Friday, 5 August 2022
Cranking out crossbows
Monday, 17 January 2022
Adrian von Bubenberg
Adrian von Bubenberg was a Bernese knight, general and politician. He is chiefly famous from the battle of Murten, where his valiant defence of the town bought time for the Swiss army to assemble. This then went on to crush the Burgundians. Von Bubenberg sallied forth to join the ensuing massacre.
The models were beautifully painted by chum Andrés Amián Fernández, and are respectively Perry, Wargames Foundry and Grenadier miniatures. The flag is from Iain at Flags of War. Von Bubenberg probably didn't have a beard, but I love that model! You can't see it clearly in the photo, but he has blingy gold-plated armour.
He'll be one of the commanders for my Swiss army, which has been in storage for around a year but which I hope to get back onto, shortly, when I return from my holiday in 1672.
Today I'm working on the latest version of the TtS! Ancient Army List eBook, which I will publish on or about 31/1/22 (I'll send everyone who has bought it an updated version). I hope to include four new lists and a fair amount of extra background material on several of the existing lists.
Thursday, 1 April 2021
Swiss army progress
Here's the latest progress on the Switzers. Above, the vast majority of miniatures are painted, and most are highlighted and inked. There must be 650-700 of the blighters, the majority painted by Shaun McTague but some by David Imrie and Lionel Bechara. I even painted a few from scratch, and highlighted most of them. Later I'll need to add a unit of cavalry, some halberdiers and, of course, their Burgundian opponents.
So, I hear you ask "when will they be finished?" I've reluctantly decided to delay that step until the autumn, because I have an even bigger project to finish this spring/summer of which more, anon. So I'll be putting them all in storage boxes, to clear space, and trying to find a place to store them! In the autumn I'll finish them off and make a start on the numerous Burgundian army.
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.
Friday, 29 January 2021
Switzers XII
I've been busy over Christmas/January on the Swiss Project, but haven't posted any pictures. Here's an update. Above are the troops painted so far- mostly by Shaun McTague, and finished by me, but including contingents from David Imrie.
I've planned 18 contingents of 32 figures, each representing a canton or part of a cantonal contingent, plus command, heroes and lights. So far 8 are finished, 5 are mostly done, 2 are partially done and three haven't been started. I estimate I'm over 70% of the way there.
Wednesday, 13 January 2021
Swiss progress
Over Christmas and New Year, I've been chipping away at the edges of my Swiss project. I prepped 100+ plastic and metal Swiss, and detailed the 84, above, that Shaun McTague mostly painted, the bulk of the next four contingents - Glarus, Schweiz, Schaffhausen and Basel. They will be bulked-out with un-uniformed Switzers. My plan is to get the bulk of the remaining 250-ish Swiss finished, and then base them all at more-or-less the same time.
This is my first post of '21 - let's hope we all have a happier year, with rather more wargaming than the last one! I'm very much hoping to be able to run some big games, once we are let out to play, and join in some competitions, too. In fact there's an online tournament starting on Monday- Hannibal at the Gates- mail me if you would like details.
Sunday, 20 December 2020
Switzers XI- Schweiz and Glarus
The project has slowed, slightly, in the face of the Tyranny that is Christmas Preparation. I've managed though, to finish 24 minis for a second Schweiz contingent, and 15 for a new Glarus contingent. Both are mainly in red, but Glarus have black and white accents. Many were painted by Shaun, but needed some overpainting as I didn't originally specify the correct colours- I've learned more about the Swiss as I go along with the project. I'm not going to base these, yet, because I want to incorporate some other minis from Shaun that aren't in cantonal colours, to mix things up a bit.
Thursday, 3 December 2020
Switzers X - almost half way!
Terrible photos but I'm overdue posting an update. The new sub-unit is the blue-themed contingent in the above keil, above; 32 Freiburgers. The super flag is from Flags of War. The minis were mostly painted or heavily overpainted by me (!), but there are a few of David Imrie's in the front rank and some of Shaun McTague's in there, too.
Tuesday, 24 November 2020
Swiss IX
Latest shot of the Swiss, with a second Bern contingent added (third flag from the left). Next I'm going to paint Fribourg, which has an attractive pale-blue and black heraldry.
Monday, 9 November 2020
Switzers VIII - Bern baby Bern
Yesterday, I added Bern with its bear standard and natty red/black colour scheme, to the second Swiss keil, which is now complete bar the base texturing (Solothurn - Schwyz- Bern). This puts me 1/3 of the way into the six-keil Swiss project, which will inevitably slow down since I am running out of painted Swiss in my "reserves" boxes. I hope to finish a third block around Christmas - in the meanwhile, I'll continue with their Burgundian opposition and the Italian wars knights.
Again the minis were painted by Shaun McTague, finished by me, and incorporate some very nice minis that David Imrie kindly swapped with me.
Wednesday, 4 November 2020
Switzers VII
Next I plan to tackle Basle; black and red, what's not to like? I hope to have them on bases early next week.
Friday, 30 October 2020
Switzers VI
I've started work on the second pike keil. There are the next three sub-units, contingents from Solothurn, Bern and Schwyz respectively. Schwyz is almost done; it should take a week each to lick the other two into shape.
Monday, 26 October 2020
Switzers V
Thursday, 22 October 2020
Switzers IV
Last night I had a bit of a push on the first keil and finished the flags. I went with the Uri flag (Flags of War) and a couple of other flags in similar yellow/black colours (Pete's Flags), which tied in with the Uri colour theme.
You can see that I've based the core of the keil, including the command, halberdiers and less-armoured pikes, many of these have cantonal colours. The better-equipped pikes will be around the outside- these will have partial or, in a few cases, full plate, and are in generally less bright clothing.
Here's the Uri flag which depicts an auroch- I slightly overpainted the very nice Flags of War flag- gives it a nice texture. Iain very kindly re-sized the flag for me to make it slightly smaller- I wanted to put it on a spear rather than a pike. These minis are mostly by Shaun McTague.
All things being equal, I should be able to get the other 64 minis on their bases, tonight. Can't wait to see how they look! I've had a quick count- I have another 200+ painted Swiss with pikes and halberds, so hopefully will have three keils "in the field" by Christmas.
Tuesday, 20 October 2020
Switzers III
I've finally bitten the bullet and started to base some Swiss, that were painted by Shaun and finished by myself, earlier this year. I have accumulated several hundred minis- it's now a matter of assembling them into suitable units. This block will be mostly Uri. Other blocks are likely to be a mix of cantons. I'll need to paint/repaint the minis to get a suitable blend of cantonal colours.
Each block will have a group of halberdiers at its core, with a colour party in front of them. The rest of the blocks will be pike or pike and command. David Imrie kindly sold me some Swiss pike, and I'll be mixing them in, too. Eventually I'd like 5 blocks of 96, but I'll start with two.
I'm looking at the bases, on the basing sheet, and thinking that I might make up some larger bases that could take 16 minis on each- fewer bases is always better!




































