First Stradiot/Stradioti Unit

So, after a delay due to illness, probably a cold again but who knows.....

The fist unit of Stradiots/Stadioti are table ready. All I need to do now is put my table together and make some terrain tiles but that is another story!

This unit is in the service of Venice and bears the Standard of St Mark. The tails of the banner have been cut off as, at least to my eyes, it would have looked way to big for a lightly armed cavalry unit. The Standard of St Mark is from Pete at Pete's Flags. Pete produces the most beautiful banners available from the mid Fifteenth Century Condottiero, The Italian Wars, the Tudor Wars of Henry VIII and the Wars of the Roses. They are all mini works of art and if you are at all interested in this period of warfare I highly recommend you pop over to the link above and check his work out.

I have plans for 36 Stradioti in six units of three bases, each base with two miniatures. The bases are simoly the same size as the pike bases but turned through 90 degrees to leave enough wiggle room to stagger the models.  Every second unit will be given a banner. The next one will be bearing the arms of Piedro Diodo which were very kindly supplied to my by one of his descendants in Northern Italy (I have stupidly forgotten your name; I'm really sorry- I had to delete some emails to avoid googlemail charging me for space so if you're reading this please contact me and I will happily add in your name). The third banner will be another Standard of St Mark with the tail removed again. 

The rules I'm planning to use are Furioso, available from Alternative Armies. If you plan on buying make sure you just get the core rules as the Italian Wars supplement is very fantasy based. Unless of course you are planning to field Da Vinci's weird and wonderful machines in which case go ahead and spend!

Camera Angled Slightly Above:

All the models were speed painted, not my normal painting regime as I usually taking with the brush but in an effort to get them on the table top as quickly as possible I decided to go ahead with the technique of basecoat, wash and highlighting where I would normally build up several layers from the basecoat. Hopefully they do not suffer too much from being hurried. 

Just Above Eye Level:

Single Bases- Base 1:

Single Bases- Base 2:

Single Bases- Base 3: