Capitán Alatriste !

 Hello guys,

This time I have painted a miniature that I have special fondness for, "Captain Alatriste", well , a proxy of him by Anno Domini 1666 miniatures.

The Polish company Anno Domini 1666, produces excellent metal miniatures set in the 17th century, with various factions including Poles, French, Germans, Spanish, Ottomans, even generic fantasy ones, for their skirmish game, which I have not tried.

 In my case I bought some French king's musketeers, some Spanish ones, and some loose miniatures.

For those who do not know, Captain Alatriste is the main character in a series of novels by the prestigious Spanish writer and member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Letters Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

The novels deal with the adventures of a Spanish soldier in the first half of the 17th century, born in 1582. The novels are very fun and historically accurate, and the protagonists face Dutch, Venetians, Turks, French, English, pirates and against other swashbucklers, in Madrid and other places in Europe, Alatriste and his mates participated in the siege of Breda in 1625, the battle of Nordling in 1634, or the battle of Rocroi in 1643.

                                        Viggo Mortensen in the film about Capitan Alatriste (2006)

I personally will use the captain alatriste miniature as the leader of my Warband for skirmish games like Donnybrook or a custom-historical version of mordheim.

I painted him mostly with Foundry paint triads, and then an ultra matt varnish by Green Stuff World.

Cheers!

30 Years War French regiment Lyonnais : Part I

 

Hello mates

As I continue with  my 30 Years War mood,  I painted part of the regiment Lyonnais in the last few days, and then "only" the musketeers will be left in order to have the unit completed and playable.

I chose Regiment Lyonnais because it was one the first French regiments of XVII c. and it fought under the command of Philipe de La Mothe, and then Le Grand Condé in the field battles of Santa Cecilia and sieges of Lerida/Lleida from 1644-47 during Franco-Spanish War of 1635-59, all won by the Spaniards.

I used a wide variety of miniatures ; Warlord Games, Bicorne, TAG, Horcata/Empress, Steve Barber and one Old Glory, I think they don't look bad together despite being quite a few manufacturers mixed in the same base.

The flag is from Warlord Games, and the white French flag was free downloaded from the internet.

I will slowly paint the musketeers, that are also from several manufacturers, Perry,  Foundry,  Avanpost, Warlord...

Work in Progress...

I also tried a lightbox, but was unimpressed by the result, I probably did something wrong 😂😂 so I kept my old school white cloth as background .

By the way, the battles of 30 Years War in the southern front, in the forties of XVII c. are superbly explained by Pierre Picouet in his book:

Cheers!

Civilian gun and militia for the siege of Gerona 1684: PART II FINAL

 

Hello guys,

Here is the part II and final of the civilian and milita unit for the siege of Gerona 1684.

I've added an unarmored pikeman from NorthStar 1672, turned into a gunner, painted in earthy colors, in order to give him a more civilian look. Also a Front Rank militiaman, from the "Monmouth Rebellion" range, I replaced his scythe with a halberd, to give him a more military touch. 

Front Rank late XVII c artillery man with a green stuff feather

Civilian Hero

The gabions are 3D printed, the Chevaux de Frise is from Warfare Miniatures, and the fence is resin from a Polish brand whose name I can't remember (sorry!). Regarding the gun/saker, it's a mixture of various brands... Warlord carriage, Warhammer wheels...

These defenders, although painted and modeled to "serve" in the 1684 Siege of Girona, are nevertheless generic and versatile enough to fight in any 17th century siege from 1665 onwards.

In this particular case, they will load the cannon with shrapnel, nails, stones, buttons, or coins to wreak havoc on attackers at close range, plus it can fight well in melee mode and musketry fire, making it a potent unit: entrenched, with melee and ranged attacks!

The other two guys; kneeling musketeer and soldier with plug bayonet were shown in the previous post about this unit, and they are Bicorne and Front Rank miniatures respectively.

I hope you like them!

My 30 Years War French army so far.

 Hi friends,

This month I present to you the current state of my 30 Years War / TYW French army, an small force today, but bigger in the near future (I hope!).

 As you know, I am more orientated to later XVII century conflicts, but I still did not want to neglect my Thirty Years War forces, so in order to force myself to paint more units for this army, I took all the units for a "family photo".

If you want to see the origin of this army, you can just search in the blog the tagged words "French" or "30 years war" and you will easily find the other 3 or 4 posts about this army and its units.

Just to name the parts of the army, there are so far painted (either by me or by other painter):

-regiment of foot "Turenne"

-regiment of foot "Picardie"

-squadron of horse "Dauphin Gendarmes" 

-Army command base

-artillery piece (an ex Swedish gun, now French)

This army is primarly for Catalonia and Flanders, and I also have a painted English regiment, that can be also a Rebel pro French Catalan tercio, because Catalan also used St. George cross in red over a white background... So that unit can fight as English in Flanders with the French in mid 1650' or as Catalan in Catalonian front in 1640-52.

