15mm Swiss Halberdiers and Baggage

This last group of sixteen figures means the medieval Spanish army is now complete. Rated as superior pike, these Swiss halberdiers will make the occasional appearance in future games:

Relatively simple figures, they were great to paint. Probably because they were straightforward to do, and there were only sixteen of them:

I did briefly entertain the thought of fielding an entire Swiss army, but when I found the army is made up almost entirely of halberdiers I realised that the novelty would soon wear off, plus it would probably be rather boring to play:

I also completed some Bauda medieval tents, with a large command tent I painted in Spanish-style colours:

A couple of smaller tents:

Plus some field huts:

Nice little models, as Baueda products invariably are:

That's the Spanish army completed then. I will quickly do some more English longbowmen to form the nucleus of that army, and then will probably stick with medievals for a little while longer and have a go at a Teutonic army which I uncovered while assembling the Spanish.

15mm Medieval Spanish Javelinmen

I actually finished these figures a few weeks ago but have not had a chance to take any pictures until earlier this week. Sixteen elements of auxiliary infantry and four of light, comprising 56 figures in total:

As with the rest of the army, the figures are from Khurasan with four poses in each pack:

These can be upgraded to Superior when fielding an Aragonese Spanish army, so can hold their own against many other troop types:

These are the last main unit in the army, although I still have a few Swiss mercenaries and some baggage elements to go to fully round things out. Hopefully I will have a few pictures of those up shortly after the weekend.

I noticed blogger misbehaved again during the week, dropping around half the links to the blogs I like to access. The links were actually still there, but without any feed coming through. A rather unedifying hour spent deleting and reconstituting those affected sorted things out, but I'm still a bit mystified as to what happened. I suppose Blogger is free, but I'd happily pay a small monthly subscription for them not to mess around with such things for no obvious improvement.

15mm Medieval Artillery

 I needed a couple of artillery pieces for my Spanish army, and these models from Essex Miniatures caught my eye:

Even though I only require two for the Spanish list, I have done six as a few will find use in other Medieval projects I have ahead of me:

Essex figures can be an acquired taste and the pointing figure seems to turn up in a few ranges, but their artillery pieces are very nice. I particularly like the siege guns, and the two with the mantlets are probably my favourite with the wood grain nicely sculpted and just pronounced enough for dry-brushing to bring it out:

That's the artillery for this project completed:

Next up will be the last group of Spanish required, which are some lighter javelin-armed troops. I also have sixteen Swiss mercenaries to complete however which, while not strictly Spanish, are an option under the DBMM Spanish lists. I was aiming to complete the entire project by the end of August and, depending how the weekend goes, might get close.

15mm Medieval Spanish Knights and High Command

Nearly at the end of the project now, with the completion of twelve elements of Spanish knights:

As expected these took some time, especially in coming up with individual designs. Thankfully I ordered a few sheets of Little Big Men decals which I used on around half the figures. These were generic designs so took a bit of cutting and blending to make them work with the Khurasan figures:

The sheets included a few lance pennons, and I ordered some Spanish flags from Pete's Flags to add a bit of variety. The latter are more aimed at later medieval and Renaissance figures but I think they work quite well here:

The flags were however larger than I expected, designed as they are for standard bearers, so I reduced them by a third. I have emailed and asked him for permission to do this and will not be using any designs over and above what I actually purchased (there are a around two dozen on each sheet and I am only using a four or five of them). If he objects though I'll scrap them and replace them:

This is an example of the Little Big Men flags that came with the shield designs:

That's the knights completed then:

At the same time I completed three High Command elements to use as generals:

These are Khurasan's generic medieval high command, but I think they fit in quite nicely alongside the rest of the Spanish:

Next off the painting queue will be some artillery pieces which I am hoping to complete over the weekend.

15mm Medieval Spanish Spearmen

A quick post on the next group of figures in my Spanish medieval army project, this time ten elements of spearmen with pavise shields:

I initially thought about taking the easy way out and just giving them plain pavise shields, but decided to paint them to add a splash of colour to the army:

The figures are gain from Khurasan Miniatures:

Not quite as colourful from behind:

Next up, the star of the show in the form of a dozen elements of Spanish men-at-arms. Once they are completed things should be on track for the army to make its debut against some 100 Years War English before the end of this month.

15mm Medieval Peasants

A quick post to round out July in the form of some medieval peasants. Many of the DBMM army lists, including the Spanish, allow for a few elements of armed peasants with six elements of five figures each sufficing for most purposes:

The figures are again from Khurasan in packs of six figures in different poses:

In spite of the rather drab subject matter these were fun to paint, so were very pleasant peasants:

I also found another pack of handgunners I had missed, so completed them at the same time before I forget how I did the original batch of 24 figures:

Next up some Spanish spear-armed infantry with large pavise-style shields, which should afford me the opportunity to splash on a bit more colour than I have employed in this project thus far.

15mm English Longbowmen

Another slight diversion from the medieval Spanish army, English longbows nevertheless are a welcome addition to the Portuguese option in the DBMM Spanish list. They are rated superior which means they are very useful at eliminating, or at least pushing back, most troop types that cross their path:

The DBMM list allows for up to twelve allied elements which is fortuitously what I had in the English medieval pile. Rather annoyingly however the 100 Years War English list allows for potentially a lot more than that, which is something I did not fully comprehend when placing my initial order. I have since ordered another dozen elements' worth which I'm hoping I'll be able to complete soon after the rest of the Spanish, and while I still remember how I tackled this lot:

As with the bulk of my medieval figures, the figures are from Khurusan and are available in two packs of six poses each, so twelve poses in total, and each figure is supplied with a separate stand of arrows:

After the French crossbowmen, I have again thoroughly enjoyed painting these figures:

That's the main part of the potential English allied contingent completed:

Next up, some Spanish peasants (and a few extra handgunners I rather annoyingly found after having completed the initial batch a few weeks ago). I'm saving the Spanish knights, who I hope will turn out to be the star of the show, until the end of the project.