Here are my Condottieri di Milano, fresh from a narrow victory (finally!) in Steve Dean's latest painting competition…
They’re all from 28mm Perry components – mainly the Mercenaries / Wars of the Roses boxes - but I also used the free ACW Zoauve command sprue which came with Miniature Wargames a few months back… (Waste not, want not
)
Il Capitano and Il Piccolino.
The Captain is made from standard components in the Mercs box - but using the ACW officer’s head, with the kepi peak shaved off and a bit of melted sprue stuck on top then shaped to create a kind of Phrygian cap - a plausibly Italianate medieval look?
Il Piccolini - the dwarf - is the result of sticking a leftover pair of legs onto a leftover torso following an earlier conversion… I thought the leftovers were too short to be of any use, but then I thought: dwarf! Why not?
His glaive is a conversion using one of the extra polearm heads in the Mercs box.
Standard bearer and trumpeter. The trumpeter uses another of the Zouave heads, slightly doctored. Happily the fashion for turbanned headgear doesn’t seem to have changed much between Medieval times and the ACW. Apart from that, and a slight adjustment to his free hand, he’s made from the standard WOTR components.
The standard bearer uses two of the arms from the Zouave command sprue… Just right for that flashy, one-handed, Italian flag-waving routine. The flag is hand-painted on tomato puree-tube foil. I’m afraid the livery is entirely invented. I have no idea what Milanese mercenaries were wearing in the late C15th. Button-counters, you may now tut.
Handgunners. These three are all from standard components from the Mercenaries box. In fact, I’ve only just now noticed that I’ve used the same pair of arms on two of these – which goes to show what a slight difference in alignment / attitude can make…
Crossbows and ‘The Killer’. Again built from standard parts, although with one or two minor modifications - like the sword strapped across the crossbowman’s back, and a slight slice off ‘L’Assassino’s’ left hand to take his buckler…
Anyway, all in all, a lot of fun to make - especially cannibalising the free Zouave command parts.
I continue to be impressed by the versatility of these plastic figure kits if you come to them with an open mind and a sharp knife
I’ve been eyeing the new Perry Ansar box, and wondering about hybridising a few Marsh Arab heads onto medieval bodies to make some Balkan mercenaries...
But on the whole, I think I might just finish what I’ve got in train and wait for the WOTR mounted Men-At-Arms box, which will open up a whole range of glorious new possibilities