Retainers (3/5): Cavalry

Here are the noble's three riders. There's a pistolier and two lancers. This is the first time I've ever painted horses, and I'm happy with the result. They're not as difficult as I expected, at least for a half-decent job like this. All of the horses and riders are from the Perry Miniatures "Light Cavalry 1450-1500" box. It's a phenomenal box that pairs wonderfully with the Warlord Games' Landsknecht boxes.

With arms taken from an English Civil War sprue, the pistolier wields a sword and pistol. This was my test model, and I painted the horse and rider separately before attaching the rider to the saddle. (That was quite a hassle, so I fully assembled the other two cavalry before starting to paint them.) I tried for a dappled effect on the horse by flicking paint onto it, but it definitely isn't worth the time or mess to repeat. I like the way this fellow turned out. In a pinch, he could definitely be a lesser noble himself.

The two lancers are entirely built from the Perry box. Each is armed with a lance in one hand, along with a sheathed sword at the opposite hip. The first lancer has his weapon lowered, charging in for the kill. The other is modeled with is lance up, turning to look at something that caught his attention. Both riders have identical helmets (which I love). I made a mistake when assembling these guys, but it's not super noticeable. While painting these chaps, I came up with a Fighter 5/Rogue Swashbucker 3 (D&D) build for them that would make them an absolute killer against melee-oriented PCs in an open environment.

Retainers (2/5): Ranged fighters

This second batch from the noble's retinue consists of his ranged fighters. Surprise! It's guns!

There are six arquebusiers and one, uh, sniper? Let's deal with the regular folks first. Each arquebusier is built primarily of Warlord Games' Landsknecht parts. All of the bodies and arms come from those sprues, as do the hip pouches and sheathed daggers that each one carries. The heads are a bit of a mix, however. As far as I can recollect, most of them are from the Landsknecht sprue, but the lady's head is from the Warlord Games "Project Z" female survivor sprue. (I've mined that sprue for so many heads, but it's almost empty now. Good, realistically-proportioned 28mm female heads are hard to find.)

The orange-haired fellow's head is from the Frostgrave soldiers sprue; I think it's the most recognizable head from that box. Looking at him, I get a strange Donald Sutherland vibe from him. It might be the eyes.

I made sure each arquebusier carries a dagger sheathed on their belt for when the enemy gets too close, though I suppose the stout handguns would make hefty clubs. 

The marksman is built in much the same way as the rest, with a few modifications. His gun is the same arquebus as everyone else, but I cut off the part beyond the little bump near the front and replaced it with a length of spear shaft to extend the barrel. The forked support stick is from a Warlord Swedish Infantry box. The completely anachronistic scope is from some modern soldier sprue, but I can't remember which one. It's huge and hilarious. He also has a sword instead of a dagger because he's more important.

In Warcry, for which these guys were originally intended, the marksman figure was meant to represent a "Marksman with Long Rifle" and would have been the leader (or hero) for my warband.

When I add more ranged troops to this lucky noble's forces, they'll probably be militia armed with bows or crossbows, built from the simpler (and more quickly-painted) Perry Agincourt parts. Any further arquebusiers I whip up will still get the cool Landsknecht outfits and equipment, though.

Retainers (1/5): Melee Fighters

While I haven't posted in a few months, I have painted a number of miniatures over that time. These are members of a noble's retinue, wearing the noble's livery and serving as full-time guards, patrols, or advisors. So far, there are 21 members of the retinue, and I'm sure more will eventually follow.

Originally, these units were put together as proxies for Games Workshop's "Warcry" game, but I just kept building and painting, so here we are. In order to keep this from being one large post, I've split it up into four parts: Melee fighters, ranged fighters, cavalry, and magic folks. This first entry contains the six dismounted melee fighters. These six fighters are two each of pikemen, greatswords, and sword and shield folks.

First, the pikemen. The bodies for both are from the Warlord Games' Landsknecht boxes, as are the majority of these figures. The tall pike is from the Landsknecht arms, while the askew one is a lance from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt French Infantry box. The heads are actually from a Warlord Games Samurai Infantry Sprue, with what I've painted as their faces and mustaches meant to be the helmet's menpō mask. (As a side note, those samurai and ashigaru sprues were some of the worst sprues I've ever had the misfortune to assemble. Building even a single unit was infuriating, and the limbs and weapons are thin enough to snap if you so much as look at them. There are far better and easier samurai miniatures out there.) Since I only have two of those heads, they are the only pikemen who will have them, meaning they're special and may become banner-bearers or a pair of bodyguards.

Second, the greatsword fighters. The one with the bare helmet is pretty much straight out of a Landsknecht box, while the one with the feather has a Perry Agincourt body and head. The feathers are, of course, from the Landsknecht box, as are the arms for both. There's a little bit of a height difference between the Perry and Warlord models, but the proportions are close enough. They're both semi-realistically proportioned, so it's not like comparing them to the bulging chonky-bois from Games Workshop.

Finally, the sword and boards. Or, in one case, axe-and-board-but-there's-a-sword-at-his-hip. Both bodies are Landsknechts, but both sets of arms are from the Perry box. The shields are from the Frostgrave Soldiers box. Feather Hat Guy's head is from the Landsknecht box, while the other guy's head is from the Frostgrave Cultist box. It's actually a zombie head! I did a little putty work to make his brain not showing, but check the picture below for a comparison between this guy and one that I had painted up as a zombie.

I love reformed-zombie-head guy. I used some really watered down red for his nose and cheeks, which worked surprisingly well, and some really watered down mix from his hair to give him beard stubble. I think it looks amazing. And that red thing below his eye is probably a boil or something. Since he's so distinct and using a non-standard weapon, this guy is definitely a grizzled sergeant or some kind of hardened adventurer. He's probably my favorite from this whole batch.

Twins!