Saturday 27 February 2016

From PeterD - 28mm Swiss Pikemen (85 points)

Hard on the heels of Curt's Gendarmes, I have a more much more modest post for our 'Renaissance Men' duel.  These are 16 Perry miniatures painted as Swiss Pikemen from the Zurich Canton.


These were a while in completion.  The first 8 were ready to go on the 12th but I decided to wait a week to get the whole unit a once, since the next 8 were in progress already. However primer failures and a stomach issue left me 98% ready with the unit last week end.  Given how I felt I waited another week to make sure I was happy with the results. And while not up to Curt's standard (Pah! -ed), I am quite happy with the results.


The mix of figures is 7 metal figures with pikes leveled and at 45 degree angles, 1 metal Swiss horn player bartered from Curt (thanks bud), 1 plastic command figure with standard from the Mercenaries boxed set, 1 plastic foot knight with pikemen's arms, and the rest European Mercenary plastics with pike and halberd arms (the latter from the bill and bow set).  The heads from a variety of plastic boxes plus some metal Swiss heads.  The metal pikemen come with pollards so the pikes are brass rod.  The flag is paper printed at home based on a Zurich flag from the Burgundian wars.


I am continuing to work on my basing.  Here again it is the Perry plastic bases topped with an acrylic gel/paint  mix and with ballast rocks and GW tufts.  Comments, feedback and suggestions for improvement are appreciated.




Well, I had a points lead for at least a few hours... :0P
These are great Pete! Pikemen are the meat and potatoes of the late medieval period, so it's wonderful to see more fine examples here. I like that you've done-up this unit with the front ranks charging their pikes, going in for the attack. I know they can be a bit fiddly to use on the tabletop, but the sense of movement they give just can't be beat.
I like where you're going with your new basework Peter. The texture gel and tufts look great. My only suggestion would be to mix in a few shades and lengths of tufts to provide more depth to the foliage/texture. Also, I recommend both painting and drybrushing the tallus. It will help integrate them with your existing basework colour scheme and the paint gives an added benefit of binding them to the base for longevity. 
I'm going to give a few more points for the brass rod pike swaps and the canton's brave banner. Now, I just need to convince you to add a couple more bases to beef them up to full meglomaniac level. ;)
I look forward to impaling my new gendarmes on these guys in an upcoming game! :)

31 comments:

  1. Great looking pikeman and I like the mix of all the different figures types (metal/plastics)

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    1. Thanks Miles. I am having fun putting these units together.

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  2. Thanks Curt
    I do plan to increase my pike units to 24 strong, but wanted to get the third unit in place first. Good tips on the basing, both getting me here and in the future. I will look for a better mix of tufts for variety.

    My Swiss look forward to meeting your Gendarmes too!
    Cheers
    Peter

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  3. The Perrys certainly deliver the goods when it comes to variety of poses and attention to detail, and you've done their figs justice with this entry. You've taken the ability to mix and match and run with it, making use of all the bits at your disposal, and then painting and basing to a very high standard.

    It would be great to see the unit reinforced to 24 minis - there are few sights more impressive than massed blocks of pike!

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    1. Thanks Ev
      The Perrys do their plastics sets right. There's a variety of poses with plenty if arms and especially heads to go around. Once you've got a couple of different boxes you have a pretty huge supply of body parts to swap around.
      Cheers Peter

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  4. Great work Peter. The base work looks excellent - my only feedback would echo Curt - add a wash to the gravel to tie it together more. But these are looking great, well done.

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  5. nice paintwork Peter!
    perhaps a light drybrush of yellow kaki on the sienna brown of your bases could pop up the figures and should blend well with washed gravels.

    Kind regards.

    GillesW

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  6. Bring on the Toblerones! Very nice work one can only imagine the wargames goodness that the wargames table will show when you and Curt play these figures. Is it too early to put in a request for photos of the game?

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    1. Thanks Clint! We're already talking about a game but it maybe a week or two.

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  7. Good work on replacing the pikes..... Especially given Curt's comments on poking opponents with his lances if things aren't going well, you can retaliate now!

    Silliness aside, these are great. Nice and colourful on a unit that could be a little drab.

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  8. Nice work on the pike, Peter! The banner and troop colors are very nice and I really like the animation to them too! ;)

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    1. Thanks David. The figures are very nice and they work well together as a unit. I was really pleased with how they turned out

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  9. These are great, love the mix of poses and the basing also carries them well

    Ian

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  10. Really nice. Going to give your army a real spikey hedgehog core. cheers

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    1. Thanks Brendan. There's more long pokey things to come!

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  11. Nice little block; I like the basing!

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