Maximilian Mounted Crossbowmen

After my foray into the mid-sixteenth century the blog is now back into the early 1500s. I was thinking about adding another unit of mounted crossbowmen to the collection as the one I have completed so far is very much Late Medieval Italian in style with some of them wearing Giorneas over their doublets and Mazzocchios around their helmets. Something a little more Northern European was needed. I picked up some boxes of the Perry Light Cavalry at Salute 2015 and was going to use one of these to make up another unit, but I felt they would still look very late medieval rather than early 16th Century.

I changed my mind about using the Perry figures when I saw this post by Daniel S on his excellent blog Kriegsbuch: http://kriegsbuch.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/the-appearance-and-equipment-of-german.html. It shows images of a painting from 1502 illustrating a conflict between the city of Nuremburg and the forces of Kasimir von Bradenburg-Kulmbach. This painting is fantastic in highlighting the dress and armour of German troops at the start of the 1500s. It clearly shows lots of light horsemen wearing painted or cloth covered sallets and clothing over their plate armour. Also included in the post were pictures from another German painting of the 1490s again showing the same style helmets and clothing worn with the plate. I have included some of these images below, but take a look at Kriegsbuch for more detail. It is certainly worth a look.

Detail from a painting of 1502 showing a battle between the forces of the the city of Nuremburg and Kasimir von Brandenburg-Kulmbach

Light Horseman in painted armour

Detail from a painting c.1490 by an anonymous Swabian Master showing cavalry in painted sallets

Detail from a painting c.1490 showing a cloth covered or painted sallet and cloth covered armour

Daniel also notes the similarity between the dress of the light horse and the men shown in Dürers Paumgartner altarpiece, an image I have posted on this blog before when discussing the "French Archers"  or lighter Gendarmes that Eureka Miniatures made some years ago. I have included it again below along with a picture from the Schilling Chronicle showing similarly dressed horsemen from the early 1500s. This got me thinking that it might look good to convert some of these miniatures into mounted crossbowmen. Granted the images discussed so far are not actually of mounted crossbowmen but some contemporary illustrations do show mounted crossbowmen in plate armour. A good example of this is the character shown in one of Paul Dolnsteins diary sketches of 1502.

Albrecht Dürer's Paumgartner altarpiece c.1500 commissioned by the Paumgartner family of Nuremburg

Detail from the Illustrated Chronicle by Diebold Schilling showing cavalry in painted sallets and cloth covered armour

Armoured mounted crossbowman c.1502 from Paul Dolnsteins diary



So here are the finished horsemen. Apologies for the quality of the photos I was having some serious lighting issues and will take some more of them accompanying other troops when I get the chance.  They are mix of Eureka French Archers and Perry Miniatures plastics - the crossbows, quivers and head swaps. The Perry Miniatures Light Cavalry boxed set includes loads of great bits and pieces that can be used for mounted crossbowmen and I think they have worked well on these figures. The Eureka figures come with a lance armed arm and an open handed arm so it is really easy to add the crossbows. I wanted to use only figures that are based on those from the Paumgartner Altarpiece, so basically none with puffed sleaves. I was particularly anal and did a special order from Nic at Eureka who kindly provided the requested figures rather than providing them randomly. This cost a little extra but there was no postage to pay as I picked the figures up directly at Salute this year.

In the contemporary paintings red and white seems to predominate, and I have gone for a similar theme but as this is for the early 1500s I have gone for a few other colours as well. I wouldn't want these chaps outfits being out done by their Landsknecht brothers on the field! I didn't attempt the more detailed painted sallets from the artwork or surviving pieces. Anyone who has read this blog for a while will no my loathing of attempting to paint anything too detailed on shields, banners or barding and some of the designs on those helmets certainly fall into that category.

What do you think of the results? I think with hindsight I would have done a few more headswaps. I wanted all the figures to have their visors up but I think some of the Perry plastic heads from the men at arms sets with sallets and bevors would have looked great on these figures. I am tempted to do some proper light horsemen from the images above in the future and have them all with visored sallets, spears and based in closer order but we will see. I also really think I should have included a standard. On a lot of my lighter, skirmish style troops I don't add them but I think with these cavalry they are sufficiently well accoutred to have warranted a nice banner. Again possibly something to add later, for now they will have to make do with an officer and trumpeter.

The mounted crossbowmen

I think this chap in the red is one of the closest resemblances to the figures in the contemporary artwork

The officer and trumpeter

All the figures have crossbolt quivers.

I think these two fit the bill well as early 16th century mounted crossbowmen

Marching Arquebusiers and the Mid 16th Century Troops so far

Apologies for the catchy title, it hardly rolls off the tongue! To follow on from my last couple of posts here are some pictures of a few more Arquebusiers to accompany my Pikemen and Skirmishing Shot for the Mid 16th Century. The figures are all by The Assault Group and the only change I have made to them is to remove the Fleur De Lis badges that they were all wearing. This is simply because I want to be able to use them for more generic infantry rather than specifically as French Troops.

