Italian Wars Update 003 - Clergy

A small update on the Italian Wars, just to keep in bubbling in the background, in the form of a couple of Perry clerical types in the form of a Cardinale and his assistant Supernumary.

Nice and easy paint job and now that these are done, I'll get the mounted versions painted up soon.

Italian Wars Update 002 - Stradiot WIP

It's been a while since I posted any Italian Wars progress, but the project has been bubbling away in the background, with the lead mountain part increasing steadily and a fair bit of modelling and preparation going on too.

As a treat for my birthday, I was given (without prompting of course) a set of the Perry Stradiot which I have now assembled, based and undercoated, ready for a lick of paint.

With a mix of the 'traditional' Stradiot and the 'westernised' packs, the unit should look suitably rakish and ready to pillage anyones baggage.
 

The figures have great character of their own and the 'westernised' pack is crying out for further exploration and conversions. Very nice figures and should look good once painted up.

Garde Ecossaise Update

Garde Ecossaise Archer
Montlhery 1465

I have been doing a fair bit of reading up on the Garde Ecossaise while pondering on the colour scheme to paint up my unit of Garde on foot and out of general interest.

Being always with the person of the king, they were party to all the events of French royal history for the best part of three hundred years. They are described thus; 'The Garde Ecossaise enjoys, preferable to all those that ever did service in France, place and precedence. For example, the captain of the Scots Guards is, by way of excellency, designed first captain of his Majesty's guards. He begins to attend on the first day of the year, and serves the first quarter.....When the king is crowned or anointed the captain of the Scots Guards stands by him, and when the ceremony is performed takes the royal robe as his due. When the keys of a town or fortress are delivered up to the king he returns them that minute to the captain of the Scots Guards. Twenty Five of his guard (Garde de la Manche) wear always, in testimony of their unspotted fidelity, white coats overlaid with silver lace; and six of these, in turns, stand next the kings person at all times and seasons in the palace, the church, in parliament, the courts of justice, and the reception of foreign ambassadors. It is the right of these gentlemen to carry the corpse of the deceased king to the royal sepulchre at St Denis.'

The foregoing does present a few interesting ideas for diorama's or vignette's, but they will be for another day.

I've managed to track down a rare copy of Forbes-Leiths 'The Scots Men-at-arms, and Life Guards in France V2, but I'm still on the scrounge for volume 1, but so far a copy is eluding me, mainly due to cost of the ones I've tracked down so far.

I did track down a copy of 'La Garde Ecossaise Du Roi' by Nick Saunders, which though briefer than the Forbes-Leith work, is very useful though more directly aimed at the Garde of Charles VII.

Both works are a wealth of useful information and to the end that I have pretty much decided on the colour scheme for the Garde for Charles VIII of 1495 under the captaincy of Sir Bernard Stewart and Patrick MacLean hommes d'armes. with beneath them, 25 Archiers du Corps and 78 Archiers de la Garde.

Charles VII
Grande Garde du Roi

I did manage to confirm that from the Gardes inception they consisted of archers and crannequiniers. It would appear that the term archer does not necessarily mean someone armed with a bow though often assumed, but more towards the later use of a cavalryman lighter armed than a gendarme (the term archer often being used at the time for anyone being a member of a man-at-arms retinue or a person of notes guard), though again there is some evidence for the unit being armed with longbows (along with other garde units) at certain events. It may be that they were armed with either depending on the choice of their captain (or king) at the time.or possibly the bow was used on ceremonial occasions. According to the muster roles, the term crannequiniers disappears and appears repeatedly but after circa 1464 it disappears altogether, though it is confirmed that Garde units were armed with crossbow at Fornovo in 1495. The Garde consisted of generally around a hundred who were men of rank and substance and then the 'rank and file' made up the rest of the company as a lance being made up of a MaA plus a squire, archer, valet, and a crannequinier. Like the Cent Suisse numbered more than a hundred, it is likely that the total muster for each of the Garde du Roi on campaign would be four or more their apparent number.

It is these others, that may have been armed with crossbow or bow by this time and the Garde proper would have been armed as other gendarme and archers of the French army while on campaign. In brief, pretty much anything goes that suits your chosen look as nothing can be definitely proven or not as arms used.

