From PeterD - A Condottiero (22 points)

When my Italian Wars figures have fought on the table for the first time, they were missing command stands.  So I thought I would fix this deficit and have finished Piero da Montefeltro.  I have based this figure on the historical Frederico da Montefeltro, who was the very model of a modern major general in the 15th century. 

This believe it or not is his good side.

You may not know the name, but I bet you know his face as he possessed one of the most well know noses in art history.   The beak was not a natural event but resulted from a jousting accident, which cost him an eye and left him permanently disfigured.  Frederick then had the bridge of his nose surgically removed to improve his field of vision both on the battle field and to spot potential assassins.  (Yeah, hack off half my nose so that I can see the bastards trying to kill me).

Frederico predates the Italian Wars and I couldn't bring myself to intentional disfigure a Perry figure, so I opted for a fictional scion of the Montefeltri (according to Michael Mallet the official plural of Montefeltro).  The normal bastard son option doesn't appear to hold as Frederico was supposedly exceedingly faithful to his Sforza bride (obviously he liked his women fiesty), so I am assuming Piero is a nephew, cousin or similar.

The figure comes from the Perry Miniatures Italian Mounted Command stand.  I have added a stradiot standard bearer, on the assumption that Piero spent time in Venetian pay, from the Perry Stradiot command pack.  The flag is home printed based on a Montefeltro banner,  and the Stradiot's shield is hand painted based on historical examples (dated back to Thracian times).    The figures were a joy to paint and I am quite happy with the results.

Ah, that is an excellent subject for a command stand. I particularly like that he has a Stradiot standard bearer (a 'tourist' from the Balkans, no doubt) to reinforce his mercenary background.  I look forward to trying to make him change sides in our future Pike & Shotte games (though that might be a challenge knowing his history of fidelity)!