Wednesday 10 July 2019

Great Italian wars 37 landsknecht pikemen

Here we have the balance of plastic warlord/ pro Gloria plastic landsknechts mixed with Perry plastic mercenaries and a leavening of metal foundry and Artizan landsknechts plus the remainder of my one Kickstarter experience,some Steel fist dismounted men at arms, and there is also a foundry conquistador drummer in with everybody else.
The first batch of these figures I painted up as some Romagla pike during the painting challenge, this batch have been painted for more universal use.
The large pike block has been given some French flags, they're from a variety of sources and certainly aren't up to Pete's flags quality but they're good enough!
The smaller pike block has some Imperial flags.






















That's 52 more figures that if I was being brutally honest I don't really need,but to be honest I really enjoyed pottering along with these while I was mostly building and painting terrain,by their varied nature they take a while to complete but great fun!
Next up, probably more terrain, plenty of figures undercoated but nothing nearly finished.
All the best Iain


58 comments:

  1. pikes are never enough. beautiful square beautiful mixes.

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    1. Thanks a lot Ronin! Your right of course you can never have too many pikemen!
      Best Iain

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  2. Being brutally honest, can anyone EVER have TOO MANY pike blocks? I have one more in work, myself!

    Outstanding work on these fine fellows!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan! I shall just have to double the size of my table! Looking forward to your pike block!
      Best Iain

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  3. Iain, the mixing of manufacturers works really well and works hand in glove with the periods use of vibrant colour splash. My eye is instantly drawn to the figure with the magnificent 5 feathered head gear, surely he is a +1 in both attack and morale :-)

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    1. Thanks Norm! It's a great period for ostentatious clothing and he's way ahead of every one else!
      Best Iain

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  4. Splendid stuff Iain...
    Very colourful and very flaggy... ;-)

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks Aly! Don't we just love colourful and flaggy!
      Best Iain

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  5. Great looking pikemen, Iain! And yes, soldiers are never enough:)

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    1. Thanks Dmitry! Yes we always need more toy soldiers!
      Best Iain

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  6. Those are very spiffy, nice work!

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    1. Thanks Peter! Nice to hear from you and yes spiffy is a good way of describing them!
      Best Iain

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  7. Excellent work! They really look the part, too, with all the variation among the figures. Some figures, like those, do seem to take more time than others. As long as you're enjoying it, though, that's great.

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    1. Thanks Fitz! Absolutely,I was quite happy trundling along with these and was quite surprised when I realized I'd finished them!
      Best Iain

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    1. Thanks a lot Michal! That's very kind of you!
      Best Iain

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  9. Very nice work Iain - I assume these are the gentlemen featured in the "how to.." basing tutorial earlier?

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    1. Thanks Keith! Yes, the smaller block were the chaps in the previous post.
      Best Iain

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  10. They look great. It’s always a fine line between having enough variety to keep yourself interested and having so much that you can get bogged down it it, but these came out beautifully.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence! Agreed, sometimes you want a faster return on your effort!
      Best Iain

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  11. Very nice they look great on mass as a unit 🙂

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    1. Thanks Matt! Can't beat a big block of pikes!
      Best Iain

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  12. A glorious mix of figures Iain, so very colourful. I could stare at them for ages, that huge plume of feathers (used to be my local pub as it happens) is most eye catching. Excellent work.

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    1. Thanks Lee! He's a popular fellow, the shy and retiring type possibly overcompensating?!
      Best Iain

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  13. Those are simply glorious, Iain! I try so hard not to get enticed into starting an Italian Wars project and then I look at your troops again. :-) How could I resist. Yours are great!
    Best wishes,
    Jason

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    1. Thanks Jason! Oh go on I'd love to see your take on the period judging by your Franco-Prussian war work it would be excellent!
      Best Iain

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  14. Can you really have too much variety ?
    These look great and reminscent of thePeter Guilders wonderful Renaissance armies that first got me interested in the period.

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  15. Great looking pile block and that man with the headdress is really impressive.

    50 figures in excess isn’t so bad. I’m sure you’ll find a use for them. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew! It's that man again, very popular! I'm sure I'll find a use for them!
      Best Iain

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  16. Nice, I love them, specially the overall sense of the whole unit.

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    1. Thanks Suber! Glad they're a coherent whole!
      Best Iain

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  17. Nice work, that's a lot of huge feathers on that guy!!

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    1. Thanks Mark! It's a lorra lorra feathers! As Cilla might have said!
      Best Iain

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  18. You can never have enough Landsknecht Iain - these will do the trick nicely!

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    1. Thanks Oli! You are as always right!
      Best Iain

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  19. Great looking block of pikemen. The various makes fit well together, particularly with your lovely brushwork. I had looked at those plastic Warlord figures and was considering getting them, but the colorful clothing scared me off and settled for the much-easier to paint 19th C. stuff. :)

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    1. Thanks Dean! I bought them because Warlord brought out plastic landsknechts and like you I'm a plastic fantastic type,I would love to see you do some landsknechts, maybe after the 19th C types?
      Best Iain

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  20. Lovely stuff Iain, I especially like all the feathers and fluted armor. You'd have to be nuts to want to take those boys on!

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    1. Thanks JBM! Feathers and flutes, excellent! Display behaviour?
      Best Iain

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  21. Wonderful looking pikemen, what a fantastic job!!

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  22. Nice work, I painted about 120 Old Glory Landsknechts a good few years ago, nice models but would not want to do that again ;)

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    1. Thanks Paul! I think I've painted about that number of old glory landsknechts,I quite liked them but they were spread over a long period,as you say nice models!
      Best Iain

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  23. These are wonderful, Iain. I love the sheer density of flags.

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    1. Thanks FMB! It's one of the great things about this period!
      Best Iain

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  24. Okay, please, everyone just needs to stop posting all these beautiful pictures of colourful Italian Wars pikemen, I'm trying to stay focused here and NOT start a whole new collection!

    (Seriously, these are beautiful, Iain! Love the colour of this period... and the GREAT BIG FREAKING SWORDS!! Who says size doesn't matter!)

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    1. Thanks Tim! Big blokes with big swords! You should definitely try out landsknechts,they would look ace!
      Best Iain

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    2. I think I had a few at one point - maybe from Real Partha...? that I used as part of a Warhammer Fantasy Empire Army back in the late 80s...? They are long gone though.

      I have been very tempted to pick up a few from Lead Adventure Miniatures (there are a few in their Bruegelburg line...) just for some small scale skirmishing... but that really, REALLY needs to be a project for another year!!

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    3. I seemed to remember it was an old glory figure? If anyone could cope with an additional project while doing out the basement I would nominate you!
      Best Iain

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    4. Oh, I did have a single Old Glory Ladsknecht handgunner... but that was more recently. I still have him kicking around to paint (along with a few others - to make gangs for En Garde - which I have yet to play!) The ones I'm talking about are long, long gone.

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    5. It's funny,this all started because I picked up some of the Real Partha landsknechts when they came out,I'm painting up a pike block of them, well some were painted in the early 1980's in enamels ( which I'm leaving!)
      Best Iain

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  25. Some more really cool additions to the collection. Those feathers on the helmets are nuts - how did the poor saps behind the armoured buggers see where to poke those pikes!? LOL

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    1. It's a period when you have to be ostentatious!, I guess with a pike, you can just point it vaguely in the right direction!
      Best Iain

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  26. Nicely done. I keep throwing looks at this box (well, the army deal really) and telling myself to behave.

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    1. Thanks! You should have a go, I'm sure you'd make a splendid go of it!
      Best Iain

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