Basing

 I'm making some progress with the landsknechts, although not as fast as I would like...

and of course I've been sidetracked into finishing off some other figures. Recently Crooked Dice Miniatures released some more Robin of Sherwood figures, and this galvanised me getting out the figures I had painted so far and finishing the bases off.

I've been prevaricating for years on how to do them, but recently Geoff at Oakbound kindly gave me a mix of the flocks he uses, and they work really well.

Basing underway... complete with appropriate soundtrack.

Some of the villagers of Wickham. A mix of 4 flocks, and I've added the odd subdued tuft.

More to follow soon

First of the Landsknechts

 Landsknechts..... the idea of painting them has always filled me with dread, but I seem to be on a bit of a roll at the moment having found my mojo after months in the wilderness.

I've got a pike block of 54 to complete, along with 10 skirmishers, and I've decided to paint each figure pretty much individually...with non uniformed troops I find it quicker, and less confusing.

The figures are by The Assault Group and are early Landsknechts from the 1490s-early 1500s.

Here are the first 3 .

At the moment, I'm quite enjoying the challenge of getting one a day finished...we'll see how I feel after a few more.

One thing I'm finding is I can only paint for about an hour at a time now without getting a tummy ache, presumably due to my appalling posture when painting.

Defenders of Padua

 I managed to get a couple of hours this  morning to carry on with these old Grenadier figures to use as Paduan defenders of the 1509 siege.Almost finished 4 guns and 8 crew.

ITALIAN INSPIRATION

 One of George's schoolfriends has an Italian dad and they visit Italy several times a year. Last time they went I asked him to pick up these 2 books.

One on the battle of Anghiari by Massimo Predonzani who has written the recent Helion publications on the Italian Wars, and one about the Siege of Padua in 1509 called The Lion, the Eagle and the Cat (Venetian Lion, Imperial Eagle and the main defensive bastion of Padua was called The Bastion of the Cat).

Both in Italian which I can just about manage, using my O level Latin and Google translate. Full of fascinating details.

STRADIOTS

 Yeah, real life completely manic at the moment, and I'm not posting everything I get finished, but here's a picture of some Stradiots for my retro Italian Wars project.... also usable with Oldhammer Tileans. Inspired by pictures in 1980s issues of Miniature Wargames.

Figures by QT, Venexia and Hinchliffe.

Apologies to blogging friends as I'm not commenting on your blogs as often as I would like. A combination of time constraints and general ennui with a dose of black dog sees me wasting valuable hobby time doing nothing.