Italian Wars - Milanese Horse and Landsknecht Arquebusiers

Continuing the Italian theme, this is the group of 28mm figures I managed to finish this month (including basing them): eight Warlord plastic Landsknecht shot and four Perry riders in Milanese livery.

First unit for the Italian Wars

This is sort of a refurbishment, as I had these four Perry men-at-arms from a previous collection, most of which I sold. All they needed was a new base and some touching up, including a layer of clearcoat.

They will join the Imperialist forces in the Italian Wars, being just a little bit out of date for the latter part of the conflict.

I have a large Italian Wars project in mind, with about 450 figures per side, with 120x120mm pike bases and 120x60mm for everything else - these are the first few to test the concept.

Perry HYW Showcase

Although I do not doubt their historical authenticity, I mostly used these Perry figs to make "Generic Fantasy Henchmen" for small skirmishes, working on them in groups of six or so. They usually have a common theme, the first wearing red livery.

Sir Guillaume the Brave

Next up from the batch of 28mm painted figures is a dismounted knight and two servants. His device is the princely beaver, his colours are red and green.

I've really come to like the Perry HYW figures, as they easily pass as generic fantasy bods to fight orcs and other things. Lots of versatility too, especially if you combine the different boxes.

 

Undead Knight

This is a fantasy-ish Perry conversion. I took a foot knight of their English(?) HYW set, and modified it a little. I drilled out the eyeholes and made a dent on the helmet. I took a skeleton arm from a spare skeleton, he's not gonna miss it, and added a GB plastic round shield, making it look a bit battered by, again, carving and drilling through it. The upper part of the surcoat was modelled with green stuff, and the same was done to the joint of the left arm and the body. I also scraped the bottom of the surcoat with a scalpel to make it look torn.

Mercenaries

A few more Perry figures to show off, three light cavalry and three foot.

Perry Men-at-Arms #2

Here's three more figs from the Perry set, this time the horses have Gothic armor as well. I chose to paint with sub-assemblies, the horse, the armor and the riders were separately done and this produced a nice clean effect. The armor is also somewhat darker than the previous batch, but I think it looks cool.

Perry Men-at-Arms #1

This trio of figures was based, painted and washed before I got bored with them, now I could pull them out of the drawer and finish them. Perry figures are very nice and proportionate. I like playing with different hues on white armor, like the dark blue tint on the armor of the horse on the right.

At this scale the bases can also be very varied, this time I dropped small pebbles into the white glue before dunking it in sand, and then added decorative elements.

Royal Retinue

Here's a bunch of elite men-at-arms for my fantasy/renaissance project. Most of these are Perry foot knights with additions from their WoTR infantry and mounted sets, and a few Warlord Landsknecht heads. I wish there was at least another head with the crowned sallet, but this is it.

I'm doing batches of six figures which will, in some cases, eventually be filled up to a dozen and then used for Lion Rampant / Pikeman's Lament.

More men-at-arms

With this, 11 of 12 Perry riders are complete. They are very fun to assemble and paint. I believe this time there are no mis-matched left and right arms as well.

Landsknecht Command

Here's a sample of what I have been painting recently: a bunch of various Renaissance characters. 28mm figures take more time to paint , but hopefully there is a return in the quality.

Perry Men-at-Arms

I could only get one good photo, so here it is. Three Perry mounted fighting men, one with a Pro Gloria head swap. 

I mixed the two right arms on two riders, but it's not very noticeable. They were a bit difficult, but fun to paint. The rest of the set will not have such heavily armored horses.

More Perry light horse

So these were originally mounted on 1,5mm plasticard bases, and when I tried to remove them, there was a danger of the horses' legs bending and breaking, therefore I just cut them off from the plastic bit on their mould and glued them on new bases. These are the last three from the box, with the mounted men-at-arms already being shipped.

I used a simple black and white paint scheme, a black wash and extra highlight on the metal pieces and a brown wash on the rest.

First of the Plastic Landsknechts

After assembling a larger bunch, I painted and based the first four figures out of the Perry and Warlord (Pro Gloria) plastic parts.

Renaissance Stuff

To get back in the saddle, I chose to paint a few 28mm bods. These take longer to paint, so the more comfortable pace did good.
As the order in which they are placed from left to right is quite random, here's a list of what's what instead:

• a Perry horse archer from the light cavalry set, 
• two Hasslefree ladies bought on their Black Friday sale,
• two Pro Gloria (now Warlord) landsknecht captains.

I bet the pictures are still too grainy, sooner or later I'll fix the flash, for now I'm working with natural light and the flash of my telephone, which is obviously not enough.

Perry Light Horsemen

Here's some stuff I have been painting. Actually, the figures on the right were done at least a year ago, I've just forgotten to post them. The four horsemen on the left are the fresher products, I think the rounded corners on the bases are a nice touch.

For a while I was looking forward to paint Renaissance stuff after Napoleonics, but then it mostly passed. I think my next purchase will be some of the Revell SYW re-issues.

Still experimenting with lighting, bringing the camera to a repair shop would probably not hurt.

Perry Foot Knights

A rather different topic than Napoleonics, this sprue of six figures was purchased quite some time ago on ebay. I've painted them up rather fast, then forgot to base them. I've used two black washes on the armor, otherwise it's the standard block-wash-highlight way. There may be a curse on me which prevents me from completing any 28mm figure within 3 months of purchase.