So we decided to do early Italian Wars from the initial French invasion of the Italian peninsula in 1494 to the French defeat at Pavia in 1525. While one of my gaming group decided to do Venetians, and another the French, I decided to do Papal Italian and focus on the Pontificate of Julius II (1503-13).
The Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 gave me the opportunity to paint a lot of figures since I spent so much time at home and really couldn't go out anywhere. I already owned Charles Oman's great work The History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century, and George Gush's book on Renaissance armies. I added several of Michael Mallett's books in addition to Guicciardini's History of Italy, and Machivelli's History of Florence. I set to reading and looking at all the army lists I had for George Gush's WRG rules, DBR rules, Tercio, the Italian Wars list from Warhammer Ancients Forum, and Warhammer Ancient Battles, 2nd edition lists. Trying to create an army out of all these competing lists was a bit challenging and frustrating at times, but my gaming buddies and I worked out the kinks to come up with workable lists, which, of course, we modified as we went along.
Of course, the biggest question we faced was: "Which figures to use?" I had been looking at doing Italian Wars for some time. It is a VERY colorful period and all the powers involved are in a kaleidoscope of shifting alliances where anyone can (and did) fight everyone. Renaissance armies are a great opportunity to paint some really beautiful figures and create a gaming table that will draw the eye of the gamer and the casual observer.
I really wanted to do Imperialists/Papal because I could use the really beautiful Artizan Landsknechts as a bunch of my infantry. So, with the question of who's figures to use for the Landsknechts out of the way, I looked for some good Gendarmes. I knew that Foundry had some really beautiful models and that they were sculpted by the Perry brothers, but I also looked around to see if there was possibly anything better. Steel Fist are nice figures I thought, but they were too expensive for my taste. The Assault Group has nice models as well - and I bought their Papal Guard - but I liked the Foundry better. So, I went with Foundry for much of the remainder of the army. I have not yet gotten to Romagnol pikemen, but I think I will the TAG for those guys because their Italian pikes look so nice.
So, I started with the Papal Gendarmes. They would be my first test to create a visually appealing unit. I wanted to do the command set (x3 figs: officer, standard bearer, & musician) in red & while (traditional Papal colors) and then use strong, bold, colors for the rest of the unit. The flags I got from Pete's Flags are just beautiful and I wanted to enhance them with vibrant colors on the Gendarmes so that they would really pop on the table.
I began with the Gendarme officer. Thought he turned out well. I moved on to the standard bearer next:
So the first stand was done. The flag, and all the flags in this part of the blog are from Pete's Flags and they are very nice. I then moved on to the rank and file Gendarmes and the musician.
As you can tell the first stands were rather basic. I did not put a ton of work in on the individual guys because I feared it would take too long and look silly. But, after the first two stands were done I thought I would take a look at how long it too to paint a Gendarme that was a bit more complex and the result is below.
Rather than just paint his skirting and tunic in one solid color I decided to alternate bold complementary colors. I found out two things from this: 1) it was easy and much less time consuming that I feared it would be, and 2) it made the figures look really nice and allowed them to be even more colorful and visually appealing.
I liked the bold color schemes. I thought about trying to "barber pole" the lances, but I am not good enough to do that in 28mm, so I just left them in bold colors. In short order the first batch of Gendarmes began to grow...
I started the Gendarmes on 2 July and finished the eight we thought would be our "normal sized" unit for cavalry. All eight were done and based by 9 July.
I had no complaints with how these guys turned out. I know that the Gendarmes usually did not go into battle all be-plumed, but if you are going to paint Renaissance, you want to make the army as pretty as possible. I decided to buff these guys up to a twelve (12) figure unit just because I like them so much. Now that they were finished it was time to go to the Infantry.
For the Landsknechts I wanted to continue with the theme of bold, contrasting and/or complementary colors to make a really beautiful unit. The Artizan Landsknechts are just such beautiful figures I needed to spend a lot of time doing them justice. I got forty-eight (48) of them because I wanted to blocks of twenty-four (24). I also got sixteen (16) Landsknecht Arquebusers.
The first question that I considered as I approached my Landsknechts
was: "How long do I make the pikes?" Nick Eyre at North Star sent me 4
1/2" pikes with my Landsknechts.
I knew from doing other Pike&Shot
armies that 4 1/2" pikes was a bad idea. Not only is it super unwieldy
to use on the table, if you scale it out, a 4 1/2" pike is something like 24 feet long in 28mm scale and nobody carried 24 foot pikes. Besides, when you put a 4 1/2" spear on a 28mm figure it just looks silly (as above).
So, I figured I would go with a 3" pike. In terms of scale it comes out to be 15' or so which is what the Landsknechts carried. It also looks better with the standards.
Once I had made my decision to go with 3" pikes I also cut the sharp tips off the tops of the pikes and left them blunt topped. Yes, it does not look as cool, but I have skewered myself on my ECW pikes that have the sharp tips too often - so no more of that!
I will usually do an "assembly line" system with my figures - especially when the guys have uniforms since it makes things go faster. However, since these Landsknechts have no official uniform I did each one individually.
These last two seem to have a bit of attitude to them.....
To be sure, painting this way takes a long time and one can easily achieve "burn out" no matter how much one loves to paint, and it is always good to break things up a bit. So, in the middle of the first pike block my Italian Clergy arrived from Perry Miniatures and I decided to interrupt my Landsknechts to paint some Papal minions. :-)
Under the bright lights they are colorful, but seem a bit washed out.....
