Sunday, 10 January 2016

From Curt - 28mm Italian Wars Bolognese Crossbowmen (55 Points)


I'm trailing Peter in our 'Renaissance Men' duel so I thought I best get something off my paint table to narrow the gap. 

This is a unit of crossbowmen from the Italian city of Bologna ca 1500. We see them here, shooting from behind their pavise shields, while under fire from some opposing missile troops.


I chose Bologna for a couple reasons. The first is pure laziness: Bologna's heraldic crest, a red cross on white background, is relatively easy to do freehand. 

A depiction of a fight between militias factions in Bologna, from the Croniche of Giovanni Sercambi of Lucca.

I also I appreciate Bolognese civil politics of the time. It seems that Bologna was the only Renaissance Italian city (and probably one of the few in Europe) who allowed women to excel in any chosen profession, even permitting them to attend the city's university. Also, Bologna was a center of the arts in its own right, with a residence of painters that rivaled that of Rome and Florence during the period. (In 1506 it was invaded and sacked by Papal armies, its art was stolen and its progressive civil liberties ended (yet another tick-mark in the scorecard of enlightened organized religion...).)


...and finally, let's not forget that a good Bolognese sauce is in of itself worthy to fight for...



These ten 28mm metal figures are from the Perry's 'European Wars' range while the pavises (pavisii?) are from their European Mercenaries box set. 


For the stricken crossbowman I used a plastic Perry Napoleonic British casualty figure, shaved off the offending detail, gave him a breastplate (roughly) made with a bit of green-stuff and then added a sallet helmet and crossbow. The city pennon is a repaint of one of the cutouts provided in the Perry box sets.

I often hot-glue a stump, boulder etc. at the back of my large bases to give players something to grip on to when moving them on the tabletop.


The irregularly shaped MDF base was a sample sent along to me from Simon Miller (aka BigRedBat). He's developed these for use for his 'To The Strongest' ruleset. (Thanks very much Simon!)  For the past year or so I've been thinking of creating basing like this and so I was really stoked when I saw Simon's bases on his website. I really like the organic shape of these bases and am planning to do-up my upcoming Italian Wars collection using these in various dimensions. 


For points, there are 50 for the ten crossbowmen, 3 for the converted casualty and say 2 for the shields and banner (yes, they were freehand, but they were pretty straightforward and not very good). So 55 points for the lot.

Update on Side Challenges & Paint Duels

Hi Folks!


I've been meaning to catch up on the tabulations for the Side Challenges & Paint Duels, but it seems our good friend Byron has taken it upon himself to provide a draft of a score-sheet, a summary of which you can see below (he has each scoring entry listed on his main sheet - yikes).  He's also agreed to take on the role of Duel Minion in order that the sheet stay maintained and up-to-date. Thanks so much Byron - You're my Hero!


Byron and I know that this preliminary sheet will have errors, so please drop him a note (bmudry at shaw dot ca) and he'll make the appropriate edits. Byron asks that you title your email to him for easy searching and making sure your messages are caught, something like “Painting Challenge Points Update - <whatever duel it is for or relevant comment>”.

In the future we will be installing this on the right sidebar once our wayward Spreadsheet Minion gets back to his seat in the Challenge Galley. Geez, spare the lash for the weekend and they go all soft on you...

Now, back to your oars, er, brushes!


 

Participants
Scores
1/1200 Napoleonic ship Challenge



MilesR
0

PaulO'G
0
101 Years War Challenge



Curt
0

RayR
0
6mm Challenge



IanW
24

MarkO
112

TamsinP
0
Bavarian Challenge



ChristopherS
0

Nick
0
Bronze to Steel Challenge



ChristopherS
144

IanW
36

JonathanO
0

MarkH
0

MarticC
635

SebG
0
Cetshwayo Challenge (Zulu)



MartinC
635

MichaelA
40
England and Spain Challenge



JuanM
31

PhilH
25
English Civil War Challenge



AaronH
100

PaulO'G
0
Frostgrave Challenge



AdamC
192

BillA
77

ScottS
0

SimonM
0
Horus Heresy Challenge



GregB
140

JamieM
130

PaulO'G
0
LOTR Challenge



ScottB
0

SteH
0
Modern Mayhem Challenge



ByronM
0

Curt
45

GregB
0

KyleC
0
Native American Challenge



DavidB
0

TamsinP
0
Odin's Night Challenge



Dux
0

JohnS
0

PaulO'G
0

StephenS
0
Reject Challenge



Fran
0

Ray
0
Renaissance Men Challenge



Curt
25

PeterD
117
Sci-Fi Challenge



DavidB
160

GregB
185

KyleC
0

SeanS
11

SyvainR
454
The Brothers Hawkins



IanH
0

PhilH
25
The Pulp Challenge



Curt
0

MichaelA
0

PhilH
15

SimonM
60