Italian Crossbowmen and Hail Shot

Italian Hail Shot and Crossbowmen

This is just a quick update on a small project I have worked on over the last fortnight. The Crossbowmen are from the excellent Assault Group renaissance range. I love the way they have tried to differentiate from the Spanish. They are all clean shaven with long hair and some have very short doublets and short, or rolled up, jacket and doublet sleaves. Eventually I want to make the different national elements in the collection all distinctive although I am aware that this may not be that easy! I was hoping Eureka were going to continue with their 100 Club Italian figures so I would have more to add. After inquiring about these they emailed me to say the project has been shelved, which is a shame. What was particularly sad is one of the reasons they gave for cancelling the project was that Foundry have just finished rules and figures. A real shame as having painted many of the Eureka Gendarmes I am sure their Italian Infantry would have far surpassed the new Foundry ones.

Hail Shot



Hail Shot

 The Hail Shot are from the Old Copplestone Grenadier range, I bought them through Vexillia. Only the figure with the blue cap is original, the other 3 have all had the helmeted heads removed and Perry Tudor heads put on. I did this as I wanted them to fit better with the Assault Group figures and with my converted Perry Crossbowmen. It makes them look far less medieval. I am not that confident with conversions on metal figures and these were a good test. I am quite happy with how they turned out and I am now keen to have a go at converting some more late medieval figures and perhaps using the Perry Swiss heads on Landsknechts to build up some more Reisläufer.

This will be my last post of the year. Over Christmas I hope to be able to set everything up and get some army shots. I have a few things planned for next year but I have caught up with most of the stuff I wanted in the collection when I started. This means I will be able to try a few new things, possibly a baggage train using some of the excellent new Perry wagons and Pro Gloria figures that are planned for early next year. Hopefully there will be more releases from The Assault Group and Artizan. Mounted Crossbowmen and Mounted Arquebusiers are the 2 troop types I am really struggling to find good figures for that really suit the 1510s-1520s. The other key element is French Infantry although for now I am happy to use my Spanish and Italians for these.


Italian Crossbowmen



Italian Crossbowmen and Hail Shot