15th Century Rumanian Archers and Light Cavalry

I've had a Vlad Tepes figure by Old Glory kicking around in my unpainted bin for many years now, and it occurred to me that it would be fun to paint him, along with a pack of Rumanian archers and Rumanian light cavalry, and call them "Balkan mercenaries" in Italian Wars games.  The archers are chunky scuplts and quite tall for Old Glory.  I could not find a plate online that matched their clothing style (a knee length baggy tunic with an open jacket on top of that and a cloak on top of that), but the distinctive fur hats were the main feature I was after and every figure in this pack has one.

I based these so they can be in units of ten figures on three 40mm square bases (three figs on two bases, and four crammed on the third base). This isn't for any particular game system, it just maximizes the number of units I can field from one bag of 30 figures.

I had similar bad luck finding reference images for the light cavalry.  They all wear a peculiar disc on their chests. I painted this metallic. I knew I wanted them in red jackets to match Vlad so wasn't too worried about other accuracy.  I still need to add a banner to one of the riders.

These could moonlight as stradiots in Italian Wars games, although both these and the archers are a bit old fashioned looking (1470s-ish) for the Italian Wars (1495-1515) period.

Its a bit of a fool's errand, but I've also been upgrading the basing on a lot of my Italian Wars units.  Or at least changing the base decoration to match my current preferences.  Up until 3 or 4 years ago I would use Oregon beach sand for grit and just apply some flock to the base and call it good.

Left to right: Milan, France, Venice, Este, Florence.

My current preference is to use (clean!) cat litter as a base, let it dry, paint it with cheap "fawn" colored acrylic paint to get a dry/dirty/arid look, then add flock, then tufts.  I mainly like the lighter surface tone which makes the minis stand out a bit more.  I've also taken to rebasing my command stands from round bases to square MDF, which is what this group is.

Italian Wars painting completed!

Well, not really.  I still have a box of Perry plastic War of the Roses 'European Mercenaries' (and the separate metal Italian heads) to assemble and paint, another six Perry light cavalry (I'll do them as mounted crossbows) and 12 Perry plastic men at arms, but none of those were required for this project to be done.  Since November 2017 I have painted:

• 36 Landsknecht pike
• 60 Italian/Swiss pike
• 36 Landsknecht aquebusiers
• 36 Italian/Swiss arquebusiers
• 24 Landsknecht doppelsoldners 
• 24 Halberdiers
• 30 Gendarmes
• 30 Elmeti 
• 12 'Archer' cavalry
• 12 Stradiots light cavalry
• 12 Mounted Crossbowmen
• 12 command stands
• 4 Heavy Guns with 5 crew each
• 4 Guns (with 'Burgundian Carriages') with 3 crew each
• 4 Baggage Stands

 This is a total of at least 350 figures in approximately 6 months, which is a nice clip of roughly 2 figures per day! Now, let us never attempt such a task again! I must confess I feel very liberated now to have this lead mountain completely painted and done with. 

(Above: my French king/commander stand - figures by Foundry - very pleased with how this came out)

(Above: the opposing general, for my Fornovo scenario this will be Gonzaga - figures again by Foundry)

(Above: A Perry Italian Wars commander.  I wish I could have made his horse more interesting but by this stage I felt unmodivated to come up with something unique - that said I'm very pleased with my armor effects at this point!)

(Above: Stoked on how these heavy artillery stands came out.)

(Above: A playtest underway. Play time was about 3 hours. Might go faster or slower at Enfilade! with more than two players playing.)

(Above: From the playtest - the French Gendarmes in the lower left move forward - while Italian Elmeti surge forward in the center right.  Getting these heavy cavalry units 'right' stat and rules-wise has been challenging.)

Not sure what the next painting projects/focus will be. As noted above I have more Italian Wars stuff to paint, which I will do at a relaxed and leisurely pace involving small batches!  I have also been acquired small units of fantasy stuff for Dragon Rampant which I would like to have a few more go-arounds with.

See you at Enfilade!