From Mike W: 28mm 17th Century Saxon Infantry (140 Points)

Finally I got them done! A day late for submission last week but nonetheless they are completed - I forgot just how many buttons there are on each figure (20!), not to mention the 12 apostles on each of the 15 musketeers...

Raw figures from the 28th January!

The figures are form North Star's excellent 1672 range, originally Copplestone figures, and I have a mountain of these lead figures still waiting to be painted up. I decided that they would be painted to represent a regiment of Saxon infantry, dispatched to Vienna n 1683 with the Saxon / Polish & allied relief force, who were to attempt to lift the Ottoman siege of that city.

Although the figures are arguably a little 'early' fashion wise for the Siege of Vienna, the beauty of this period is that no-one is really 100% sure exactly what as worn by the fighting units. A combination of national uniforms being in their infancy and the rigours of campaign would have created many different looks within the armies, plus the fact that offices were generally able to dress themselves according to their whim, rather than uniform regulations, created some very colourful units in the field.

The finished Regiment, 28 figures. 4 x Command, 8 x Pike,15 x Musketeers & 1 x NCA

This Saxon unit is loosely based upon the Benkendorf Regiment that was raised in 1675, I have chosen to depict the unit in classic Saxon Red, although there area few references to some regiments at this early time dressed in grey. I have also used the known later facing colour of 'Isabel', a popular shade of the times. Again no-one is 100% sure exactly what this colour was but best guesses being a dark straw or ochre colour. Pants were leather, buttons were brass.

Left Musketeer Wing

Right Musketeer Wing

I used my regular method for painting these figures, with a lot of touching-up to cover the errors when laying down base coats of red, leather, 'Isabel' and white...


I like my Pike & Shot units to be big, with two wings of eight musketeers, a command base of four, including two standards and then a pike block of eight, around the command base.

Command & Pike Block

You may note that there is a mix of armoured and unarmoured pikemen,with armoured chaps in the front ranks and unarmoured colleagues to the rear, as per the period. Actually the role of the pike was being phased out at this time, but they did not finally leave the battlefield until the early 1700s.

Figures are based four figures o a 40mm x 40mm base, pikemen - two to a 40mm x 20mm base to allow positioning around the command base. Sometimes I also split the command base into two 40mm  20mm bases to allow flexibility in swapping standard bearers between units - many armies of the period having very similar uniforms and thus allowing the units to be multi-purposed in different games.

Flags are from Warfare Minatures and are purposely slightly over scale to add even more colour to the period! 



Calculations: 28 x 28mm figures @ 5 points ea = 140 Points

That's a lovely pike & shot unit. I like the thought you've put into the positioning of the armoured and unarmoured figures, and the oversize flag complements their red coats perfectly.

Barks