While the first set of Shot were based as skirmishers these chaps are in far more sedate poses and based in closer order. My intention is for them to accompany the Pike as the "sleeves" of Shot that were beginning to develop in the mid 1500s, to become the Pike and Shot formations more familiar to the Late 16th and 17th Centuries. I have also included a picture of the whole Mid 16th Century collection so far, I am yet to rebase my 1540s Tudors.

I will be returning to this blogs more familiar territory of the earlier 1500s for a while although at some point I would like to return to this collection and add some more to it. I was hoping Warlord Games might release some suitable figures but I am a bit unsure of the figures for the 1560s they have released so far. We will see.

Mid 16th Century Arquebusiers

Pike Block and Arquebusiers 1540s-1550s

Pike Block and Arquebusiers by The Assault Group

The Mid 16th Century Collection so far

Skirmishing Arquebusiers - Mid 16th Century

Following on from my last post of the mid 16th Century Pikemen by the Assault Group here are the first of the Arquebusiers to accompany them. They are based in Skirmish order and accompanied by some officers, a targeteer and halberdier to ward off other skirmishers they encounter. I suppose with the inclusion of these other figures they could also be suitable for the "Forlorn Hope" or "Les Enfants Perdus", sallying out in front of the pike or leading an assault on fortifications.

There is no real conversion work here, they are beautiful figures and don't need much changing. The only thing I have done is to remove the Fleur De Lis that all of the Arquebusiers have embroidered on their doublets or sewn to their leather jerkins. This would have shown their alleigance to Valois France in the Mid 16th Century. I like the fact that they have been sculpted onto the figures but as I wish them to be more generic rather than specifically French I have removed them. As you can see in the photos these figures are skirmishing out in front of Habsburg Pikemen so the Fleur De Lis would not have been appropriate here.

I am currently working on some shot in closer order who will form the "sleeves" that accompany the Pike Block. I think after that it may be time to return to the earlier part of the 16th century again.

Skirmishing Arquebusiers c.1535-1560

Skirmishing Arquebusiers by The Assault Group

The line advances in front of the Pike

Skirmishing Shot with Pike behind

Skirmishing Arquebusiers and Officer

Imperialist Pike II

A few decades deviation from the early 16th century today. A while back I painted up some of The Assault Groups Mid Tudor figures to form a small pike block: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/imperialist-pike.html . I was really impressed with the figures, especially the detail that had been put into sculpting the armour and the buckles, straps and laces that it was worn with. When The Assault Group expanded the range to add the Valois French I was keen to pick some up and create a much bigger block. I took advantage of a deal TAG were offering at SELWG in October where I think it was 20% off any preorders to be picked up at the show. 

So here they are, 70 figures in total, including most of the original 20 from the first post. They are a mix of The Assault Groups Tudors and Valois French with no head swaps or conversions this time. I would argue the figures can be used as fairly generic pike from the 1530s through to the 1560s, though by the 1560s some of the clothing styles and armour may be a bit dated. They would be fine to represent pikemen in the early French Wars of Religion or even the start of the Dutch Revolt at a pinch. I have painted them up so they can be used to represent different nationalities, they are shown here as Habsburg troops. The flags are by Redoubt Enterprises, I think they are intended for the Thirty Years War but are also suitable for troops fighting for Charles V in the mid 16th century. In fact, carrying these flags, these figures are great for the troops who fought in the later Habsburg Valois Wars in battles such as St Quentin in 1557 and Gravelines in 1558.

So far for this project I have this unit and the mounted arquebsiers: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/pedro-de-gamboa-and-mounted-arquebusiers.html . I am currently working on some shot to accompany the pike. I am going to paint some skirmishing arquebusiers and some marching ones as well. This is more of a side project to my earlier collection though, so I think I will return to the earlier 1500s after that. Saying that I would like to rebase all the Tudor figures I painted up a while ago at some point as well!

Habsburg Pike c.1530-1560

Mid 16th Century Pikemen by The Assault Group

The centre of the block has the drummers, ensigns officers and halberdiers

The block from the side - note the officer at the back with a 2 handed sword

Hook Guns, Hail Shot or Hand Cannons?

The pictures below are of another small project I have worked on in recent months. I already had some of these Grenadier figures, they call them Giant Handgunners, and posted them on this blog a few years back: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/italian-crossbowmen-and-hail-shot.html. I spotted some more packets of these figures at a stall at the SELWG show last year and here they are, based up and added to the original sets. 

There have been quite a few head swaps and a couple of TAG figures accompany them on two of the bases. The figures are intended to be for fantasy but I think they fit rather well into the early 1500s when gunpowder weapons were far from standardised and all sorts of different types were in use at the same time. This style of weapon would probably have been quite dated by the 16th century, more suited to the 15th century, although saying that they do remind me a bit of the Hail Shot pieces that were retrieved from the Mary Rose which sank in 1545. As you can tell from the title I am not really sure what to call these guns. Let me know if you think there are a little too early or too fantasy in style.

