Great Italian wars 39 more shot and some crossbow

Here is the balance of the old glory Swiss shot following on from their comrades who were pushed up the painting que for the TtS! Tournament, in addition there are six Perry plastic crossbow men (with metal 16th century heads) which seemed sensible to do at the same time in both cases I use a single row as skirmish missile and simply double up the depth to indicate formed missile units.

I know some people don't like old glory figures but I know that as far as the Italian wars are concerned their range is characterful, extensive, easy to paint and even though they are not quite as cheap as they were, still reasonably priced.

I've got these done so that I can field a Papal Condatta army to confront my Venetian Condatta army. My teenage daughter recently informed me ( after I had taught her to play gin rummy whilst in transit somewhere) that she just couldn't believe I hadn't shown her how to play games with miniatures, it was also unbelievable and a bit unjust apparently! Still I'm going to take her at her word show her how to play TtS! and no doubt get roundly beaten! Even one game would be good.

Next up maybe some terrain? Although I think I've said that before!

Best Iain

Terrain 10 Big old northern European church

In June I posted the last church I painted up which was a small English Hornby plastic model and I mentioned that I was painting another church from TT combat, which is a model from their WW2 range so I guess it's French/ northern European? Anyway its for 28mm figures and is realistically large!
It's also made of MDF,I have been working on some other TT combat MDF buildings for the Italian wars and have tried to work out the best way of finishing them. The thing is if I add texture then I run the risk of losing the etched detail, so I may as well have made them in foam board. The other option is to do thin washes so as not to lose the detail.That's broadly what I've done and here it is with an Essex musketeer.

I've also done a bit of dry brushing and have done the spire as stone, the roof as tiles and the chapel roof as lead. The roof lifts off and I've got some heroic looking pews that I might paint at some point but I can't honestly see why I would use the interior, still nice to have the option. It's a good kit with the instructions online and went together pretty easily.

I think it's alright,I don't think it's brilliant, it's so big which makes sense for skirmish games like bolt action but I realise that I now want slightly undersize buildings. I will be able to use this for St Johns Barnet and the smaller church can stand in as St Marys Monken Hadley, although I have been tempted by another smaller chapel!

As I had to work through the summer we had our family holiday last week at half term and we all went to the Amalfi coast, no photos of castles and fortifications but as this post is of an ecclesiastical bent I thought no one would object to some medieval cathedrals, first up Amalfi in a Byzantine style.

Nice door made in Syria, I really like the contrasting stonework. Next up the Norman cathedral of Salerno.

It's a really nice cathedral,Norman on the outside, mostly baroque,apart from these pulpits which are great I think.

I also wanted to go to Salerno while I was in the area as it was one of the beaches my dad landed on in WW2, he did Sicily,Anzio and Normandy as well in a landing ship tank and was left with an abiding dislike of general Mark Clarke, which I learned about at an early age. It was also Salerno where he and his shipmates looted a piano from the first floor of a bomb damaged hotel with no stairs, so nice to wander and try and guess which one it might be!

More terrain in the pipeline and some more Italian wars stuff.

All the best Iain

Great Italian wars 38 final hinchcliffe mounted crossbow men unit

Finally finished the last unit I've got made up of mounted crossbow men. Mostly hinchcliffe with Perry plastic heads added, a one piece hinchcliffe Henry VIII (as the proprietor) a spare old glory jinette and a foundry hundred years war mounted longbow man( now with added crossbow!)

Lousy photos I'm afraid but it was too wet and there wasn't time to take them to the shed to take better photos, the papal flag is a free download from the web, to add to my others from Pete's flags.
 I'm putting together a Papal army to fight my Venetian troops with To the strongest! I think I might almost be there with this unit.
Next up maybe some shot/ crossbow men, terrain? Something soon anyway.

All the best Iain

Venice trip/ Real life stuff

The week after commanding a Venitian army ,off I went to Venice for a long weekend to celebrate our 20th  wedding anniversary, while there I took a few photos that I thought might be of interest .

Description

Bartolomeo Colleoni equestrian sculpture of the Condittore, I've wanted to see this ever since finding a book on the Condittore in my college library in Nottingham ( when I should have been researching something else to be honest!) that he was on the cover of,it's a really big plinth he's sitting on!

One of the highlights for me was the St Ursula cycle in the Academy ,painted between 1490 and 1495 by 

Vittore Carpaccio beautifully observed and superb draftsmanship and painting. The views of a late 15th century Italian urban landscape are really interesting for me in my current terrain push.

Also in the cycle is a visit to Cologne, the painter has used the Venetian Arsenal as his model of Cologne.

The "Huns" are contemporary troops possibly from Dalmatia,I like that the figures in the second image could be war of the roses Men at arms with Swiss heads! The depiction of Castle Saint Angelo on a flat plain is explained by the artist copying it from a woodprint, I do like all the flags though! In the naval museum there were a lot of really nice models and further down the canal there was an old Arsenal shed with lots of boats in it I've included a couple of pictures of a launch next to a gondala.

I really liked the old school museum, but I enjoyed the shed even more, I'd certainly recommend it if you are in Venice and your other half is willing to bear it!

This is the entrance to the Arsenal, the inside of which is still restricted,an elegant military industrial complex. Speaking of the Arsenal, the day before our trip to Venice was my elder brother's funeral,we carried him into the chapel in his coffin wearing his Arsenal kit. So apologies for being a bit tardy commenting and had I not had a tournament to go to there wouldn't have been too much to post recently. It does concentrate the mind and I have finally cleared out a load of gaming stuff I will never use again! Once you've buried your parents I guess it's inevitable that you will bury your older siblings in the natural order of things but it's still something of a shock, I hope the Venetian pictures were of interest and I hope to have some Italian wars terrain up soon.

All the best Iain