Appart from those previously shown, I have already in my list, semi painted or just started :

-1 more artillery piece

-regiment of foot "Lyonnais"

-squadron of horse (I have not decided which one)

-enfants perdús/forlorn hope

Civilian gun and militia for the siege of Gerona 1684: PART I

 Hello guys!

Following my project on the siege of Gerona in 1684, I came up with the idea of ​​making a unit, which consists of an old cannon or saker operated by civilians and militia, led by a popular hero from the ranks of the common people or maybe, an hidalgo (lesser nobility).

                                                        

                                                        

                                                        

In order to do this I am going to use a spare gun that I had stored somewhere, a couple of gabions, a palisade and other defenses, and behind all this, the defenders.

I am using miniatures from various brands, especially Front Rank, but also Bicorne, North Star 1672 and Tercio Creativo.

I did not want to paint these guys very uniformed, in order to give them a more civilian appearance, and I have tried to use different shades of brown, gray and green. But also some regular troops like the musketeer with the plug bayonet, I have painted the complete uniform in green,  just like the Tercio from Granada city, present in the battle.

                                                     

                                                     

And I will paint one of the artillerymen inspired by the fantastic illustration of Bruno Mugnai in his book about the Spanish army

This is just a teaser since the whole  unit won't be finished until early May, but the idea is that it counts as a cannon-supported by militia. 

If the hero who inspires the defenders dies, the unit loses leadership and if they are unlucky with the dice, it could be melted away... But if the hero remains, the countrymen will fight for Spain, for the king and for San Narcissus, patron saint of the city. The cannon fires shrapnel at close range, making it deadly against French infantry storming the  breaches of walls that have already been demolished.

                                                    

                                                    

For this I painted a few months ago French assault troops with armor, grenadiers and a petard assault team...

Now, some context:

in the first post of the Siege of Gerona 1684 project :

https://spanishleadpainting.blogspot.com/2021/01/new-campaign-project-siege-of-gerona.html

you have the complete text with the details of the fighting, but I want to share here with you some notes for this unit:

"after the French bombardment, two breaches were made in the walls, one 20 feet (6 m) wide and an even larger one easily climbed by fallen rubble. To prevent the assault, the besieged raised a fortified barricade from the Santa Clara bastion to  the Governor's crescent, pulling people from both crescents to place them in defense of the barricades. This was protected by the 2,000 best musketeers in the garrison.

In the 2 breaches of the walls, the aformentioned barricades were built, with fascines and gabions, and the Spanish put 8 guns aiming to the wide breaches, the Germans of Von Bek, did a great job in those works. The Bishop of Gerona sent the troops good food and wine, because they did a good job during the bombardment days, building defensive works."

Also

"The Germans in French service who took Santa Clara's bastion, were inmediately counterattacked by a student company from the walls, and regular troops, using a bronze cannon  loaded with musket balls, inflicting the Germans great damage. That bastion was near a fountain with a statue of Saint Narcissus, the protector of Gerona, so the Spanish, according to contemporary documents, started to shout "fight the heretics!, Viva España, Viva San Narciso! Victoriaaaa!" and charged the confused Germans, who finally lost their position and run away without their weapons."

Le Roi Soleil : Louis XIV command base for Franco-Dutch War 1672

 Hello guys

I have just finished a new command base for my French army 1668-78 , this time, the King of France, Le Roi Soleil Louis XIV on horseback, with another two miniatures, from North Star 1672 range.

The miniature is a conversion of Wargames Foundry's Louis XIV and North Star 1672 Monmouth miniature, that is for the rider, the horse is from 1898 miniatures. 

I roughly sculpted a sash with green stuff, in order to hide the seam/joint of the two halves of the body (upper part Louis XIV and lower part Monmouth). 

I got my inspiration for the colors from contemporary paintings and other painters/wargamers like Mark Allen, who is a real master of the conversion works on miniatures for this period.

I also added a sergeant or officer from the Gardes Françaises in its early uniform (prior to 1685 blue and read coats), and another officer using D'Artagnan miniature from North Star 1672. I personally don't like very much the size of his swords and it is not the most beautiful miniature from that range, but I used it anyway.

Although I have several commanders for my French army, I wanted to have Louis XIV in 28mm as he was common in the sieges during the War of Devolution 1667-1668 and also during Franco Dutch War 1672-1678 in Flanders.

I used mostly Wargames Foundry and Vallejo paints, I particularly like the "Conker Brown" triad for horses, I used for the first time here on the horse. Also the Scarlet triad is great for red coats, in the case of the sergeant.  I also repeated the new matt varnish by Greenstuff World, this product is top notch ultra matt varnish, applied by brush.

Helion's book by Rene Chartrand "the Armies and Wars of the Sun King  Volume I The Guards of Louis XIV " was also an invaluable source for information about the uniforms and equipment of the miniatures involved in this command base.

some more pics: