Khurasan releases Late 16th Century Landsknechts

[Khurasan Miniatures]

We are very pleased to release the lastest figurines for our 15mm late 16th century range -- those universal infantry mercenaries of the late 16th century, the German Landsknechts.  They are available now:
http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/late16thcentury.html

 The term "Landsknecht"continued to be used for German infantry until at least the 1590s, although by this period they might just be called "Germans" or "Fussknechts." Landsknechts and other German mercenaries seemed to be on virtually every European battlefield of the late 16th century, from France to Muscovy, from Scandinavia to the Balkans.

Note that by this period German infantry were gradually replacing the Pluderhosen with billowy trousers without the vents, but both continued to be widely worn, side by side -- actually in the same infantry units -- as period art clearly shows.

The Germans fought in large squares of pikemen, and these still included a certain percentage of halberdiers. Accordingly, both German pike sets have the option to be bought with a dozen halberds in addition to their pikes (so the pack comes with 24 weapons and 12 figurines).

The new sets are:

Later Landsknecht/German Armoured Pikemen:


Same with Halberds added:


Later Landsknecht/German Unarmoured Pikemen:


Same with Halberds added:


Later Landsknecht/German Arquebusiers:


Later Landsknecht/German Infantry Command:

[wkeyser]

Fantastic, will order them as soon as I figure out how many I need for a couple of pick blocks using Captain General rules Pistolado.

I hope the French are next then we can get going on the French Wars of Religion and the Dutch wars. Ospreys first volumne on the Dutch 80 years war is coming out in March.

I love it when a plan comes together.

William

[DintheDin]

Stunning work! All the Khurasan miniatures I have, are the one better than the other!
I think it is time to act 

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Hi, I actually have castings of the Dutch, and  paintups of the Dutch foot, but the cavalry hasn't been painted yet, and I think it's usually better to release a whole army.

The French are being made now. Some cavalry has been made, as have the foot and the Royal Swiss. The cavalry just needs to be finished.

Ottomans have been made as well.

After them the Muscovites and Poles will be made, then Swedes.

[mweaver]

Very striking figures!

-Michael

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Clibinarium's work, Michael.

[TheBlackCrane]

Hi, I actually have castings of the Dutch, and  paintups of the Dutch foot, but the cavalry hasn't been painted yet, and I think it's usually better to release a whole army.

The French are being made now. Some cavalry has been made, as have the foot and the Royal Swiss. The cavalry just needs to be finished.

Ottomans have been made as well.

After them the Muscovites and Poles will be made, then Swedes.

Terrific stuff, but don't forget those English too! All sorts of plans I have for when you release them... when you release them... 

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Won't forget those!  I am actually waiting for one more code of those -- the second variant of the "light horse."  The first variant I made was the one you see illustrated so often in Ireland -- chain shirt, wearing a round shield almost like a breastplate.  Which could very well have been a kit out worn in Ireland to respond to conditions there.  The second kind is made, just awaiting painting, but the armour is plate rather than chainmail, no shield, and with the light lance.  

It's all ready for sale, I just need to get the paintup.

[delbruck]

Most excellent

[wkeyser]

Hi Khursan
Great range I have a pile of the Spanish and am ordering a pile of Landsknechts. Some of the nicest 15-18mm figures on the market. Clib has grown into one of the best historical sculptor working. I remember him working on redoing some 10mm Pendarken Romans over 10 years ago.

One thing that I would criticize about the range and actually most 15mm ranges is the lack of specialty packs. Yes you have the basic troops done, however, how about getting Clib to do some more officer packs. The saddest thing I see is a beautiful army with a vast variety of figure poses only to see the same officer for all the units on the table and one General used for all the officer stands. I don’t want causalities but as many officers mounted and foot, also pike armed figures with the pike at a 45 degree angle would be great. The standing with the pike straight up is just too peaceful for me for my front rank!

But again this is a fantastic range and I hope the rest of the range is released soon. I plan on using the figures with the Perfect Captains rules series Spanish Fury, from skirmish with a few bases to army level rules, to Siege and campaigns.

Thanks again for a fantastic range in a period not done well by anyone.

William

[clibinarium]

Cheers for the kind words; has it been ten years already?

Mr. Khurasan is in charge of what gets ordered for the range, so I can't speak for where its headed. I would say though to bear in mind that a lot of this range is yet to be released; English, Dutch, French and Swiss so you might want to interchange the officers and command figures from these other nationalities. More officer variants are nice, but would require investment that can better be spent on entirely new packs.
This is a bit of a niche period and I would say to anyone with an interest, ranges don't expand if people don't buy them. That's true of any range, but especially so for stuff off the beaten track (why this period isn't more popular generally I don't know, if full of interesting stuff).

[AWu]

Very nice, but maybe its time for some love for early XVI century ?

There is no interesting Gendarmes on the market for My Italian wars
Such iconic unit for that period and all available are either insanely dwarfy or totally uninteresting standing near my landsknecht

I would kill for some sculpted at this standard.

[Khurasan Miniatures]

Early 16th century has several figure ranges available already though. For the late 16th century -- the height of power of the tercio, the culmination of the French wars of religion, the armada campaign, the campaigns of Maurice of Nassau, the Livonian War, the Long Turkish War, Tyrone's Rebellion, and the beginning of Shah Abbas's campaigns -- there's almost nothing.

I have the beginnings of an early 16th century range. Swiss are released and English will be soon. After the sculptor makes my second Thirty Years War range, which he is doing now, we will start the French.

[wkeyser]

Hi I agree with Khursan that this range is really filling a huge gap in 15mm figures and is fantastic.

However, I will disagree with Clib a little here. I agree that this is niche period. But the problem is that most people want a complete range before they would start a new period, which this is to many as the figures have not been available in this period before. But to get gamers to commit to a new period I find there are two driving factors, good rules and a good figure range.

The more figures and more complete the range is the more you will get people to buy into. If you had camp scenes, more officers, casualties etc, you might only sell one of these sets to each customer but you would be driving the sales of the other figures. That is just marketing 101. I know Khursan is running this as his hobby and I am pretty sure has a real day job so I can see it hard to commit to higher out lay of capital to expand this range. I am fine with that but really feel he would see more sales on releasing more complete ranges faster. We gamers are a very knee jerk kind of consumers, we see something new and shiny and we bite. But this also has a down side most of us will quickly lose interest if there are not always new things for us to buy, either as a constant regular release or a complete range we can go to for new toys.

But thanks to Khursan for a great range, and most of his other ranges are also well done and usually fill holes in the existing ranges of others.

William

[Khurasan Miniatures]

The more figures and more complete the range is the more you will get people to buy into. If you had camp scenes, more officers, casualties etc, you might only sell one of these sets to each customer but you would be driving the sales of the other figures. That is just marketing 101.

That hasn't been my experience.  When people really like a period and want to see stuff made for it, they vote with their wallets.  Conversely, if they are not that interested in it, they're not going to buy it whether you make camp scenes or not.

I mean, just look at how Kickstarter has expanded in the hobby.  People will see pictures of models -- just sketches, or maybe a sculpt or two -- and invest in the range without knowing what the finished product will look like or the quality of the castings or how long it will take to get them.

On one hand you have the gamer ... who can show their support for a range by buying a few packs.  That can be very encouraging and can give you a lot of emotional incentive to make more.  That might cost the gamer maybe 30 euros.  On the other hand, making a complete range of, say, Dutch is going to cost me a thousand Euros or more.  So I don't necessarily disagree with Clibinarium's assertion that if you want to see a range get expanded, investing a little in it can be very helpful to seeing it happen.

I am fine with that but really feel he would see more sales on releasing more complete ranges faster.

Virtually everything happens at a glacial pace in this hobby.  I have ranges I'd like to release but then you hit a kink somewhere in the production and have to wait.  Models need to be sculpted, moulded, cast, and then painted for display before they can be released.  Anywhere along the line they could get stuck and then I just have to wait.  Not much I can do about that except try to remain philosophical.  :-)