Getting There..

So since the last post I've managed to fit in a fair bit more painting. I got my fourth rank painted up:

Pretty standard - Couple of Swiss heads in there. Also recieved my new Mercenaries box through and set about using some of them to make a command group for the Vorhut:

The Hornblower is the Foundry one that Simon kindly sent me. I wanted something a little different for the unit leader so I used one of the Tudor heads and cut the large feather off one of the plastic mercenary heads and glued that on for a little Swiss 'flair'. I think the Talhoffer 'Ox' stance fits in nicely with a unit of levelled pikes. The standard bearer is just made up of standard plastic parts from the box.

While on the subject of command groups I've got a question for you guys - has anyone got any idea what sort of banner the units outside of the Gewalthut might carry? I was under the impression that the cantonal standards would be grouped together in the Gewalthut and as a result am not really sure what the Vorhut, for example, might carry. I see the flag sheet comes with a carpenters guild flag.. If anyone could give me any advice on this I'd be most grateful!

Finally with four ranks complete I decided to glue down the models and I'm pretty pleased with the end result..

I'll be adding some broken pikes around the wounded chaps once they're based. I quite like the wall of pikes effect.I've added the wounded man at arms near the back, as if he's being escorted through their ranks from the front.

I'll be making one more rank from the plastic pikemen. Thinking of trying to get a bit of interaction between them and the wounded chap being carried - then once they're based it'll be time to move onto the final pike unit or maybe some skirmishes..

Bring out your dead! And a kind donation

So, soon after I posted my last update on here the new dead and wounded set was released by the Perry's and I made sure I got my grubby mits on them sharpish! I plan on incorporating these guys into the first two ranks of my Vorhut to make it look a little more dynamic. As I see it the Vanguard should be the first to meet the enemy and as a result the first to take any casualties. Here they are:





There are two more models in the pack, a dead man at arms and a dead bloke in a jack, I think I'll save them for another unit though. They're really nice models and I debated doing some head swaps with the Swiss heads, but decided just to leave them as they are in the end as I would have probably just ruined them. I did a little greenstuff work on some of them to change the livery tabards into something a little more 'European'.These chaps are by far my favourites:

It's such a characterful model. I used greenstuff to cover the sleeves of the jack on the guy on the left - I intend to incorporate them into my rear ranks, as if the man at arms is being escorted away through the unit, perhaps some sort of small diorama... I also like the fact that if it wasn't for the blood these guys would just look like they were coming home from a night out. Perhaps the Man at Arms has had one to many?..

Another addition to my force has been kindly donated by Simon (aka Painterman). I've been trying to get my hands on the Foundry Swiss musician models for an age, however I'm not willing to pay their extortionate postage costs on a single pack of models. Simon had these three models spare and was kind enough to send them over to me:

I intend to use the hornblower in my Vorhut and the bagpiper in the Nachut. I'm quite tempted to remove the bloke playing the tabor in my Gewalthut and replace him with the drummer as he looks a little more serious, but we shall see.. Cheers again Simon!

Finally on an unrelated note (I hope this doesn't appear to be turning into an archery blog) I succsessfully made my first warbow at the weekend. It's made of Ash and still needs a bit of work but I'm very pleased with it!

I've got another box of mercenaries and some European heads winging their way to me now, so watch this space!