1540s Landsknecht Pike and Tudor Command

Today's post is an update on some of the things I have been working on. First up is a unit of thirty five landsknecht pike. Originally these figures were meant to fill the back ranks of this unit http://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2019/01/mid-16th-century-landsknecht.html but I felt they were too different to mix in with the armoured figures and so they have remained unpainted until now. The majority of the figures have come from this Wargames Foundry characters pack https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/early-16th-century-renaissance/products/ren011-mercenary-characters. These were the only figures in the Foundry range that weren't sculpted by Alan Perry but instead by Nick Collier, who has sculpted all of the fantastic Assault Group renaissance range. To my eyes the styles of hose these figures wear put them slightly further into the 1500s than the other Foundry landsknecht and they will fit in really well with my 1540s collection which can be seen here: http://camisado1500s.blogspot.com/2019/06/mid-16th-century-armies-imperialists.html. The command figures are from Warlord Games, I think sculpted by Paul Hicks, and the Captain's clothing (the figure carrying the baton) puts him in the middle decades of the 16th century. My 2019 landsknecht post, see the first link above, includes lots of contemporary art that shows landsknecht of the 1530s and 40s.

Of course there have been a few head swaps in the unit so that some of the landsknecht are wearing helmets that are spot on for the 1540s. The heads came from Mirliton, https://www.mirliton.it/historical-25-28mm/arms-weapons/heads-with-helmet-xvi-century-ach026 and Steel Fist https://steelfistminiatures.com/products/lan-25-landsknecht-heads-x8 but there are also some plastic heads from an old Games Workshop Empire kit included. The finished unit has a different feel to it from my other landsknecht and whilst the figures don't necessarily work well in the same unit they look fine when arrayed next to each other as demonstrated in the photos below.

The other figures in today's post all come from this great pack by the Assault Group, https://theassaultgroup.co.uk/product/john-dudley-earl-of-warwick-staff/ which is meant to represent John Dudley the Earl of Warwick and his staff. Dudley was present in the Duke of Suffolk's French campaign of 1523, took part in the naval Battle of the Solent in 1545, the Anglo-Scots wars of the 1540s and led the forces that crushed Kett's Rebellion in 1549 before being executed in 1553 following his failed attempt to make Lady Jane Grey queen instead of Mary I. The miniature is of a gentleman in 1540s Tudor fashions and I have made the flag interchangeable so that the command base can be used to represent various captains or characters from the mid-16th century. In the photos below he is shown with the Royal arms of England and so could be Edward Seymour, Protector Somerset, taking part in the "Rough Wooing" or Dudley acting as the Crown's agent when facing the Norfolk rebels in 1549.

The Herald that comes with the pack is a fantastic figure with the Royal Arms of England sculpted onto his tabard. This is perfect for those of us like myself who do not have the ability to paint heraldic devices freehand so I really appreciated this figure. The original sculpt has a ruff collar but I wanted to be able to use the figure for my earlier Tudor army as well so I head swapped the miniature, removing the ruff collar. I also changed the sword hilt to make it look like a slightly earlier weapon. As such the converted Herald would be suitable from the 1490s up until the 1550s.