More from my Gewalthaufen Blog as it nears its end!
Recently I took delivery a modest ;>) order from Wargames Foundry for all the Landsknecht models that I would need for Jacob Empser's troops at Ravenna. This actually comes to 9 bases each that will have at least 8 Landsknechts to make up the numbers of the pikes. I want them based closer together as I was in a good position at Partizan to compare some Late Medieval Swiss based up in a looser formation and also based up in a tighter formation. Although both methods looked spectacular (amazing would be closer to the mark) I was of the opinion that to get the feel of the press in a pike block it would be necessary to base the mini's in a very tight formation. Thus I made a second order to Foundry which arrived very quickly.
I set out the bases on a flat surface, got out the Blue Tac and popped more than a few onto their respective bases to see what it would look like. It looked the part so I am now satisfied that the pike block will have the visual appeal that I was after.
In between bouts of painting for the
Battle of Hastings Demo that I have planned for Salute I have been painting up a small retinue for
Lion Rampant as part of our club's
Haggis Rampant Campaign I have been playing around with some of the Dopplensoldners as there are only two official versions and I wanted to create a few more. In the end I opted for some simple head swaps and conversions, which proved to be a little more complicated than i had anticipated due to the variation in collars on the models. You can see the results below. I was also lucky enough for Foundry to pop in a few of their superb unreleased models one of which was a swordsman (again, pics below). The other is being saved for a
Gaston de Foix vignette with Gaston being in overall command at
Ravenna.
I'd certainly be interested in hearing about what you guys think about the head swaps and conversion work. Does it look convincing?
Here are the results:
Artizan Designs Body and Foundry Head Swap:
Splendid Looking Unreleased Foundry Dopplensoldner:
Foundry Head Swap (right), (I've attached his Feathered Cap to his back and a strap holding it in place) as seen below:
Now all I have to do is muster the strength to not paint them up and concentrate on the Hastings Demo as far as brushwork goes!
I will continue to do conversions and more putty work for an hour or two a day to keep my eye in and (hopefully) get better at pushing the ProCreate.
Bye for now.
