Showing posts with label Swiss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Swiss. Show all posts

Friday, 5 August 2022

Cranking out crossbows


Next weekend I'll be at the Britcon tournament. I'll be taking a Swiss army along; my earlier Condottieri plan was cancelled for fear of an excess of enemy elephants, which they lack an answer to, other than dismounting on which point the rules were a little... opaque. The Swiss, on the other hand, don't care about elephants- in fact, they don't care much about anything very much at all! You plonk them on the table, facing straight ahead and they do, or die. A perfect army for a morning's gaming with a hangover.

A second feature of my Swiss is that they are mostly plastic and so sufficiently portable for a train journey. Although I luckily had just enough pikes and halberdiers, I still need generals, heroes and crossbowmen, so I'm busily basing up some minis from "the reserves". Most of these came from David Imrie's collection- I swapped him for them- they are lovely minis and should look brilliant when based. With any luck it'll give me the push I need to finish the rest of the Swiss army, which has been languishing in storage for far too long.

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.


Above and below are the four trays (roughly 500 minis) of mostly-painted minis. These are grouped by canton, but there's also a tray-and-a-bit of minis in non-cantonal colours.



Above and below are the 8 (of a projected 18) mostly-finished units. My chum Ian very kindly flocked them for me, he's a demon with a puffer-bottle!  I've not yet added tufts, that's the final stage.

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.


The new contingents are forming up...


...I've done roughly 2/3 in cantonal colours, and 1/3 in random colours. That's probably too high a proportion cantonal colours, but they look great, and I don't care!!


I've prepped most of the minis for the final contingents, but they aren't yet off to Shaun to paint. The group at the back are those in non-cantonal colours.

There are also four command stands, 18 heroes, 70 light infantry and 10 light cavalry to do- perhaps half of these are painted. I hope to finish painting the pike by the end of February and, I suppose, there is a month's work to do on the lights. After that there's the grouting and flocking. But it's all coming along nicely! 

I've started to think about a huge To the Strongest! game at a future show using these, the most attractive option is Morat 1476, for which I'll need perhaps 450 Burgundians. :-/

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.


Here's the plan I'm working from. The green-highlighted units are finished, the blue-highlighted are under way. The cantons are arranged very roughly in order of becoming independent, with the original Waldstätte ("forest") cantons in the first keil (1&2).

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.


Above is the first keil, and below, the second. I now have eight of the 32-man "strips" based (but not grouted), three more out with painter chums, and one more here, ready to repaint/finish, which I'll probably tackle next. But I will need to prepare another 192 minis, at some stage. Gulp. Still, though, I'm almost half way there with the project.


In other news, I've published new versions of the Ancient and Medieval army list books for To the Strongest! with new lists, edits, and tons more background material- you can find them here. 

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.


In other news, watched a cracking online battle on Saturday between Antony Spencer and Andy Lyons, using the Wars of the Roses Tabletop Simulator setup that Antony made. It was one of those glorious battles that swung first one way, and then the other. Such fun!

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. 


PS the title references the 1976 classic Disco Inferno by the Trammps (sic). I have a soft spot for Disco. :-)

Wednesday, 4 November 2020

Switzers VII

 

This is 2/3 of my second Swiss pike block. On the left is Solothurn, and on the right is Schwyz. I may end up doing extra contingents for both, as I like the uniforms and have suitable minis. Most of these were painted by Shaun McTague, finished by me, with some from David Imrie.



















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

 

Here is the latest work in progress image of my Uri Swiss keil. I've now placed all 96 minis on their bases, although they are as yet ungrouted.


This shot shows the flags, from Peter's Flags and Flags of War. I've used small flags as the Swiss liked them on the small side. I went with a yellow and black theme to match the colours I used on the minis. Most of the figures in the front rank were painted by David Imrie, with the bulk of the minis coming from Shaun McTague.


Here's the whole unit. I've built it so that I can field it for a 20cm grid, but by removing the central files of bases and some of the rear bases, I can field a sawn-down 48 man keil to suit a 15cm grid, for competition gaming on a 6'x4'. I have enough painted minis for two more of these, which I'll work on over the winter. I hope to eventually field four or five, and perhaps some early units with halberds instead of pike. The bases are all my FK&P13c's, which comfortably take eight minis each.

If you play TtS! you may have seen the Swiss lists in the free Medieval book and the special "field square" rule for keils in the Even Stronger supplement. It's a most unusual army, which I've fought against a few times in competitions; very hard to beat! I'm looking forward to trying it out, myself, hopefully in the spring.

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! 

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Switzers II


I've finished up most of the remaining minis for the first two Swiss keils- adding a highlight and matt ink wash over Shaun's painting. I now just need the final 2 dozen pikes, the flags and some new bases that I've had designed for the project. In the meanwhile, I will base the 18 skirmishing arquebusiers and a command stand, which will help clear some space for the expected reinforcements, and I'll prep some more minis for the remaining 2 (or 3?) keils.

Thursday, 9 July 2020

Switzers I


Here are my first two Swiss pike keils, forming up. All the minis are Perrys, painted by Shaun McTague, and highlighted and inked by me. They are mounted in threes on temporary painting blocks (magnetised Jenga blocks).


Here's the Berne phalanx, and mascot. The spare painting blocks are for the balance of the minis- Shaun has painted most of these and I'm filling in the gaps at the rate of 15 minis per day.


...and here's Uri. 

I plan to have 4 keils of pike (possibly 5). When completed, each keil will have 96 minis- mostly pike with a few halberdiers and command minis.  Several will also have an attached unit of skirmishing arquebusiers, and there will be a handful of light cavalry.   I'll also have the option of fielding a keil of pure halberdiers, for the early period, and I will be able to swap out some of the central pike, for halberdiers, in the transitional period. I'll describe the basing system in a later post.


Here's a close-up- I'm using the metal Perry Swiss heads on plastic bodies, with some metals mixed in, and some conversions. The chap in the middle, Lofty, is a cut'n'shut (WotR torso, Swiss legs) who came out on the tall side. Shaun, who painted him, calls him "the man with the two bums". :)

It's a big project- 500++ minis- but with Shaun doing the heavy lifting, it's going rather swiftly. I'd like to think I'll have the first two keils based in around a month's time. 

PS If you fancy a Swiss army of your own, have a look at the Swiss army list for TtS!, and also the special rule for "field squares."