With the head swaps and addition on the TAG figures I have tried to make them suitable for the 1490s into the 1510s. I doubt they would really have taken to the field in some kind of unit as shown in the first three photos. That is if they took to the field at all, they look like they would be far more suited to firing from defended positions which is of course how the Spanish preferred to deploy their shot armed troops in the early stages of the Italian Wars. I have shown them integrated with other Arquebusiers which I think works really well and also within a Spanish Infantry formation as a whole. In the last few photos the pikemen are flanked by shot armed troops who are supported by sword and buckler armed Rodeleros. I think the new bases work well with the other figures, the fact there are only two of them on a base doesn't seem to harm the overall look when mixed with the more densely based miniatures which I am glad about.

A small block of Spanish pike supports the gunners 

Spanish Arquebusiers

Spanish Arquebusiers for the early Italian Wars

Spanish Arquebusiers as part of a larger Spanish Infantry formation

Spanish Pike, Rodeleros and Arquebusiers

Spanish infantry for the early Italian Wars

A little more Artillery

In between some rather big projects (I am currently half way through another big pike block) I have had time to work on a few more artillery pieces to add to the already quite varied arsenal in the collection. All three of these pieces I had painted previously but I stripped them down using Dettol and started again from scratch. I kind of wish I had done this with some of my other guns as I painted some of them years and years ago for my old Wars of the Roses collection and I could have done a better paint job now.

The two breech loaders are by Old Glory and the centre gun is from the Dixon Flodden range. On the US Old Glory site the breech loaders are shown put together the other way round, http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/proddetail.asp?prod=WRE-04 - with the wooden supports at the back and the metal elevation device at the front. This just doesn't look correct to me - all contemporary drawings I've seen show this style of gun with the metal part at the back. If the wooden supports were at the back surely the recoil of the gun would damage them. I may be wrong though - let me know if I have put them together incorrectly!

The crew are a mix of converted Perry miniatures and yet more of The Assault Group Papal Guard converted into artillery crew. I am really finding a lot of uses for that one pack of figures! There is a lack of really nice early renaissance artillery crew in 28mm that aren't in Landsknecht dress. The Foundry and even some of the old Games Workshop Empire figures are excellent but they are all Landsknechts. If you want figures to represent French, Spanish or Italians you have to search a little harder to find nice figures.

So here they are, shown with a small group of French Pikemen supporting. They are fairly generic however and meant to represent artillery and crew for the mid 1490s through to the 1510s. In between the two breech loaders is a more "modern" culverin whose paint job was inspired by Maximillians Zeugbuch, as shown below.

Bronze Gun from Maximillians Zeugbuch 1502

Bronze gun painted to resemble the example above

Two older breech loaders on either side of a more "modern" bronze gun

A view of the guns from the another angle

Picard Pikemen

It is finally finished! I have completed the extra pike bases that I have been working on for some months now and here are the results. I have entitled the post Picard Pikemen as I chose to photograph them as such for this post. The flags are all interchangeable so these troops could be used to represent French, Spanish or Italians, although having said that I think they are most suitable as French or Spanish. They are best suited for the late 1490s into the early 1510s - after that clothing styles change significantly but at a pinch I would use them for infantry up to the 1520s.

The first photos show two pike units of 16 bases each, around 96 figures per block taking off a few for the command bases which only have five figures on some. I have then included some more detailed images of these command bases as I enjoyed working on them and was really pleased with the results. I have swapped the banners in some of these. In fact it is annoying as I think the rear bases of the pike blocks are better sets of figures than the front attacking bases! Finally I created a big block of 30 bases which is shown in the last photos.

The Perry Miniatures plastic late 15th century sets were really useful as I have done loads of head swaps with them, especially on Assault Group figures. Amidst the Pikemen are also pipes, drums, two handed swords and a nasty selection of polearms. My aim was to create a set of infantry that did not look too much like a late medieval pike block, I wanted enough early 16th century clothing and armour styles present to help set them in the early Italian Wars and I hope I have achieved that? What do you think? Ideally I would like to have units in the collection that could specifically represent Spaniards, Italians and French but this is achieved by other figures - the Italian Infantry with the painted shields, the Spanish Jinetes and Rodeleros and so on, so having more generic pikemen does not detract from the flavour of the armies - especially when they are marching under the correct flags.

I'm going to work on a few smaller projects next as painting this many figures did become quite a task, especially when I was doing minor conversions and head swaps on a lot of them. Six figures per base in close order creates the look I want for the pikemen but it also means you have to paint a mountain of figures!

French Early Italian Wars Pikemen

Picard or Gascon Pikemen

The sharp end of the Pike Block

French Pikemen

French Captains

Another command base this time under the Hapsburg Saltire

The third Command base, under a Spanish flag

A captain and drummer

One of the Pike bases.

Another pike base, these figures are in more Spanish Styles of dress

The big block - 30 bases of Pikemen

French Pikemen from the Italian Wars

French Pikemen c.1500

The block from above

And finally a picture of the big block from the side