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.

18mm ECW Newcastle's Regiment of Foot

After having done a red and a blue-coated regiment, I wanted to try one with white coats and so decided that the Marquis of Newcastle's regiment would do nicely:

The same organisation as before, with four stands of pike and eight of muskets. I will be doing a few spare stands of pike for each army so I can make larger regiments as required, but am enjoying painting 48 figures for each unit as I am finding that a manageable number:

The flag for this unit, like so many in the ECW, can probably best be described as 'uncomplicated'. Maverick models do offer a resizing option and I went with the standard after having had problems fitting them on some 15mm Samurai. As per Peter's, from Blunders on the Danube, suggestion I may yet end up re-ordering them from Maverick Models, but will use the current stock for the time being. The majority are colonels' flags anyway, and they may simply have been stingy with the material:

I will continue to use an assortment of figures on the bases. There are six variants in the standing/firing pose, but I am finding it really helps to keep the interest level up by adding a few others into the mix:

That is three regiments now completed, with two more on the painting table and which should both be completed at the same time:

The medieval German crossbowmen have also all been prepared, so I will return to that army shortly to finish the last eighty or so figures.

Thanks also to Jonathan of the Palouse Wargaming Journal's suggestion on the thumbnail workaround https://palousewargamingjournal.blogspot.com/2023/02/blogger-under-my-thumbnail-ii.html. It worked like a charm, and a lovely bit of IT support on his part.

18mm ECW Prince Rupert's Regiment of Foot

After the red-coated King's Lifeguard I wanted to add a blue-coated regiment, and Prince Rupert's Regiment of Foot fitted the bill nicely:

Prince Rupert's Regiment also has an interesting flag, at least compared with some of the other rather plain flags carried by other regiments. The flag is again from Maverick models, and the figures are all Eureka miniatures:

I have the man himself along with his dog, Boy, and will be doing them both at a later stage when I get to the command figures. I have settled on eight elements of shotte with four of pike (including the command stand) as a standard configuration but will be doing a few spare elements of pike for the Royalists to bolster their regiments as required:

I was originally going to do six regiments of Royalists and the same for the Parliamentary army, but now have plans to expand these to eight each which will mean around four hundred foot figures for each army. Nothing like a bit of project creep when the project has barely commenced, but I am enjoying painting these figures so much that I am hoping the eight hundred foot figures will be achievable. I also have six regiments of horse of eighteen figures each planned for each side.

There is a bit of a shine on these figures in some of the above pictures which thankfully is not apparent to the naked eye after my usual two coats of Dullcote. The pikemen at the rear in the picture below are probably more representative of the blue I used for these:

That's two regiments done now, with the third nearing completion. 

18mm ECW King's Lifeguard of Foot Regiment

While I was awaiting the arrival of an order to complete my medieval German army I decided to make a start on some Eureka Miniatures English Civil War miniatures which have been sitting primed for the best part of twelve months. The first regiment to be completed is the King's Lifeguard of Foot:

I decided to do each regiment with four elements of pike (including the command) and eight of musketeers, with four to a base for each element so 48 figures in total. I was originally planning on putting just three figures on each musketeer base but, at this scale, quite liked the look of four so went with that:

The figures are sold as 18mm which they most certainly are, but are no larger than some other manufacturers' figures marketed as 15mm.  The flag is from Maverick Models who do a nice range of Civil War flags:

The King's Lifeguards were noted as having red coats, breeches and montero caps, into which I mixed some variation. The red could perhaps have been a little darker given the photos of some re-enactors I viewed online, but there seems to be a lot of speculation over what was actually worn and I felt more comfortable using the Foundry British Redcoat red at this scale:

I went with armoured pikemen for this regiment. The figures were not supplied with pikes but I had purchased extra from Xyston Miniatures for this purpose and was pleasantly surprised how easily they fit the models with no need to drill hands:

It is always enjoyable starting a new project and I managed to paint this unit in less than a week:

 

The Khurasan order has now arrived, but I will try to get a few more Royalist units completed before getting stuck back into the Germans. I know I had better not leave them too long however, before I disappear down the ECW rabbit hole.

15mm Medieval German Infantry

It is nearly the end of January and I am just getting around to my first post for the year, which is much later than I intended. I essentially lost a week due to my brush with COVID, and then we have been battling with a sick dog for the past two weeks which has necessitated one visit to the vet followed by six trips to the specialist hospital. Close to ten thousand dollars in veterinary bills later (with 80% thankfully covered by insurance) and I am hopeful we may finally have turned a corner with him, but know we have a few more visits to go yet.

In spite of this I have managed to disappear downstairs on a few occasions and to my surprise managed to get a bit done, with the first off the rank being twelve elements Khurasan Miniatures German infantry armed with axes, halberds, swords and falchions:

These are quite deadly against knights in DBMM, rated as Blade(X) for 'Exception' in that if they win in melee they automatically kill knight elements. Given that they start on the same melee factor as the knights they should prove quite useful:

There are four poses in each pack of eight, one with each type of armament:

Along with three elements of crossbow and the figures already completed, this was originally all I had intended for this army:

However I found I had glossed over a couple of troop types in the list which might also come in useful at some stage, so placed an additional order with Khurasan. Another sixty figures or so should see this army completed which will be the third Medieval army in just over six months. I still have the bulk of the Hundred Years War French and English plus an Italian army in the pile to be done, but will put them on hold for while.

To mix things up a little then, and while I was awaiting the arrival of the additional figures from Khurasan, I made a start on some Eureka Miniatures 15mm (actually more like 18mm) English Civil War figures. I am completing the basing on these now and hope to have the first of these up before the end of the week.