Tuesday, 13 January 2026

KenR - 28mm Swiss Italian Wars Pike (Basel) 170 pts

 

This is my main focus for this years Challenge, an expansion of my Swiss for the Italian Wars hopefully adding another 2 x 128 figure units during the 3 months, and as every journey starts with a single step, every Pike Block begins with a 32 figure "column"

These figures carry the flags of Basel and always I have simply taken the colours of the flags as the Palette for the figures. I will produce 4 such "columns" each from a different Canton or City for each block so the units will be 4 bases wide by 4 bases deep or a Pike Square.

The figures are 28mm Perry (both metal and plastic) with a couple of Steelfist Miniatures in the front Rank. They are slightly larger than the Perrys but you can't really tell in the unit as a whole. Figs are 8 figs per base on a 60 x 50 with the front base (with lowered Pike 110 x 60) to protect people's fingers from the sharp Pikes.

So points wise there are 32 x 28mm foot at 5 points a piece plus 3 flags at 1 each, giving a total of 163 points. The flags are from Flags of War.

The 2nd unit of Spanish Heavies is nearly done after which I have some French Napoleonic Generals (for the Empire Bonus Round) then Spanish Heavies 3 before I return to the next Pike Column. So I should have some Cavalry for you next week.

It wouldn't be a Tuesday without a paints bomb from ken, and what a wonderful one this is.  Lovely work all around, the figure selection and posing, the basin, and painting and the flags. I am rounding this up to 170 points and then getting out of the way so that others can drool.

 

Peter

25 comments:

  1. Holy crap, stunning stuff as usual Ken. Love it.

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  2. Beautifully painted as always.

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    1. Cheers mate, just need to be aware of Spanish hiding behind ditches ๐Ÿ˜

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  4. Gorgeous! (Your pike blocks have as many figures each as my old Warhammer army).

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  5. Splendid Swiss,great basing and flags too!
    Best Iain

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  6. Very inspiring! Great painting and think the photography is very good too - perfect photo's. What gaming rules will you be using for these. I have a 28mm Swiss army with 3 pike blocks for Basic Impetus but thinking of also using these for Warlord's "Pike and Shotte" rules.

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    1. I use a set called Furioso ๐Ÿ‘ there's a few run through videos on the Yarkshire Gamer Utubes Channel

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  7. As always splendid. Beautiful work and photos.

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  8. Very satisfying I imagine to complete one of these units, but even so you then have the glorious details - fantastic

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    1. Cheers, 1/4 of the unit done so far ๐Ÿ‘

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  9. I think your standard units are bigger than my gaming table. I am very envious of your large scale units. Fantastic work on the painting as always.

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  10. Every time I see shots of your Italian Wars collection I feel the gravitational pull of the period - I suspect I'll be heading there next once I'm finished with my Wars of the Roses project. Great work as always Ken and thanks for sharing these with us. Cheers!

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