Work continued on the late 1500s big battles project this weekend.
Slowly, but surely, but… slowly. Two bases of stradioti light horse and a single, small base of shot.
Frustratingly still having a – for lack of a better work – painterly effect with my Pixel 6’s camera. Looking into clip-on macro lenses that may resolve this issue.
With that said, apologies for the underwhelming photos!
Stradioti
Light horsemen from Eastern Europe – and particularly the Balkans – employed by European armies in the mid-1500s onwards. I’m including two 100x50mm bases of them for my (wholly generic) Habsburg Spanish army of the era.
Massed Shot / Musketeers
While less an organized, tactical choice in the way “commanded shot” would become in the 1600s (wherein they would be sent forward to accompany cavalry), groups of musketeers, arquebusiers, and calivermen would also be organized in battles of the mid-late 1500s.
This is the second of two 50x50mm units I’ll be including for my equally-fictional Dutch States army for this project.
On Deck Next
One thing I learned assembling the two pike and shot units so far is that I hate affixing separate pikes to the tiny hands of 10mm scale soldiers. Pendraken also offers some one-piece pikemen that have their weapons cast into the mold, but those are spindly, delicate things that I don’t care for.
I’ve got a whole box of 3D printed pikemen in from the Theatrum Europaeum range by Warprinter.
I’ve been putting off assembling a big tercio (I know, I know, that was not a unit of formation, but us students of the era all understand its use as a common shorthand), so that’s what I’m finally going to get around to next.
100x100mm size base. 36 musketeers. 42 pikemen.
The plan is to eventually have three of these big bois for the Spanish army. Let’s try to get a single one done first!