From PeterD - 28mm Italian Gendarmes (81 Points)

Another set of problem children here, with an 8 man unit of 28mm Italian Gendarmes on barded horses for my Italian Wars project.  This will extend my lead in my Renaissance Men side duel with Curt, but not by enough he pulls off his 32 man Landschneck points bomb. The figures are of course from the Perry miniatures plastic box sets.

I started assembling these guys in December, but they kept getting sidetracked by other projects.  The barding proved fiddly and I am still not happy with it.  A horse or two that I was happy with got requisitioned for commanders etc, etc.

When it came time for painting there were other issues, mostly between the chair cushion and the paint brush.  The gothic, metal barding was too...metal, and I had trouble getting the effects right.  I did the other barding as fabric and that proved fiddly too, plus I made the mistake of using yellow on two of the four sets.  Next time I'll try steel armour with gilded highlights.  Not my best Italian Wars unit by any benchmark, which is a shame as they should be the cream of the crop.  But I'm done fussing over them and am glad to get them out of the queue.

Originally I was going to give them the flag for the Sforza Dukes of Milan, but I didn't think that they were up to snuff for that role.  I went with a generic Cross of St George pennant.   The last issue came with basing. it turns out that I ran out of the plastic Revendra based I was using for Cavalry, so I had to resort to card.  I didn't want to risk heavy paint and acrylic gel on the card for fear of warping so went back to older flocking styles, with an eye to rebasing on plastic or wood alter.  I used Static grass with a blend of two army painter boxes and in the end it doesn't look half bad at all.

I've had a lot of fun on the Challenge and really enjoyed my minion duties on Monday.  As always I've learned a lot and been tempted by a lot of projects and ranges.  Good work everyone, and I'll see you next year.

I know you had some issues with these Gendarmes Peter, but I think they look very good. I really like the red lances and appreciate the multi-hued appearance of the unit as a whole. I too found doing mounted men-at-arms a bit of a trial as you want to keep each figure distinct, but there is so many fiddly folds and edges to keep in mind as you're painting them. You absolutely need them for the period but they are a royal pain (literally) to get done.

I'm going to add another point for the pennant which will give you 81 points for the unit, and so a 155 point spread for me to bridge in our Renaissance Men duel. I'm going to make you sweat for a few hours to see if I can manage to close it with my last entry.  ;)

Peter, it was wonderful having you both as a participant and as a adjudicator this year. You and your Monday crew always provided us a nice step into the week. It was very much appreciated - thank you.

PS: Remind me and I'll get you a set of new bases for these lads. :)