Charlie's 15th century - Burgundian handgunners (Sep 23)

[OSHIROmodels]

Lovely. The mix of livery and more normal clothing works well 

[Bloggard]

wow, those scenic shots, ... up there with Gilder.   

[Griefbringer]

J - Crusader Miniatures, with head and arms replaced with Perry parts (metal head and plastic arms), plus a Perry sword and buckler.

Thanks for the tip. I do have a dozen of the Crusader Miniatures handgunners, and they could certainly do with a few conversions for variety. Was it a lot of work to remove the old arms from the Crusader figure.

Also, looking at the individual pictures, it becomes apparent that the Steel Fist Swiss have bigger gonnes than the Perry figures. With the group shots, this is not obvious other than for figure E, which is pointing the gun to the sky. That said, it is late 15th century and the handgonnes were not exactly standardised in size, so having a variety in a single unit just adds to the period feeling.

BTW Is it my eyesight, or have you actually based the figures on two bases of different widths?

[Charlie_]

Thanks for the tip. I do have a dozen of the Crusader Miniatures handgunners, and they could certainly do with a few conversions for variety. Was it a lot of work to remove the old arms from the Crusader figure.

Well, I tried it on two of them. This one just seemed to work luckily - hacked the arms off, and found the plastic Perry handgun arms fit on in their place pretty perfectly, with almost zero green stuff gap-filling required. It helped that both the new arms and the ones they were replacing were simple long sleeves.
However the second one I tried it on, I just couldn't get to work. It had short sleeves which I wanted to keep, and made the cut halfway up the upper arms. I just couldn't get the plastic arms to fit on right, so I gave it up.

Also, looking at the individual pictures, it becomes apparent that the Steel Fist Swiss have bigger gonnes than the Perry figures. With the group shots, this is not obvious other than for figure E, which is pointing the gun to the sky. That said, it is late 15th century and the handgonnes were not exactly standardised in size, so having a variety in a single unit just adds to the period feeling.

Yes, they are bigger. I personally prefer the smaller Perry ones, but as you say they obviously wouldn't have been a uniform size, and I think mixed together with a bit of variety they work fine.

BTW Is it my eyesight, or have you actually based the figures on two bases of different widths?

Well spotted! Yes they are on a 40x80 and a 40x60mm. I originally had my skirmishers on two 40x80mm bases (five figures each), but wanted to try squeezing them in a bit closer, so for this unit made one of the two bases a bit smaller.

[Griefbringer]

Regarding the bigger handgonnes, those could be handy when defending city walls - in such a static postion the bigger size is not an issue. However, for marching out on the field, a bit smaller gun could be much handier. Got to keep this size difference in mind if I ever come to buying the Steel Fist Swiss.

Speaking of which, have you got the Steel Fist Swiss crossbows - and if yes, how do they compare with Perry and Crusader?

[Charlie_]

Speaking of which, have you got the Steel Fist Swiss crossbows - and if yes, how do they compare with Perry and Crusader?

Yes I have the crossbows too, they'll be appearing in some future units (plus the fourth handgunner who's not in this unit).
The crossbows themselves are roughly similar in size to the Perry plastic ones - note that the Perry metal Italian crossbows are noticeably smaller than the plastic ones. I mix them all together with no worries.
The crusader ones don't have the strings sculpted on like Perry or Steel Fist.