Borgia! Borgia!

A brief post to showcase the growing force for the Papal States in our Italian Wars project ~

There are still several bases of figures awaiting their moment in the limelight on my painting desk, but I’m pressing on while I can! I’ve one final crossbowman to complete and that base will be finished leaving me with six bases of figures to complete: two bases of Gendarmes; a base of halberdiers; a base of Italian handgunners; a Landsknecht Pike block and a Command base. 

In addition I recently received a package from Tim Hall containing figures I can add to the project as a gift. Wonderful folk in our hobby mostly I’ve found! (To that I should add the set of VBCW Source Books Colin Ashton sent me last week.) I’ve put some figures in Detol for a couple of days to strip the paint off as they are a little too dark for my army, but they will give me another base of Gendarmes and more Landsknechts for my pike block. The latter are Dixon Miniatures and seem to fit well size wise with my Warlord/ProGloria and Tiger Miniatures. We shall have to see how they turn out! 

My Italian Wars Real Estate...

I have now assembled and textured with rough filler the four buildings I bought to populate the table top battlefield here in GHQ for forthcoming Italian Wars games. As you may have read in earlier Blog posts, I feel these will be enough for our needs, but like most wargamers I wouldn’t be surprised if more appeared at some stage, as if by magic!
I bought four of the five Warbases Modular Buildings, together with a small Roman Tower and several sets of extras: balconys, doors, windows, shutters and the like. I used these to make two buildings, a small walled farm with a defensive tower and a more imposing house of two stories with a portico. I used Wills plastic pantile roofing sheets to cover the MDF roofs on these buildings. At the recent snowy WMMS I bought two buildings from Charlie Foxtrot‘s range of Pantile Buildings, the Small Store and the Hermitag ~

Phil has several of their kits in his Spanish terrain collection, so I know they look nice but had no idea if they would prove as ‘idiot friendly’ as the Warbases’ kits when it was time to assemble them! I needn’t have worried, they went together with little fuss, beyond trimming the resin inserts to the walls and the roof pieces to fit. No sanding required there, just a trim with a sharp modelling knife! The combination of MDF walling and a cast resin pantile roof is a clever solution to the problem of MDF and the 3D effect of the roof. Pity though the resin is not stained Terracotta, it would simplify painting! And here are the four buildings together ~

I’ll not be doing any more to them until later in the Spring or early Summer, as I want to press on with the figures while I can safely sit at my painting desk. Besides the crossbowmen I'm working on at present I have a base of Italian handgunners; a base of Italian halberdiers, both from TAG;two bases of Gendarmes from Foundry; a Landsknecht pike block from Warlord Games/ProGloria; and a furthe Landsknecht Command base from the same source. About 60 figures in all. Let’s see how far I get then...

Italian Spearmen

As I mentioned in the previous Blog post I’ve completed a base of spearmen for our Italian Wars project. The figures are by TAG, the flags are by Pete’s Flags via eBay, and the base was made for us to our specification by Warbases ~

 I really enjoyed the riot of colours on these figures, although each one has some Foundry Phlegm Green applied somewhere to tie the unit loosely together. I’ve also assembled the Charlie Foxtrot Hermitage/Chapel and Store/Hovel and have applied a coat of filler for texture. I’m working on a base of crossbowmen with pavise now; one pair finished and one pair with all the basic colours applied. I hope to finish these by the end of the month if I can.

Pope Alexander VI

Every Papal States army needs a Pope! Well, perhaps not, but mine has one now thanks to a very kind gift from Andrew Taylor of Antediluvian Miniatures. The figure is from their latest release of character figures sculpted by Matt. I’ve based him on his own for now, though I have bigger plans for him in due course ~

And finally, here Pope Alexander VI is accompanied by his Pontifical Guard, Cardinal Bicclione and his Confessor ~

I’ve also finished the base of Italian spearmen. The TAG figures are a joy to paint and the riot of colour is just fun. I have got to wash the base’s texture and then apply static grass and clumps of grass and flowers, but they will be along shortly I’m sure.

Roberto the Builder has been busy.

I mentioned in an earlier Blog post that my order from Warbases which I had hoped to collect at Hammerhead arrived eventually. I bought a number of their modular buildings, a small Roman tower,  a gateway, a portico, a balcony set, a set of high walls and pillars and various extra doors and windows/shutters. I have made up two buildings using these, a walled farm with a defensive tower and a rather grander house with a balconied tower and portico front to the main living area. I’ve coated the walls with rough textured filler and topped the roofs and walls with pantile sheets from Wills. I will order 3mm MDF bases from Warbases now I know the configuration of the buildings and their overall dimensions. This is what they look like at present, I hope to do bits as and when after the hip replacement ~

I have also got two Charlie Foxtrot MDF and resin buildings yet to be assembled and textured, the hermitage/small chapel and the store/small hovel. Together with my Warbases buildings these will be enough to populate my gaming table here in GHQ when we play Italian Wars games later in the year.

A (Very) small piece of Ordnance for the Italian Wars project

At the Penkridge Tabletop Sale last January I found this small offering from Warlord/ProGloria, a very light Landsknecht gun and crew of two. I thought it would be a quick piece to add a base to my Italian Wars project. Wrong! I estimate  the two figure crew took me about three times as long to complete as any other figures have. On that score alone I’m not looking forward to painting my Landsknecht pike block at all ~

The separate female figure was amongst my first order from TAG, one of a number of free castings I received.

On reflection I might have cluttered the base up a bit more, they look a bit lost, but they will have to do...

Two For The Price Of One

It was a tad chilly in GHQ this Monday as temperatures struggled above freezing after the weekend’s snowstorms. Phil and I decided on two small games, one either side of a hot lunch provided by Sue. In the morning we played a Late Roman game, using our adaptations of Neil Thomas’s Ancient and Medieval rules, and in the afternoon a Norman’s v Saxons game using our first attempt at modifications of the rules for this period.
I only took one picture of the morning game for some reason. The table at the end of the game, with Pompus Maximus having once more beaten off the usurper Baldinus ~

In the afternoon session, fortified by a fine burger with blue cheese provided kindly by Sue, we had a first run through with our adaptation of Neil Thomas’s rules for the Conquest period. Phil took command of the Normans and I took the Saxons ~

The game swung first one way and then the other, with the Saxon line being bent right back on their left while on their right a feint charge and flight led to one unit of the General Fyrd being drawn off out of the line ~

The Norman crossbows proved particularly galling for the Saxon Huscarls, goading them into breaking their line and charging the crossbowmen. Once Combat was joined in earnest the Norman knights had a hard time of it against the Saxon Fyrd, while the Norman heavy infantry made heavy going against their opponents.

When time ran out both armies were near exhaustion with no clear indication of which one might have been able to win, so we shook hands on a hard fought and bloody draw ~

I really enjoyed both of these smallish games today and feel the rules are shaping up nicely for the sort of games we play in this period. I hope you will excuse the bare MDF bases by the way, but I’ve not got around to texturing them as yet. Before anyone asks, each base is a unit, as in Impetus, with 4 Combat and firing dice at full strength, reducing by one dice for each 4 casualties caused.