From PeterD - 28mm Mounted Condottieri Commanders: 'Silvano & Cambino' (35 points)

'Get off your duff and get your troops moving Aleramici!'

My next posting is two command stands for my Italian Wars Project.  I have based these on real Italian families of note from the period, assuming that minor or wayward members have gone off soldiering as Condotierri.  These two may have some resemblance to local gamers participating in the Challenge...

The Aleramici family ruled varous small Northwestern Italian fiefdoms (in modern Piedmont). The family were Frankish in origin and often sided with the French in the Italian Wars. Silvano Aleramici is a product of an obscure branch and fights for who ever will pay him. Silvano is renowned for his umm prudent and careful approach to battle and boasts of a large library of military manuals and histories. His comrades in arms question whether he has read any of these military works as he seems more interested in books with lots of pictures and only a few words. He also claims to be have literary intensions himself.

Silvano believes in the value of upgrade equipment and rides into battle in full Milanese plate for both himself and his mount. The flag is historical, but I reversed the order of the colours for Silvano's horse trappings, as it seemed to work better than a thin band of red along the top of the horse. This figure comes from the Perry mounted Italian command and the standard bearer is from the plastic command sprue from the War of the Roses bills and bows set.

 

In contrast Cambino Barbarigo cuts a dashing figure on the battle field and is known for his quick and decisive approach. The Barbarino's were a prominent Venetian family and members of the family were elected as Doge during this period. They don't talk much about Cambino however... Cambino loves flashy new clothes and equipment and rides into battle on a fine new Bavarian charger wearing a rather ridiculous embroidered red cap because Silvano's gilded barbette is sooo 1478. It has been noted that Cambino might conquer all if he settled down to one plan of action instead of chasing new shiny prospects every time one appeared.

 

 
This figure is also from the Perry Italian Mounted Command pack and is based on the famous painting by Paolo Uccello, the one with the 3D horses hooves. His standard bearer comes from the Perry Mounted Knights plastic box set (have I mention how much I like this set), and is the first figure that I have completed with the barding. The barding is a little fussy but after some trial and error I found that masking tape can hold the bits in place while the glue sets.

The flags involved are historical and were downloaded from the excellent site http://www.krigsspil.dk/download/download_2.html. I resized them and printed them on our home laser printer using regular paper. I choose the Barbarigo family for Cambino because of the beards on the family crest, which matches our UberLord's facial fur. Also apparently in his wild youth, Curt spent some time as a nomadic hair stylist wandering about Northern Italy and other European locales...

 

So by my count that's 3 mounted figure and one foot figure = 35 points.  How many of you can avoid the Beach Boys "Barbara Ann" ear worm using the Barbarigo family name?

 

My pair of falconets appear in the background of many of these shots.

Haha! You're a very clever wag Mr. Douglas. I love 'Cambino's' beard banner and your back stories are pretty much spot-on. You must have been rocking back and forth sniggering while writing up this post. Very nicely done. These are great figures and I think your first attempt at barding turned out very well. My only suggestion is that for Silvano's stand you may want to swap out the sword being handed to him for a battleplan instead. :P