Francis I
Garde Ecossaise and Francais

Firstly, the Captain would wear red, so that's pretty simple, and with Messire Stewart away on kings business a lot of the time that will be Messire MacLean.

Although not certain, the standard bearer will be wearing a white surcoat with the badge of St Michael, Charles VIII being the only French Monarch of the time not having an identified 'badge' I figured the artistic licence being acceptable and used on his reformed ordonnance standards including the Garde, I figured that it would suffice. The standard bearer is currently shaping up as we speak being the test piece for the unit.

Now according to the only sources I can find stating anything about the Garde livery under Charles VIII, which is mainly Ian Heath, they also wore the green, white and red of their predessors, so I'm going to go with that scheme rather than the white I'd planned on before, being confirmed for Francis I reign. At least this is going to make the unit a bit more recognisable as being what they are.

The question of the badge however does pose questions as above and I have decided on the St Michael motif for the unit as a whole. This was popular with several of the medieval French kings, was on the livery of the Garde under the reign of Louis XI, the order of St Michael being founded by Charles VIII and several of the Garde were members of that order.

The unit paint scheme is now sorted and under way and I will post the progress as I go with the standard bearer likely to be the first with any progress.

Charles VIII
Companie d'Ordonnance

More on the Garde Ecossaise soon.

Italian Wars Update 001 - Garde Ecossaise WIP

Garde Ecossiase WIP 002
The Difficult Six

I've been working on the Garde Ecossaise foot unit recently and have now just about finished doing the modelling with green stuff on the last of the unit.

I have learnt a lot with using green stuff, and realised I've still a way to go to get to reasonable standard, but that will come with practice. The one thing I have learnt is that patience is the greatest skill for using the medium.

Garde Ecossaise WIP 003
The Easy Six

There are still a few details to be modelled on a few of the figures, sword belts and a couple of hats but these will get finished off soon and I can get into getting the unit painted.

I have decided to paint up the unit in the white livery of Charles VIII and Francis I. This is mainly because it will be a bit more striking on the table top but also a lot easier to paint than the red/white/green Charles VII livery that most may be familiar with as depicted in the 'Adoration of the Magi' painting.

Adoration of the Magi

Although the white livery can only be strictly confirmed as the livery of the 'Garde de la Manche' or Garde du Corps of the King (described on their entry into Rome, - "The Scottish Garde de la Manche are immediately next the king, and ride with white hoquetons over their mail, in token of their unspotted fidelity." - this is the only confirmed livery of the time of the Italian Wars where the Garde served throughout.

The Garde served on campaign with Charles VIII, Louis XII, and Francis I and being particularly mentioned at Fornovo, Agnadello, Marignano, Naples, Pavia and Seminara among others.

Robert Stewart d'Aubigny and the Garde Ecossaise
entry into Paris (by Graham Turner)

Once the foot unit is complete and I get a few other bits under way for the project, I intend to do a mounted version of the Garde Ecossaise which should be interesting to do, and having done a fair bit of research on the subject, maybe another couple of 'regiments' from the household like the Cent Suisse or l'Garde du Roi Ordinaire. More on the Garde and the Italian Wars soon.

Italian Wars . . . . I have a Cunning Plan

Battle of Fornovo 1495

Back from Wales and though very nice it was I'm glad to be back home. I will get around to post a few (selected) photo's of the many medieval delights that Wales has to offer, but that's for another time,  once I've downloaded and sorted them out etc.

During one of the enforced days of rest due to crappy weather I managed to sort out my plans for the Italian wars project. I tend to go at these things a bit piece meal but I thought this time I should have an end goal. So I have now put together a project plan, all slightly anally retentive but hey, it occupied an otherwise dreich afternoon.

In brief I've listed out a French, Italian and HRE/Spanish armies which with a bit of forethought should provide a bit of variety interest and usefulness. All are aimed at the early Italian Wars for flavour which should mean I can use most of the units for other generally late 15th Century armies. I could list all sorts of alternative forces/armies but I'm sure you can figure the kind of armies out for yourselves.

The list for units;

I'll keep this updated on the Italian Wars Project page.

