10mm Ancients: Early Swiss (IV/41)

A few weeks ago, I posted about my new 10mm Renaissance project, to begin with a few packs of Pendraken 10mm Swiss that I picked up on Bartertown in January.  Unfortunately, they are early Swiss, before they switched from halbreds to pikes, so these aren't properly Renaissance troops.  Still, I enjoyed painting them--and looking at them afterwards--that I've given the green light to buying more 10mm.  This is how they came out. 

Early Swiss DBA army (1V/41) done with Pendraken 10mm figures

The bulk of the army, of course, are units of halbrediers.  I did most of these in Swyz colors of red and white, with a minority in the blue and white of Lucerne.  Both cantons were part of the original confederation when they were fighting the Hapsburgs.  You can't see it in this shot, but on the solid red tunics I also painted a white cross on the back. 

The general's stand in the middle still needs his triangular Swiss Cross battleflag.   The standard bearer figure is actually an artillery crew member, but I thought it looked appropriate here.

The army can include up to two stands of skirmishers.  Historically, these were crossbowmen.  With 15mm figures these would only be two figures per stand, but doubling it seems to work well.

As you can see, I still haven't added magnetic strips to the bottom of these matte-board bases.

The final element of the army is a unit of Light Horse.  On first reading that may seem strange--Light Horse conjures images of Cossacks on the Steppe, not Swiss hiking through the Alps--but it actually was mounted crossbowmen.  Since they didn't stick around for melee combat, DBA models them as Light Horse elements.

The dude on the left is wearing an awful lot of armor for someone who doesn't intend to enter melee, don't you think?

I've also discovered an online retailer called Great Hall Games who carries all three 10mm lines I'd like to purchase: Pendraken, Old Glory (no, the other Old Glory), and Magister Militum, so I can avoid multiple shipping charges.  Currently I'm thinking of getting Italian Condotta and Hapsburg armies to fight my Swiss before I charge into the Renaissance.

By the way, observant viewers might have noted the base sizes are all identical. I used 40x20mm bases for all units so I could port them to a game of Warmaster.  With the Italian and Hapsburg armies I should just have enough to make a 1000 pt. Empire army.  Maybe some of the GW fanboys around would be interested in Warmaster, too.  Maybe.

10mm Renaissance

My newest folly is assembling a Renaissance-era army in 10mm.  Everything I've done so far has been 15mm, but in the course of trying to flesh out some 1980s era true-15s (as opposed to the 18mm figures in vogue now) these 10mm caught my eye.  From what I can see on the Internet, the 10mm scale offers both a "massed soldier effect" and a lower price--much lower, in some cases.

So when a poster at Fanaticus offered some leftover 10mm figures for the 15th century Italian Wars, I figured that would be a good way to put my toes in the water, so to speak.

The first thing I noticed was how small these figures are.  the picture below shows a comparison between a 15mm figure (a Dark Ages lancer by Essex) and a 10mm figure (a mounted crossbowmen by Pendraken).

The challenge will be downshifting the level of detail when painting, relying more on bulk than on individual figures for the desired effect.   Pictures to follow (eventually).