Monday 10 May 2021

Stratioti! Last Evenings Painterly Doings




In keeping with my somewhat crazy aim of "speed painting" as many miniatures as possible as fast as I can, hopefully without losing too much by way of quality, for my Italian Wars Fornovo 1495 project I managed to get six more mini's painted and ready for varnishing. Six Stradioti/Stradiots to be precise. I already have the horse flesh painted for these ruffians so that's three bases of Stradioti/Stradiots vis a vis one unit for Furioso, at present a very likely candidate for wargames rules for my Italian Wars projects. Furioso being fast play and easy to pick up, which means the rules ought to be very suitable for a large  display game.  I say that with the proviso that due to Covid I have very annoyingly not played a game as of yet! The choice was really made after watching Ken of The Yarkshire Gamer blog fame's YouTube video series that covers the basics of the rules quite nicely. Well worth a watch if you are interested in the Italian Wars and are looking for a suitable ruleset. 

Another word on the Stradioti. I intend to have roughly six of seven units of Stradioit/Stradiots to represent the rough 2000 the Venetians employed during the campaign. At Fornovo they were sent on a wide sweeping flanking manoeuvre making it to the French baggage train and looting in extremis. They are even said to have made off with Charles VIII's own private pornography stash! Actually reputed to be prostitutes that Charles had slept with and had small portraits made as a keepsake. They certainly filled their boots with tons of extremely booty. 

Stradiots by Jorg Breu the Elder:


The heraldry on the shields was inspired by the brushwork of John Bianchi and some of the images in his Warhammer Ancient Battles, Vlad the Impaler supplement which had an excellent potted history o Albania and a great army list for the same including that of the famous military commander Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg.



Pics of the six Unvarnished Stradiots:









Stradiots by Hans Graf



14 comments:

  1. Very nice. Are you using these as light or medium cavalry?

    Jesse

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. At Fornovo the were part of a band of abut 2000 Light Cavarly which were sent of a flanking manoeuvre by Francesco Gonzage. The Stratioti were under the leadership of Pietro Duodo. I do actually have the heraldic device supplied to me by a very nice Italian chap who is an ancestor of Pietro Duodo!

      I'm going to be doing more, some in their more "Eastern" style of dress and some in more Westernised armours and fashions.

      Delete
  2. I do love light cav. Always fun to paint, and they come into their own in any campaign. They look great!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Firmonkey. They were a lot of fun to paint up. On a large enough table they can really come into their own, sweeping around a flank. Of, if the rules, or ones imagination allow, they can just pop onto the table on a any flank.

      Delete
  3. Beautiful figures. I am especially impressed with your painting of the padded armour- wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you mate. I kind of cheated. Applied a basecoat then a wash mixed from Vallejo Game Colour Washes then highlighted roughly and painted in the deeper crevices of the padded armour. It's all about "speed painting" at the moment to get these miniatures on the table :)

      Delete
  4. Looking good D, like how you've managed to keep a good amount of variety in the colouring and should look great on the table. Nice

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Hendrid, only another 36 to go! LOL

      Delete
  5. Hello,

    Always very nice painting !!!

    Nikkobourges

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely work! Very nice to see the heraldic on shields. I hope I start my Venetian army one day, so your stradioti will inspire me during painting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'd love to see it when you get it painted Bartek.

      Delete
  7. Splendid looking Stradiots!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete

Please Feel Free to Leave a Comment