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I forgot to mention the Assault Group, whose Italian Wars range of figures are specifically designed for the earlier part of the Wars. For the Spanish go with the Neapolitan Spanish, many of whom are still wearing the skirted tunic. The Italians and Landsknechts are also fine for the period. If you go to the Renaissance section of their website the figures can be found under Italians, Spanish, Maximillian Imperial and Albanian.
Steel Fist Miniatures Gendarmes and lighter cavalry are ideal for the French, but there are no other specifically French troops as such.An excellent source of information and inspiration ishttp://stuartsworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/which shows how to convert Perry figures to early Italian Wars - specifically English and French. He has also produced some metal dollies in the full skirted coat of the early C16th which will accept Perry arms and heads. These are also available through Steel Fist Miniatures.
Another very useful source of early Spanish pikemen is Old Glory. Many of these are wearing the skirted tunic, and some are depicted as turbaned Spanish moslems now incorporated into Ferdinand’s armies. They also have the advantage of hands to be drilled for accepting separate metal pikes, which then don’t fall off.
Does the Warlord Landsknecht box come with both Schweizerdegen and Katzbalger options? If so I'm in, just for the sword options!!
About the easiest way to differentiate between Swiss and Landsknecht costume is, that while both often wore a cross insignia somewhere on their bodies (sometimes a cloth applique, sometimes just formed by slashes in the outer clothing), Landsknecht (as Imperialists) wore it in an X shape (Cross of Burgundy - one of the badges of the Hapsburgs), while Swiss Reiselaufer wore it in a + shape (like that on the modern Swiss flag). https://i.pinimg.com/originals/82/84/97/828497667512d91a4a9158e4be695eee.jpg
You will not find what you want: Swiss, right period; Landsknehts right period; French right period. You must go with the Italian Wars flow - ciao baby!
Artisan do produce some very nice specifically Swiss pike and arquebusiers for the Italian Wars. They also produce landsknechts and they do look different from one another, with the Swiss showing slightly less flamboyant slashing of sleeves and hose.
Yeah, the problem being that the Artizan Swiss range is a very small range by comparison to their Landsknechts. Otherwise, for my purposes anyway, they would be ideal!It's a bit of a shame, I remember emailing Mike when he announced the range and he was talking about producing more mini's than ever went into production. Of course, if you're running a business based on selling mini's then you might have legitimate reasons for not continuing with the original plans.
I recall when I pointed out to him the limited extent of the range, he indicated that the range was supposed to be mixed in with the more flamboyant landsknechts.
in general the Swiss preferred the Schweizerdegen and the Landsknecht the Katzbalger.
Indeed, the miniatures would need a bit of converting ether way. I would hope that the range could someday be expanded. He offers the only 28mm Swiss appropriate for the first quarter of the 16th century (in my view). He may be missing an opportunity.
Thanks. I'm very familiar with Pete's (Tag Pete that is) Spanish, Neapolitan Spanish, Spanish, Italian and Maximilian ranges. I really like the Early Landsknechts . Lovely sculpts. I was contemplating using them as both Swiss and Landsknechts (with minor conversions on side arms) but there is a distinct lack of any crossbowmen in the range which is a problem for the Swiss as they were slower to take up the arquebus then their adversaries.
It might be possible to build Swiss crossbows using a mixture of pieces from the Perry's European Mercenaries, Landsknechts and separate metal heads sets.
If one wants to dabble with converting plastics, perhaps a more straightforward starting point would be the Warlord Games set of Landsknecht missile troops.