Stradiots and Swiss Polearm for Italian Wars Project

The Italian Wars Project cracked on again this week with the addition of a further two units to grace the Papal Army of the period.

First up is a 6 figure unit of 28mm bow armed Stradiots from Perry Miniatures. I have gone for a slightly muted pallet compared to the recent Gendarme but made sure that each figure had plenty of variation with ribbons on the horse furniture. The eagle eyed might even spot a Bradford City scarf 😎

The command stand is once again adorned by one of Petes Flags from eBay, this one from Pietro Duodi commander of the Venetian stradiots at the battle of Fornovo.

The figures are fantastic, I love the beards and the wicker hats, the detail on them make them so easy to paint. I will be adding another 6 figures to this unit in the next couple of weeks.

The other unit once again 28mm Perry Miniatures, is a 24 figure Polearm unit painted up in the colours of the Swiss Canton of Uri.

The flags were scanned off an article from an old gaming magazine which James Roach kindly donated to me last time we met, cheers James. I have done a touch of overpainting to create a bit of shade.

I have based these on my standard 60 x 50mm base for the period but have used 6 figures a base rather than the 8 per base I used for the pike, I have staggered the figures on the rear rank so that the are visible behind the front rank when looked at head on. I much prefer this to basing the ranks directly behind each other, it gives a much fuller look.

There was a query on my basing style in TMP 🙄, too much like a muddy field apparently, so there is a picture of some Tuscan fields below. It's all personal preference of course and I have used the same basing method for many many years and I am more than happy with it.

The collection rocks on further with more Gendarme, Command Bases and Artillery nearly done.