Italian wars 45 landsknecht command

 Well here it is merry Christmas, everybody's having fun,look to the future, it's only just begun!" As the strains of Slade circa 1973 fade into the background, I present a mounted Landsknecht commander, which I offer up as a prize for Peter Douglas and his renaissance armies ,as he plays Pike and shot I know you need a lot of command figures! Taking part in the Analogue hobbies painting challenge means you have to paint a figure and now you can choose who you paint for and having lost a renaissance painting duel alongside him I figured he could do with another!

He's a venerable Essex figure and indeed was the first figure I picked up when I restarted my Italian wars after a 30 year interlude, he has lain in his box while others have been purchased and painted but finally he has been painted and stands ready to make his way to Canada in due course. 

My main focus for this challenge was going to be Napoleonic, I have 100s of figures primed and ready to go,  so with laser precision I have lasted a day and started 48 gendarmes for the Italian wars! I'm not convinced I'll finish them , let alone the Napoleonics!

He's a  bit of a lump but paints up nicely,  the final shot is of him in his temporary home and also shows his size in comparison to the Foundry command and pike behind,  right back to the gendarmes and no doubt Noel is trembling in fear at the 10 points towards our cavalry duel, or maybe not !

Merry Christmas!

Best Iain 

Influential books 1

 Inspired by Nunkadent over at Horse and Musket wargaming, I thought I might share an influential book and it's background, so no painted figures I'm afraid as I'm just prepping and priming before the Analogue hobbies painting challenge starts on the 20th of this month. 

I ended up with this book, Military Uniforms, the splendor of the past,when I was about 3,it's a hardback colour coffee table book of original prints and paintings of uniforms, thinking about it I suppose in all probability it wasn't given to me,even in the 1970s you wouldn't have given this to a 3 year old ! But as far as I was concerned at the time it was mine and I'd never really thought about it until now, no one ever disagreed about it!

The book really came into it's own because I had a  really nasty skin disease on my hands, if I  put a plaster on my hand it would come off with a layer of skin, eventually I lost all the skin off my hands and one of my earliest  memories is of my mum pulling  my fingernails one by one " it's not going to hurt,okay mum aàah! It's not going to hurt,....." it was for my own good as they were only just hanging on but boy did it hurt! So I couldn't play with any toys(because it would hurt!) but I had a melamine covered board and plasticine which was nice and cooling  and I started making figures based on the images in the book  I was particularly taken by the first page , Lejunes' battle of Borodino,especially the grenadier kicking the live shell into the water and wanted to know who everyone was! It covered uniforms from the French revolution to the start of the first world war. The page of French cavalry and officers also made a big impression on my tiny mind!

Eventually my hands recovered after getting a prescription from a  doctor in the town in Ireland that my mum came from but I was, as my dad pointed out ,cack handed and clumsy. I was taught piano as a way of improving my motor skills, after passing a grade I managed to give that up ! I was also encouraged to make models, my first airfix spitfires and me 109s both ended up in the bin but I persevered (it was more fun than learning piano!) and managed to build an airfix stug 3. I  didn't learn to read until I was 9 but once I did I became a voracious reader and in many ways my wargaming hobby exists to justify my book collection. Purnells history of world war two helped me to read as I flicked through its pages wondering what it all meant. 

Too many books as my wife has pointed out, at one point I had every book Osprey had in print, but I'm better now. It's always interesting to see other people's book collections so I thought I'd post mine,you have to excuse the additional kit that's been moved out of the house for Christmas. 

I hope to have some painted figures on the blog soon,  in the meantime here's some being primed!

All the best Iain 

Dux Bellorum 11 More Pict cavalry and home made sabot bases

 Here are two more tiny mounted skirmish units for  my Pict force and also my mounted leader and companions and a unit of mounted nobles.

Once again the skirmish types are wargames factory with some Perry and gripping beast plastic additions .

The companions and nobles are a mix of dark age and late Roman Gripping beast plastic cavalry with the odd anachronistic Saxon helmet thrown in for good measure together with some Perry Ansar shields and some Black tree design shields to try and tie them in with the infantry. I enjoyed painting these chaps and they went together well, I would have preferred that you had full arms, rather than half arms but its a minor quibble on my part.The leader is a  metal Gripping beast figure. 

This completes the Pictish army ,giving me three Dux Bellorum forces, I'm moving onto the shieldwall armies next, so it will be Romano British and Late Romans over the winter, which should be fun!

They're all sabot based onto 120mm wide MDF bases with balsa cut outs. I've also included the previous mounted Pict skirmishers on their sabot bases and the ordinary Irish riders. 

That was strange, the pictures uploaded in the reverse order! Still better quit while I'm ahead!

All the best Iain