More Rebasing - Light Horse and Skirmishers

Jinetes 

Another update on the endless rebasing that I am currently undertaking. I have completed three groups of Light Horse. The Spanish Jinetes, Stradiots in more Western European armour and clothing and some Mounted Arquebusiers. The larger Skirmish Bases really bring them to life. Following on from these I have rebased three groups of figures from The Assault Group. The Spanish Crossbowmen and then Italian Crossbowmen and Arquebusiers. These are all pretty useful units being quite generic early 16th century figures so could serve for Italian, French or Spanish Infantry at a push. If I was to paint them now I would definitely have added a few more striped hose. The first crossbow unit are some of the first figures I painted for this collection.

Not all the figures are skirmishers, I have also completed some Italian Sword and Buckler infantry, a mixture of Perry and TAG figures. I haven't mixed the two styles on the bases as the Perry Figures are definitely more "medieval" rather than early 1500s and I wanted the option to possibly use them in a 15th century Condottieri army in the future. The final miniatures are 24 Crossbowmen, Perry Plastics with some Old Citadel metal crossbow arms and head swaps to bring them more into the 1500s. Again If I painted these now I would do more striped hose and maybe add a few beards with Greenstuff. I have recently picked up another 16 of these metal crossbow arm sets on ebay so I will probably add to these at some point in the future. I think they work well with the Perry Plastic figures.

I still have a long way to go with the rebasing but I'm making pretty good progress. I now have a clearer idea of what is left and how I'm going to tackle it to make it more manageable. The Landsknechts will be broken down into batches - marching pike, standing pike, attacking pike, advancing pike. I will do some of the shot like the skirmishers shown above and some in closer orders like the Spanish shot I posted before. I'm actually looking forward to tackling the massed Landsknecht pike and shot!

Stradiots

Mounted Arquebusiers

Crossbowmen

Italian Crossbowmen

Italian Arquebusiers

Milanese Infantry

Milanese Infantry

French Crossbowmen

But it hasn't all been rebasing. Last Friday I visited the Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth. It's been on my to visit list for ages and was not a disappointment. The amount of finds they have on display is really impressive. All sorts of things from kitchen utensils up to the huge bronze guns she carried and even one of the crows nests and the darts they hurled from these precarious positions. It was interesting to see how lots of old (by mid 16th century standards) breachloading hooped and barreled artillery pieces, were being used alongside state of the art bronze guns that were cast in one piece. Some of the bronze guns are really spectacular.
I was surprised at how much of the boat itself is preserved, it looks like about a third of the vessel, basically everything that sunk in the mud as she hit the seabed on her side. You can have a go at drawing a warbow (even half the pull of the ones found on board is not easy!) and pick up original bits of the rope and hand carved artillery shot. For anyone interested in renaissance warfare, or Tudor life in general, I would recommend a visit. It was pretty dark in the museum due to preservation, and flash photography is forbidden, but I did get a few (quite terrible!) snaps that give an idea of what is on show.

Linstocks from the Mary Rose

Cannon from the Mary Rose

Pewterware from the Mary Rose

Hailshot from the Mary Rose