Friday 3 February 2012

Swiss Pikes - command stands






















I've been rebasing my existing Swiss pike bloc, to align it to the frontage I'm using for my Burgundian-Swiss war armies. This is taking a little longer than I expected it to do. As an interim post here are the two command stands which carry the cantonal colours. They feature two of the headswops on the Citadel Dogs of War figures from the last post.

I'm still to add two more flags, which I have on order from different sources. The flags I've used here I purchased on ebay some time back; they're printed on cloth and I have to say that I was a tad apprehensive using them for the first time. However I'm delighted with the finished standard of them, the key is the use of a new scalpel blade to avoid any tearing when cutting them out; I only wish they covered all the cantons I want to use.

So at present we have the cantonal colours for (left to right) Underwalden, Lucerne, Uri and Biel. The latter is a repaint of one of these cloth flags, as I added the crossed axes to a red printed flag. Nidwalden and Obwalden are the missing cantons. I've assembled these cantons together to form one of the pike blocs based loosely on how the cantons appear to be organised for Grandson, based on the Osprey 'Swiss at War' and Richard Vaughan's 'Charles the Bold', but it's not definitive and frankly a mix of colours has a nicer visual appeal.

I should hopefully have the rest of the figures re-based for a photo shoot next week.

10 comments:

  1. The cloth flags do look very realistic and the painting and basing is superb as always.

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  2. Have you a link to any pics of the canton flags you're needing to complete the bases above? If so place them on your blog and I'll paint them up and get a couple of cloth copies sent to you.

    regards Pete

    http://thegreatitalianwars.blogspot.com/

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  3. Pete,
    That is extremely kind of you. I'll look for images to post here asap - I'd be after only 3 or 4 if thats OK?
    Best regards, Simon.

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  4. no worries, I'll keep my eyes open for them being posted, cheers Pete

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  5. There's a certain brutal simplicity about the swiss and you've captured it, tough looking chaps. Have you ever been tempted to do a few c.1520?

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  6. Beautiful figures =). the Uri Officer is such a nice design, i love that coat. Do you happen to know what the coat is called and if there are any original sources that show it in use?.

    I know there is one featured in the Osprey book but not as long as that one and curious where the sculptors based that one from.

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  7. Thanks for the comments - the pike bloc is nearly done.
    Stuart - I have castings for Italian Wars and had Foundry completed their range years ago, I may well have done some as really nice figures ...perhaps if the Perrys return to it one day?
    Hawkwind1879 - I'm not aware of a specific name for the coat. There are several Swiss illustrations showing long coats, but I doubt they'd have specific name.
    Simon.

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  8. The coat is referred to as a 'waffenlock'in German (landsknecht) sources, not sure if that is of any use or translation for swiss.

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  9. Thank you for the info guys. I think coats over armour just looks so smart, especialy the red =)

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