16th Century Tents and a Landsknecht Camp

For this month's post we have a set of tents suitable for medieval and renaissance armies. I have been meaning to paint some tents to the collection for years but could never decide whether to add the guy ropes and base the tents or to just paint up the resin miniatures and put them straight on the table as they were. In the end I decided to add the ropes, especially after seeing the great results on this blog post: https://northern-wargaming.blogspot.com/2014/07/tents-and-pavilions-in-28mm-scale.html. My attempt to add miniature tent pegs to the bases proved to be a bit of a nightmare. Instead each base has had a couple of holes drilled for each rope and the ropes have then been tied to the base through the holes. I definitely got better at doing this as the project progressed so you may notice in the images below that some of the ropes look more taught and convincing than others!

The tents are mixture of casts from the old Ian Weekley range and new miniatures from Debris of War: https://www.debrisofwar.com/store/c21/Historical_28mm_Tents.html. There are 19 in total, I am very tempted to add some more in the future especially as I haven't included any lower status tents yet. As well as the addition of the guy ropes each tent base also has additional camp equipment so you will see crates, barrels, sacks, buckets, jugs and pots outside the tents. Debris of War also do a great set of camp fires, https://www.debrisofwar.com/store/p306/28mm_Camp_Fires.html which you will see in the photos below.

Of course I couldn't post these up without having a look at some contemporary images of military camps and you will note I have had to make a few compromises to keep this set as generic as possible. From the pictures below it is clear that many of the grander tents had shields with the heraldic arms of the tent's owners painted on them. Having said that nearly all the images posted, apart from one of those from "Der Weisskunig", are of Imperial/Hapsburg camps, even the "Roman" camp in the "Siege of the city of Alesia" is portrayed as an Imperial camp, so it was certainly a thing done by Imperial armies. It is also clear that flying small flags from the tops of the tent poles was common, again at least amongst armies of the Holy Roman Empire. So that I can use these tents for as many armies as possible, from my Gaelic Irish all the way through to my Ottoman collection, I have not added these details.

Image of an Imperialist camp c.1480 from the House book of Wolfegg Castle

Maximilian I's 1502 Zeugbuch is an illustrated inventory of his military equipment which includes tents bearing the Hapsburg arms.

There are lots of depictions of military encampments in Maximilian I's "Der Weisskunig" of c.1516.

A depiction of a siege camp from "Der Weisskunig".

A military camp pitched around some cottages from "Der Weisskunig" c.1516.

Colour wise I was tempted to paint some of them in bright colours but in the coloured images below the tents are all shown in their natural off white linen colour whilst some of the very grand ones in Matthias Gerung's "Military Camp of Charles V near Lauingen" appear to be a very pristine white. My 28mm camp is still lacking some of the more humbler tents of the lowly foot soldiers as can be seen in the details from the "Siege of the city of Alesia" and in  the "Military Camp of Charles V near Lauingen". I particularly like the detail from Lucas Cranach the Younger's "Siege of Wolffenbüttel" which shows some of the landsknecht living in makeshift shelters which look to be constructed from branches and foliage stacked up against sets of pikes that have been driven into the ground. They look like miniature haystacks but with doorways and pikes sticking out of the tops of them!

Detail from Melchior Feselen's "Siege of the city of Alesia by Julius Caesar and the fight against Vercingetorix" 1533. Although depicting an event from Roman times the Feselen has depicted the Romans as contemporary Imperial troops. In this section of the painting the tents of the normal infantry can be seen.

Detail from Melchior Feselen's "Siege of the city of Alesia by Julius Caesar and the fight against Vercingetorix" 1533. This part of painting shows much grander tents bearing the Imperial Eagle. Note how the wagons are circled to form a defensive section of the camp.

Detail from Melchior Feselen's "Siege of the city of Alesia by Julius Caesar and the fight against Vercingetorix" 1533. In the left foreground a landsknecht tent can be seen whilst in the centre are much larger tents. Again the use of wagons as part of the fortifications is clear.

Detail from Lucas Cranach the Younger's "Siege of Wolffenbüttel", 1542. This image shows lots of different tents, including what look to be tent corridors running between some of them, but also shows much more basic shelters. These seem to be made of branches and other natural materials resting on pikes that have been thrust into the ground. 

Military Camp of Charles V near Lauingen, Matthias Gerung, 1551. Note how the smart tents in the centre bearing the Habsburg and Imperial arms contrast the tents of the common soldiers to the right of the image. Some of the tents of the common soldiery are clearly held up by branches instead of bespoke tent poles.

Some photos of the new tents, set up to represent a camp in the siege lines of a Hapsburg army, are shown below. They really come to life when the wagons, livestock, soldiers and camp followers are added. These will be really useful additions to the collection. I already have a couple of games planned with Stuart that are based around events that took place in Henry VIII's camp during his 1513 invasion of France so there will hopefully be some battle reports featuring the camp soon.

A 16th century military camp.

The camp followers are busy.

28mm 16th century camp.

A view across the camp which is protected by earthworks on three sides.

28mm Landsknecht Camp.

A unit of landsknecht pike and shot march through the camp.

28mm Landsknecht camp.

Imperialist Captains discuss plans. Note the firepit in the foreground to the right.

Mounted Imperial Commanders.

A view into the camp.

Some of the landsknecht gamble over a game of dice. A common cause of ill discipline and the start of many a camp brawl!

A prisoner, maybe a suspected enemy spy, is interrogated by one of the Captains.

A lively scene in the camp.

A view of the tent tops and the earthworks.

Commanders discuss their options outside one of the Captain's tents.