15mm Medieval German Crossbow, Bow and Foot

While I have been enjoying significant progress on my ECW project, the arrival of a recently placed order with Khurasan meant I had to return to the Medieval Germans to complete that project. I knew that if I didn't, then it would be left hanging indefinitely and I do want to be able to field the Germans at some point over the coming months. 

Strictly speaking, I didn't really need the additional troops as I had already completed the core and most options for the DBMM army list, but more detailed reading meant I had to have these particular options, just in case. All part of the obsessive nature which I am sure many wargamers identify with, and my storage boxes are full of "options" which have never again seen the light of day.

First off, twelve elements of mercenary crossbowmen:

Lovely figures and I really hadn't intended to paint any more crossbowmen after having painted so many for the Spanish and French, but thought the Germans deserved their own contingent:

There are four different poses which is, as usual from Khurasan, perfect for four figure bases:

There is an option in the DBMM army list for some light bowmen. The nice thing about these is that they can stand behind certain other troops and add a +1 to dice rolls. Given that they only cost 2 points an element, in a typical 400 point army list they should provide a useful option:

Not the nicest figures in the Khurasan range I have to say, and perhaps some of their earlier sculpts as there was a fair but of flash, but they are functional enough:

Next, on to the foot. These are more of the same figures which I completed at the end of January, although the latter were based as 'knight-killers' whereas these troops will unfortunately be rated as 'Inferior' if and when they make the table:

I painted the shield designs the same as the earlier knight-killers as most troops were raised from the same cantons:

 

While I was in the clearing-up frame of mind, I also managed to complete two medieval organ guns from Essex miniatures:

I had actually completed the crew a few months earlier and they had been languishing in my 'completed, but yet-to-find-a-home' pile, so it was nice to at last complete the artillery piece they deserve:

Last, but not least, I recently found myself short three early Carthaginian chariots in our 'Biblical' games. I placed an order for three more to bring the total complement to eleven, and completed them last week as a C-in-C, sub-general and ordinary chariot:

 

This little segue reminded me how much I enjoy painting Xyston figures. And how bad I am with lighting when taking pictures:

That's about it for now. The above notwithstanding (a word not used enough, in my opinion), I have a few more German medieval figures to do, before returning to the Royalist ECW regiments.

18mm ECW Oxford and Apsley's Regiment of Foot

Two more Royalist red-coated regiments completed in the Oxford and Sir Allen Apsley's regiment of foot:

I did both of these at the same time in three batches of 32 figures each and seemed to fly through them, always the case when I am enjoying a project. I found myself constantly misnaming Apsley's regiment as 'Aspley', the name of a suburb a bit further out here in Brisbane, and even accidentally put the wrong label on even though I had immediately reprinted it with the correct spelling (but have since replaced the label below with the correct one):

The flags are from Maverick Models and the flag for the Oxford Regiment is equally as exciting as that for Apsley's Regiment:

As we know, in the Napoleonic era soldiers would lay their life on the line in defence of their standard, but I'm not sure many would have been equally as bothered in the English Civil War. The shotte are the same as the figures for the other regiments, with the Oxford regiment apparently having been issued with red breeches which I painted on about two thirds of the figures for that unit:

I went with the pike forward pose for these two regiments just to add a bit of variety. These are nice poses as they are at slightly different angles which provides a nice irregular look, and yet they don't stick into the backs of the figures in front of them:

That's five regiments and 240 figures completed for this project to date:

The order for the remaining Medieval German figures needed to complete that army has arrived so I have returned to that project to now complete it. In many ways this is a shame as I was really moving at a cracking pace through these ECW figures, but hope that the same motivation will be there when I return to them in a few weeks' time.