Papal Pike Block and more Gendarme

Big units are a chew on when you are doing them but when they are finished you can sit down and breath a sigh of relief that the job is done. That was very much the case with this unit, 48 figures in the Block itself and 16 accompanying Shot figures all in glorious Perry 28mm Technicolor.

The 48 figures of the Block are based 8 figures to a base, the rear and central bases are 60mm x 50mm whilst the front ranks with the lowered pike are on 120mm depth bases, partly to protect the figures but mostly to protect the players as the Pike are steel and damn sharp. They are very unforgiving when they contact fingers !

The front bases are all from the metal part of the Perrys Range and are mostly levelled pike with a single Polearm figure who sits in front of the flag on the base behind, each base has a single figure with a 60 degree pike purely because that's how the available figures worked out.

The middle bases have plastic command figures from the Mercenary Box Set whilst the majority of the others are metal, flags from Pete's Flags on eBay.

The rear bases are all plastic again with the flags from Pete's. The flags are those of Pope Julius II who was also known as the Warrior Pope, he was in office from 1503 to 1513 after the Borgia Pope. He was a huge patron of the arts, laying the foundations of the current St Peters Basilica and commissioning Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel, an old film "The Agony and the Ecstasy" covers his relationship with the artist. Rex Harrison playing the Pope and Charlton Heston Michelangelo, worth a look if you haven't seen it.

The shot part of the unit is again Perrys Miniatures with a mix of the plastic and metal figures, they are on the same 60mm x 50mm bases but with 4 figures per base.

Also off the paint table this week are another 6 Gendarme this time Foundry Figures.

The unit is representative of Pier Orsini (1523 -1583) a Condottiero from the later part of the Italian Wars. Orsini inherited the duchy of Bomarzo seven years after the death of his father, mostly thanks to an intercession by Alessandro Cardinal Farnese (the future Pope Paul III). He later married Alessandro's relative Giulia Farnese.

And why not have a group shot of the 24 done to date

The figures are flying off the table at the moment and I ain't complaining about that ! Up next are some Stradiots and some WW2 Desert vehicles.