Sunday, 7 February 2021

Switzers XIII

 

I have broken the habit of a lifetime and painted a few minis from scratch. These are guide minis that will gone to Shaun McTague, in the next week or so, so that he can paint the final two contingents of Swiss pike. 

I like both sets of heraldry, although I particularly like the former with the unusual diagonal, which came out great on the right-hand figure. I'll definitely also want some Zurich arquebusiers, too as Flags of War do such a lovely standard for the Zurich skirmishers.

Also I read an interesting piece in the Swiss Osprey, which says that Bernese skirmishers carried an axe called a mordaxt, in addition to an arquebus or crossbow. I read that a mordaxt is a 2m long polearm, which seems somewhat incompatible with carrying an arquebus, but perhaps most had a missile weapons and some the polearm, to support the former? It's an interesting modelling challenge, anyhow.

I'm confidently moving towards finishing the Swiss, and have even been able to find time to start a new unit of Burgundian opponents for them, pics in a day or so.

7 comments:

  1. Lovely looking Perry Swiss, I look forward to seeing them at a shop somewhere in the future, as they used to say," it's a lovely day tomorrow!"
    Best Iain

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  2. If you mean show, then yes- as soon as I can! :-)

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  3. That diagonalmslash is lovely, although I imagine if I had to paint it a few times consistently I’d be too stressed to appreciate it any more!

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  4. I wonder if the Swiss used the mordaxt in a similar way to how Streltsy used the bardiche. If you are interested...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streltsy

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  5. Splendid stuff Simon, I do like the diagonally slashed tunic.
    Painting figures from scratch, whatever next....

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  6. ...where will it end, Scrivs, where will it end? ;-)

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  7. I was thinking the same thing as Codstcker - likely a polearm with a rest for the arquebus or crossbow.

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Thanks for commenting. I will post this as soon as I am able to review it.