Northern Fortress

Northern European Fortress

Following my last post showing the Italian style fortifications here is a selection of photos of my pieces more suitable for the conflicts in Northern Europe or perhaps in the East to defend against Ottoman incursions. I was really inspired by illustrations in Maximillians Der Weiß Kunig, showing siege after siege. Although many of the prints depict events at the end of the 15th century they are shown in contemporary style, early 16th century:

In a similar way to the Italian style stuff the fortress is made up of pieces from various places. Much of it is Games Workshops old Mighty Fortress. Some pieces are from the Battlements range. The Keep is by Hudson and Allen. The walls and towers with hoardings were bought off ebay as were the buildings inside.



Gun towers guard the gate



Gun towers guard the gate

Heavily defended gate



Horsemen enter the gate



The gates in this set up are protected by early gun towers, these are from the Battlements medieval range. I think they look pretty formidable.



Muster in the courtyard



The Keep

The Keep and courtyard

The Keep is by Hudson and Allen, it looks great although I think if it was the oldest part of the fortress it should actually be square rather than round!

Tower with hoarding

Tower with hoarding

These towers were from ebay, the wooden bits were already painted so I only had to paint the stone to match my other stuff. These really remind me of the depictions in the above prints.

Hoarding

Hoarding from above

The hoardings were from the same place. Outdated by the 16th century but there were few fortresses that were fully updated to keep pace with changes in fortification.

Troops pass the Sally port as they enter

Sally Port

 This piece was again from the same ebay seller. I use it as a fortified sally port but to be honest it could simply be a building within the courtyard.

Landsknechts in the courtyard

Landsknechts in the courtyard

Finally I couldn't resist a few shots of the Landsknechts in the courtyard. Sadly I am pretty hopeless at building scenery. I bought the timber framed houses off ebay years ago. They were a bargain, from what I remember they were only about £5 each, ready painted and based.

Italian Fortress

Warfare in this period was dominated by sieges. I have been fascinated by fortifications and their adaptation to resist and utilise gunpowder weapons for years and started collecting these earthworks and castle pieces before I began my early 16th century collection.

The first pictures are of a city wall that has been surrounded by earthworks to enhance its defensive capabilities and to allow the Landsknecht defenders to employ their artillery in defence. The walls and towers are from the old Battlements range available from Magister Militum. The buildings are by Hovels and the earthworks are from Stronghold Miniatures I think, I bought them years ago. The Gabions are from ebay, they are resin castings, really useful bits of scenery.

Gatehouse protected by a bastion

Guns defending the walls

Italian style tower

Breached section of the old town walls

View from inside the town

Earthworks defending the walls

Breach loading guns defending the tower

A deep defensive system of earthworks

Landsknecht guns

The next few pictures are of the above battlements pieces combined with Games workshops old Might Fortress to create an Italian style castle. To be honest its probably a bit too big to use in a game, I prefer using the pieces to represent city walls but it shows the flexibility of the pieces.



Italian style fortress




Italian style fortress

And finally I could not resist adding a few pictures of Pro Gloria Miniatures excellent civilians within the fortress



Inside the castle walls




Inside the castle walls



Inside the castle walls

Gascon Crossbowmen

Gascon Crossbowmen

To be honest they are not specifically Gascons, more like generic early 16th century crossbowmen. The figures could easily be Gascons or Aventuriers, Spanish or Italians. I got the idea for them from Petes Italian Wars Blog, http://thegreatitalianwars.blogspot.com/2011/05/italian-wars-french-crossbow.html

I thought combining the old GW Empire Arms with the Perry Miniatures late medieval figures was a great idea. To ensure they are more clearly early 16th century figures as oppose to medieval I also used the Perry Tudor Heads and the TAG 16th century swords, http://www.theassaultgroup.co.uk/store/product.php?productid=1172&cat=82&page=6

Below I have are some photos to show how the figures were made up before I painted them.



                          

Below is are some pictures of the figures as French Crossbowmen, the drummer is a TAG Italian figure and the standard bearer is a Foundry Conquistador. All the others are plastic Perry figures from the Medieval Mercenaries box set. I tried to ensure that they all had a bolt quiver or some sort of loading equipment as well. The old GW Empire crossbowmen set is useful for this as the figures come with the metal arms and also metal cranequins and quivers.

Gascon Crossbowmen

French Captain

The figures can just as easily be used as Italians or Spanish, I added a Colonna banner instead of a French one and they can then represent Italians in Spanish or Imperial service. The standard bearer is a TAG figure

Colonna Crossbowmen

Colonna Crossbowmen