Under more normal lighting with the base mostly done (I need to add some static grass after I gloss them) they do pop.
Not bad I think. This will be a command base for Pike & Shot. They sure do look pretty and I wanted them to be vibrant and I think I achieved that goal.
By 20 July the first unit of x24 Landsknechts came off the painting table. I liked how these guys turned out and they should be a nice unit moving across the gaming table.
I then moved to a general base. I chose to make a command stand represent Francesco Della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, nephew of
Pope Julius II, & Captain General of the Church from 1503-13. I
put him in black armor following on from Titian’s 1536 portrait of him.
The Caledor Sky Blue & Golden Yellow were the colors of the House
of della Rovere. Need to finish him, but I am happy w/how he is turning
out.
Here is the finished product Duke of Urbino:
If I do say so myself, this guy is one of my better efforts..... :-)
So, by 21 July the Holy Father's army was growing.....
OK, so next was my unit of sixteen Papal Guards.
Nice models from The Assault Group.
These guys were very clean models with little flash. They came right out of the blister and needed just a bit of cleaning.
The only issue I had - which was very minor - was that I had to cut out the flash between the thumb and fingers to hold the halberd. Once that was done I was ready to go.
The Swiss Guards, of course, were formed by Julius II in 1506. Their
original uniforms may have been a mix but Raphael was kind enough to
paint several of them in the early 16th century. I first thought of
painting them in blue and yellow as they have been since the 1540s, but I
thought that painting them in scarlet and ivory white with black under
shirts and hats was a better option since they were appropriate to the
period.
This is my "concept figure" for the Papal Guards based of Raphael's portrait of them. Turned out ok, but they are a pain to paint. I hope they will look good on the tabletop.
With my concept down, I moved to the command stand for the Swiss Guards. I wanted to use more banner than just one since I have so many Julius II banners from Pete's Flags - they are just beautiful and therefore you should find ways to use as many as you can. :-)
Once my command stand was done I moved back to the rank & file guys...
As I said, I was using Raphael's Mass at Bolsena as my guide for what the Swiss Guards should look like. The fresco is in the Vatican and the Guards are in the lower right hand portion of the painting. They are in different uniforms so I tried to paint them as they appear in Raphael's work that was done about 1512. I thought they turned out well.
Then I moved to a command stand. George von Frundsburg, the father of the Landsknechts, has a Warlord figure that is pretty nice so I wanted to make a von Frundsburg command stand - especially since I had those nice Pete's Flags von Frundsburg banners. This stand is wholly made up of Warlord figures. I am usually not a big fan of Warlord metal figures. I think they are pretty mediocre and these are no exception......
Nevertheless, they turned out well and he can easily fit into a Landsknecht pike block.
I also decided to push out my Gendarme units to x12 figures, mainly because I just love painting the figures.
After the Gendarmes were ready, I moved to the Landsknecht Arquibusers. I started with the command stand. As I said after I finished the Papal Swiss Guards I wanted to put two standards in each unit since I thought it really made them prettier. So, i started with a standard bearer. I used the flag from Nuremberg.
The finished command stand looked really good I thought with the two banners: Nuremberg and an Imperial banner.
As I was finishing the command stand I was doing more reading and trying to figure out how to base the rest of the Arquebusiers. I know that there were units of Arquebusiers, but most were appended to the Pike Blocks. So, I figured I'd use the command stand for something else and base the Arquebus figures on single bases.
These six turned out ok I thought.
I figure I will put six of these Arquebusiers in front of each side of the pike block. Will make a nice looking "battalia."
As a unit this will look good on the tabletop.
Then I moved to a Foundry demi-culvern.
The gunners have a lot of character to them.
Sorry for the fuzzy pic here.....
Since my general will be Francesco della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, I figured he would want a standard. This could be the army standard if I needed one or just a personal banner. Fortunately Wikipedia had a nice illustration of his coat of arms so I downloaded it and make it into a standard.
Then it was time to move on to my last (?) unit of x12 Gendarmes....
My little 18x18 hunk of modular terrain made by John Ewoldt in the 80s is getting too small for the army..... :-)
Once the Gendarmes were done, it was then time to get to my Italian/Romagnol Pikes and their attendant Arquebusiers. I used figures from The Assault Group. They are pretty basic, but they are nice and paint very quickly.
I did the command stand first because I wanted to see what the unit would look like with two flags. As I say, the TAG guys are ok. I was not super pleased that some of the guys (like the standard bearer on the right) came with squished noses, but you won't be able to tell on the tabletop.
The banners from Pete's Flags really add a lot to the units. This will be a beautiful army when it is done. By this point I was actually almost out of figures. The only things left in the Italian Wars lead reserve were the Italian/Romagnol Arquebusiers and x24 Artizan Landsknecht Pikes.
So, I began to consider what to buy next to flesh out the army. At this point I was thinking some X-bowmen and some Mounted X-bowmen. I know that the Papal armies in the late 15th Century employed some Hungarian light cavalry, but am unsure if they did in the early 16th Century. I suspect they probably did, but nothing I have been able to read (even the stuff I got in Italian) does not appear to have anything on the exact composition of the Papal armies in this period. Sigh.