A welcome to the Warblog is due to Arlequin who has many on-line exploits but his main blog can be checked out here and you will see his many interests are legion and you can pick up on his other sites.

The Right Look

Young Knight in a Landscape 1510

I have been looking through my library of source books for some inspiration for my Italian Wars project and looking to see if I can fix the look I'm going for in particular the Italians. While searching I came across this illustration in an old 1970's book on later armour. A nice piece, especially the Light Cavalry look behind the 'Young Knight' which I intend to use as the basis for my Italian light Cavalry.

The knight, and I assume the cavalryman behind him, is actually Venetian, but I have decided to theme my Italian troops round a Romagnol theme, with perhaps a smattering of Papal troops to go along side them.

I have added a page to the blog, 'Italian Wars Project' where I intend to log my progress on the project. Not much progress so far, as the last couple of months have been hectic due to holidays, etc etc have prevented me picking up my paint brush at all, but onwards and upwards....hopefully.

Garde Ecossaise Standard

Garde Ecossaise Standard - Charles VIII

With my Garde Ecossaise unit coming on and the green stuff is flying everywhere, I thought I should look out the standard for the unit I was planning on using. I had tracked down the appropriate details of the standard from Ian Heaths 'Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 1' quite sometime ago so I knew what it should look like.


Then quite a while ago I stumbled upon a very useful web site; The Danish Figure Games Association who have a marvelous selection of flags and standards for downloading from a range of periods including a good selection for French Medieval and Renaissance periods.
One of the standards there was just the standard described by Mr Heath so duly downloaded and saved said standard and stored it away for future use.


Now I have the where withall to do the unit I dug out the file and although useful I decided it needed a bit of prettying up, so with my first attempt in photoshop for doing a standard I did just that with the results above. It should hopefully grace my nice shiny Garde soon.


The Danish Figure Games Association website downloads page is worth a visit here for Medieval and Renaissance stuff. You'll be pleasantly surprised if you haven't come across they're site before.


Now that I've got the idea, I hope to refine the process and maybe produce some more standards for various units, might be fun to try anyway.

August WIP

As part of my Italian Wars project I have now started on a unit that has been in the back of my mind to do for quite some time, namely the Garde Ecossaise (the body guard of the French Kings from the mid 1400's right through to the dissolution of the French Monarchy.

An early shot with the basic assembly done and with a bit of modelling to do with green stuff to fill in the gaps and model the surcoats over some of the armour;

Garde Ecossaise WIP

A fair bit to dop but pleased with the look so far. I'm just glad that the Perry's brought the European plastic figs out, gives lots of possibilities for this kind of modelling.

Next on my desk is the next (small part) of my 'Abbey' terrain project, just a filler/sand alone piece put together while I'm casting loads of arches for the next couple of larger pieces.

Abbey Terrain 002 WIP a

Abbey Terrain 002 WIP b

A simple little piece but hopefully will add a bit of character to the final completed project.

July WIP

WIP Italian Pike

Just a few WIP shots this time with the first being some Italian Pike which should be multi-functional for my Hungarians and French Italian Wars Armies plus various other possible applications. The figures are obviously the ubiquitouis Perry's with a few of their European heads mixed in, the heads are generally chosen for the south of the alps feel. Should be fun painting.


Next up on the workbench, is a couple of things for my Empire Army. First the Army Standard Bearer on foot;

Empire Standard Bearer WIP

The 6th edition Greatsword commander fig with a couple of simple conversions. This figure is again a Perry's designed figure from GW and is a great basis for all sorts of conversions with fantasy and historical applications.


The next is your ever favourite Flaggellants;

Empre Flaggellants WIP

A mixture of 4th and 6th Edition Flaggellants with again a couple of minor conversions. These have been kicking about on the workbench for a while and indeed have been used in the recent WHFB campaign at the club so thought they aught to be on the painting production line for next month.


I have decided to set myself a target for August, my painting tally the last couple of months has, for a variety of reasons, been pretty pitiful so I thought I would try to get some of the foregoing figures painted, to a gaming standard by the end of August, aiming for at least thirty figures which is just one a day. Wish me luck on my endeavour....I'll probably need it.


On a different note, welcome to the Warblog is due to Vladdd309 whose musings on recent figure and rule releases is worth checking out.