Colunela special rules from the supplement.

These Wargames Atlantic figures paint up pretty quickly, and take the Minwax staining well - particularly on the quilted armor.

The pikes aren't as tall as the Warlord Games Landsknecht ones, but are close enough, and easier to handle.

This should be enough infantry for a trial game, but I still need to get some crewmen for the 3D printed cannon I already have. I reached out to Wargames Foundry to see if they'd let me order just crewmen - waiting to see what they say. I know Artizan sells crewmen separately, but I like the Foundry ones better. I wish Steel Fist still sold their crew separately, but looks like they only sell them along with the guns. Until next time, thanks for stopping by and hope you are all doing well.

Death and The Landsknecht - Pike Block Upgrades

If I understand the rules in the new supplement correctly, I was able to add another 30-man pike block for a total of 8 blocks. Using the Arquebusiers and Swordsmen Forward! tactical upgrades special rules, I added two-each zweihander swordsmen and arquebusiers to 6 of the blocks (only had 12 zweihanders on hand - pardon the pun). I may add some to the other two units - one a Swiss block and the other the Black Band. Hopefully, this is how the author intended these upgrades to be used. I also arranged the pikemen wearing armor to the ranks immediately behind the first rank for the Armored Front Ranks special rule. Here are the 6 blocks with the arquebusiers and swordsmen, along with the leader and musician, in the front ranks.

Here are excerpts from the supplement of the special rules mentioned above.

The Swiss army list allows for the same upgrades. I have enough arquebusiers for the separate units to be deployed in Battle Line. I didn't see a provision for separate swordsmen units in the German lists.

Here's a picture of the 8 pike blocks - before I swapped out the arquebusiers for swordsmen.

I have to say that I was happy I based the figures individually. 

Warlord Games Landsknecht Pikemen Painted As Swiss

Not sure how different the Swiss were from their German counterparts, but these will be proxy Swiss for Italian Wars. The musician is a Foundry figure that my buddy included with the box of pikemen. He might be dressed a little earlier, but he fits in with the Swiss "look."

Keeping the clothing in just two colors helped speed up the process. Didn't have to think about color combinations. I did go over the white areas after the Minwax staining to help the colors pop.

I used the Savoy flag from the Perry Mounted Men at Arms set.

Here they are next to the GW Empire swordsmen. They'd be okay on the table together in separate units. The GW guys are a bit chunkier.

Although I wasn't planning on more pikemen, it's always nice to have more.

3D Printed "Empire" Knights

Here are the figures I picked up from Etsy. Very nice figures, but lack the iconic cloth skirts or tunics worn over their armor.

The material used is very sturdy and not brittle at all.

Kept things simple by given them all a blue color scheme, which works with the French standard.

Below is a comparison shot, left to right: GW Empire; Wargames Atlantic Renaissance Heavy Cav; 3D print; and Perry WotR Mounted MAA. Besides the bulkiness of the GW figure, they all work well enough together.

Below are 3D files of "proper" Gendarmes from Wargames Atlantic Digital. Since I don't ever plan on having a 3D printer, will have to wait until they're available already printed.

Getting these out of the way, I can now start on the Victrix Greek and Persian Wars Hoplites. Thanks for checking out the blog, and wishing you all the best.

Old Glory Italian Wars Swiss Pikemen

Here are the two bags of Old Glory Swiss Pikeman - one each armored and unarmored. As noted in the previous post, the armored bag was missing 5 figures; but the unarmored on had 31.

Old Glory got the positioning of the pikes just right, IMO - not level or upright. The flags for the Uri and Bern Cantons came with the Perry Mercenaries set.

The 56 figures worked out to 14 40mm square bases with 4-figures each. An odd number for grouping into 2 units.

The were painted in four basic colors: red, blue, green, and yellow. Added small white crosses to their clothing to ensure they were cleary identified as Swiss.

Glad to have these guys done, and the next project with be the 3D resin print "Empire" knight. Thanks for stopping by, and wishing you all the best.