Italian Wars: Imperial Landsknecht Zweihänder and Pike

Despite the hot weather I managed to keep going with the Warlord Games Landsknechts, completing half the first pike block - the third rank comprising of zweihänder (what they call Great Swords in Warhammer!)...

And the fourth rank of pikemen. I now need to crack on with the front rank of pike and second rank of pike and command.

As previous just block painting, Marine Juice and a few highlights of the original colours - a lot, lot easier than the end result looks!

Italian Wars: Imperial Landsknecht Arquebusiers

I really shouldn't listen to Phil, but somehow he convinced me that the Italian Wars should be the next big project! Initially I was going to cheat a little and crack on with my long planned Swiss army for the Burgundian Wars (which I have also started) as an early Italian Wars army, but somehow the lure of the Landsknecht and being a bit bored during the England vs DR Congo match I ordered the Warlord Games Landsknecht Starter Army from Wayland Games which arrived Saturday...

The plastic figures are absolutely lovely and I had to get some off the sprue and onto the painting table PDQ... 48 hours later I now have twelve painted arquebusiers!

Actually I have twenty-four as I also finished off these twelve Foundry ones that were partially painted on the workbench...

Oh and a couple of officers which were Citadel fantasy figures a few decades back!

Surprisingly they were remarkably easy to paint, just a case of neat block painting, a wash of Marine Juice and then pick out some highlights with the original base colours. Suppose I better crack on with a pike block next (and the Swiss!)

Pikeman Rampant: Landsknecht Arquebusiers

Over the last four decades I've had a lingering fascination with Landsknechts! I'm not 100% sure why this is. It may have been the couple of excellent 25mm Landsknechts Citadel produced under licence from Ral Partha, or reading Tim Power's excellent fantasy The Drawing of the Dark set during the siege of Vienna in 1529, whatever 'Lead Mountain' does have rather a few bags and boxes of Foundry Landsknechts and the adjunct 'Plastic Spur' contains a number of boxes of old GW Imperial handgunners, crossbow and spear (awaiting conversion to pikes) - all sadly unpainted!

Until today...



These guys have been sat on the workbench for the best part of a decade half painted waiting for me to summon the courage to finish them. Painting Landsknecht's is a daunting prospect, all those stripes and slashed clothing and to be honest trying a three stage technique is these days probably beyond me... So, I pondered would Army Painter dip work?


Well having finished block painting these and then slopped Army Painter Strong Tone dip over them, I think the answer is yes. It gives a decent effect and was reasonably quick - once I'd got my head around Landsknecht clothing!

So what am I going to use them for? Well I am concentrating on the AWI at the moment (and hope to have another unit painted up this week) but am thinking about slowly building up a Pikeman Rampant army, painting up units alongside other projects. Pike Rampant you ask? have you missed an Osprey release? No, this is a set of free ruleset modifications and army lists from The Assault Group to allow you to use Lion Rampant and The Pikeman's Lament in the C16th. Given the fun I've had with other Rampant rulesets, this seems a logical choice to use some of the Landsknechts I've stockpiled over the years...