Saturday, 20 June 2020

Great Italian wars 44 Not the Phalanx show! A renaissance parade

As there isn't a  Phalanx show today  Norm at Battlefields and Warriors blog has asked us to mark the date with a post.
Here we have a dream of Maximilian, standing on the battlements of a northern Italian city.

First to come to mind are the Spanish, 4 colunna a unit of genitors, command and a field gun.
 









 Next (the closest to his heart) his creation, the landsknechts!







Next up the TtS Papal army, gendarmes, pike,mounted crossbow men and some stradiot pretending to be Turks! Plus a few cannon, because we all need artillery!








The Venetian TtS army ,gendarmes, pike mounted crossbow men with another unit of stradiot and a couple of cannons.











The French, Picard pike,adventurers with crossbow, artillery, command and a baggage train ( somewhere to keep your pornographic woodprints if you're Charles VIII!)





Three pike blocks of Swiss ,plus shot and artillery, near the French as often in their employ!
So that's the lot,here they are all together. 




We can now say goodbye to Maximilian who should have travelled over the Atlantic over a year ago but I wanted him to oversee the parade and the building work overran (that almost never happens!) 
That's a lot of figures, they seem to fill a 6' x 4' board ,however I am planning reinforcements, there is an under strength landsknecht pike block that needs 18 more figures to bring it up to par,that's happening. The Swiss will get another 108 pikemen, in one block or split in three and some command, I've started them but as most of them will be converted it seems to be taking some time! I have six further 8 figures gendarme units underway which both the French and Spanish need ( two Spanish, four French) another genitor unit for the Spanish and two mounted crossbow units for the French and four gun carts for Ravenna.  That should be about it! Ideally I would like to be able to field four armies, Venetian, Papal, Spanish and French for a campaign, I think I have enough buildings to split among them. I hope it's not too late Norm!
All the best Iain 




58 comments:

  1. Splendid Iain...
    Now that is a parade 😁

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thanks a lot Aly! I think it qualifies as one!
      Best Iain

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  2. A most impressive looking force Iain, and more to add as well. You can really see your passion for this subject show through with all you've done and are working on

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  3. Wow fantastic ! nice deployment of forces under the city walls. beautiful lain collection.

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  4. That's just marvelous Iain. And I love the ambition to grow it even further ;)

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  5. A terrific parade, and the city and battlements look equally as superb.

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    1. Thanks Lawrence! They make a nice backdrop don't they?
      Best Iain

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  6. A fantastic array of troops ready for battle. I was taken by the church contingent - the clerics in their red robes. It reminded me of Monty Pythons's Spanish Inquisition.

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    1. Thanks Greg! Yes gearing up for the counter reformation!
      Best Iain

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  7. I can't but say the same. Truly impressive, what a fantastic group pic. I love what you achieved, the effort certainly paid off!

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    1. Thanks Suber! I think you can see the effort that's gone in!
      Best Iain

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  8. Beautifully massive collection, Iain! I enjoy seeing your Italian Wars collection out on parade. If only we could face off against one another on the field of battle one day with our collections. That would be sight!

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    1. Thanks Jonathan! Well,we would definitely need another table or two!
      Best Iain

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  9. Lovely parade, made all the more eye catching with a sea of flags and all set against a perfect backdrop (the pike blocks are just wonderful).

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    1. Thanks Norm! I like the pikes and you can never have too many flags I think!
      Best Iain

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  10. Iain this is an outstandingly impressive collection...and the city walls still take my breath away even though it's not the first time they have been showcased on your blog!

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    1. Thanks Keith! I guess the whole of this post is a sneaky bit of recycling as everything has appeared at least once on this blog!
      Best Iain

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  11. Staggering Ian! Not just because of the quantity and the quality of painting, but the sheer variety of pose and dress. No wonder Max is fired up.

    PS that cardinal looks proper evil.

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    1. Thanks! I like the variety, it was weird painting Roman's because they were all uniform !
      Cardinals at this date are meant to look proper evil, it's in the small print!
      Best Iain

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  12. Fantastic armies and city walls Iain, really impressive!

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  13. That is quite a lot! Both figures and buildings.

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    1. Thanks Fitz! Your not wrong there!
      Best Iain

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  14. Most impressive and beautiful units...Gorgeous!

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  15. Very impressive Iain a real labour of love and effort, worth it when you see them together👍 But they need to fight !

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    1. Thanks Matt! Well at least the Venetians and Papal armies have been hammering each other recently!
      Best Iain

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  16. What more can I add to the above comments Iain, just beautiful :)

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  17. Truly magnificent Iain, what a wonderful sight!

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    1. Thanks Michael! I can get onto your Germans now!
      Best Iain

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  18. Very impressive parade! Your collection Iain, is absolutely fantastic! :)

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  19. Truly a feast for the eyes, Iain. Impressive in size and beauty; so many marvelous figures and amazing terrain.

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    1. Thanks a lot Dean! Very kind of you!
      Best Iain

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  20. That is one magnificent display!
    (I really like the mat too)

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    1. Thanks James! I actually painted the board!
      Best Iain

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  21. Splendid stuff Iain, you are going to need a bigger table!

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    1. Thanks Paul! Luckily I've just built another one!
      Best Iain

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  22. That is brilliant Iain! An awesome collection. The Spanish Contingent and the fortress are my favourite elements of the collection.

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    1. Thanks Oli! They're one of the older elements but I'm still happy with them, just need another unit of jinets and a couple of gendarmes...!
      Best Iain

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  23. Now that was a parade worth the looking! Wow!
    Simply massive and awesome! It really highlights the benefit of sticking to one genre; all that effort really builds up. 😀

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    1. Thanks Stew! Yes, little and often but over some years, still there have been the odd foray into WW2 Soviets, Napoleonics,dark ages and Romans!
      Best Iain

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  24. A wonderful collection of photos Iain :)

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  25. A much larger parade than I'd envisaged! Filling asuch a large table with figures is no mean feat.
    Thanks you for posting all this eye candy and there's more to come too !

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    1. Thanks Joe! It was a larger parade than I expected too!
      Best Iain

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  26. I do love a parade, and this is one spectacular one. You can pretty much make any army of the Italian Wars from what you have here (Milan, Florence, Sienna, German Hapsburgs), too!

    Reminds me that I have a clutch of Eureka Gendarmes all primed and ready to paint; maybe later this summer?

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    1. Thanks Peter! I still think I need more Swiss for Marigano, the Eureka gendarmes sound good, be nice to see them, all painted up!
      Best Iain

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  27. Wow! I must have missed this! Gorgeous armies and buildings. Especially love those battlements! A true feast for the eyes!

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    1. Thanks very much Mike! Glad you like them!
      Best Iain

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