More Goths

These fellows seem to be taking a while to pump out. More Goths! The second batch out of four batches of six that will make up my first Goth unit for the planned display game. 

A managed to avoid the pitfalls of being tempted into using the Foundry WWII set (as it is pants- see last post here for details and stick to the more reliable Vallejo Model and Game Colour with the usual sprinkling of Andrea and some of the older Foundry triads, though not used in the traditional triad manner. 

I'm going to have a wee break with the next lot of miniatures as I made the schoolboy error of not calculating the number of Spanish Arquebusiers I needed for my first Spanish Italian Wars unit so I'm going to have to retreat a little and get those two miniatures painted up. In order to keep the impetus moving along with the Goths I will add a couple of Goth miniatures which I will use as a Command Base for the unit I am currently working on.

One more thing to add, the miniatures have not been varnished yet so are not as flat as they will be post varnishing process.

Goths!

 

I've been trying to do my bit/keep up with my mate a little of late for the game we have pencilled in for a show, whenever they might be (2022?), with these quite lovely Footsore Miniatures Goths. Technically, the Footsore Goths are of an earlier era than that of the Battle of Taginae (552 CE) but they are the nearest I am going to get so will do the job nicely. They are more suitable for Adrianople (378 CE) than that of Taginae (552 CE) but hey, I cannot have it all when it comes to miniatures. We are quite spoiled as it is. 

I have heard rumours that another wargames company will be producing some Goths for the Early Byzantine era which will of course be mixed the Footsore Goths and Early Saxons that I am using for the bulk of the army. I cannot say any more on the subject as it would be breaking the confidence of the chap who let me know. If Late Goths are what you are looking for, be happy that they are, more than likely, on the way at some stage soon-ish.

These are the first test miniatures for the Goth force, no varnish applied as of yet and with transfers from LBMS Transfers. I had a bit of trouble earlier in the paint job by trying to use some of the Foundry WWII set to speed things up a little. In the end it slowed the job considerably as every pot, not matter how man ball bearings and shaking were applied, resulted in very poor coverage. They are so inconsistent and poor in pigment that they are utterly worthless as miniature paints! It is all a bit annoying really as I have a lot of Foundry's early paint sets and they are still great paints and good to use to this day. If only they had kept to the same paint supplier (if that is indeed the case?).

Early Morning Norman Photoshoot

This morning, 5:30am and taking pictures(!) of a few units of my Norman army, painted 20 odd years ago. Thank Thoth is is summertime!

Yesterday, I was asked by a friend, if I could send him some pictures of my Normans. The only images I have of my Normans are a good 20 years old so there I was at 5:50 snapping away. It would have been be rude not to really..... 

This is just a small portion of my rather large Norman/Italo-Norman army, not including the Spanish component from the 11th Century! If there is enough interest I will take more scenic pictures and get them posted up.

Note, the vignettes were painted up in 2019. It is the actual Normans which were painted 20 odd years ago.

Spanish Italian Wars Command

I finished these little fellows off this morning who will be acting as my command in the first unit of Arquebusiers. As I explained in a previous post the reason for building up this Spanish force is twofold, i/ to take part in the Swordpoint Medieval event in September and ii/ to build up units for Cerignola 1503  or perhaps even Bicocca 1522 using Furioso wargames rules as a display game. I am finding myself having to make some serious compromises with the army, as I understand the army of say Gonzalo de Cordoba's forces and how they would have operated. Swordpoint, which after reading through several times are well suited to Ancient, Early Medieval (so called Dark Ages and Feudal) but seem to fall flat when entering the era of gunpowder and the Italian Wars. Maybe it is just down to the general nature of the Medieval army lists? The lists do not at all reflect how the Spanish Colunela's fought during the wars. Maybe this will change with a supplement in the future(?) but for now I'm left with a hodgepodge of a list with large units of Arquebusiers; six bases compared to eight to twelve of pike! Including two twelve base pike units, which would feel about right, would eat up much of the points for the army! According to the lists you cannot combine the Roderleros or Arquebusiers with the pike blocks, which for me takes away the whole ethos of just how the Spanish fought in Italy having learned much after the hastily fought  the Battle of Seminara 1503. Still, I'm not really one for overly competitive games so even if I leave holding the wooden spoon I will be happy having at long last actually rolled some dice in anger.

I have designed the basing so that the units can be used with a variety of rules as my days of rebasing armies are absolutely over with. 

That is the first unit finished but it will be a while before the miniatures are based as they have all been varnished at different times which leaves me with another varnishing queue.