During what I am terming the "Great Rebasing of 2015" I managed to get all my early 16th century stuff done but had to stop at some point and never managed to rebase my Assault Group Mid-Sixteenth Century English. I gave up leaving most of them looking like this: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/a-tudor-infantry-company.html . The post from 2014 discusses the troops in more detail than I will here. Of course the fact they never got rebased has slowly niggled away at me and finally I have managed to put down the paint brushes for long enough to get them rebased. Saying that there are around a dozen newly painted figures that have been added in to make the numbers work so there has been a bit of new painting to complete this project.
I am pleased with the results. I feel the new bases and mixing of the figures makes them look a bit more real and less "toy soldier" which I felt they looked a bit like before. This was especially true of the billmen. You may notice I have added a few figures in "almain rivet" and breastplates to the billmen which means they are not so completely uniform, all being in the red and white coats. This seems to make them look more convincing. The flags are, of course, from Petes excellent range, available on Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28mm-Renaissance-Elizabethan-Tudor-16th-Century-English-Paper-flags-1/263286830626?hash=item3d4d1e3622:g:x1sAAOxyVaBS9B-L and https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/28mm-Renaissance-Elizabethan-Tudor-16th-Century-English-flags-2/253232804479?hash=item3af5d9f27f:g:kegAAOxycmBS9B~9.
With the addition of some more cavalry this collection will be superb for pushing the games of Lion Rampant even further into the Sixteenth Century. The more generic Imperialist or French Infantry I have already completed for the 1540s, http://camisado1500s.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/marching-arquebusiers-and-mid-16th.html, could fight them in terrain similar to the recent Ardres and Calais games in a refight of the "Camisade of Boulogne". This will certainly happen at some point, it will mean I can field the infamous Blaise de Monluc as he took part in this assault. It's been a long time since I read his memoirs but from what I recall he decided English archery was not the thing of legend he had heard after encountering English Archers in the night fighting around Boulogne in the autumn of 1544.
The other opponents for this part of the collection are my current project. These figures were sculpted with the French and Anglo-Scots wars of the 1540s in mind but they are fine for the 1530s up to the mid 1560s in my opinion. This means I can use them as English infantry for Mid-Sixteenth Century Ireland. They could be crushing the Rebellion of Silken Thomas, the 10th Earl of Kildare who rebelled in the 1530s and lead to the English Crown taking a far more hands on approach in its government, or attempted goverment, of Ireland in the Sixteenth century. Alternatively they could take the field against the forces of Shane O'Neill. A battle like "The Red Sagums" in July 1561, where Shane O'Neill with 120 Horse and a few hundred Galloglass and "Redshanks" fell upon an English rearguard of 400 men, would be perfect to do in a scaled down skirmish. Sourcing figures for the Gaelic Irish can be a bit tricky but with the use of green stuff and some conversions I think I have found enough figures suitable for a smaller Lion Rampant style force. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures of them up by the New Year.
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| The Assault Group Mid-16th Century Tudor English |
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| Tudor Billmen flanked by Archers and Arquebusiers with a skirmish line of Bow and Shot in front. |
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| A Tudor Officer amongst the Archers. |
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| The skirmishers fan out in front of the main body of the infantry. |
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| The whole Tudor Infantry company. |
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| The troops from the rear. |
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| The rebased Mid-16th Century Billmen |
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| English Billmen from the 1540s. |
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| An English Command base. |
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| The second English Command Base. |
